Latest news with #Syrah
AU Financial Review
26-05-2025
- Automotive
- AU Financial Review
Tesla extends deadline for Australian battery material deal
Elon Musk's Tesla has agreed to extend a key deadline for AustralianSuper-backed Syrah Resources, offering the ASX-listed graphite producer a reprieve to supply a key battery material to the US electric car maker. The agreement, which originally required Syrah to deliver all its test batches of battery-grade material from its Louisiana processing plant to Tesla by May 31, has been extended to February 9.
Time Business News
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Business News
Wine Tasting 101: Mastering the Art of Notes, Aromas, and Flavors
Wine tasting is more than just sipping and swirling. It's an experience that combines the senses, balances art and science, and takes you on a voyage through vineyards around the world. Whether you're a seasoned sommelier or someone who enjoys an occasional glass with dinner, learning how to appreciate wine tasting notes, aromas, and flavors will elevate your enjoyment of wine to a whole new level. This guide will help you: Decode the essential elements of wine tasting notes. Learn how to identify wine aromas and flavors like the professionals. Boost your confidence at tastings, wine clubs, or vineyards with simple tips. Get ready to refine your palate and deepen your understanding of wine. Wine tasting notes are essentially descriptive terms used to articulate the characteristics of a wine. They offer insights into what you can expect from a bottle at the sensory level. Key elements of wine tasting notes: Appearance : The wine's color, clarity, and viscosity (often called 'legs'). For example, a vibrant ruby-red signifies youth in red wines, whereas an amber tone points to age. : The wine's color, clarity, and viscosity (often called 'legs'). For example, a vibrant ruby-red signifies youth in red wines, whereas an amber tone points to age. Aroma : The scents or 'nose' of the wine, which range from fruits and flowers to herbs and spices. : The scents or 'nose' of the wine, which range from fruits and flowers to herbs and spices. Palate (Taste): The flavors you experience when you take a sip, as well as its body, acidity, sweetness, tannins, and finish. (Taste): The flavors you experience when you take a sip, as well as its body, acidity, sweetness, tannins, and finish. Finish: Refers to how long the wine's flavors linger after swallowing. A longer finish often indicates higher quality. Example of a wine note: 'A medium-bodied Sauvignon Blanc showing bright citrus aromas, grassy herbaceous notes, and a crisp, refreshing finish.' To fully appreciate a glass of wine, you need to engage three main senses: Sight – Analyze the color, clarity, and viscosity. Smell – Identify different aromas. The nose is critical to understanding the wine's bouquet. Taste – The ultimate test of a wine lies in its balance of flavors and acidity, alongside unique characteristics like tannins or oakiness. By practicing these steps, you'll start recognizing the individuality of every bottle. A wine's aroma is influenced by grape variety, terroir (the environment where the grapes are grown), and the winemaking process. Whether it's a Riesling offering a burst of floral notes or a smoky Syrah, a wine's aroma gives invaluable clues about its origin and age. Wine aromas are often broken into three categories: Primary Aromas (Grape Origin) Derived from the grapes themselves. Common examples: Fruits (berries, stone fruits, citrus) Floral scents (rose, violet, honeysuckle) Herbs (mint, sage, bell pepper) Secondary Aromas (Winemaking Process) Result from fermentation and other production techniques. Common examples: Yeasty notes (bread dough, biscuit) Dairy notes (butter, cream) Developed during aging, either in barrels or bottles. Common examples: Spices (vanilla, clove, nutmeg) Earthy tones (leather, tobacco, mushroom) Oxidative notes (nuts, caramel, honey) Smelling wine might sound simple, but it's a skill that improves with practice. Here's how: Start with a swirl: Swirl the wine in your glass to release volatile compounds that create the aroma. Swirl the wine in your glass to release volatile compounds that create the aroma. Take a deep sniff: Use short, concentrated breaths to capture the wine's core bouquet. Use short, concentrated breaths to capture the wine's core bouquet. Focus on familiar scents: Break down what you smell into recognizable elements, such as blackberry, oak, or fresh-cut grass. Fun fact: Humans can detect over 10,000 scents, making your nose the most powerful tool in wine tasting. Several factors dictate the flavors you'll experience in a wine, from the type of grape to the soil and climate where it was grown. Understanding these influences will deepen your appreciation. Key influencers include: Grape Variety: Each grape has its unique flavor profile. For example, a Chardonnay often carries buttery or tropical flavors, while a Pinot Noir might lean toward ripe cherry and earthiness. Terroir: The environment where