Organic trends, two notable passings (Paul Dolan and Mike Grgich), and a bit of Slow Wine news were among the stories that attracted the most attention this year.
While I have happily been doing much more writing for WineBusiness.com along with Grape and Wine magazine (see my regular site's archive for those), I did find a little time to write more about some specialized topics here.
STORIES ABOUT ORGANICS
This story got 9,000+ page views thanks to the fact that it was picked up by WineBusiness.com and published as a headline in its main site, not just in the blog section. It's also unique since it would appear that nobody besides me pays attention to or compiles organic stats.
• Napa Grows Organic Production: Up 33% From 2020-2022
Napa's organic registrants goes up, up, up. (Later on, I counted it as 14% of the county's planted vineyard acreage.)
FEATURED WINERIES
This story probably got a boost from social from GunBun and maybe the Global Buyers Marketplace. It was a really stellar, heartwarming speech which is, more or less, about why wine matters.
• Meet Napa's Third Largest Organic Vineyard Owner, Jackson Family Wines, and Its Organic Napa Estates
Chris Carpenter achieved his quest to convert to organic farming and certification on the family owned wine company's Napa treasures, including its prestigious mountain estates.
(See my article in Grape and Wine magazine for more on this story.)
• Fancy an Organic Dry Creek Winery? Quivira's For Sale | $24 Million Price Tag
Historic Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc star producer seeks new owners.
I have so much admiration for the Gross family and their wine accomplishments and for being a benchmark for affordable and excellent wines all from a large and expanding biodynamic estate. Well deserved kudos. They've been a great role model for the region.
HISTORIC PASSINGS
• Grgich 100th Birthday Celebration July 1 Brings Out the Fans
Croatian dancers served Croatian style sausages, the local priest officiated, and Chardonnay was downed in celebration of the master winemaker's 100th birthday.
(See my WineBusiness.com story about the winery's grand tasting of his historic wines in his honor here.)
A senior statesman of wine who performed economic miracles for Mendocino County's wine growers and an evangelist for the biodynamic and regenerative farming, Dolan was one of the kindest and most generous men in wine. (And a friend of mine who I ran the International Biodynamic Wine Conference for Demeter with). I also wrote his obit for WineBusiness.com here.
SLOW WINE
• Slow Wine Guide 2023 Book Review on YouTube: 98 Points! Thank You, James the Wine Guy
It was lovely of James to feature our book, the product of so many minds, and the collection of oh so much data. Few people see that the data alone is worth the price of admission, but James did. Thank you!
But of course, the winery profiles, curation of included wineries and wine and winery awards are fabulous. Buy the new 2024 guide here.
• Slow Wine USA Tour: Better Together - American and Italian Wineries Pour at SF Tasting
This week Elin McCoy of Bloomberg published her 50 best affordable wines of the year list (gated content) and called out Italian producers as the place to look for the best values. Many wineries on this annual Slow Wine tour (coming up in early 2024 again in SF and four other US cities) would probably agree.
ROUNDUP HERBICIDE
It's educational, it's illuminating, and it's a hot topic in the wine world today as recent stories in Napa (see my coverage for WineBusiness.com on Napa Green and Napa Valley Grapegrowers) point out. The bad press from court cases has led consumers to ask questions about the herbicide's safety.
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