Apr 4, 2007
Ever thought about buying some dirt in Wine Country somewhere in the world and setting up shop with a vineyard? I have. If I were to get into the production side of the wine business and money were no object, I’d become a grower. But, as a wonderful new article in the latest issue of Wine Enthusiast by Roger Voss and Kathleen Buckley points out, money can be an object that gets in your way. "The Price of Dirt" in…
Mar 27, 2007
Mike Dunne of the Sacramento Bee has written a wonderful article on the Authentication Controversy swirling about the world of rare wine. The controversy came to the surface when a gentleman who paid $500,000 for wine thought to once to have been in the collection of Thomas Jefferson claims the wines are fake. He filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in New York claiming fraud. It’s a pretty fascinating and complex story which can be found at Bloomberg HERE, while…
Mar 23, 2007
Honesty. It’s perhaps the most important virtue any person can possess. I’ve argued for some time that while American Viticultural Areas can have meaning related to the character of the wine inside them, their primary value is as a marketing tool. The Paso Robles wine folk have seen fit to be quite honest about this assessment in looking to pass a new labeling law. American Viticultural Areas are lines on a map that are approved in Washington,D.C. The area inside…
Mar 13, 2007
I wanted to bring this issue out of the comments section because I think it is an interesting issue. A reader commented earlier that this statement on the back of a bottle of California Malbec is probably done to try to piggyback on the Bordeaux’s well deserved quality reputation: :"Malbec is one of the five red varieties traditionally used in Bordeaux wines." In fact the commenter said this: "So, why then does the producer want to put it on the…
Mar 13, 2007
Pests. They are the things that give grape growers fits. They tend to be insects, birds and even the occasional wild boar. However, you rarely here folks who grow grapes in CA, or nearly anywhere, make this complaint: "One of the pests that we have to contend with are baboons" All in the service of a good bottle of wine, I presume. Apparently baboons are big fans of ripe grapes. The folks worrying about Baboons are the Leakey family. Yes,…