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Number (in thousands of tons) of California chardonnay that was crushed in 2020, a 16% drop from crop numbers in 2019. Factors that have lowered yields this past year include challenging market conditions, an overall light crop, rejection as a result of smoke taint, and just maybe people are drinking something else occasionally?

What is Aramon Rupestris Ganzin?

A. The name of a heat-tolerant clone of cabernet recently developed at U.C. Davis to help cope with climate warming

B. A rootstock used in the U.S.

C. The name of one of the earliest wine journals originally written in Latin

D. The name of the first grapevine nursery in the U.S., established in upstate New York in the 1700s by French immigrant A.R. Ganzin

Aramon Rupestris Ganzin—better known as AxR—was the notorious rootstock that resultred in billions of dollars of damage in Napa and Sonoma, California, in the 1980s and 90s. The rootstock’s name is a combination of aramon, a grape that belongs to the European species Vitis vinifera, which was crossed with rupestris, a reference to the American grapevine species Vitis rupestris. Ganzin was the man who crossed the two and created the rootstock. Although it was widely recommended in California from the 1950s to the 1980s, AxR1 proved to be susceptible to phylloxera, ushering in a devastating second wave of phylloxera in the state.

Nose Job

The Portuguese company Amorim—the leading supplier of cork stoppers in the world—has just come up with what we hesitate to call an innovation: scratch and sniff closures (yeah, no kidding). Part of the company’s new “Top Series,”… Continue reading

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