the grapes are cultivated, including soil composition, weather, and altitude. Winemaking Techniques: Oak-aging, malolactic fermentation, and blending all contribute to a wine's taste. Here's what to look for when tasting: Fruit-Focused Wines: Examples include strawberry in rosé or green apple in Pinot Grigio. These are typically found in younger wines. Examples include strawberry in rosé or green apple in Pinot Grigio. These are typically found in younger wines. Earthy Wines: Think terroir-driven flavors, such as mushroom and tobacco in aged reds. Think terroir-driven flavors, such as mushroom and tobacco in aged reds. Sweet or Dessert Wines: Examples include honeyed tones in Sauternes or apricots in Riesling. Examples include honeyed tones in Sauternes or apricots in Riesling. Sparkling Wines: Citrus, brioche, and mineral flavors are typical. Pairing your favorite flavors with complimentary foods can take your experience to the next level. Maintain a record of your impressions for every wine you try. Include appearance, aroma, and taste to compare over time. Believe it or not, the shape of a wine glass can enhance aromas and direct flavors to the right parts of your palate. Don't limit yourself to one type of wine. Explore everything from dry whites to bold reds to broaden your horizons and refine your palate. Challenge your taste buds by trying wines without knowing the label or origin. This helps you focus entirely on the flavors and aromas. Match the wine you're tasting with complementary dishes. For example, pair a Cabernet Sauvignon with a juicy steak or a light Sauvignon Blanc with a fresh summer salad. Wine tasting is about exploration. Each bottle tells a story—from the sun-soaked vineyards of France to the rugged Australian outback, you'll uncover rich narratives that make wine more than just a drink. By mastering the art of wine tasting notes, aromas, and flavors, you're equipping yourself with lifelong skills to savor every sip, choose better bottles, and even impress fellow wine enthusiasts. Now that you're equipped with everything you need to elevate your Wine Tasting game, why not put your skills to the test? Pick up a bottle from your local shop or visit a vineyard near you. Remember, the more you practice, the better you'll get at identifying and appreciating the subtleties every wine has to offer. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
Forbes
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The World's Rosé Wines Range Widely In Color, Aroma And Taste
Rose wine bottles with lobster and oyster in plate It is that time again when all wine writers are required to file an article on rosé wines simply because so many people tag them to Mother's Day, springtime, summertime and other warm weather events. But far be it from me to perpetuate the idea that rosés are to be forgotten when cool weather drifts in, and to my mind there is no better or more celebratory than rosé Champagnes and sparkling wines. So here goes, with a bunch of refreshing and sometimes surprising rosés for the next few months' easy drinking. New York State's Konstantin Frank makes an array of Rosé wines. Konstantin Frank makes a series of dry roses that belie the idea that roses are 'sweet pink stuff.' The producer's Dry Rosé ($17) is an intriguing blend of (Generous and Layered): An artful blend led by Saperavi––a Georgian favored in the Finger Lakes for body––and Pinot Noir, while its Dry Rosé of Pinot Noir ($20) has lovely floral notes and echoes of red Pinot Noirs. They also make a Dry Rosé of Blaufränkisch ($20) made from an Austrian varietal grown and picked from the Seneca Lake vineyard, It is quite crisp and has an acid edge that makes if good with charcuterie and cheeses. Roaring '20a artwork on Pale Rosé wine The Pale Rosé 2024 ($18). This was created by the renowned Sacha Lichine of the Whispering Angel line. It is crisp and has a pale rose color, made from Grenache, Rolle, Syrah and Cinsault for layers of flavor, with a pretty in pink Jazz Age label. Vilarnau Brut Reserva Rosé Cava ($16). A Spanish beauty made from organically grown Garnacha and Pinot Noir, aged on the lees for a minimum of 15 months, so it has some heft while remaining a refreshment and bubbles enough for any light food. The grapes are chilled so as to preserve the aromatics in their skins; the varietals are fermented separately in stainless steel tanks for 30 days, blended and put through a second fermentation lasting six weeks then the cava remains on the lees for 15 months. finely blended non-vintage Champagne from Niclas Feuillatte Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte Réserve Exclusive Rosé NV ($70) is crafted from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier, with charming notes of raspberry and strawberry, a high quality non-vintage sister of its vintage Champagnes from this illustrious house. The dominance of the Pinot Noir expresses its fine fruit while the other give it nuance. Planeta Rosé 2024 ($20), You can imagine that a Sicilian rosé (rosato, in Italian) will be bigger bodied than most, and this blend of Syrah and Nero d'Avola is a nutty, robust quality that is excellent with seafood of any kind and ideal for an aperitif wine at a god price for parties. