Good weekend to you. Hope everyone is staying healthy and happy out there. I’ve been quite busy myself, hence lack of original content. But I assure you one of the things that’s keeping me busy are my WSET Diploma Studies, and I will have more D3 content coming soon. Meanwhile, my D2 looms over my head. (The test is in two weeks!)
But enough about me, there’s a lot of other stuff going on in the world. While Napa is taking tolls of damages done from the recent complex of fires, Sonoma is sending out warnings about how to prepare for the rainy season. Although, a bit of insider info: we’re under advisory for power outtages and. more wildfires as we enter another heatwave situation this weekend.
I’ve got an interesting section below entitled “Not Wine.” Find out what’s happening in the beer, spirit and food industries.
Of course, as always, don’t forget to scroll down to the Blogs for some independent insight.
Cheers!
Napa Valley Register: Is Napa’s wine-based economy too one-sided? Some argue for diversification
Register photo
Some locals wonder if Napa County’s wine-heavy economy is a case of too many grapes in one basket.
That one basket is stupendous. Napa Valley is synonymous with fine wines and the result is visitors – during non-pandemic and non-wildfire times – flocking here to spend money. Hotel taxes in 2018 brought more than $50 million to the coffers of the county and its cities.
Economic reports done for Napa Valley Vintners over the past decade have estimated that agriculture, wine and related activities account directly and indirectly for two-thirds of the county’s full-time jobs.
That’s something to celebrate or worry about—or both. Changes in societal tastes, attacks by a vine-killing invasive species and wildfires are among the possible threats mentioned by economic diversity devotees. READ MORE…
County of Sonoma: Preparing for Rain After Wildfires
The City of Santa Rosa and the County of Sonoma encourage residents living in and around wildfire burn areas to prepare for the rainy season. Preparing now, for future winter storms, is important for your safety and the protection of our watershed. Residents living in and around burn areas should be aware of potential threats and take measures to prepare property for the rainy season. Many properties within and downstream of any burn area are at higher risk for flash floods, rock falls, debris flows, and mud flows. READ MORE…
Napa Valley Register: A smaller harvest spells trouble for Napa Valley’s agricultural workforce
AP Photo/Noah Berger
Wildfire smoke has forced many of Napa Valley’s wineries to cut this year’s harvest short. First to feel the sting of that loss, industry members say, will be the men and women whose job it was to pick grapes now doomed to remain on the vine.
A harvest interrupted by smoke has negative implications for the whole of Napa Valley’s wine industry — vintners and grape growers, yes, but also the staff they employ in tasting rooms, cellars and winemaking facilities. Still, tasting room associates won’t be pouring the 2020 vintage for at least another year, and though this harvest has been a small one, there is still wine to be made from grapes spared the worst of the smoke.
But farmworkers’ income directly correlates with the amount of fruit picked, according to Michael Wolf, who owns an eponymous vineyard management company in Napa, which puts them in an especially vulnerable position this year. The more fruit rejected, the less work there will be — and the more dire the situation for the agricultural workforce becomes. READ MORE…
Wine Spectator: Could a Tool to Combat Coronavirus Also Protect Grapevines from an Annual Threat?
Scientists and vintners are exploring using UV lights, now being employed in HVAC systems to reduce the threat of COVID-19, as a weapon against mildew
Jim Bernau, founder of Willamette Valley Vineyards, was installing an ultraviolet light component to his HVAC system in the winery, offices and tasting rooms to protect both staff and customers against COVID-19 when inspiration struck. “The light bulb went off when we started researching the UV light to kill COVID,” said Bernau. “It reminded me of the research I’d been reading about for years on using UV light to kill pathogens in the vineyard.”
Bernau, like most organic and sustainable growers, uses organic sulphur to control powdery mildew in his Oregon vineyards. Many other vintners employ chemical fungicides. According to the Robert Mondavi Institute Center for Wine Economics at U.C. Davis, powdery mildew currently accounts for an estimated 74 percent of total pesticide applications by California grapegrowers. The fungicides are costly and environmentally unfriendly, plus the fungus typically adapts to the fungicides within a few generations, requiring heavier applications or changing formulas.
An international consortium of scientists known as the Light and Plant Health Project, led by David Gadoury, a plant pathologist at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, N.Y., has developed an inexpensive answer. READ MORE…
Around the World
wine-searcher: UK Wine Industry Steps into the Unknown
After more than four years of stuttering starts, Brexit finally looms as a reality for the British wine trade.
In January of this year, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson achieved his “end of the beginning” moment.
After years of tumultuous debate and vitriol, the United Kingdom left the EU on January 31. A departing footnote was designed to reassure remain voters; Johnson told the British public that securing a free trade agreement with the EU was entirely possible.
