IN A STATE famous for its fault lines, no tectonic shift in California’s recent history had a greater impact on its wine industry than when the lights went dark in restaurants and retail shops around the world at the onset of the pandemic. The lockdown created huge shifts in the global economy and consumer behavior, which presented some unique opportunities as well as challenges.
Written by Jancis Robinson MW.
California wine has played a huge part in my life. The first article I had published in a national newspaper was a report on the French giant Moët-Hennessy’s move into Napa Valley via Domaine Chandon published by The Sunday Times of London in the mid-1970s. A few years later I was to meet my husband of 40 years Nick Lander at a tasting of California wine in the American embassy in London. I organised this tasting, at a time when the dollar-to-pound rate was favourable to UK importers of California wine, and many were jumping on the bandwagon. This was in my role as secretary of the Zinfandel Club, an organisation founded by the likes of my friend and co-author of The World Atlas of Wine Hugh Johnson to introduce British wine lovers to the delights of wine from California, the first non-European wine region to make a serious impact on Europe’s wine lovers.