318

Cost per pound for vanilla pods, up from $18 just seven years ago, according to Aust & Hachmann Canada, a Montreal-based vanilla importing company. Vanilla pods are now more expensive than silver due to crop-ruining cyclones in Madagascar, supplier of 70% of the world’s vanilla. Your Häagan-Dazs just got way more expensive.

What is Pierce’s Disease?

A. A fungus that attacks any green part of the plant and damages the vine's shoots

B. A bacterial disease which is spread by an insect called a sharpshooter

C. A wilting of the vine caused by grape moths who feast on the leaves

D. A black rot which spreads after poorly handled vineyard equipment pierces the vine trunk

Pierce’s Disease, one of the most feared vine diseases, originated in the Americas and was initially called “Anaheim Disease” because it was first recognized in the southern California town of Anaheim in 1892. The sharpshooter is a leaf-hopping insect which transmits the disease while sucking out the fluid from a vine. Making sharpshooters particularly threatening are their ability to fly up to a quarter of a mile, survive cold winter temperatures, quickly build immunity to pesticides, and their tendency to appear in great numbers when they arrive.

“The golden liqueur of Tokay
While caressing the fibers of the brain,
Carries a fire that breathes witticism
As brilliant as the liqueur is light.”

—Voltaire (1694-1778), referring to Tokaji Aszú, the rare, extraordinary dessert wine from Hungary made with botrytised furmint grapes.

318

Get WineSpeed