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker is a partner in the new Invivo Rosé wine venture. Invivo X, SJP Rosé 2024 ($20). A youthful rosé from South Provence made in a family estate partnership with actress Sarah Jessica Parker as a traditional blend of Grenache, Cinsault, and Syrah that is properly dry and goes with the food of the region like fowl and lamb scented with Provençal herbs. Bertani Bertarosé 2024 ($18). Italy's highly regarded Bertani from Veneto has produced this since the 1930s, now made from a blend of Corvina, Molinara, Corvinone and Rondinella planted on the inland hills of Italy's Lake Garda on young Valpolicella vines. So you get considerable complexity, with berry and spices flavors and a delectable acidity that will accompany dishes like lake fish or pasta with seafood very well. A very pale Rosé wine from Provence. Gassier Côtes de Provence ($25). Rosés are the stand-outs of Provence wine and this blend of Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah and a touch of Rolle has a touch of the Mediterranean sea salt air n it, making it perfect for hearty seafood dishes like bouillabaisse, crabs and ,lobster A not-too-expensive Champagne of great elegance. Champagne Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé ($90). Stock up for summer on this superlative rosé Champagne before the tariffs hit hard. It's made from 40% Chardonnay sourced from the marque's finest crus, 30% and 30% Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier aged on the lees for 36 months, which gives it elegance and finesse. and has a golden rose color and lovely bouquet. It's a splurge for a wedding but then what are splurges for? (It's available in magnums, too.)Very good match with salmon, poultry and cheeses like Camembert and Brie. Gerard Bertrand French Cancan Vrut Nature Rose NV ($30). A fun, uncomplicated rose sparkling blush wine pf Pinot Noir, Cinsault and Chardonnay, aged for six month, partially on the lees for more body and including some wines from the 2020 vintage.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's Mineral Paradox
Resources have always determined power. The British empire's command over coal helped expand the realm to the ends of the earth. The United States entered World War II as a dominant oil power and for decades consolidated control over global supply. This century, power could be built on batteries, solar panels, and artificial intelligence. And China has a grip on the minerals—rare-earth elements, lithium, graphite—needed to make them. Both parties in Washington seem to agree that breaking Beijing's near monopoly over such materials would benefit the United States. 'Our national and economic security are now acutely threatened by our reliance upon hostile foreign powers' mineral production,' President Donald Trump wrote in an executive order in March designed to speed up permitting for mineral production. The administration has already green-lighted a new rare-earths mine in California next to the only active one in the United States, and today added 10 more mines to a list of projects whose permits the federal government is fast-tracking. It has also proposed flashy and controversial ideas to secure America's supply of minerals, including seizing dubiously accessible deposits in Ukraine and Greenland, clearing the way for creating the first mines on the deep-ocean floor, and investing federal money directly in U.S. mining companies. At the same time, Trump is breaking what experts say are the federal government's best tools for returning mining to the United States. Creating demand for minerals 'is best done by ensuring clean-tech manufacturing markets are here,' says Milo McBride, a fellow researching the geopolitics of mineral supply chains at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 'Yet we're cutting demand for the manufacturing of these technologies.' At some point, he told me, the administration will have to face the paradox of mineral security it's creating: The country is now smoothing the path for production while closing off its main destinations. Syrah Resources, a graphite supplier, is trapped in that paradox. The company's Vidalia project, in central Louisiana, is designed to refine graphite into battery-grade material, providing the first U.S. source of the soft, conductive mineral. (China controls 93 percent of the world's graphite-processing capacity.) Syrah is an Australian company, but it saw in the United States both a potential market for graphite and policies meant to encourage production. When the plant started producing graphite in February 2024, Syrah could bet on a few things to make its investment pan out. Under the Biden administration, the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office put up a $102 million loan to back the facility. The State Department, intent on competing with China to court