Aug 5, 2008
This year it was a vineyard not more than a quarter mile as the crow flies from where I live that appears to have been given the distinction of being the first to be picked during the 2008 North Coast Harvest. Hunter Vineyards, just down the road from me on Arnold Drive in Sonoma Valley had their grapes removed from the vines on August 1st. The grapes will go to Gloria Ferrer Winery just down the road where they will…
Jul 29, 2008
The new issue of Wine & Spirits Magazine is a fantastic read. The entire issue focuses on mavericks, revolutionaries and agents of change in wine (and food…for example, I learned that Goat is "in" and Pork Bellies are "out"…who knew!!) I’ve long thought that Wine & Spirits Magazine is setting the bar high for the rest of the traditional wine magazines and this is the issue to discover what I’m talking about. It was nice to see Wine 2.0 well…
Jul 29, 2008
Have you ever sat down and started to tick off those people who have been instrumental to your career? Stopped and given some thought to who those folks are who actually made you substantially better at what you do? I could do this, and it would make for an interesting post, if not an interesting personal inventory of my own gratefulness. One of the folks on that list is Judd Wallenbrock, the President of Michel-Schlumberger in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek…
Jul 28, 2008
I finally had a chance to give serious face time to Tyler (Dr. Vino) Colman’s newest book: WINE POLITICS: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. A book of this sort is so long overdue and I had been looking forward to it with such great anticipation that I nearly wet my pants when it finally arrived at my door. I cracked it open somewhere over Nevada on my way to the National Conference of State…
Jul 22, 2008
Napa’s Chateau Montelena Sold to Bordeaux’s Cos d’Estournel "This is the ultimate recognition, that the French are now buying these great California wineries," said Jon Fredrikson, a wine industry consultant and publisher of the Gomberg-Fredrikson report" "It’s just evidence of the growing respect for what is being done in America with wine."—Vic Motto California’s winemaking prowess matched that of France and the rest of the world years ago. I wonder if this sale isn’t a matter of the French trying…