One of my goals in wine education is to make it less snooty. Wine should not only be enjoyed by a few, rather it should be enjoyed by the masses. There is a constant line in the sand that separates oenophile aficionados and the wine neophyte. I wish this line wasn’t there, but it is…
You’ve heard the saying loads of times… Great wine starts in the vineyard. It is said by so many vintners because it is true. Vine balance is extremely important to producing excellent fruit. There is a concept known as vine balance. It is the balance between the vegetative (green) state and the reproductive (fruit) state…
What’s Your Favorite Wine Varietal? Take a second to think about your favorite wine. Choose a favorite varietal and mentally remind yourself what you liked or disliked about the last few bottles you have tasted. Whether you are conscious about it or not, you have a wine type. Wine regions are classified according to their…
According to wineamerica.org there are [bctt tweet=”more than 350,000,000 gallons of wine produced each year”] and although California produces 90% of US wine, wine is currently being produced in all fifty states. As of October 1, 2014 there were 7,946 wineries in the United States. Although the majority of wine is produced using Vitis vinifera,…
The Butterfly Effect: The scientific theory that a single occurrence, no matter how small, can change the course of the universe forever. As a scientist by education, I believe in this phenomena. Newton’s third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And a less scientific, but sadly often true,…
This is the third and final post discussing Phylloxera’s impact on the wine industry. The first post was all about the biology of Phylloxera, while the second discussed its impact in France and how that led to the introduction of French hybrids in California. This final post will be a brief view into the history…
Phylloxera is a very complex organism and has had a longtime relationship with wine. There are so many aspects of this relationship, I’ve decided to break it up into several blog entries. My first post was about the organism itself – more biological. This second entry will be the history of phylloxera infestation in France and what…
