Sonoma beats Napa in cult Cab comparative
Napa may not be California's best place for "cult" Cabernet, after Sonoma came out on top at a comparative tasting in London last week. On Tuesday 6 October, Barbara Banke, chairman of Jackson Family Wines, oversaw the UK launch of the 2012 vintage of Vérité, the...
Craft beer’s big dilemma: Hold out or sell out
You'd be hard-pressed to find a more divisive issue in the craft beer community than Big Beer's shopping spree for small brewers. Dick Cantwell, a co-founder and former head brewer of Elysian Brewing, never wanted to sell his company. Founded in 1996 during a peak...
Australian Chardonnay
The other day I met the splendidly named Brice de la Morandière, who has taken over at the helm of the world-famous Domaine Leflaive in Puligny-Montrachet. We discussed China, where he once ran a multinational hydraulics company, the London wine merchant where his son...
Italy beats France to become world largest wine producer
Italy has surpassed France to take to crown of world largest wine producer in 2015, according to European Union data. This year's benign weather conditions have resulted in an abundant grape harvest across the Mediterranean peninsula, as opposed to that reaped on the...
Brewers toast tax feud’s end
Key players in the U.S. alcohol industry are coalescing behind tax reform legislation that could end a long-running dispute between beer industry titans such as Miller and Bud and rising craft brewers like Dogfish Head and DC Brau. The Craft Beverage Modernization and...
California wine industry expected to benefit from Trans-Pacific Partnership
The North Coast wine industry likely stands to benefit from a trade pact that was reached early Monday by the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries writing new commerce rules for nearly 40 percent of the world's gross domestic product. The pact, known as...
California: New law gives more freedom to California alcohol producers on social media
Distilleries, wineries and breweries in California will now be able to speak a little more freely on their social media channels. On Friday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 780, authored by Assembly Member Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara), which will allow...
Chinon, a Red With Attitude
No subject at Wine School has provoked more interesting conversation than Chinon, a red wine from the Loire Valley of France based on the cabernet franc grape. The questions raised go directly to the mysteries that make wine so enchanting, yet can also make it seem so...
Eco-beer is hoppin’
Here is a question you've probably never heard from behind the bar: "Excuse me, bartender? Exactly how water-efficient IS that double IPA on tap?" While I personally ask that two or three times each week, I realize it usually isn't a top concern for most beer...