
Freshly cleaned oak barrels.
More and more the topic of oak is part of the discussion in the wine world. We thought that it would be a good idea to do a little further exploration in to the topic and share with our readers some of why oak is used in wine and why it is being discussed.
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Bettina Sichel
On a recent trip to Sonoma, we had the opportunity to catch up with Bettina Sichel of Laurel Glen Vineyard. We first wrote about Laurel Glen two years ago, before the devasting fires of 2017. It was great to hear first-hand how Sonoma has recovered from one of the worst wildfires in the region’s history.
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The front gate entrance at Barnett.
There is definitely a difference between the fruit that is grown on the Napa Valley floor versus the fruit that is grown high up in the mountains. We got to taste that difference first-hand when we visited Barnett Vineyards, atop of Spring Mountain, at the northern end of the Mayacamas Range that separates Napa from Sonoma.
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Miljenko “Mike” Grgich [photo courtesy of Grgich.com]
May 24, 1976 is a date forever ingrained in the history of California’s wine industry. No one could have predicted how the outcome of one wine competition in Paris would cause such reverberations across the world. The “Judgement of Paris” not only put Napa Valley on the world wine map, it also marked the arrival of Croatian-born Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, the winemaker behind the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that earned the highest score of the white wines. More than 40 years since that historic tasting, 96-year-old Mike has ensured that his legacy of producing world-class wine continues at Grgich Hills Estate through his daughter Violet (President) and nephew Ivo Jeramaz (Winemaker/VP Vineyards & Production).
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A marijuana plant [source: medicalnewstoday.com]
The growing, using and selling of marijuana and certain related products has become legal in some countries and is being proposed to become legal in many more. Several beverage companies have begun to infuse their products with CBD, an ingredient found in marijuana and hemp. And now, even a few wineries have adopted the practice. We thought it was worth taking a deeper look.
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John Bigelow
Not many people have the courage to leave a successful career to start their own small business, let alone one where they have no experience or background in the industry. But John Bigelow isn’t most people. From the moment you meet him, it is immediately evident that he’s a classic entrepreneur: a dreamer, a thinker, a believer, and most importantly, a doer.
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