In Club Oenologique, Adam Lechmere looks at wine influencers’ rise to prominence and how they’ve shaken up the old guard. “What the new writers and communicators show very clearly is that the traditional audience for “serious” wine writing has been ill-served for years. The new generation is just better and more generous at communicating – because the old generation never had to bother. If you were a wine collector, you didn’t read about wine, you just spoke to your merchant. So wine writers tended to either academic (think Michael Broadbent with his endless red notebooks) or deliberately iconoclastic…”

In the Buyer, Sumita Sarma shares her story of being an “outsider” in the wine world, and suggests ways in which the industry can change to become proud, rather than ashamed, of how diverse and inclusive it is.

In VinePair, Rich Manning considers how February’s massive Texas storm will impact the state’s wine industry.

In Wine Enthusiast, Jamie Goode explains the differences between dry farming and irrigation.

In Wine & Spirits Magazine, Joshua Greene talks with Carla Rzeszewski and Richard Betts about their Barossa Valley wine.

In Vinous, Rebecca Gibb makes the case for New Zealand reds.

On JancisRobinson.com, Max Allen considers what’s ahead for the Australian wine industry now that China has effective banned imports of the country’s wines. Until the ban, China was worth 40% of all exports. (subscription req.)

In Wine Enthusiast, Michelle Williams explores the role soil microbes play in wine. “Success is less about a single farming practice—conventional, sustainable, organic, biodynamic—and more about how it’s implemented. Successful viticulture requires producers to think like nature. To create balance in and around the vineyard promotes a healthy soil biome and produces better fruit.”

More than 20 years in the making, wines under the new Bourgogne Côte d’Or geographic denomination have hit the market. But will another layer of Burgundy add clarity or confusion? Michelle Williams ponders the answer in Wine-Searcher.

In Whetstone Magazine, Nam Cheah explores the history of vineyards in Southern Vietnam. “While the wines can’t compare to those from Napa and Tuscany, the country’s history from the French occupation era combined with its own Vietnamese grape beverage heritage lends a unique flair to the Vietnamese wine.”

Nearly 70% of Sonoma County’s estimated agricultural and production workers have already been vaccinated. “…the program has already vaccinated and scheduled vaccination appointments for more than 8,300 essential workers from Sonoma County’s agriculture, vineyard, food, and winery sectors.”

Grape Collective shares the results of a study on women’s ownership of wineries in California.

In the Drinks Business, a look at the relationship between yeast and the production of flavors and aromas in sake and other alcoholic beverages.

In Wine Spectator, Robert Camuto meets Antonio Caggiano, a southern Italian wine icon and “Taurasi’s Renaissance man.”

“It may seem paradoxical to think of Greece as an emerging wine producer, considering the ancient lineage of its grape vines and wine production. But in the global marketplace of fine wines, that’s exactly how Greece should be seen.” Eric Asimov explores Greek reds in the New York Times.

Jancis Robinson considers how attitudes to oak have changed. “Oak has been by far the material of choice for wine barrels. Being watertight, supple but hard, oak has a natural affinity for wine… Around the turn of the last century, however, consumers fell out of love with overtly oaky wines.”

Online wine sales continue to grow, but can they—or should they—replace local shops? In the Washington Post, Dave McIntyre looks at how the pandemic has affected brick-and-mortar wine shops.

In Wine-Searcher, W. Blake Gray shares a few observations from a recent symposium at WineFuture 2021 about how the luxury wine business is adapting to the pandemic—online—and how many of those adaptations may be permanent.

In Wine Spectator, Suzanne Mustacich reports on how Bordeaux winemakers are utilizing the region’s new permitted grapes.

In Wine Enthusiast, Chasity Cooper highlights female entrepreneurs creating digital communities with wine.

Jill Barth explores Meritage wines, the name used by some wineries for their New World blends made with Bordeaux varieties, in Forbes.