Nov 27, 2006
What does it mean when you see the term "Old Vine" on a wine bottle? The answer is, nothing you can count on. It falls into the same category as the term "Reserve". "Old Vine" is a term you often see on the front of the wine label, yet unlike the varietal, appellation and vintage, the government plays no role in dictating what that term should mean. Should it? The question we asked in our latest survey of Fermentation readers…
Nov 27, 2006
The recent Fermentation Survey on "Tough Wine Questions" was issued to to look at questions about wine that interest me as a marketer. In this post I want to deliver an overall look at what the 238 folks who answered the survey had to say. ON TERROIRFor the avid wine drinker and wine enthusiast the question of Terroir looms large. Without it there really is little meaning to our relationship with wine since if all wine is the same, no…
Nov 15, 2006
With the prospect prior to the last election and confirmation afterward that Representative Nancy Pelosi would be come Speaker of the House of Representatives, lots of attention is now being paid to the congresswoman from San Francisco. It turns out that much of that attention has been turned to the fact that Speaker Pelosi and her husband Paul own a vineyard in Napa. But not just that she owns a vineyard. The folks writing on Right Wing blogs, for Right…
Nov 7, 2006
It’s election day. And I’m wondering…what would a responsible wine-industry supporting candidate look like? 1. They would support a liberal guest worker program 2. They would support moderate, but not excessive taxes on alcohol 3. They would support state or federal research on grapegrowing 4. They would support laws that allow any winery anywhere to sell direct to anyone and any business anywhere. (Free trade and the dismantling of the three tier system) 5. They would support "Brown Bag" laws…
Nov 1, 2006
Meetings took me to Bucklin’s Old Hill Ranch today. You never forget what time of year it is when you step into this vineyard. Will Bucklin tells me that the vibrancy of color that is Fall at Old Hill Ranch is past its peak. I’m not so sure about that. As always, I had the camera with me and took some time following our meeting to poke around the vineyard. Here are the colors of Fall that crossed my path….