Imagine you are visiting and staying in the town of Sonoma, as many do. You take the drive up California Scenic Highway 12 through Sonoma Valley. You'll pass several landmark wineries like Chateau St. Jean, St. Francis, and Ledson. What you'll miss are smaller ones, often off the main road. The Sonoma Valley Small Wineries Collective would like to rectify that.
You'll find zillions of wines out there on the retail shelves, so how the heck do you decide what to buy? There are lots of things to consider, with most people it's price and variety, such as, you are looking for a $20 California Chardonnay. Some other ideas to help you pick the best bottle follow.
There are over 200 years of wine history in Sonoma County. I'll hit some highlights that helped get us where we are today.
The wine grape demand prior to harvest is one indicator of the health of the wine market. Most grapes are sold on contracts between the wine producers and the growers, either year-to-year or on multi-year contracts. This year shows a higher than normal quantity of unsold premium wine grapes.
Talking with people in wineries, who talk with other wineries, and seeing comments on social media lead me to believe the local wineries are hurting for customers. There just aren't as many people visiting. This doesn't necessarily mean revenue is similarly down, though it most likely is overall.
A more disturbing trend is that wine club membership is also down. This is a backbone of steady income for many wineries, without it, they have a hard time planning and forecasting for the next year.
What happened? Gossip follows. :)
Wine tasting isn't easy. Each wine touches multiple senses with multiple inputs. You can get sensory overload. These all get processed by different sections of the brain. Then you have to make sense of it all.
Data from a Heath and Retirement Study shows that couples who drank together live longer. This conclusion was based on moderate drinking, eight or fewer drinks a week. Couples where one drank and the other didn't, couples that drank heavily, and even couples that didn't drink at all did not live as long.
Shared drinking habits could be a key to a longer life!
Article from the Wine Spectator
What does the Napa and Sonoma real estate market for wineries and vineyards look like now, in mid-2024? Here's a little info from Vintroux, real estate agents for wineries and vineyards.
There have been major changes in the way wine tasting rooms operate in the past few years. You might already know this if you've been wine tasting in a major U.S. region post-Pandemic. Even if it's been just two or three years, you'll find things settling in to a new norm.
I've lived in Sonoma County since 1980 when the local wine country was just a baby. There weren't many wineries to visit back then and, yes, they were all free to taste. Even next door in Napa!
I've done lots of wine tasting, I've worked in tasting rooms, and I read posts in various wine groups about people looking for help in planning their trip.
Following are some pointers to setting up a successful trip. It's aimed at Northern California, but can be applied to other wine destinations.
News spreads quickly on social media. One such story that came out of the SF Chronicle is that the California wine industry is dying. They noted declining foot traffic in Napa Valley, vineyards being yanked out, and unsold bulk wine on the open market.
