California agriculture is big! How big is it? In production value, it leads the nation. Part of the reason is the number of high value crops such as nuts, dairy and, of course, wine grapes. It's a $60 billion industry, with $23 billion of it exported. The value of organic products is increasing significantly.
The next biggest ag states are Iowa, Texas, and Nebraska.
A look at what's happening for the warm weather season in Sonoma County. Following are events scheduled from May through Sept 2025. This was published in late March, so there may be events added later.
Below are a few graphs on trends in wine. The first three are from the American Assoc. of Wine Economists, a world-wide organization based in New York. The last one from Gomberg-Fredrikson, of Sonoma, CA.
Ah, Zinfandel, it's sort of California's own. There's quite a history to Zinfandel that was very mysterious until about 30 years ago. The short version is Zinfandel comes from a rare Croatian grape that took off in Italy as Primitivo and in California as Zinfandel.
So who are some of the top producers? Let's take a subjective look.
There are some low or no alcohol beers that are pretty good, that taste similar enough to regular beer to be enjoyable. It seems like the wines aren't good enough, yet anyway. So why are low and no alcohol wines so crappy?
This is an interesting read about a few grape growers and winemakers who are stuck in the mid-20th century, and I mean that in a good way.
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| Cathy Corison, a hero to some image from wannabewino |
Napa Traditionalists from The New Wine Review.
The carbon footprint of a business is the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the organization or product. Greenhouse gases are what is causing our climate to change so rapidly. Wineries, like any business, are part of the problem, and many are looking at what they can do to limit their effect. Good for them.
