Archive for the ‘Wine News’ Category
I had the chance to meet with two pretty impressive wine minds this morning and an interesting topic emerged: How will the wine media in America portray the 2010 harvest/vintage in California/Napa/Sonoma? Will they take the proper perspective, talk to numerous vintners and growers, take account of the different pace of ripenng for different varieties and give a balanced perspective? Or will they undertake to paint with a brush so broad that upon speaking with one grower who described a…
Beer, spirits and wine compete with one another, as industries, for the nation's "Booze Market". What these three products have in common with one another are many. Fermentation. Alcohol as a component. Socializing as a byproduct. Differentiation based on taste. Highly regulated rules of sales, distribution and consumption. And…they also all have in common the primary effect of using them: inebriation. They are mind altering. So is Marijuana. And based on the polls I'm reading there is a high likelihood…
Every big thing starts small. Every success is an idea first. The future is built on the present I've mentioned it before and alluded to it later: If American wine consumers are going to be heard and if their interests are to be taken seriously, they must speak up. And they need to speak up with one voice. The idea is "The American Wine Consumer Coalition". • When state legislators consider laws concerning consumer access to wine, they don't consult…
A new version of H.R. 5034, the bill alcohol wholesalers are using to try to protect their monopoly on alcohol distribution, has been re-written by wholesalers and dutifully introduced by its sponsor, Rep. Bill Delahunt. The new version of H.R. 5034 is a direct attack on America's wine stores and wine merchants. If this version of H.R. 5034 is passed it will allow states to legally discriminate against out-of-state wine merchants in numerable ways. It must be opposed. The new…
"The neutralization of the 70 grapevines was an act of civil disobedience, which is a legitimate expression when the powerful impose on the population something it has largely disowned." —Jean-Pierre Frick, French punk— Note to Monsieur Frick: It's not "Civil Disobedience" if you know you won't get punished. It's Hooliganism. Ben O'Donnell at the Winespectator.com reports on another act of hooliganism by a group of French assholes that has resulted in the destruction of an experimental that is looking at…
