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Article: Grape Prices Flat in Finger Lakes »
 
It’s important to furnish growers and wineries with grape prices in time for them to...
Reader: Linda Jones McKee
 
Article: Highest-Priced Wines Grow Fastest »
 
There is very little wine worth drinking at less than $20 per bottle.
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Article: Grape Prices Flat in Finger Lakes »
 
I dunno, I find it useful and appreciate this info being shared by Hudson and...
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Article: Grape Prices Flat in Finger Lakes »
 
There may have been a time when this list indicated something useful, perhaps when the...
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Article: Will Washington Legalize Virtual Wineries? »
 
This sounds like a non-problem in search of a non-solution. The Liquor Board and the...
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FEATURES
 

NEWSBRIEFS
  • San Diego approves tasting rooms
    The San Diego Board of Supervisors approved a new ordinance making it easier for grapegrowers to open tasting rooms and establish small wineries. The ordinance sets up a system allowing property owners in agriculture-zoned areas to establish one of four operations, from growing and producing wine and selling off-site to full wineries. The county now has 58 wineries, many concentrated in Ramona and Fallbrook.
     
  • Stone rolls to Oregon
    Larry Stone, managing director of Francis Ford Coppola’s 20,000-case Rubicon Estate, Rutherford, was named general manager of Evening Land, which makes Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, California’s Sonoma Coast and Santa Rita Hills and in Burgundy. He’ll continue making his own label, 1,000-case Sirita.
     
  • Miller leaves St. Julian
    David Miller, long-time winemaker at 150,000-case St. Julian Winery, Paw Paw, Mich., has left to serve as visiting professor at Michigan State University and start his own winery, White Pine, in Lawton, with his wife, Sandy. Former associate winemaker Nancie Corum was promoted to winemaker at St. Julian.
     
  • Dr. Frank opens re-built tasting room
    Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars, Hammondsport, N.Y., held a grand re-opening party in July for the auxiliary tasting room that was destroyed by an electrical fire in April 2009. The rebuilt tasting room is larger and has more bar space than the original.
     
  • Encore! For Elledge
    Melinda Elledge joined Encore! Glass, Benicia, Calif., bottle supplier, as account manager for Napa and Sonoma counties. Previously, she was with Saverglass.
     
  • MORE »
 

CALENDAR
  • September 5-6
     
    Harvest Wine Celebration
     
  • September 10-11
     
    Winesong! Wine auction and tasting
     
  • September 11-12
     
    Hudson Valley Wine Festival
     
  • September 11-12
     
    Gettysburg Wine & Music Festival
     
  • MORE »
 
A compilation of wines reviewed each week by leading wire service and major daily newspaper wine columnists
 
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Jim Gordon
 

Editor's Letter

by Jim Gordon
 
 
 

 

Editor's Letter

 
September 2010
 

A Call for Earthquake Preparedness

 
In March of this year I flew to Germany to attend two big international wine shows. During the trip I had the pleasure of getting to know a fellow wine industry journalist, Edoardo Brethauer of Vitis magazine, from Chile.
 
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Editor's Letter

 
August 2010
 

Shaping Wines to Fit Their Closures

 
Until recently in winemaking history there was no debate about how to seal a bottle of high-quality wine. Cork had been the best choice for hundreds of years. Closures only became a hot topic when the suitability of cork was demonstrated to be an issue by the discovery of what causes “corked” bottles—2,4,6-trichloroanisole. Scientists learned how to measure this mold, and packaging companies subsequently rushed to develop alternative closures that were TCA-proof.
 
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Editor's Letter

 
July 2010
 

For Whom the CARE Act Cares

 

Unless you flew to New Zealand for the 2010 harvest and are just now returning, you already know about House Resolution 5034, the so-called CARE act that would take really good care of alcohol wholesalers at the expense of producers. The innocently named bill, introduced by Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), was written on behalf of the National Beer Wholesalers Association. The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America actively support it, too.

 
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Editor's Letter

 
June 2010
 

What Winery Buyers Are Thinking

 
Hope isn’t much of a strategy,” said Randy Luginbill, vice president of winery relations for Silverado Premium Properties as he introduced four speakers during May’s Vineyard Economics Seminar. His point was that the recession has hit many winegrape growers hard. Fewer have long-term contracts, many are expecting lower per-ton payments this season, and quite possibly more growers than last year will have no home at all for their grapes—unless they custom crush.
 
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Editor's Letter

 
May 2010
 

What's Behind Our Numbers?

 
Grapes and wine are your products. Information is our product. At Wines & Vines, we labor every day to bring you the most accurate and up-to-date information in our daily web Headlines and the print magazine’s monthly feature stories, columns and other departments. A portion of that information is originally collected and stored as data, which we then use in the Wines & Vines Directory & Buyer’s Guide, in the W&V Online Marketing System and in other diverse ways to serve you as a reader.
 
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Editor's Letter

 
April 2010
 

Time to Renew PD Funding

 
It is time for California grapegrowers to renew their self-assessment to fund the ongoing fight against Pierce’s disease. At the current assessment rate of $1 per $1,000 of crop value, it has to be the world’s best bargain in disease prevention.
 
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Editor's Letter

 
March 2010
 

Benefits of Science and Technology

 
Everybody loves the image of the little old vigneron trudging through his vineyard in the spring, beret on his head and hoe in his hand, sniffing the air for rain, making mental notes on the health of his vines, one by one, as he envisions the rich harvest to come in September.
 
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Editor's Letter

 
February 2010
 

Tasting Blind Is Not Just for Critics

 
Do you as a winemaker hope that wine writers and trade buyers taste your wine blind? Do you want them to base their decisions on what’s in the tasting glass, or do you want them to carry along their prejudices against your AVA, your brand, your price-point or, God forbid, your personality?
 
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Editor's Letter

 
January 2010
 

Keep the Green Message Simple

 

Could it be that the wine industry’s considerable effort to go green and then to communicate this movement to customers has failed? Even worse than that, could the whole thing be on the verge of backfiring and turning wine drinkers off the whole concept?

 
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Editor's Letter

 
December 2009
 

Good News for the Wine Economy

 
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