Sep 29, 2011
WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE FIRST COMMERCIAL WINERY BUILT IN THE LODI REGION AND WHAT YEAR WAS IT BUILT? The first person to answer this question correctly will receive two tickets to LODI'S TREASURE ISLAND WINE FEST taking place Saturday, October 8, 2011, 1pm – 5pm, at the Pavilion By The Bay on Treasure Island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay (very cool setting!!) The folks organaizing the event were kind enough to send me two tickets…
Sep 1, 2011
You look at the news out the Mosel ("Hailstorms Decimate Mosel") and you must be reminded once again that if you make wine or grow grapes in California, your life is pretty darned good, relative to so many other wine growing regions. The hail storms in the Mosel were reported to consist of tennis and golf ball sized specimens. Grape crops and vines were reportedly destroyed. This kind of thing simply is not common in California. Nor does California usually…
Aug 15, 2011
———————————————————————————— When I entered the wine business in 1990 at the PR firm of Gracelyn and Associations, Gerald Asher was an "A" Writer. It was the term we gave to those writers and journalists that carried weight or an audience. As the wine writer for the esteemed Gourmet Magazine, Mr. Asher carried both. More important than anything else when I joined the fraternity of flacks was to learn as much as I could about the wine writing world. Not…
Jul 28, 2011
I don't know if "old vine" vineyards produce wines of any specific characteristic. I've tasted a whole bunch of them over the years and walked through a number of such vineyards. But I just can't say what to expect from any vineyard labeled "old vine". However, I can say with some surety that the historic character and implications of these vineyards to California and to the wine industry is more valuable than anything one can say or experience about the…
Jul 6, 2011
I often wonder why the issue of "wine writer ethics" seems to raise its head on such a regular basis. Most recently a highly respected and accomplished English writer, Fiona Beckett, broached the subject. Fiona reiterated the obvious: Critics shouldn't take gifts from the folks who's products they are critiquing. On the other hand, she notes, traveling on the dime of trade associations to wine regions and accepting wine samples from producers doesn't cross the line. The great writer Jamie…