mineral-rich African countries, had laid out a 10-year strategy for strengthening U.S. ties with Mozambique, from which Syrah obtains ore to refine. (The plan included improving transportation infrastructure, for instance, which would help get those rocks to port.) And the nation's landmark climate-infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act, was set up to redirect mineral supply chains away from China: Its electric-vehicle tax credit gave a major bonus for cars with batteries composed of American-made minerals. A year later, those federal policies are changing dramatically. The Trump administration is gutting the Loan Programs Office and could cut as much as 60 percent of its workforce. Goods from Mozambique now face 16 percent levies at American ports; tariffs are also raising the cost of equipment needed for mining and processing minerals, much of which are purchased from China, Kwasi Ampofo, the lead mining and minerals analyst at the energy consultancy BloombergNEF, pointed out. And Republicans in Congress are all but certain to repeal the IRA's electric-vehicle tax credits. Already this year, companies have scrapped plans for nearly $8 billion worth of clean-energy projects, most of which were factories for batteries and electric vehicles, according to a Canary Media analysis of data from the research group E2. In his attempt to fulfill his campaign pledge to 'terminate' what he called the 'Green New Scam,' Trump appears to be jeopardizing the domestic supply of minerals for the military and industries he supports. 'The administration is clearly worried about rare earths from a defense and aerospace perspective, and I've seen battery-industry players that are, in their rhetoric and advocacy in Washington, distancing themselves from EVs and selling themselves as strategic technology for grid resiliency and defense,' Seaver Wang, a researcher at the Breakthrough Institute, a think tank focused on policy around climate technology, told me. 'But we know EVs are like 80 percent of the demand.' (According to the International Energy Agency, electric-vehicles will account for 80 percent of global battery capacity in the future.) And the U.S. cannot gain an advantage in mining and minerals control if it has no one pushing to buy those resources at home. 'Without a clear, consistent demand signal, no mining company would put a single drill in the ground to make an investment,' Ampofo told me. He described it as a chicken-and-egg problem in which 'if you kill the chicken, you have no egg.' Even some of the administration's efforts to make permitting new mines and processing plants easier may already be backfiring. Ostensibly to help such companies, the White House ordered federal agencies to rescind regulations for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act; because the statute remains on the books and Congress has not moved to axe it, legal experts warned that the administration's proposal would mostly stir uncertainty, which will spur lawsuits and clash with decades of case law. Projects to mine and process minerals have long lead times and high up-front costs, including labor, permitting, and associated litigation. Those dynamics mean that for investors, 'you're going to have very low tolerance for risk and uncertainty,' Arnab Datta, an expert in critical mineral policy at the think tank Employ America, told me. 'This administration has added uncertainty and chaos into every part of the equation.' The White House did not return my request for comment. But its strategy seems based on the simple arithmetic that if you make mines easier to open and minerals harder to import, you get a domestic boom. And that's not entirely illogical: On an industry podcast right after the 2024 presidential election, Syrah's chief executive, Shaun Verner, said tariffs could help counteract losing the electric-vehicle tax credits, by raising the cost of imported materials and therefore giving the company's Louisiana plant a price advantage. But the administration's math misses some key variables. If a country wants an abundance of minerals to supply batteries to one kind of buyer, such as a military-drone manufacturer, it helps to guarantee demand from a more plentiful purchaser, such as automakers and the roughly 238 million Americans who drive cars. To rapidly divert mineral supply chains away from the rival nation that spent decades building up its industrial base, it helps to enlist allies who have not just resources you can potentially tap but developed reserves you can share. Trump's formula ignores the fact that blanket tariffs might make domestic minerals more competitive, but also hike the cost of the equipment needed to produce those metals. Meanwhile, China is following its own logic, in which it controls more variables. In March, the Financial Times reported that 'at least half of China's 34 provincial-level governments, including those of top resource-producing regions such as Xinjiang, have announced increased subsidies or expanded access for mineral exploration' over the past