Jul 18, 2006
The Europe we all know and love from history, the one in which factions, tribes and families fight among one another for power, influence and self interest is emerging in the debate about what to do to do with a lake of European wine no one wants. The past few months has been a busy one for European wine policy. The EU released a proposal that would result in the ripping out of 400,000 hectare of vineyards and reduce the…
Jul 17, 2006
Well, it appears that either the nation’s wine wholesalers have had enough of Juanita Duggan or Juanita Duggan has had enough of wholesalers. Either way, it is being reported that the CEO of the Wine and Spirit Wholesalers Association (WSWA), the powerful national lobbying arm of the nation’s wine wholesalers, is jumping ship and joining the fight to keep the world safe for paper. If I had to guess (and I don’t HAVE to, but I am inclined to), I’d…
Jul 14, 2006
Thanks to Decanter Magazine it recently came to my attention that the World Wildlife Fund has begun a campaign to preserve the use of natural cork in the use of wine. It seems a counter-intuitive call for an environmental organization because in essence the use of cork involves the exploitation of the environment. What WWF is saying, however, in their recently released report "CORK SCREWED" (PDF), is that if the global wine industry continues to migrate over to alternatives to…
Jul 10, 2006
Do I need to worry about THIS? Don’t get me wrong, I’m as fearful of the next person of rising ocean levels, skin cancer, melting ice caps and the like. But I’m having a problem getting worried about Sonoma and Napa Valleys being too hot in 100 years to produce good wine. Let’s face it, unless I really cut back on some of my vices and medical technology leaps forward I’m not going to have to worry about Global Warming’s…
Jul 7, 2006
I recall, a year or so ago, sitting in a public hearing of the Sonoma County General Plan Committee. Under discussion was the proposed regulation to be incuded in the new general plan that any winery in Sonoma County must buy 70% of its grapes from Sonoma County vineyards. The proposed rule was meant to keep large "industrial" (as they called them) wineries that import grapes from across the state from sullying our county. The proposed ruled also was a…