Once upon a time, I was in the restaurant and bar business with locations in Berkeley, Oakland and Fair Oaks, California. Every once in a while, some one from way back will reach out to me through this blog to say how much they miss the old days when wine was plentiful and eating out […]
Category: Commentary
Swiss Vin Nature: The Regulations Have Arrived
After several years of study and debate, the final regulations for “Vin Nature Swiss-style” have been published. What follows is my English translation of the regulations — officially released only in French and German — so please forgive any errors I may have made. I think it’s pretty clean. Upon a quick examination, the Swiss regulations […]
In Wine We Trust: The Valentina Passalacqua Saga
The explosive Valentina Passalacqua saga is a cautionary tale for anyone who would exploit a human being for business advantage. It’s also a deep dive into business accountability, transparency and crisis communication. It may also mark the moment when the wine world begins to worry less about sulfite additions and native yeasts and more about […]
Müller-Thurgau: Then and Now
I would argue that the much-maligned cross of Riesling x Silvaner, better known as Müller-Thurgau, is a dual national. There’s no doubt the variety was born in Germany, but what’s not so well known is that it came of age in Switzerland. It was created by a Swiss scientist, Hermann Müller, at Geisenheim in the […]
The Wine Rivers of Switzerland: The Rhine
If the Alps are “The Water Tower of Europe”, as they’re sometimes known, then the Witenwasserenstock, a mountain peak in central Switzerland, is the spigot. Its pointy summit (header photo) is one of the few triple watersheds in Europe and a feeder for the alpine catchments of the Rhine, Rhône and Po basins. There’s more. […]
Provins Valais: A Cooperative No More
Provins Valais, the largest winery in Switzerland and producer of nearly ten percent of all Swiss wine, is a cooperative no more. After years of financial turmoil — culminating in a messy crop payment fiasco — the ninety-year-old enterprise was recast as a société anonyme (“S.A.”) by an overwhelming vote of its members. The suitor, Fenaco, a highly […]
Swiss Wine: The Grand Cru Confusion Explained
One of the most frustrating (and intriguing) things about researching Swiss wine is the diligence required to gather information across three languages and twenty-six, more-or-less autonomous cantons. The bottom-up system of Swiss government means that each canton retains broad powers to regulate its own affairs. From there, it takes only a little digging to discover […]
Water Into Wine: A Case Study
Water into wine — Jesus got it right, from one comes the other. But the real miracle at that wine-deficient wedding in Galilee was his judicious use of a scarce natural resource: one measure of water for one measure of wine. An enviable ratio in anyone’s book and one that today’s water-conscious winemakers would do well to […]
Opinion: Why I Dislike Brands and Still Champion the Consumer
In Honor of Salvy, a True Wine Warrior Some of us in the wine world tend to look at branded wine with disdain. As a general rule, we don’t approve of focus-groups, big-dollar ad campaigns, laboratory shenanigans or distribution monopolies that crowd out the little guy. We don’t like that brands tend to exploit the […]
