Topics in California Wines

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  The Californian Winemaking Couple That Made Regenerative Agriculture Cool

  While their avant-garde approach and firm dedication to organic practices have sometimes left them as outliers in the Napa Valley, there’s no doubting the deeply important impact Jill and Steve Matthiasson have had on wine
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  This California wine paradise all but vanished. Now there’s a quest to revive it

  RANCHO CUCAMONGA, San Bernardino County — Angela Osborne couldn’t find the vineyard she was searching for. The winemaker had heard about Hofer Ranch, one of the last holdouts of the wine scene in the Cucamonga Valley — a region about 40 miles east of Los Angeles that had once been blanketed in grapes but whose vineyards had all but disappeared.
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  Why winemakers are landing on Moon Mountain

  California’s Moon Mountain AVA may be part of Sonoma County, but its gravitational pull comes from Napa Valley and it’s on the ascent, writes Roger Morris.
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  The Opportunities and Challenges of Making Wine in Volcanic Soil

  From Etna to the Canary Islands, volcanic wines have garnered a lot of attention in recent years. But what distinguishes volcanic soil, and how does it impact a resulting wine?
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  Wine Region of Lake County Sees Success Rooted in Warm Hospitality, Innovation, and a Varietal that has Growing Market Share

  Perhaps unbeknownst to some, Lake County’s wine scene is bucking trends with the growth of its flagship varieties—Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon—its authentic and warm “come as you are” attitude that draws visitors from both Napa and Sacramento regions, and its pioneering and collaborative spirit among vintners.
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  Capstone California Takes Root Across Europe

  From Poland to Germany to the Netherlands, Capstone Masterclasses brought the story of California wine to life for engaged audiences across Europe – highlighting regional diversity, sustainability, and a new generation of wine ambassadors.
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  Capstone Alumni at Rheingau Festival

  Capstone Level 3 graduates proudly represented California Wines at the prestigious Rheingau Gourmet & Wine Festival in Germany, presenting standout selections from five iconic regions. The event highlighted the expertise and global reach of our alumni network.
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  Mike Waller on Josh Jensen & the quality of Calera's Californian wines

  It is nearly 20 years since Mike Waller first started to work with the late Josh Jensen and what has become the iconic Calera estate in California’s Central Coast wine region. Here he explains what it was like to work with the legendary Jensen and what he has taken from him to continue to make wines in the same consistent style that are now some of the most coveted Californian wines around the world.
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  New Wine Market Council Studies Dive into Consumer Preference on Greener Wines

  Do eco-friendly wine certifications matter to consumers? And how accurate are consumers’ perceptions of various eco-wine categories when it comes to understanding what eco-wine labels mean?
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  Sommeliers Are Using Their Wine Menus to Rally for Greener Drinking Practices

  While sustainability is easy to imagine in a vineyard—visions of sheep grazing on green vineyards and fields of cover crops come to mind—it’s a tougher concept to grasp in the restaurant space. Is it a wine list padded with biodynamic and regenerative bottles? Cork recycling efforts? A staunch ban on plastic straws?
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  Cultivating Togetherness: In Conversation With Honore Comfort

  In this insightful interview from Areni Global, part of their New Consumers, New Narratives series, Honore Comfort, Vice President of International Marketing at the Wine Institute in California, shares her thoughts on creating meaningful connections in wine with the younger generation.
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  The Tectonic Shift That Changed California Wine

  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.
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  California 2024 Winegrape Harvest Begins Early and Delivers High Quality

  Plentiful winter rainfall and warm summer temperatures set the stage for a memorable vintage across the state
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  California in 2024: Sustainability, New Wines and Old Vines

  Go big or go home. This is the “America” portrayed in our media. Risk-takers, visionaries, scrappy dreamers building empires, unabashed displays of prosperity. Big houses, big cars, big companies, big wines… Does the stereotype still hold true for California wine in 2024?
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  Behind the Wines with Elaine Chukan Brown | Oz Clarke and Richard Siddle

  In this episode focused on regional comparisons of California and the world, Wine writer + expert Elaine Chukan Brown speaks with Oz Clarke, wine writer, presenter, and broadcaster and Richard Siddle, business and media consultant and editor at The Buyer. What’s the current state of California wine in the UK? How have perceptions changed in recent years? Elaine, Oz, and Richard take a look at California wine from the outside in, focusing specifically on perspectives from one of the world’s largest wine markets.
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  California, State of the State

  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.
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  Evan Goldstein MS Recommends the UC Davis Wine Writers' Collection

  Have you ever wondered how we arrived where we have, wine-wise, in California? And yes, while I am old enough to have experienced first-hand considerable amounts of what set the table from the last 1960s on, I am also aware that I do not know every key happening nor all the critical individuals whose pioneering courage, leadership and yes, at times chutzpah, helped shape what we so frequently take for granted today.