My position is a simple one: When you publicly lie to consumers and lawmakers in pursuit of profit and at the expense of consumers and competitors, you should be publicly branded a liar. Case in point: The Wine & Spirit Wholesalers of America, The Wine & Spirit Wholesalers of California, and the Teamsters. Each of these liars is telling lies about California Senate Bill 620, legislation that would legalize direct-to-consumer shipments of spirits from distillers in California. Or, put another…
I’ve often thought it would be a fascinating project to map out The Family Tree of Winemakers. The project would consist of connecting present-day winemakers to winemakers of the past and follow the influence and inspiration down the line: Smith worked under Jones; Jones worked under Washington. Washington worked under Johnson, etc, etc. In the U.S., this would essentially be an exercise in tracing back most of our great winemakers to Andre Tchelistcheff. This could be done with winemakers because…
I don’t remember the last time I saw the sun. Surely it peeked through the slate grey Oregon sky at some point in the past four weeks, but honestly, it couldn’t have been for an hour or two. Before we moved to the Willamette Valley, we were warned of the winters. We were warned particularly good and hard by our friends who lived here and understood we were coming from Napa Valley where it rains and is grey in the…
Today many will devote a good deal of brainspace and emotional toil to remembering the Capitol Riots of January 6, 2021. I don’t think anyone will or should treat January 6 like Pearl Harbor Day or 9/11 anniversaries, but I do think a good deal of justified introspection will ensue. With my FERMENTATION and wine industry hat on, I am motivated to ask if the Capitol Riot and its fallout have any impact on or anything of substance to say…
Twenty twenty-one (2021) was a non-election year. It was also the first of the traditional two-year election cycle. This year is the second of the two-year election cycle, an important election year, and it is the year that campaign contributions really pour in. I note this because what I’m about to show you is really a pittance; a drop in the bottle, so to speak. American alcohol wholesalers have nearly completely captured the lawmaking process when it comes to alcohol….
