When We Almost Lost Wine

Following is an article on the history of a little aphid, called phylloxera, that could have wiped out Europe's great vineyards in the 19th century. This bug is still a problem as it caused major damage to Napa Valley and other nearby regions in the 1980s. It still shows up occasionally in California and Oregon vineyards.

The Bio Hack That Saved Europe's Vineyards

A Quick Primer on Premium Wine Marketing

How do the marketing experts sell you expensive, luxury, premium wine? Status, otherwise known as snob appeal. When you can find great wines for half, or a quarter, of the price you have to take lessons from the like of Mercedes-Benz and Rolex. It's an emotional purchase, not logical, for people who are convinced they have arrived. So, you know, showing off.
That is all.  :)

Trends in Drinking

When Americans drink alcohol what is the preferred beverage -- beer, wine or spirits? Over the years the three have gotten closer together in percentage.

Gallup Poll. Margin of error +/- 3%
Click on graph to enlarge

The beer line shows a significant drop, with a gain by wine, until the craft beer movement kicked into gear where both leveled off. Spirits have held pretty steady over the years. However, spirits have been making a bit of noise over the past couple years at the expense of both beer and wine, but it's too early to know if it's a trend.

What Industrial Winemaking Looks Like

Do you think all wine is created equal? From Jamie Goode's Wine Blog, a look at where Gallo produces wine in California.

World's Largest Wineries

What Wine People Are Talking About

When you're a small business person or a farmer as most in the Sonoma & Napa wine biz are then there seems to always be something to worry about. Here's what the worrywarts are talking about now (besides the 2019 harvest that's happening right now).

Sonoma County's Ag Crop Value

Sonoma County's agricultural crop value passed a billion dollars in 2018. This record value was led by wine grapes (no surprise) which had a record crop size and higher grapes for some grapes, especially Pinot Noir.

The total value was $1.1 billion. Of that wine grapes were $777 million. Next was milk at $141 million. Dairy was the top crop in the county until passed by grapes in the 1980s. That billion dollars value to the crop is only a small part of the value added to the county economy once you include job created, wine sold, and wine tourism.

The total crop value was a 27% increase from 2017 to 2018. Grapes grew 34% from 2017.

Info from pressdemocrat.com

What Beers the Winemakers are Drinking

"It takes a lot of beer to make wine" is a common saying. Also, "If you want to make a million dollars in the wine business start with two," but we're talking about beer here.

From interviews with a few West Coast winemakers by Forbes. The most popular seems to be Russian River Brewing's Pliny the Elder, a double IPA. However, many that do day drinking during the long harvest days are consuming something of lower alcohol such as pilsners and pales. That's why Russian River makes a seasonal Great Beer/Great Wine pale.

Article from Forbes

A Brief History of Wine

A Georgian (no, not from that Georgia, but the one next to Turkey) was a lazy farmer. He let his fruit rot. It fermented.

Two Sumerians got drunk and invented algebra. The roots of every 8th grader's hatred can be traced back to that lazy farmer.

The Romans got drunk, the Goths came rolling in, and we all know what happened next. The Dark Ages, when they drank mead, for crying out loud.

The French, who like stealing ideas from others, took over wine and pretended they invented the whole thing.

Then California butted in.

A mid-grade movie, Sideways, made people hate merlot and love pinot noir. People are so easy, especially when they're drinking.

On Being the Next Napa

Napa envy is common with other wine grape growing areas and even with people who write about wine. Everyone wants to see the success of Napa Valley happen somewhere else. Don't believe me? Google "the next Napa Valley" and see how much stuff comes up. Heck, I even wrote about it here.

So what do you need to be the next Napa? Well, let's see what those lucky bastards have going for themselves.

Autumn 2019 Events in Sonoma County

Yup, it's harvest season when the grapes are a pickin' and the wine is a makin'. It's the perfect time of year for a visit. Following are the main wine and non-wine events from September through November. There's a lot going on! Enjoy the bounty of Sonoma County.
        

Weed in Napa Valley

Napa Valley is world famous for its world-class Cabernet Sauvignon. They actually grow other grapes, too! But not much else. This is a potential problem.

Visiting Sonoma - A Little Tasting Etiquette

Wine tasting is easy. You pay a few bucks and get to taste a few of the wines from a particular winery. I think it's pretty easy to know how to act, but people often forget.