It is reported following the devastating recent hail storm in Burgundy that: “the president of the Regional Council, François Patriat, has said that the local government is once again looking at aerial defence measures such as cloud seeding….Cloud-seeding is the process where dry ice or silver iodide are put in to clouds to weaken storms, and make precipitation fall as rain rather than hail.” It begs the question, were this to be done, would so-called “Natural” Wine producers in Burgundy…

Tomorrow Americans celebrate Independence Day, that moment in July 1776 when Englishmen living in colonies across the Atlantic filed for divorce from their patron, the English Crown. It was a radical and risky move. It was a cri de coeur of enlightenment philosophy. It was most certainly something different. And as with many divorce decrees, a good deal of the motivation for undertaking the divorce came down to economics and a pursuit of happiness. Wine lovers and wine consumers in…

“The way that we decide what constitutes quality and typicity has to be drastically redefined.” We are talking about wine here. This is the conclusion of  Geneviève Teil, a very smart researcher for INRA, the French national agricultural research institute, who spoke with Decanter Magazine. Her comments come in the context of the continual questioning of that country’s AOC appellation system, a system upon which America’s own American Viticultural Areas are based. The problem many have with the French AOC…

ALCOHOL CAN BE YUMMY, BUT IT SHOULDN’T BE SO YUMMY AS TO BE TOO EASY TO CONSUME…FOR THE CHILDREN. One of the bedrock principles of alcohol regulation in the United States is that alcohol ought not be sold in a form that makes it too yummy when consumed. If alcohol is too yummy, its harsher and more bitter qualities mitigated too much by some sort of enticing (often sweet) delivery vehicle, it may be too attractive to young palates. It’s…

THE POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL INTERESTS OF THE WINE TRADE ARE NEARLY IDENTICALLY ALIGNED WITH THE POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL INTERESTS OF CONSUMERS. The wineries have Wine America, The Wine Institute and numerous other advocacy groups to look out for their interests. The retailers have the National Association of Wine Retailers, American Beverage Licensees and numerous other state-based organizations to look out for their interests. The Wholesalers have the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association as well as numerous state based wholesaler organizations…