LA PLUS CA CHANGE/ GOES TO SHOW YOU NEVER CAN TELL ORGANOLEPTICIANS #94 MARCH 2, 2018 Even without climate change, farming is a crapshoot. Eventually something goes awry: a frost right after bloom, a tractor axle gives out, ground squirrels girdle vine roots, virulent microbes, wildfire… Locusts! Zombies! Still, somehow, every year, grapes get picked, […]
LIKE A COMPLETE UNKNOWN – April 16, 2013
Organolepticians Number 87 How does it feel? You’ve spent close to half your life in the wine business, and established yourself as a vintner in California, working with some grape varieties almost no one else in the neighborhood has heard of, and it works, in its way; you’ve begun to carve out what will become […]
AS TIME GOES BY- March 8, 2011
Organolepticians Number 85 After a certain number of vintages, keeping track of them all becomes more and more difficult. But don’t ask me what that number is, I’ve long since lost track. I liked 2010 a lot, mostly, though it wasn’t without problems (which I’ll get to momentarily). In 2010 conditions were, generally, cool enough, […]