You've most likely never heard of ACORN Winery, they're small, under 2,000 cases annually, and has been run by the same couple the whole time. They grow over 100 grape varieties on a certified historic vineyards of 32 acres, Alegria Vineyards. Wife Betsy says Bill never met a grape variety he didn't like. A few other lucky wineries occasionally get fruit from the Alegria Vyd. If you see a wine on a store shelf using Alegria grapes, buy it!
This place is not trendy. It's strictly old school.
There can be a lot of info on a wine's label. Some has to be there, some is marketing related. There's nothing wrong with a winery touting their product. You just have to be able to separate the facts from the selling. Looking at American wine labels, here are things you may want to just ignore when shopping for a bottle or two.
This is a follow-up to the previous post on Wine Label Red Flags.
The labels on a bottle of wine can contain some good information. Some of it can be a warning, especially if you're shopping in the premium wine category. These are potential red flags, meaning you might want to gather more info on that wine or just pass it up for another. Most of this relates to American wine. Other countries have different rules.
It can be a guessing game when buying a bottle of wine off the store shelf. One way to help you make a good selection is to understand that certain regions of Sonoma County specialize in certain varietals. Remember that any of these regions will grow multiple varieties of grapes, but they are known for certain ones because they do really well in that area.
Wine can be kind of snooty and mysterious, so if you're told or read that you should never do something, you may be likely to believe these so-called experts. Some wine rules you can break.
Napa and Sonoma are synonymous with California Wine Country. Before either of these was a twinkle in a winemaker's eye there were vineyards at the California Missions and then there was the Los Angeles wine country. The what?
On January 19th I published Types of Wines on the different farming and processing practices -- organic, biodynamic, natural, etc. Well, here's a new one (to me), and sounds like maybe the best of all.
I first heard about regenerative agriculture from a recent article in the Wine Spectator (possible paywall).
Napa, and next door in Sonoma, are two big destinations for out-of-state visitors coming to experience the California wine country. Most people have probably heard about summer crowds and summer prices.
If you'd like to avoid these issues, an off-season visit might be for you. Off-season is considered November through April.
As with the food industry, there are a lot of choices and confusion with wine types relating to health. Remember when the dairy aisle in the supermarket carried three milks only -- whole, skim, and non-fat? Now there's organic, almond, ultra-filtered, A2, lactose free, oat, etc. Having these choices isn't a bad thing, of course, but it can be a bit bewildering.
The same sort of thing is going on with wine, and it's quite confusing.
Some of these are wine stories, some not. Some seem to come right out of the Wild West. Most appeared in the local paper, so are likely to be true. :)
