John Andrews, writing in the latest issue of The Economist, delivers a brilliant review of the stylistic movements of the California wine industry and the technical and regulatory enabling that allows the State’s winemakers to pursue its BIG wines. Andrews has keyed in on one particular winemaking practice that affects the grower as well as the style of California wine: watering back. Watering back is the practice of adding water to grapes that have been left on the vine to…

No matter what business you are in, at some point your incomplete control of circumstances forces you to simply step back and let the chips fall as they may. But good God, when it comes to grape growing, or any farming for that matter, the sheer multitude of chips you have to let fall could fill a Vegas casino. While in New Orleans these past few days I got a number of reports from friends, the news, clients and family…

Yep…grape growers are getting screwed. As this article points out, the trend toward higher alcohol wines (wait!…it’s not a trend, is it. What we have at this point is a paradigm.) means growers are getting squeezed. In order to satisfy an apparent desire among consumers for tutti fruiti wines, the grapes must stay on the vines longer, slowly dehydrating. In many cases, growers who do this to satisfy the increasing demand for high sugar grapes that turn into high alcohol…

People who know me too well know that I’m a pretty impatient guy. With regard to wine that tendency translates into simply being unable to buy wine to lay down and age. I just can’t leave it alone. That new Pinot stares back at me seeming to beg to be opened. And it usually is. As a result I found myself seeking out older wines to drink, rather than putting them in the cellar and waiting a decade or so…