April, 26, 2017 Wasps and wine: paper wasps found to contribute to scourge of wine industry

(Scienceblog) - Come harvest season, wine makers have grown accustomed to looking for the telltale signs of a common but devastating threat: black mold and spores combined with a distinct acidic smell. These symptoms are associated with grape sour rot disease, an incurable condition involving the d...

April, 26, 2017 Are Single-Site Expressions the Future, or just a Fad?

(Winemag) - Is Chardonnay "cool" again? Was Jura just a fad? Is natural wine the future? In the fickle world of wine, what trends matter and what is just noise? The worlds of fashion and wine have a lot in common. Ownerships are intertwined, similar descriptors are used and both undergo constant...

April, 26, 2017 Silver Oak Flexes Muscles with Ovid Purchase

(Wine-Searcher) - A $50 million Napa winery sale was negotiated around the kitchen table, W. Blake Gray reports. What does it mean, when one of Napa Valley's most popular wineries buys one of its most exclusive? It seems like an odd fit:  Silver Oak , which makes 100,00...

April, 26, 2017 ANTI ‘TEXA-FORNIAN’ WINE BILL CAUSES CONTROVERSY

(TDB) - A proposed bill aims to stop the practice of using Californian grapes to make Texan wine, a move producers fear will increase costs. House Bill 1514 states “A wine is entitled to an appellation of origin indicating the wine’s origin is this state or a geographical subdiv...

April, 26, 2017 Sonoma, Napa grape growers learn the latest on fighting powdery mildew

(PD) - One of the biggest threats to vineyards local grape growers face is powdery mildew, a fungus that can ruin their crop if left unchecked. But spraying can be problematic, so the more than 200 vineyard owners and managers who attended the annual Sustainable Winegrowing Day at Forestvil...

April, 26, 2017 Napa County says groundwater picture continues to be good

(NVR) - Napa Valley’s annual groundwater checkup yielded the verdict that the water table in the world-famous grapegrowing region is “generally very shallow” and that the basin is “full.” There are problem spots, such as the Petra Drive area northeast of the...

April, 26, 2017 Frost leaves vines ‘looking like dried tobacco’

(Decanter) - Winemakers across France and also parts of Germany, Italy and Switzerland are counting the cost of frost damage in their vineyards after several nights that felt more like January than late April. Winemakers lament ‘black Thursday’ Patchy but serious&...

April, 26, 2017 Wine Salt Exists So You Can Sprinkle It On Everything

(Forbes) - The two greatest food groups: Wine and anything salty. And now the two have meshed in extraordinary purple crystals to form a singular super food you can sprinkle on everything from blocks of cheese to braised beef to pasta to berries. Jacobsen  Salt Co. (harvested from Orego...