Indeed, his party was elected on a promise to do just that.
However, with the Brexit talks reaching endgame, the United Kingdom is veering dangerously close towards a “beginning of the end” scenario. The EU has initiated legal proceedings against the UK, in response to a piece of domestic legislation that potentially overrides sections of the ratified Brexit divorce settlement. READ MORE…
Decanter: Italy harvest 2020
Despite a chaotic year for most of us, 2020 is looking like a successful vintage for many Italian producers…
It’s that time of year when all the work in the vineyards through the summer reaches fruition. The Italian 2020 harvest is underway in many regions, with early ripening varieties already in the winery and the later ripening varieties nearly ready to be picked. READ MORE…
Not Wine
Eater: How the James Beard Foundation Failed the Most Prestigious Restaurant Awards in the Country
The foundation violated its own ethics rules to ensure that award winners fit into its new narrative of progress and social justice
Finalists had been announced. A virtual ceremony had been planned. Acceptance speeches had been filmed.
Then, in late August, the James Beard Foundation abruptly announced that it was effectively canceling its Restaurant and Chef Awards, widely considered the most prestigious accolades in the American restaurant industry, not just this year, but until 2022.
The annual black-tie gala for these awards — a multimillion-dollar production that some have referred to as the Oscars of the restaurant industry, with big-name sponsors like San Pellegrino, All-Clad, American Airlines, and Capital One — had already been delayed and moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic. The foundation blamed this dramatic pullback on the pandemic as well. “Considering anyone to have won or lost within the current tumultuous hospitality ecosystem does not in fact feel like the right thing to do,” CEO Clare Reichenbach stated in a press release.
A few days later, New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells reported that the James Beard Foundation had not been entirely forthcoming about the reasons for its decision. READ MORE…
VinePair: How Fruit Became a Vital Ingredient in Modern Craft Brewing
Fruit has been incorporated in European beers for hundreds of years. But less so in the United States where it has become a common brewing ingredient only in the decades since the craft beer revolution of the 1980s. In recent years, however, its popularity has exploded — more so than in any other nation. READ MORE…
Wine Enthusiast: These Producers are Making Experimental Spirits with Tea, Juice and Anything But Water
Most spirits are distilled to exceedingly high alcohol levels that would be difficult for most people to handle. To make them easier to swallow, spirits producers have long used water to cut the alcohol down to a palatable percentage. Several even flaunt the regional minerals or pH levels in the water they use to enhance terroir, like the famed limestone-rich water used to make Kentucky Bourbon.
Until recently, it was unheard of to use anything except water to proof spirits. That’s slowly changing. READ MORE…
Eater: Michelin Reverses Course, Won’t Issue California Star Ratings This Year
The French tire company’s restaurant guide will take a hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic and wildfires
The Michelin Guide is taking a hiatus this year in California and will not be awarding any stars, Bib Gourmand ratings, or Plate recommendations due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and recent wildfires. Though the guide has returned to awarding stars and publishing guides in other locations, such as Brazil, London, and Guangzhou, the organization says they are “pausing” the announcement of any designations for California after speaking with chefs and restaurateurs in various parts of the state. READ MORE…
Wine Enthusiast: Female Latinx Beer Pros are Changing Craft Conversations
When you walk into Atrevida Beer Co. in Colorado Springs, the first thing you see is a sign that says, “Diversity, it’s on tap!” Jessica Fierro, the state’s first female Latinx brewery owner and the Season One winner of Viceland show Beerland, was intentional about making her brewery a space to have these conversations.
“Customers come in and ask, ‘Well, what does diversity mean to you?’ ” says Fierro. “These are questions that they don’t ask other people. They asked me because of who I am.” READ MORE…
Blogs Worth a Read
Taken from the list of Blogs I follow regularly, here are just a few posts from this past week I think are worth a read. Shoot me a note if you have suggestions of blogs to follow or want your blog included on that list.
The Wine Gourd: Why have we left it so late to deal with climate change in the wine industry?
The basic issue for us is that wine-making relies on grapes, and grape-growing is part of agriculture, which is a practical application of biology; and there are huge parts of biology that do not happen fast — some bits do happen fast, but most bits do not. Many plants and animals grow and breed at quite a leisurely pace, in the big scheme of things. And climate change is happening faster than they can cope (eg. Fire, smoke, heat, drought — how climate change could spoil your next glass of California Cabernet). READ MORE…
Tim Atkin: The Year that Changed the Wine World
“Never A Dull Moment” is the title of a wonderful book about what its author David Hepworth calls “rock’s golden year”. 1971 was indeed an annus mirabilis for music, witnessing the release of landmark albums by David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Yes, The Who and Rod Stewart. For Hepworth, December 31st1970 marked the end of the Sixties – 12 months late, in one sense – and the start of something very different. It was a hinge, a turning pint, a line in the sand.
