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…
May 1, 2006
Mark Fisher over at Wine Sediments gives us the heads up on a development which is at once pitiful while also indicative of the crisis that exists in the French wine industry. Fisher reports and comments on the fact that at the upcoming "redo" of the famed Paris Tasting of 1976, at which American wines surprising bested French wines and put this country’s vino on the map, will in fact not be a BLIND tasting as it was the first…
Apr 28, 2006
I think it’s simple: A designated growing area, an appellation or, as they are called in the United States, American Viticultural Areas, are only useful if they are able to deliver expectation to the drinker. If I can’t have a pretty good idea of what I’ll experience in the bottle if it says "Anderson Valley" or ‘Oakville" or "Russian River Valley" on the label, then what’s the point of putting the appellation on the bottle at all? This is also…
Apr 27, 2006
How long does it take for a new grape growing region to establish a reputation for it’s wines? It can take quite a while or no time at all, because this kind of development is not dependent on the passage of time. It is dependent on the quality and quantity of fine wines from the region. Marin County, one county south of Sonoma, is attempting to build a reputation for its wines and primarily for it’s Pinot Noir. Over the…
Apr 26, 2006
$1,400,000. This is the price that Florida legislators are willing to take in order to allow wine wholesalers in that state to bend over and have at Florida’s wine lovers. Over the past five years, the Florida alcohol wholesalers have contributed more than $1.4 Million to Florida legislators. What does that buy? Besides politicians, it purchases a restriction that will prevent Florida consumers from purchasing wines directly from some of America’s largest wineries. If you ask me, that a piss…