year. Even outside China, Beijing sets the prices for global contracts. When financiers determine the price for a ton of lithium, they turn to where those prices are set, which—thanks to China's dominance—is typically in Asia. That means the price of a deal between a Tesla factory in Texas and a lithium mine in Quebec is ultimately determined by how much of the metal China is selling in a place like Vietnam. The U.S. could find a way around that, Datta told me, by building an alliance with other producers and establishing an integrated market for contracts, with countries such as Australia, Brazil, and Canada, that could set prices for selling materials to battery makers in Europe, South Korea, and Japan. That's what the Biden administration aimed to do; the electric-vehicle tax credits treated allies that had free-trade agreements with the United States as domestic sources. For those countries, U.S. minerals were supposed to offer a less risky alternative to China. But now, Datta said, 'we've pissed everyone off, and all these countries are looking to hedge away from the U.S.' Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
02-05-2025
- Business
- Atlantic
Trump's Mineral Paradox
Resources have always determined power. The British empire's command over coal helped expand the realm to the ends of the earth. The United States entered World War II as a dominant oil power and for decades consolidated control over global supply. This century, power could be built on batteries, solar panels, and artificial intelligence. And China has a grip on the minerals—rare-earth elements, lithium, graphite—needed to make them. Both parties in Washington seem to agree that breaking Beijing's near monopoly over such materials would benefit the United States. 'Our national and economic security are now acutely threatened by our reliance upon hostile foreign powers' mineral production,' President Donald Trump wrote in an executive order in March designed to speed up permitting for mineral production. The administration has already green-lighted a new rare-earths mine in California next to the only active one in the United States, and today added 10 more mines to a list of projects whose permits the federal government is fast-tracking. It has also proposed flashy and controversial ideas to secure America's supply of minerals, including seizing dubiously accessible deposits in Ukraine and Greenland, clearing the way for creating the first mines on the deep-ocean floor, and investing federal money directly in U.S. mining companies. At the same time, Trump is breaking what experts say are the federal government's best tools for returning mining to the United States. Creating demand for minerals 'is best done by ensuring clean-tech manufacturing markets are here,' says Milo McBride, a fellow researching the geopolitics of mineral supply chains at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 'Yet we're cutting demand for the manufacturing of these technologies.' At some point, he told me, the administration will have to face the paradox of mineral security it's creating: The country is now smoothing the path for production while closing off its main destinations. Syrah Resources, a graphite supplier, is trapped in that paradox. The company's Vidalia project, in central Louisiana, is designed to refine graphite into battery-grade material, providing the first U.S. source of the soft, conductive mineral. (China controls 93 percent of the world's graphite-processing capacity.) Syrah is an Australian company, but it saw in the United States both a potential market for graphite and policies meant to encourage production. When the plant started producing graphite in February 2024, Syrah could bet on a few things to make its investment pan out. Under the Biden administration, the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office put up a $102 million loan to back the facility. The State Department, intent on competing with China to court mineral-rich African countries, had laid out a 10-year strategy for strengthening U.S. ties with Mozambique, from which Syrah obtains ore to refine. (The plan included improving transportation infrastructure, for instance, which would help get those rocks to port.) And the nation's landmark climate-infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act, was set up to redirect mineral supply chains away from China: Its electric-vehicle tax credit gave a major bonus for cars with batteries composed of American-made minerals. A year later, those federal policies are changing dramatically. The Trump administration is gutting the Loan Programs Office and could cut as much as 60 percent of its workforce. Goods from Mozambique now face 16 percent levies at American ports; tariffs are also raising the cost of equipment needed for mining and processing minerals, much of which are purchased from China, Kwasi Ampofo, the lead mining and minerals analyst at the energy consultancy BloombergNEF, pointed out. And Republicans in Congress are all but certain to repeal the IRA's electric-vehicle tax credits. Already this year, companies have scrapped plans for nearly $8 billion worth of clean-energy projects, most of which were factories for batteries and electric vehicles, according to a Canary Media analysis of data from the research group E2. In his attempt to fulfill his campaign pledge to ' terminate ' what he called the 'Green New Scam,' Trump appears to be jeopardizing the domestic supply of minerals for the military and industries he supports. 