Interesting article by JonBonne in Punch today:
Bonne/Future of Calif Wine
crying alligator tears over the sale of Calera to Duckhorn and all gloom & doom over the future of the Calif wine biz as consolidation continues apace. It was well-known that Calera was one of his faves & I can see why Jon is crying in his beer over that.
But his gloom & doom since a bit premature to me. In the article, he then goes on to cite some of the newcomers (MarthaStoumen/Matthiassian/Massican/Forlorn-Hope/Cruse/Bedrock/etc) that are doing innovative things and make, for me, one of the most exciting periods in the history of Calif wine. He decries the failure of Calif to be the font of innovation that he sees now in France. Really?? France?? Probably the stodgiest wine scene in the World.

He cites the cost of land for new folks entering the business as one of the big hurdles for newcomers wanting to do exciting/innovative things. Hmmm...hasn't seemed to hold back MarthaStoumen/Faith Armstrong-Foster/BryanHarrington and quite a few others.

So...I ain't buying Jon's scenario of gloom&doom. There's a lot of exciting things going on in Calif. When I look at the things BryanHarrington is doing...I can hardly wait for his next release. NerelloMascalese? I'm already promised the first btl of that (now don't let me down, Bryan!!). We had last night my first Sansigot. I can hardly wait until some hare-brained vintner brings that one in.
Tom


Edited by TomHill (09-14-2017 10:08:49)