Wine Industry

Just 10 years ago, Washington's wine industry was the darling of agriculture, a growing niche industry with a loyal fan base for its 160 wineries. Today, Washington still can't touch California when it comes to wine production -- and wine grapes are no match for apples as Washington's top crop. But, as of last month, Washington has licensed 602 wineries, marking a nearly 300% increase in just a decade. "It's great news," said Robin Pollard, executive director of the Washington Wine Commission.

LODI, Calif. — With bottles ready for tasting, a group of Lodi wine producers waited anxiously recently for a delegation of monied businesspeople they hoped to impress. The vintners burst into applause when the group finally arrived, more than an hour late. The guests weren't Hollywood moguls or Silicon Valley venture capitalists. They were potential customers and investors from the city of Shenyang in northern China, coming to check out Lodi as a potential source of affordable wine to supply China's rapidly growing market.

Two plants have long been iconic to Northern California: the soaring redwood tree and the lush wine grapevine. But should one be sacrificed for the other? That question is being raised in Sonoma County a few miles from the Pacific and above the fog line, where two large wineries are petitioning the state to allow them to clear 2,000 acres of redwoods and Douglas firs to make room for new Pinot Noir vineyards. Sonoma County planners say it would be the largest woodland-to-vineyard conversion in California's history and, not surprisingly, it's touched off a debate between fans of the majestic trees and aficionados of the grapes.

The Willamette Valley, the historical heart of the Oregon wine industry, was once thought to be too cool for grape growing, and ever since those earliest days, its climate has been its defining feature — wines known for finesse, even when notions of finesse went underappreciated. But critical attitudes are moving away from the "bigger is better" mind set, and the last two vintages, 2010 and 2011, among the coolest climate years on record, are likely to yield some of the valley's most ethereal reds.

Like most U.S. business sectors, the wine business has been transformed by e-commerce. Even if restrictions on interstate shipping have limited that commerce to 38 states, the Internet as a wine marketplace is robust by any measure. In the last four years, a single website, the search engine wine-searcher.com , has done more to transform that commercial landscape than any other, affecting every facet of the way the wine business is conducted, certainly in this country and increasingly on a global scale.

A decade ago, this valley's future looked as unlimited as its vine-studded horizon. New wineries were sprouting almost as fast as vineyards were expanding. The yuppie generation had selected California Chardonnay as its beverage de rigueur. And the wine business talked of Americans adopting the habits of the French, even sipping vin ordinaire with their french fries. But as the 1990 grape harvest begins here, so does an era of reduced expectations. U.S.

Got wine? The wine industry hopes you do, and to stir up demand for its products, it plans a campaign of generic advertising, much as the dairy industry does with milk and cheese. The ads are being developed by Bozell Worldwide, the agency that dreamed up the "milk mustache" ads featuring athletes and other celebrities. "We're taking a humorous approach to attract infrequent wine drinkers," said John Gillespie, president of the Larkspur-based Wine Market Council, which is behind the campaign.

The wine industry Thursday reacted coolly to the Clinton Administration's announcement that Mexico, in a last-minute concession, is willing to negotiate lower tariffs for U.S. exports. "All we have sought is a level playing field," said a Wine Institute spokesman in Washington, "and up to this time NAFTA has not achieved this." The side agreement calls for three months of negotiations with Mexico on the wine tariff issue after NAFTA is ratified. But Wine Institute spokesman Robert P.

Grape growers say the time is not yet ripe for the rebirth of the Kansas wine industry, despite the recent lifting of a tangle of legal restrictions against farm wineries. Although the state's wine industry flourished a century ago and was among the top 10 grape-producing states until Prohibition began in 1920, there were no provisions for farm wineries under modern Kansas law until 1983--a half-century after Prohibition was repealed.

Maynard A. Amerine, a virtual textbook on winemaking and a powerful force in guiding the California wine industry's recovery from Prohibition, has died. He was 86. Amerine, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died Wednesday night at his home in St. Helena in the Napa Valley. He was a founder and later chairman of the department of viticulture and oenology at UC Davis, which became known worldwide as a wine research center.

