Happy weekend. I’ll leave you to peruse the week’s wine news. I’ll be found with my head in a study book (and a glass in hand).
This Week’s Latest Wine Headlines: April 18—April 23
Searching for "syrah"
This Week’s Latest Wine Headlines: April 10—April 16
A bit of personal update to start. You may have noticed the lack of posts outside of your weekly news roundup. I’m on the countdown for another WSET Diploma exam, so, indeed, I am taking a hiatus from any original writing for this site. You can still, of course, read my writing in one of the many outlets I write for and I’ll be sure to include links to those articles in my weekly roundups as well.
On that note and in a moment of shameless self-promotion, I will be moderating a session at this year’s (virtual) Three-Tier Symposium, so be sure to sign up if you’re interested in learning more about how the US is navigating both the wholesale and DTC channels as well as innovative new technology and techniques for boosting wine sales.
And a fair bit of warning: This week I’ve categorized the news—Local, National, Around the World and of course Blogs and Press Releases. The warning comes with the Local News. It’s not very nice. But it is happening and it is affecting the local community and to an extent the wine community as well.
That’s all from me for now. Please don’t hesitate to drop a line. Cheers.
This Week’s Latest Wine Headlines: March 27—April 2
Happy Easter Weekend for those who celebrate. Hope everyone’s Spring season is off to a great start. This week’s wine-newsy round-up has a plethora of interesting topics. I particularly loved reading about how French wineries are employing refugees to help out during the current labor shortage; the optimism woven through the South African wine industry despite trying times; of course there’s the reality check of the latest news surrounding drought and wildfires in both Australia and California; and for all my WSET study buddies out there, check out this profile piece on Syrah.
Don’t forget to scroll down to read independent insight from the Blogs. I’ll toot my own horn for a second: This week I made my debut on Tim Atkin‘s site speaking about California vintners struggle with and perseverance through climate change. (See Survivor Vines.)
And if you missed my blog post for the week, be sure to find out more about California’s newest AVA.
Thanks as always for hanging out with me.
Tasting Santa Barbara’s Newest AVA—Alisos Canyon
categories: Wine, Winery Reviews
I find Santa Barbara wine country so interesting. As a kid, Santa Barbara always meant vacation—hot days, sandy toes, beach water I could actually swim in. (If you grew up along the San Francisco shoreline, you know what I mean when I say Pacific Beach is never that welcoming). So, it’s interesting that a placed perceived as a summertime getaway where board shorts and flip flops are basically the dress code, could produce wines with any kind of delicacy. Let alone the cool-climate grapes for which it’s gained a reputation, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
But as all you fellow wine nerds know, the cool thing (pun not intended, but not deleted either) is that because of tectonic plate-shifting, Santa Barbara’s Transverse Ranges are exactly that—transverse. Whereas most of California’s coastal ranges run from north to south, limiting some inland locations from cool ocean breezes and fog patterns, in Santa Barbara the ranges go from east to west, thereby funneling in that cool ocean air.
The two major AVAs are Santa Maria and Santa Ynez, the latter of which contains four sub-AVAs: Santa Rita Hills, Ballard Canyon, Los Olivos, and Happy Canyon.
But at the end of 2020, Santa Barbara County finalized the approval process for its seventh appellation—Alisos Canyon AVA
This Week’s Latest Wine Headlines: March 13—19
Hello and happy spring! Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy out there. I’ve got your weekly round up of wine-newsy content from the past week, including a piece by yours truly on the California wine grape crush report.
A few other highlights—the WSET holds its first virtual diploma graduation and plans to keep the format for the future as well (I personally hope that I will be able to travel to London for the in-person event if/when that time comes); the European wine industry is in the midst of one of the worst droughts in history; restaurants are opening up for indoor dining all over the country—but it’s still risky business for workers and patrons alike; and industry pros debate whether we need better labelling on wine bottles.
Those are just a few of the top stories, but scroll through—I’ve included some fun articles surrounding St. Patrick’s Day, there’s some great independent insight in the Blogs, and actually quite a few informative press releases.
Have fun. Stay safe. Stay healthy. And drink good wine.
