Gyropalette

Also called a girasol, Spanish for “sunflower,” gyropalette is a piece of equipment used in the production of sparkling wine made by the traditional method (where the second fermentation takes place in the bottle) like Champagne. To remove the yeast sediment (lees) left in the bottle, riddling (aka remuage) is performed. This machine automates the riddling process for bottles.

In 1930s New York, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia took on the mafia by banning what food product?

A. Tomatoes

B. Pasta

C. Grapes

D. Artichokes

The U.S. Artichoke industry emerged around 1900 in California, and much of the crop was shipped east, where Italian Americans paid handsomely for the edible thistles. At first, mafia families used their control of rail-line entry points into New York to impose an informal import tax on artichoke shipments. But later, they began intimidating growers into limiting crop sizes and selling at deflated prices. By 1935, the Sicilian American mafia had controlled the American artichoke market (worth about $12.5 million in 2020 dollars) for at least two decades. Mayor LaGuardia had campaigned for office on a promise to take on the mob, and had a penchant for drama. On December 21, 1935, surrounded by horn-blowing policemen, he hopped onto the back of a vegetable truck at the Bronx Terminal Market to denounce the mafia’s tactics and embargo the artichokes.

“When a cabernet sauvignon is unbalanced, it’s cassis poured into vodka.”

—Pam Starr
Co-owner/winemaker Crocker & Starr, Napa Valley

Gyropalette

Get WineSpeed