Better wine through science. I like this idea. So do the Italians and the French who have together embarked on a "genome" project to create vines that they hope will result in a number of improvements including: -vines more resistant to pests-vines more resistant to disease-vines that produce grapes that offer greater health benefits to drinkers-vines that can grow in a variety of terroir previously inhospitable to grapegrowing One wonders if in the future, as we think back to the…

Do you know how to prune a vine? Do you think you could learn fairly quickly? In the mood for a working vacation in one of the world’s most beautiful wine regions? You might consider heading down to New Zealand. With only 10 weeks left in the pruning season, the Marlborough wine growing region is suffering from a severe shortage of labor. Reports suggest that more than 1000 more workers will be needed to get the pruning done in one…

I sat in my office yesterday here in Sonoma Valley and watched it rain…all day. Highly unusual. But I did have a chance to speak with a client with many years experience growing grapes and making wine in this neck of the woods. I asked him, "just what effect is this going to have on the grapes and the harvest. Instead of giving me a response about mold or rot as I suspected he pointed out something I hadn’t even…

Here’s a wine cautionary tale for you. Wine lovers and investors were bilked out of millions of dollars through a fraudulent company in Colorado that was selling "Wine Futures" of First Growth Bordeaux. The problem was that the owner of Rare LLC took the money he was receiving from those who invested in the Futures through him and remodeled home and bought cars and threw parties…and never delivered the wine. Buying Wine Futures is a common way of purchasing highly…