Last week I spent the day in Sonoma County attending several of the preview events of the Sonoma County Barrel Auction that took place May 1. Most of the major AVA associations in Sonoma County held informal tastings at a member winery to showcase the wines being submitted to the trade auction.

Our editor Jim Gordon covered the auction, which raised more than $460,000, and was widely reported as being a success. I enjoyed the chance to get out and chat with winemakers in a casual setting and taste through the auction lots as well as several wines currently available from each winery.

On April 17, growers from the Napa County side of the Carneros AVA held a groundbreaking ceremony at Acacia Vineyard to mark the start of construction on a pipe to carry recycled water to growers throughout the region.

Growers and residents in the Carneros region have had to rely on groundwater unless they’re close enough to tie into the city of Napa’s water system. The recycled water pipeline, which is expected to cost $20 million, will link the Carneros region with Napa’s sewer treatment plant south of the city. The recycled water will be available for irrigation but not drinking. The Los Carneros Water District is managing the water and assessing landowners in the region around $150 to $200 per acre to help pay for the pipeline’s construction.

Every time I start to report or research a trend story, I invariably encounter some industry veteran who scoffs that what seems like a “cool, new trend” is just something that’s come back in fashion.

I hear this quite a bit with concrete tanks, and it’s true that concrete has been used for decades, yet in the past year I’ve visited several new wineries built by owners who had the resources to design and equip wineries exactly as they and their winemaking team wanted. While they all had to work within a budget that budget allowed for them to pick pretty much whatever is currently on the market.

When several of these stunning new wineries feature new concrete tanks, I think that gives credence to the argument that there is a trend that goes beyond just the fickle fads of fashionable winemaking.

 

I recently had the chance to visit the Unti Vineyards tasting room near Healdsburg, Calif., in the Dry Valley AVA. The Unti Barbera was one of the best I tried at the 2014 Barbera Festival and so I made a note to stop by the tasting room whenever I had a chance. My wife I enjoyed a pleasant visit in the simple tasting room sampling through the lineup and chatting about the vineyards.

Santa Rosa, Calif.—The Sonoma County Winegrowers, which used to be the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission until it changed its name a few years ago, held its annual Dollars & Sense symposium and trade show on Jan. 15. This year, the winegrowers arranged to have a keynote address by Doug Bell, the global beverage buyer for Whole Foods

Perhaps not that surprisingly, Bell praised the growers and vintners in the audience for setting the goal to get all of Sonoma County’s vineyards to be certified sustainable within the next five years.