Archive for the ‘Wine Places’ Category
I left the movie theater after watching "Bottle Shock" very disoriented. The movie, loosely based on the 1976 Paris wine tasting that pitted California wines against French wines and that put California wines on the map, provided me with a movie-going experience that I’d never had before. I’ve never watched a film where people I know and people I’ve met were portrayed. But in addition, I’ve never watched a film where the locations used were intimately familiar to me; places…
It’s the quadrennial political convention time and my thoughts run to the political. The first presidential election that engrossed me from start to finish was 1984 (my guy got slaughtered). I couldn’t get enough of the debate, speeches, political strategy, platform development, etc. I’m watching it all now, again, and as always it is great theater. But what I’m wondering is this: What if the nation elected a Wine President every four years. What if this president represented the American…
Yesterday was an Official Holiday in the Wark home. Yesterday was "Fruits Of The Land Day"; our family’s annual and formal recognition of just how lucky and blessed we are to live in a place that delivers such an amazing array of really good eating and drinking. Though we haven’t petitioned the state or federal government to officially recognize this holiday, it’s not out of the question. But for now, we celebrate this important day by taking our annual tour…
Well, the gauntlet was certainly thrown down today. Is the "Napa Valley" Brand in decline? Is it faltering in the face of increased competition. Is it possible that the marketing powerhouse that is Napa Valley Cabernet hasn’t kept up with the competition? Bill Ryan, a columnist at the Napa Valley Register, essentially told his readers (those in the wine industry), either change your marketing ways or see the demise of Napa Valley as the premier wine region in the New…
Janice Fuhrman reports via Decanter that a proposal to create an appellation system for Mexico’s major wine production regions has not been embraced by the very folks the system would effect: the winemakers. What’s interesting about the story is that it suggests the proposal would actually create regulations for HOW wine can be made under the appellation system, an approach that takes its cues from European appellation system, rather than from the nearby American appellation system that merely attempts to…
