Archive for the ‘Terroir’ Category

Dec 30, 2021

The Worst Things In Wine in 2021

I look back at 2021 and see a year of progress in the wine industry. Granted, this isn’t a difficult position to take if we are comparing this year to 2020. Still, 2021 looks like a year of recovery, and there were positive moves in the regulatory and legal spheres. That said, I wouldn’t want to be accused of being a pollyanna. There are things going on in wine in 2021 that were not so great. These are the worst…

Mar 26, 2019

Can the Authenticity of Oregon Wine Be Mandated by Law?

More than any other winemaking region in America, Oregon’s Willamette Valley (my new home) appears to be as or more committed to the “authenticity” of its wine products than any other winemaking region in the country. The vintners here also seem to recognize that when it comes to wine, there are two different kinds of “authenticity”. The first is the objective type in which what is actually in the bottle is genuinely a product of Willamette Valley-grown grapes. The second kind…

Nov 30, 2018

Freedom and Egalitarianism in American Wine

The San Francisco Chronicle’s excellent young wine editor, Esther Mobley, engages in some really interesting speculation this week. In response to Katherine Cole’s excellent survey of how some wine labelling regulations have and are changing in the U.S. published in SevenFifty Daily, Mobley asks the following question: “Will this emulation of Europe at some point endanger our distinctively American spirit of experimentation when it comes to planting vineyards?” What Esther is asking is will wine labelling regulations in the U.S….

Oct 25, 2018

Napa vs Oregon Wine Country: Coppola Edition

News that the Coppola family of Napa and Sonoma winery fame purchased the Vista Hills Vineyard in Oregon’s Willamette Valley shouldn’t be a real surprise. While there isn’t an exodus to Oregon among California winemakers, there certainly is a turning north in winemakers’ investment view. The Vista Hills Vineyard is a pretty prime spot. Located in the Dundee Hills AVA and situated next door to Domaine Drouhin and Domaine Serene, the 42 acres of vineyard and tasting room and winery…

Jun 26, 2018

This Wine is Smokin’ Good

As I’ve argued before, there simply is no way to argue that smoke taint in a wine brought on by fires during harvest is not a genuine reflection of terroir. That case will be made by more people once more North Coast wines from the 2017 vintage are released to the public. They will, after all, need to be sold. We have a good example of how this view plays out with the newly released Oregon wines, some of which…