If you have an interest in "Terroir American Style" then you probably, or should, have an interest in Diamond Creek wines. The vineyard designated wines of Diamond Creek made off of a relatively small parcel of land on Diamond Mountain in Napa Valley were among the first to give concrete recognition to the notion in America that different pieces of land create different tasting wines. The man who committed to this idea, Al Brounstein, died Monday after a long battle…
It was, I believe, the great Gore Vidal who once wrote, "Every time a friend of mine succeeds a little part of me dies." It’s a pretty astute, and brave, commentary on the effects and power of envy. Some of us bloggers fancy ourselves decent writers. Some of us are mistaken, some close to the mark, other are underestimating their value completely if they think themselves only decent writers. A safe self assessment puts me somewhere between the first two…
In its continued quest to deliver identity to North America’s varied appellations and the wines made from them, Appellation America has recently posted the results of two of its "Discovery Tastings": Spring Mountain District in the Napa Region and Yorkville Highlands in Mendocino County. For those unfamiliar with Appellation America’s Discovery Tastings, the organization brings together winemakers focused on the appellation under consideration to be guided through a tasting of the appellation’s wines The Discovery Tastings are undertaken blind (meaning…
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…
I think I’ve finally concluded that in the Old World (Europe) "Terroir" is really "tradition". The European wines from different appellations, large and small, that you drink tend to have a consistent and particular characteristic not because the climate and soil from that appellation force upon the wine a particular character, but because there are a set of traditional winemaking and grape growing techniques in an area that lead the wines in a particular direction. Those traditions relate to how…
