Many Pinot Noir fans consider the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County to be one of the best for the grape. I suspect a lot of people only think of Pinot when they reflect on the Russian River region. It's a vast growing area and there are many other grape varieties as the microclimates and soils vary widely.
It seems that there's a small, family-owned winery getting gobbled up by a corporation every month. Some even just close their doors. Current economic issues, the loss of income during the pandemic, and a slowdown in the number of visitors is likely to close more operations.
Silicon Valley Bank surveys wineries throughout the country. They send requests out to many, some respond, some don't. You might recall SVB crashed and burned a few months ago and is now part of First Citizens Bank.
The annual Big Wine Event for Sonoma County wineries has been judged and results released. All wines entered must be from Sonoma County grapes. About 960 wines were entered from 126 labels (a winery can have more than one label). Almost one-fourth of the wines entered receive a good medal, much higher than the average for wine judgings.
The public tasting of gold medal winners will be Saturday, October 14th, at the county fair grounds. I'll be there pouring wine; maybe sneaking in a taste or three.
A quick look at some of the wine, and other beverage, stocks. A few of the big ones and a couple smaller stocks compared to the overall market over the past six months. Performance graphs from Yahoo Finance as of 27 Sep 23.
Glass wine bottles are heavy, making them expensive to ship and subject to breakage. They are a big part of a winery's carbon footprint. Only about 30% of glass gets recycled in the U.S.
In March, I had a post wondering if aluminum might be the answer to replace glass wine bottles. This time we'll look at paper wine bottles.
Your engine goes out while approaching the Sonoma County Airport. You can't make it to the nearby golf course, so what do you do? How about we take out an estimated 100 vines from the El Diablo Vineyard that produces $100-ish Chardonnay for several wineries? The grower's insurance company is going to love this one.
The pilot was fine; the Cessna had minor damage. Getting the plane out of there will probably be expensive.
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| image from winespectator.com courtesy Sonoma County Sheriff |
In the past, I've made suggestions of food to have with Sangiovese or wines to have with your grilled burgers, for example. I once attempted a more all-inclusive post on wine and food pairing guidelines. I said "attempted" because it got so confusing that I gave up and it was never published. It doesn't help that I'm not an expert on the subject. This time I'll try to get the basics right.
The Airbnb website and app have a Vineyard category to go along with Lakefront, Tiny Homes, Tree Houses, and all the rest. There are vineyards and wineries that offer guest housing, so this makes sense they've made this a separate search.
Amador County (pop. 41,000) in the Sierra Foothills is about 40 miles east of Sacramento, a metro area of 2.4 million people. The county is a mish mash of elevations and soil types, both things that make for interesting grape growing.
Vineyards have been in Amador County since the mid-19th century, right when the nearby Gold Rush started. Zinfandel has been the star, but diversity has come to Amador in this century. Even with the history and great vineyards, not much attention was paid to the area. Economic reasons are now changing that. Old is meeting new in Amador County.
Ol' Hugh is a wine executive. He's held upper-level corporate jobs with Constellation Brands, Kendall Jackson, and Foley Wines. Ten years ago he started Krasilsa Pacific Farms LLC, apparently out of his home near Windsor, CA and listing himself as the only employee. Then he repeated what other rich guy landowners have done. He raped the land.
After 27 years of gains, the wine market is in a multi-year decline in sales volume. Is it post-pandemic settling out or are we in a years-long trend?
As a wise man once said ...