'The administration is clearly worried about rare earths from a defense and aerospace perspective, and I've seen battery-industry players that are, in their rhetoric and advocacy in Washington, distancing themselves from EVs and selling themselves as strategic technology for grid resiliency and defense,' Seaver Wang, a researcher at the Breakthrough Institute, a think tank focused on policy around climate technology, told me. 'But we know EVs are like 80 percent of the demand.' (According to the International Energy Agency, electric-vehicles will account for 80 percent of global battery capacity in the future.) And the U.S. cannot gain an advantage in mining and minerals control if it has no one pushing to buy those resources at home. 'Without a clear, consistent demand signal, no mining company would put a single drill in the ground to make an investment,' Ampofo told me. He described it as a chicken-and-egg problem in which 'if you kill the chicken, you have no egg.' Even some of the administration's efforts to make permitting new mines and processing plants easier may already be backfiring. Ostensibly to help such companies, the White House ordered federal agencies to rescind regulations for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act; because the statute remains on the books and Congress has not moved to axe it, legal experts warned that the administration's proposal would mostly stir uncertainty, which will spur lawsuits and clash with decades of case law. Projects to mine and process minerals have long lead times and high up-front costs, including labor, permitting, and associated litigation. Those dynamics mean that for investors, 'you're going to have very low tolerance for risk and uncertainty,' Arnab Datta, an expert in critical mineral policy at the think tank Employ America, told me. 'This administration has added uncertainty and chaos into every part of the equation.' The White House did not return my request for comment. But its strategy seems based on the simple arithmetic that if you make mines easier to open and minerals harder to import, you get a domestic boom. And that's not entirely illogical: On an industry podcast right after the 2024 presidential election, Syrah's chief executive, Shaun Verner, said tariffs could help counteract losing the electric-vehicle tax credits, by raising the cost of imported materials and therefore giving the company's Louisiana plant a price advantage. But the administration's math misses some key variables. If a country wants an abundance of minerals to supply batteries to one kind of buyer, such as a military-drone manufacturer, it helps to guarantee demand from a more plentiful purchaser, such as automakers and the roughly 238 million Americans who drive cars. To rapidly divert mineral supply chains away from the rival nation that spent decades building up its industrial base, it helps to enlist allies who have not just resources you can potentially tap but developed reserves you can share. Trump's formula ignores the fact that blanket tariffs might make domestic minerals more competitive, but also hike the cost of the equipment needed to produce those metals. Meanwhile, China is following its own logic, in which it controls more variables. In March, the Financial Times reported that 'at least half of China's 34 provincial-level governments, including those of top resource-producing regions such as Xinjiang, have announced increased subsidies or expanded access for mineral exploration' over the past year. Even outside China, Beijing sets the prices for global contracts. When financiers determine the price for a ton of lithium, they turn to where those prices are set, which—thanks to China's dominance—is typically in Asia. That means the price of a deal between a Tesla factory in Texas and a lithium mine in Quebec is ultimately determined by how much of the metal China is selling in a place like Vietnam. The U.S. could find a way around that, Datta told me, by building an alliance with other producers and establishing an integrated market for contracts, with countries such as Australia, Brazil, and Canada, that could set prices for selling materials to battery makers in Europe, South Korea, and Japan. That's what the Biden administration aimed to do; the electric-vehicle tax credits treated allies that had free-trade agreements with the United States as domestic sources. For those countries, U.S. minerals were supposed to offer a less risky alternative to China. But now, Datta said, 'we've pissed everyone off, and all these countries are looking to hedge away from the U.S.'
