May 8, 2006
Staying on the terroir track for today, I was alerted to an article in a local paper by a good reader of FERMENTATION. The article spoke to the formation of a new regional grape growing and winery alliance that is focusing on a swath of land that deserves focusing on for its special and unique climate. The "Petaluma Gap" might be a term you’ve heard of lately, particularly if you are an aficionado of Sonoma County wines. The Petaluma Gap…
May 4, 2006
Wine writers from the Dayton Daily News, MSNBC, The New York Times, the Akron Beacon… …and now, USA Today, the American newspaper with the largest circulation (not counting the National Enquirer), will be producing a wine blog. USA Today’s food and wine writer Jerry Shriver announced today that he will be writing a wine blog beginning May 12. According to Jerry, he will produce daily entries that focus on reviewing wines that cost $15 or less and are generally available…
May 3, 2006
It appears the feds have approved new rules that will allow a winery to now only need 85% of a wine to come from a particular vintage in order for it to put that vintage date on its bottle. The rule had been 95% from a single vintage with up to 5% coming from other vintages. However, it appear the new 85-15 rule does not apply to wines with an American Viticultural Area designation on the label. This means that…
May 2, 2006
To quote a friend: "It’s a bit like watching a Civil War Re-enactment. You know who’s going to win." I can’t help myself. The whole fiasco with the celebration tasting (it’s not longer a competition) of the 1976 Paris Tasting is so weird, juicy and fun I just have to offer an update. A quick recap: In 1976 Steve Spurrier held a tasting between CA and French wines. The judges tasted the wines blind. CA wines came out on top….
May 1, 2006
Millions of people have taken to the streets today, left their place of work, and raised their voices in support of the notion that all immigrants are and have been a fundamental building block of the greatness and identity of the United States. I wanted to write about the impact of immigrants, documented and undocumented, to the California wine industry. Instead, I think I’ll point my reader to a post that I wrote for Wine Sediments that deals with this…