Delightful, harrowing, entertaining and educational. That’s how I describe today’s experience at the 16th annual Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) Festival media/trade tasting in San Francisco. I couldn’t let the evening pass without offering you a glimpse of my experience via the following vignettes du vin*:
I spit more volume of wine today than I drank […]

Today’s tidbits: U.S. wine consumption trends
Evidence shows that the millenials could be spending more time drinking and IM’ing each other than they are getting outdoors.
(tags: wine consumption consumer trends generations U.S. balance health californiawinehikes.com)

I’ve uncovered some interesting trend data about U.S. wine consumers that goes back a few years, even a few decades. It seems that right about the time I started drinking wine, everybody else did too. Could Robert Mondavi’s evangelizing of the “world class” aspects of Napa Valley’s bottled goodness have had anything to do with […]

StolenID Search: Internet’s Largest Collection of Stolen Data
Is Your Social Security or Credit Card Number Safe? Search more than 2,347,008 compromised numbers.
(tags: id stolen identity safety personal data search)

The Trash Vortex
A Pacific Ocean trash vortex showing the drift of our pollution.
(tags: climate earth education environment garbage pacific reference trash waste)

Portfolio Natural
Nature photography: fine art prints […]

Ryan over at Calwineries passed along a fun tidbit today, and it represents an opportunity for free wine. Not only is the wine free, but it’s a magnum of Fantesca 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa County’s Spring Mountain appellation.
 
Says Ryan:
“For the past three vintages, Fantesca has printed quotes on their wine’s corks called Fortune Corkies. […]

Restaurant patrons can now take home unfinished bottles of wine from restaurants in some US cities. Includes a state-by-state breakdown.
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ZAP! Calling all wine bloggers
Meet me in San Francisco this Saturday at the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) Festival.
(tags: zinfandel wine tasting san francisco zap festival bloggers blogging californiawinehikes.com)

I love Zinfandel, I truly do. Whether fruity and bold or elegant and understated, it’s my favorite grape juice. Hey, I’m a California native, so the math is easy.

I’m therefore eagerly anticipating this coming Saturday, when I’ll be taking CalTrain from Sunnyvale to attend the morning trade and media session of the Zinfandel Advocates and […]

Wine, grape industry pumps $162 billion into U.S. economy each year, study finds
With 935,000 acres of vineyards and grape farms, nearly 5,000 wineries and 1.1 million jobs, the wine-and-grape industry sends an estimated $162 billion rippling through the U.S. economy each year, a consulting firm said.
(tags: wine grape industry U.S. US economy report)

Be My Valentine
To […]

The wine industry is growing at an explosive rate, not only in California, but across the country and in Canada too.
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