Good Vitis Wine Blog

If you're interested in learning (more) about one of America's great wine regions, check out our California Grapes Vol. 1: Santa Lucia Highlands Report. Highly underrated wines: "While the SLH is not simple, it is not particularly complicated either: It is a single hillside making mostly pinot noir and chardonnay. This is no knock. Burgundy makes mostly pinot noir and chardonnay, too, and no one complains because buried within it are a multitude of differences. So, too, with the SLH. The more accurate and appropriate term for both is “complex.” https://lnkd.in/gs_ceaRk

Do humans matter MORE than terroir in wine? Hot take: Yes. Terroir is inherently human. Good wine can come from great grapes and average winemakers. Great wine only comes from great winemakers. We can’t help but manipulate terroir at least a little simply by doing the bare minimum in the winemaking process. And, we should hope for masterful manipulation because that is how we end up with the best wine. A more complete vision of terroir, then, has to include the human element. Read the full argument here: https://lnkd.in/gVDbgnDv #wine #winemaking #winetasting #winebusiness Adam Lee Morét Brealynn Julie Ann Nick Franscioni Mark Pisoni Chimney Rock Winery Elizabeth Vianna

I had conversations yesterday with three people about mortality. No one used that word. The point in each, conversely, was about how we were living. But in each case, death was the operative limiting factor. It got me thinking about the Tim McGraw song "Live Like You Were Dying." The opening of the song is the telling of a conversation between, presumably, McGraw, and someone who found out in their early 40s that they may be dying, and that person answering McGraw's question of how the news "that this might really be the end...hit him?" The answer was "live like you were dying." The first conversation I had was with my parents-in-law, who had recently purchased a home in a 55 community and were moving in. "I think this is our forever home," my mother-in-law told me. She had recounted the four houses she and her husband had bought together. This last one being a bit of a surprise to the rest of us, it was nice to hear the implication that they really like it. But it is also the house that they hope will be their last. They're relatively young, and I anticipate they will get to enjoy it for quite some time. The second conversation came at a wine store. The proprietor and I had worked our way around the shelves talking through our respective preferences, comparing notes and thoughts on wine as we went. I have a preference for long-term wines aged long-term, so in these conversations I'm always talking about vintages and cellaring periods. Picking up on this, the proprietor, appearing in his 60s, told me doesn't buy wine to age anymore. He didn't articulate the reason verbally, but his unhappy smirk and nod gave it away. The third conversation was with one of my longest and closest friends. She and her husband both want to be able to retire early. They are in the process now of drilling into their spending, past and present, and looking at future preferences. The goal is to figure out how much they need to earn before they can afford to live the retirement life they want. I asked her if they'd mapped out what retirement life looked like, and they hadn't fully done that yet. My wife and I are in early discussions about this ourselves, and it's an exercise that's both fun and stressful. This morning, I spent a few minutes looking through our wine collection to identify the next round of wines that should be opened in the next few years. Nearly every bottle has a personal meaning to me or us, so it's like looking through a catalogue of experiences and moments; our wine collection is biographical like a picture album. We've been slowly drinking down our collection since we started this long-term road trip, and restocking is on pause. Yesterday's conversations have me thinking, when it comes time to start restocking for the future, buying wines that won't be opened until we're in our 50s and 60s, what does "live like we were dying" mean? #wine #memories #momentsofjoy #livelife

Posted one of my favorite interviews from the archives: Oregon winemaker Shane Moore (Gran Moraine and Zena Crown) talking about his time making wine in Israel’s Golan Heights. It’s a fun, quick read about a great guy and two great wine regions. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/gy3Euy2a #wine #oregon #israel #golanheights #winemaking #winelife

For all you climate warriors, whether you're firmly in the degrowth camp or looking for pragmatic climate solutions to accompany economic growth, winemaker and regenerative farming advocate Mimi Casteel has some good food for thought. Her diagnosis: "Our #supplychains are stripping us of our humanity, and our #commodity system is destroying the ability to do good things with land." Her treatment: We need to think of soil as a #publicgood. It's radical, it's thought provoking, and it's important to consider the logic even if we never go there. Check out the full interview. #sustainability #regenerativeagriculture #regenerativefarming #winemaking

