A Few Legal Changes for Alcohol Coming?

There are items on the legal side that may be coming to alcoholic beverages, including wine, in the next few years. These are related to public health and safety concerns.

2018: The Year in Craft Beer

This was another high growth year for craft beer in the U.S. A few things stand out:
1) The number of small breweries made a huge increase.
2) That increase is not matched by a growth in craft beer sales.
3) The haze craze (the hazy, juicy beer style) is huge.
4) The switch from bottles to cans.

What Wine to Leave for Santa

Santa Claus has got a very long night ahead of him. Sure, you might put out some cookies, but what about something to wash down those sugary baked goods?

Natural Wine -- Here it Comes!

Natural wine has been around for awhile, but not well-known by consumers. This is changing as the organic food movement has grown its popularity.

Does the Winemaker Make the Wine?

In smaller wineries making up to a few thousand cases of wine a year the winemaker, maybe an assistant, and/or a cellar master all play major roles in the wine you get. In the smallest wineries it's pretty much just a owner/winemaker who could be doing everything from vineyard management to sorting the grapes to bottling.

Sparkling Wine in the U.S.

  During the holiday season you find more writers and consumers talking about champagne / sparkling wine / Prosecco because this is when most of the bubbles are consumed in many countries, including the U.S. These wine are tied to celebrations (New Years, weddings, etc.). That's great, but it's also too bad as sparkling wines are much more versatile than just being used for a celebratory toast.

Gallo's Thunderbird Wine; It's Ba-a-ack!

You may be old enough to have memories of Thunderbird. If you do they probably aren't fond ones. It was sweet, high alcohol and cheap. It was fortified to 20% alcohol and sold for a buck. This made it a favorite among the town drunks and got Gallo some bad PR. A few years ago it made the Top Five Bum List Wines.

Little-Known Facts About Prohibition

Last week was the 85th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition -- the worst amendment ever to the Constitution. From Wine Spectator here are some surprising facts about Prohibition. For instance, it was actually legal to drink during that time.

Wine Sales Flatten

It seems the bull market for premium California wine may have hit its peak. Sales are flat though revenue is up slightly because of rising prices, I expect. And I'm guessing the days of rising price may be over (there have definitely been significant increases over the past five years).

The good news for the consumer is that 2018 was a big harvest and there are grapes that don't have a home. These grapes get bulked out at lower prices. This basically means better quality lower-priced wines.

Sonoma County's Michelin-Starred Restaurants

The latest ratings were recently announced.

Single Thread Farms Restaurant in Healdsburg opened in 2016 to great fanfare. This year the restaurant received three Michelin stars--the highest award possible. This is a first for a Sonoma County restaurant. Want to go? It's $275 pp paid in advance. They will call you to customize your meal.

Madrona Manor in Healdsburg continues its streak as a one star restaurant as does The Farmhouse Inn in Forestville. Over in Napa County the Meadowood and French Laundry restaurants received three Michelin stars.

There are about 15 three star restaurants in the country.

Objective & Subjective Traits in Wine

Whether the review comes from someone who gets paid to rate wine, from a friend, or you -- how you rate a wine is a combination of objective and subjective traits. Why is that important? Because objective notes will tell you if you will like a particular wine. Subjective traits will tell you if the reviewer liked the wine.

Diversifying Sonoma County Tourism

Sonoma County is pretty well locked in on being a premium wine destination. But as many business leaders will tell you it's not always best to have all your eggs in one basket. So how does the county diversify? Unlike a business you can't go out and buy another company; you have to go with what you've got or can easily develop.

Here's what Sonoma County has that can easily be expanded further, as needed, or maybe just talk about it more so folks realize the options are here.