Water barons move into Napa, and Supreme Court considers wine shipping again

The property now owned by Wonderful. Photo courtesy Visit Napa Valley

According to Mother Jones, the owners of Fiji Water use "more water than every home in Los Angeles combined." Now, after buying a Napa wine brand last year, they are buying up a property right on Silverado Trail. But they won't take possession right away -- showing just how valuable Napa winery buildings are now.

Details in this story for Wine-Searcher. 

Also, your humble correspondent has somehow carved out an extremely infinitesimal niche as the leading journalist on issues relating to wine and the U.S. Supreme Court. Next month the Court will meet in its chambers to discuss whether or not it wants to hear a case on retailers shipping wine from one state to another. Here's the analysis I wrote about that.

By the way, I'm trying to avoid conversations on the Musk site, so if you want to chat with me the way we used to there, I'm tooting like I used to on Mastodon. So check it out.

Have a great holiday season -- and open the best bottles of wine you have in the house! Life expectancy is dropping in the US and you never know. There's no better time to open a great bottle than the present. Stay healthy, and Merry Christmas!

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If you like Chianti Classico, you'll like Chianti Rufina

 

Chianti Rufina makes good wines, the equal of Chianti Classico in quality but with a more rugged, savory character, the product of its cooler, mountainous terrain. But it's not in Chianti Classico, which makes nearly 12 times as many wines per year.

In October I visited the region for the first time to write about its new higher-end classification, TerraElectae. I was impressed by the wines. If you like cool-climate Sangiovese, you'll like these: more red fruit than black; savoriness more than fruitiness; good freshness and structure.

Here's the article I wrote for Wine-Searcher. Cheers.

Follow me on Mastodon: @wblakegray and Instagram @wblakegray and like The Gray Report on Facebook.

Herbicide overkill and a story about Mexican enology

Photo courtesy iStock

Hey friends. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with the unpleasant Musky aroma of Twitter, which I used to frequent both for fun and professionally. I haven't deleted my account, but I don't like giving Musk free content either. 

Until some other social media site pops up to fill the sparrow-sized hole in my day, I'm going to try to fill in at least the professional gap by touting my new stories here. 

Herbicide the Star of New Napa Movie: A new documentary set in Napa examines the omnipresence and danger of Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate. 

Mexican Wine Gets Its First University: Mexican wine country is unique -- a desert close to an ocean. Cooling winds make fine-wine possible, but water is precious. The region really needed a university program in viticulture and enology, and now it finally has one.

Please follow the links to read the stories. See you here again soon!

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