Nathan L. Chroman, a Beverly Hills attorney and wine enthusiast who wrote an influential weekly column for the Los Angeles Times during the rise of the California wine industry in the 1970s and '80s, has died. He was 83. Chroman, who contracted polio when he was 18, died Friday of post-polio syndrome at his home in Westwood, said his daughter, Lucie Zimmerman. A personal injury lawyer who practiced law for more than 50 years, Chroman developed his interest in wine after picking up a book on the subject in a library while studying for the bar exam in 1957.

At the Lompoc Wine Ghetto, a homely set of corrugated buildings in California's south Central Coast, a handful of Santa Rita Hills winemakers routinely gathers to taste and talk about the wines taking shape in their cellars. Over the last three vintages, the talk has taken on a more earnest tone: For each, the Ghetto has served as a kind of incubator toward the pursuit of Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays that have brighter flavors, leaner textures, invigorating acidity and lower alcohols, the opposite of what has been happening in the region -- and the state -- over the last decade.

A few months before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I read a blog post by an Atlantic Monthly correspondent about Chinese wine. Chinese what? I grew up outside New York City, where I ate hundreds of pounds of lo mein and pork-fried rice but didn't see, taste or hear of Chinese wine. Even when I traveled to China in 2009 and 2010, I saw drinkers mostly tossing back beer and baijiu (Chinese liquor). But Western-style wine is attracting the attention of China'srising middle class.

Robert Lawrence Balzer, a wine critic and educator who wrote an influential column in The Times for three decades during a career that stretched from the post-Prohibition era through the explosion of the California wine industry he championed, has died. He was 99. Balzer, who had also been a wine merchant, an actor, a Buddhist monk and a restaurateur, died of natural causes Dec. 1 in Orange, said his nephew, Rex Shannon. Known for his erudition and flamboyant personality, Balzer wrote a wine column for the newspaper from 1964 to 1995.

Two plants have long been iconic to Northern California: the soaring redwood tree and the lush wine grapevine. But should one be sacrificed for the other? That question is being raised in Sonoma County a few miles from the Pacific and above the fog line, where two large wineries are petitioning the state to allow them to clear 2,000 acres of redwoods and Douglas firs to make room for new Pinot Noir vineyards. Sonoma County planners say it would be the largest woodland-to-vineyard conversion in California's history and, not surprisingly, it's touched off a debate between fans of the majestic trees and aficionados of the grapes.

Jess Jackson, a man who knew how to pick winners, whether they were thoroughbred racehorses or vineyards, died of cancer Thursday at his wine country estate in Geyserville, Calif. He was 81. Jackson was a wine industry visionary who developed the Kendall-Jackson brand, which popularized premium wines for the mass market and helped make the chardonnay varietal a household staple. Friends and business associates described Jackson as a classic entrepreneur who had three distinct, successful careers, first as a San Francisco attorney and then as a skilled wine merchant whose 14,000 acres of wine grapes are among the largest private vineyard holdings in America.

The European Union proposed a major overhaul of the continent's cherished wine industry Thursday, a move meant to ensure the survival of vintners hit hard in recent years by growing competition from Chile, the United States, South Africa and other areas.

A potentially devastating 50% drop in California wine sales is anticipated by officials of the state's industry if Congress enacts legislation to increase federal excise taxes, possibly by as much as 400%, on all wines sold in this country. The bill is being reviewed in the Senate Finance Committee and is sponsored by its chairman, Sen. Bob Packwood, (R-Ore.). Hearings were held last week on the proposal and Packwood is in the process of consulting with fellow committee members on the measure.

This sounds familiar: a national consumer group is fighting to maintain organic standards against industry people who want to weaken them. But when it comes to "organic wine," the well-meaning consumers may actually be discouraging more organic farming. That's because of a quirk in the labeling laws. Currently for a wine to be labeled " USDA Organic" ? a coveted seal of approval for most foods ? it must have no added sulfites. However, most winemakers feel that sulfites are crucial in winemaking ?

For wine aficionados, 1976 was a revolutionary year. Not only were Americans celebrating 200 years of independence, but a little wine contest held in France also ushered in an exciting new era in wine consumption and culture. The Judgment in Paris, the legendary blind taste test, had nine French wine experts choosing Northern California wines over esteemed French vintages. That historic contest helped boost global production and vinuous appreciation. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's exhibition "How Wine Became Modern: Design + Wine 1976 to Now" takes a look at the role of art and design in the transformation of the wine industry over the last three decades.