New Zealand's Kim and Erica Crawford of Kim Crawford fame are making some of the country's most interesting and compelling pinot noir, sauvignon blanc, and pinot gris these days under their Loveblock label. Organic, nearly sulfite free, and a little different than the country's reputation. Check out this interview with Erica, who is one of the most compelling people to connect with in the wine industry. #wine #newzealand #winemaking #winetasting #sustainability

Proving long-form #wine journalism ain't dead, our Winter 2023-2024 issue is live! It features of great content, including a guest feature from Isaac James Baker on Italy’s Südtirol Wein - Vini Alto Adige - Alto Adige Wines. We: -Check in on Erica Crawford's New Zealand Loveblock project and California’s Pinot Power Couple, Adam Lee and Morét Brealynn, and their 2022 releases -Have a controversial conversation with Mimi Casteel about #regenerativefarming and the future of the world -Give a first-hand trip report on Utah Wine Trail's pioneering #wineindustry -Recommend a phenomenal Rosso di Montalcino (from Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino) from #Fuligni -Pull an interview from the archives about Jackson Family Wines' winemaker Shane Moore's time making wine around Israel’s minefields https://lnkd.in/gTum4dtq

New essay: How the alternative meat industry can win over winos cc: Impossible Foods Beyond Meat Daring. #wine #climatesolutions #veganfood #cooking #cuisine

It's time to rethink American wine (we should do better)

Utah Desert Rising: A Very Promising Wine Future The picture is of a vineyard in Hildale, Utah, which is at most a 2 minute walk from the Arizona state line. It was planted about 15 years ago by a group of polygamists and has sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and barbera. The surrounding walls are concrete, fairly tall, and the site is part of a larger industrial park. As you turn into it from the main road, vines are about the last thing you'd expect to see. The winery, Water Canyon, is a natural wine producer in one of the more extreme senses: "zero/zero" as they label it, meaning nothing other than grapes go in, and nothing other than fermented grape juice comes out. Water Canyon is one of six wineries in Utah, all of which are scatter plotted around St. George, one of America's fastest growing cities and a haven for retirees that supplies the customer base for Utah's new and growing wine industry. I very recently spent two days touring four of the wineries, all of whom might be considered "high desert." No vineyard was below 1,000 feet, and several (like the Water Canyon's (industrial) estate), come close to a mile in elevation. The mind-blowing beauty of the area will provide a tailwind to the industry's growth once word gets out beyond the state's boundaries; it's easily America's most naturally stunning wine country. A visit to the Chanela vineyard, planted in 2006 and the state's oldest operating vineyard, took me up an 11 mile, mostly unpaved, uphill road that wound along several canyons and offered a constant and constantly evolving inspiring view. As the nascent industry pursues the official American Viticultural Area designation, the first in Utah, they are dialing in the varietals, clones, and rootstocks that are best suited for their respective plots. Canopies are left to grow to protect from the intense sun, and irrigation allows vineyard managers to control vigor and triangulate brix and acid levels. 2023 was a bumper crop, and the barrel samples I got to to taste show great promise while the finished 2021s and 2022s offer that unique "desert floor" or "canyon wall" minerality that I've only tasted in Utah and Arizona (and love). The industrial estate vineyard's sangiovese continued my love affair with the variety, while another winery poured me some very impressive sauvignon blanc, semillon, and malvasia. Though there's already good wine being made from Utah fruit, there seems to be great potential for improvement. The state's sociocultural dynamics, legal framework, regulator mindset, and access to water are significant limiting factors, but based on my conversations with the industry there is both evidence that things are trending in a more permissive direction and optimism that significant advancements on all fronts are a matter of time and diligent diplomacy. We'll be offering a full report in an upcoming issue, so stay tuned for more. #wine #winemaking #winetasting #utah