Mar 28, 2006
Yea…Michigan State officials are throwing a real hissy fit. They are apparently upset with the costs they are obligated to pay the attorneys that beat them at the Supreme Court last year in the Granholm v. Heald wine decision. Their tantrum boils down to this: They don’t like what it cost their opponents to beat them. Among their claims is that it was unnecessary to bring in Kathleen Sullivan, Dean of Stanford law School, to write the "merits brief" as…
Mar 28, 2006
I’ve recently come across one of the most bizarre suggestions yet as relates to the issue of shipping wine directly to consumers. In Florida, the state Senate is looking to formalize their decision to allow direct shipping of wine to its residents. As expected wine wholesalers and their friends in the Senate are attempting to put restrictions on the legislation that amount to a "Wholesaler Protection Act." The current idea is to limit the wineries that can ship to residents…
Mar 28, 2006
Some Editorial Updates For Your Reading Pleasure: 1. Wine Sediments, the new wine blog on the WellFed Network is humming along. My most recent post, "What Next? Republican Wine"? is currently at the top of the list. 2. Taj at Cork & Demon continues her Western Wine Tour, a tour de force wine road trip that currently puts her in the Central Coast area of California. Her tour and chronicle of her adventures is well worth a read. 3. FERMENTATION…
Mar 28, 2006
The cork manufacturers of the world are pretty smart, visionary folk. Early on, when the first alternative closures for wine hit the market in response to too many wines gone bad due to tainted corks, cork manufacturers when on a promotional crusade to keep corks relevant. I learned today of what must be their greatest coup yet in their battled to maintain their closure market dominance: They’ve simply found a way to keep the market all to themselves. A press…
Mar 27, 2006
Where ever there are hills and vines I think we can expect a movement to restrict exactly how vineyards are planted. We are seeing this scenario play out once again, this time in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco and one of the most impressive growing regions in the state. Napa Valley and Sonoma County has already dealt with the issue of where and how vines can be planted on hillsides. The movement to preserve the hillsides as…