by Jeff Miller
This week’s installment of Good Reads Wednesday:
Grapegrowers Fight Apple Moth
An update on the status of the fight against the Light Brown Apple Moth, discussed in my posting at http://artisanfamilyofwines.com/blog/?p=69. I don’t think anyone really knows how serious this infestation is, or to what extent it can be controlled.
So it begins…
Winesooth.com
http://www.redwinebuzz.com/winesooth/2009/08/03/so-it-begins/#more-3069
I wrote recently that bloggers should expand their horizons and learn more about grapegrowing and winemaking. Arthur aka The Wine Sooth is doing precisely that, planting his own small vineyard in Los Angeles. This is his first installment on the endeavor. The old Chinese saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Actually running a vineyard, no matter how small, is going to teach you a lot more about grapegrowing than talking to a 1,000 vineyardists and vintners. I played a supporting role in all this, as did Sam Caselli at Novavines, one of California’s foremost grapevine nurseries. This post will enlighten the uninitiated to how difficult vineyard work can be.
Wine Label Controversies - The More Things Change
…The More They Stay The Same
Michael Homula
Pulling the Cork
http://www.pullingthecork.com/2009/08/wine-label-pornography-or-not.html
An interesting read on several of the labels of the past that generated controversy. The Cycle’s Gladiator label controversy in Alabama isn’t the first of its kind.
A wine taboo exposed
By Ed Schwartz
Out of My Mind
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2009/08/07/wine/doc4a7bbb2218f25602876631.txt
This article explores the joys of wine over ice and other wine heresies. While I can’t testify to any of the other recommendations, I routinely use ice with wine, particularly when the wine hasn’t been cooled to proper serving temperature. See my post at http://artisanfamilyofwines.com/blog/?p=319. I’m always happy when someone challenges the stultifying orthodoxy of wine drinking. We should all lighten up, and do what we enjoy, not what some league of self-appointed wine gurus tell us we’re supposed to do.
Film Review: Julie & Julia
Bob Ecker
Interesting, if not terribly complimentary, review of the new movie based on the life of Julia Childs and her latter-day imitator. For those of us here in Napa, who enjoyed the now defunct Julia Childs restaurant at Copia, the subject of Childs continues to be poignant.
Q: Is a winery’s most expensive wine always its best?
Steve Heimoff
http://www.steveheimoff.com/index.php/2009/08/07/q-is-a-winerys-most-expensive-wine-always-its-best/
Most interesting in this article is the recognition that different people judge wine based upon their own individual preferences.
One thing I’d like to see is a summary of the extent to which LBAM has been demonstrated to affect grape and other crops in California.
I know it comes with a fierce reputation but its been in California for two or three years now and as far as I can tell, the major hits to the crops (especially in 2008) came from vagaries of climate and not the moth’s larvae rolling leaves in crop plants.