1971 produced some good wines in Bordeaux and Burgundy – and some exceptional ones in Italy – yet no one would describe it as a watershed vintage. Wine’s golden year was surely 1982, a year when as the late Nicholas Faith put it, “the Bordelais discovered ripeness”. Europe had experienced warm vintages like this before, of course, 1947 and 1959 being famous examples, but 1982 was something else altogether. Winemaking and viticulture had both improved, so producers knew how to deal with the conditions, producing wines with a combination of power and freshness: sumo wrestlers with a twinkle in their toes. READ MORE…
Jancis Robinson: Taras Ochota remembered
The Australian wine community is reeling from the loss of one of its most dynamic – still youthful – practitioners.
My inbox yesterday was swollen by messages from distraught wine lovers reporting that the long-term illness suffered by Taras Ochota of Ochota Barrels in Adelaide Hills had claimed him, leaving his wife and wine partner Amber and two young children. On the official Wine Australia website he is described as ‘one of the original rockstar winemakers. This bass player, punk rocker and surfer makes elegant, sought-after wines that have reached cult status.’ READ MORE…
Vino Joy News: Report warns of New Zealand’s vulnerability to China
Is New Zealand’s wine at the risk of being targeted by China following investigation into its Australian neighbor?
Following China’s investigation into Australian wine that could put Australia’s billionaire dollar wine trade at risk, a report by Westpac bank in New Zealand is now warning of the island country’s high vulnerability to China, currently its biggest export market. READ MORE…
James Suckling: How ‘Drinkability’ Became a Defining Quality for Wine
Many years ago, to talk about a wine’s drinkability you were likely discussing if the wine was within the suitable drinking window to pull out the cork. Today, drinkability means much more than simply “suitability for drinking.” …
A “drinkable cabernet” in a tasting note needs to be interpreted within the context. Is the wine suitable for now? Are we euphemistically suggesting the wine has minimally worthy concentration? Or increasingly, are we saying the wine is an approachable, easy-to-drink bottle that arouses the desire to drink effortlessly? The latter is a way to show how much the drinker likes the wine in a plain way.
So there is no fixed definition of drinkability. Our aesthetic preferences and wine appreciation abilities change and fluctuate as we learn and taste, and so these definitions often evolve with experience, and often over a long period of time. READ MORE…
Tim Atkin: On Wine Bitch
A bunch of anonymous newsletters targeting the wine Twitter bubble started circulating anonymously during lockdown.
The content was meant to be satirical. Some of it was amusing, some statements about the new wave of influencers – aspiring to the lifestyle [they] know [they] deserve – were true but most of it was like a car crash: you didn’t want to look but you couldn’t help it because you couldn’t quite believe what you were seeing.
Most of it was vicious, personal, slanderous and cruel. The anger that came off the page was palpable and toxic with crude and angry sentences tripping over too many long words.
…
Attacks towards younger and more junior people than you are even more unforgivable, especially when you are someone people look up to. If you think someone could do better, have a quiet word, mentor them, or if you really can’t stand them or think they’re bonkers, ignore them. Nobody forces you to follow anyone on Twitter or Instagram and nobody asked you to set yourself up as Wine Twitter’s regulatory body. Who do you think you are? READ MORE…
Jancis Robinson: Lulu Peyraud, 1917–2020
Assorted memories of an extraordinary woman who enriched the life of food and wine lovers around the world.
Lulu Peyraud of Domaine Tempier in Bandol, who died on 7 October at the age of 102, was an icon of Provençal food and wine lore, beloved by all who met her but arguably much better known in the US than in France – although Michel Troisgros remembers her well from his time at Chez Panisse in Berkeley in 1977. Her réclame in the US was partly because she was effectively adopted by wine importer Kermit Lynch and Alice Waters of Chez Panisse. Or do I mean the other way round? READ MORE…
VinePair: We Asked 15 Spirits Pros: What Will You Be Drinking on Election Night?
The countdown to the Nov. 3 election is on. As there’s no question that the days ahead will be filled with stress as the nation votes and awaits the outcome, VinePair is turning its attention toward the less serious but still pressing decision of what to drink on election night.
To find out what the pros have chosen to help take the edge off, VinePair asked bartenders and distillers around the country what they will be pouring and shaking up for this momentous event. From historic punches and classic cocktails, to American whiskey and an aptly named natural wine, keep reading below for some expert suggestions on picking the right election night tipple. READ MORE…
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