Month: March 2022

In the Drop, Felicity Carter makes a case for drinking Georgian wine right now. “Made here for 8,000 years, wine is deeply interwoven with Georgia’s national identity.Mr. Putin knows this. He’s acutely conscious of the meaning of wine and the value of terroir — especially other people’s,” she writes. “Which gives the rest of us a way to protest his invasion of Ukraine. Every glass and bottle of Georgian wine that we buy right now strikes a psychological blow against the Kremlin.”

“The owners of 57 vineyards in the High Plains say they are trying to prevent a catastrophic ecological ruin of the state’s $13 billion wine industry. They filed a lawsuit last summer against Bayer Crop Science and Monsanto Company (Bayer purchased Monsanto in 2018) and the BASF Corporation, the developers behind a “seed system” that pairs dicamba-tolerant seeds and dicamba herbicides used by cotton farmers in North Texas. The plaintiffs are seeking $560 million in punitive and economic damages.” Aaron Romano reports on the case details in Wine Spectator.

Provi, an ecommerce marketplace for the beverage alcohol industry, yesterday filed a complaint in Federal Court in Illinois against Southern Glazer’s Wines and Spirits (Southern) and Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC), the two largest wine and spirits distributors in the United States.

Alder Yarrow delves into English wine. “For even the most well-informed American wine lovers, English wine has seemingly appeared on the scene almost overnight. Certainly, when I started writing about wine seriously in 2004, it was so far off the radar as to be non-existent. But the modern UK wine industry has a history comparable to that of the American wine industry in post-prohibition times, and a much longer origin story that stretches back nearly two thousand years.”

In Forbes, Liz Thach profiles Anthony Schroth, who makes wine in Jackson Hole, Wyoming (with grapes purchased from West Coast vineyards).

Mike Veseth, the wine economist, says more people should be talking about Abruzzo.

Some staff changes are underway at Wine Enthusiast.

In the Drop, L.M. Archer looks at the next generation of American vintners bringing fresh ideas and innovations to the industry. “Dubbed the rising generation by Professor John Davis, faculty head of family enterprise at MIT Sloan School of Management, this incoming generation of new winery owners expect more influence, leadership, and entrepreneurial opportunities.”

On JancisRobinson.com, Elaine Chukan Brown says that while reds from Napa’s controversial 2020 vintage will be rare, the ones released should be worth considering.

Bourgogne Wines has warned of a tough year ahead, reports the Drinks Business, after transactions fell 34% in the first half of the 2021-22 campaign due to low yields, despite record revenues  2021.

In Wine Spectator, Robert Camuto explores the past and future of Amarones at Bertani.

VinePair chats with NYU’s Karl Storchmann about his work as a wine economist and the trends wine lovers should be paying more attention to.

In the World of Fine Wine, Sarah Marsh MW profiles some of Crémant de Bourgogne’s leading practitioners and their wines.

In Food & Wine, Oset Babür-Winter explores some of the products winemakers make as a side-hustle.

In Vinous, Neal Martin shares a list of wines that shaped his life.