ProMach’s Post

What were you doing in 1991? For Cornerstone Cellars, Napa Valley, it was the beginning of our story, nestled high above the fog line in the Howell Mountain AVA. After a perchance meeting with Randy Dunn and the opportunity to acquire extra tonnage of Cab grapes, Cornerstone Cellars was born. We recently led a group tasting of our 1990's vintage Howell Mountain Cabernets, hosted by our founder/owner Mike Dragutsky, winemaker Kari Auringer, and one of the original architects of the Howell Mountain AVA, Mike Beatty. The wines all, perhaps not so surprisingly, continued to show character and complexity beyond their maturity. What is the Howell Mountain AVA? Certified in 1983, this region is merely 1,500 acres of vines planted between 1,400 and 2,500 feet above sea level at the northeastern end of the Napa Valley. Soil type is mostly decomposed volcanic ash and red clay, allowing for superior drainage. Although Cabernet is now king for the region, Zinfandel was the most widely planted grape originally.

Save our old vines! The Old Vine Conference is back, stronger than ever, with a renewed focus on addressing vital issues related to old vines, championing their preservation, and highlighting California's pivotal role in global wine history. Discover more about the conference here: https://lnkd.in/gsE5u2ne

🍺 🔍 Talking about beer - but from an institutional research perspective: Johannes Glückler and Yannick Eckhardt presented their work on illicit innovation in the Bavarian beer brewing landscape at the "Geographisches Kolloquium" on Hops, Malt and Water at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. Legally, in Bavaria only the traditional purity-brewing is allowed. However, in the face of the attention on more creative means of brewing (for example when it comes to craft beers), brewers increasingly found themselves restricted by the traditional purity law. In their research, Johannes Glückler and Yannick Eckhardt found that as a consequence, brewers successfully legitimized the counter-institution of naturalness brewing by folding their new norm over the established one in order to prevail with new brewing practices. Thank you for inviting us to the colloquium and for the interesting discussion and exchange, especially to Dr. Frank Zirkel, Dr. Frank Braun, Alfred Greiner, and Robert Scholz. 📄 If you want to read more on illicit innovation and institutional change in the Bavarian brewing landscape, here's the link to the research paper behind the talk: 👉 https://lnkd.in/dPq5r8kn #beer #beerbrewing #institutionalresearch #leisuregeographies #geography #reinheitsgebot

Heading to Napa for fall harvest? Take a look at this guide. https://lnkd.in/gKsvMQgg

Check out my latest article on the current custom crush landscape in the August issue of WineBusiness Monthly! 🍇

A nice range of harvest options due to the acidity - stand alone or blended as either the primary or secondary, it will stand up or complement your wine. Very versatile

Once upon a time, in a land where grapes were crushed not only underfoot but also under the weight of political gallery plays, stood the Trump Winery. A band of vintners finely produced what they claimed was bottled history, each sip promising a taste of a presidential saga. - **The Vintage Tale:** By crafting their Presidential Reserve, it seems this vineyard envisioned to commemorate a White House epic that, at best, stays as debatable as a start-stop TV series renewal. It’s as if Shakespeare decided to pen a sequel after realizing some of Hamlet's scenes needed more drama. - **The Curious Cork:** Yet, one might ponder if this wine wonders about its storytelling heritage. Imagine gathering grapes grown under such weight - they too wield the ambitious title of being a 'special inaugural' just like the starry-eyed musings of yesteryear politicians hoping for a second toast. The existential query whines like an artisanal corkscrew: Does wine really have the power to etch history, or merely get uncorked and poured down the river of forgetful libations? ### As we swirl and sniff: - Should we expect future historians to righteously quote “2020 went too far, but 2024 corrected history—cheers to the Presidential Reserve!” on their citations? - **Drunken Dreams:** Yes, these grapes whisper to mainstream merlot lovers and passionate partisans alike, confiding tales of a vineyard fervently insistent on leaving an indelible mark—or perhaps, at the very least, making a lucrative profit. ### **Toast or Trademark?** - Maybe it’s a robust signal that the crescendo of this narrative is more Swan Song than National Anthem, perhaps heralding an onwards march to more unforeseen chapters—good, bad, and fermented. - **Whiff of Tomorrow:** Is the '45th and 47th' a fleeting flicker in the politically aged barrels or an adventurous dare for another round of happenstance symphony? In embracing the bittersweet and bold nature of this unveiling, let us soberly consider which legacies lie within glass stems clinked in cheers: Is it dialogue or simply dazzling disguise? As time marches with or without fine grape invocations, the vineyard's narrative ambition hinges a call—drinkable memoir or fading political crush? Cheers to whatever comes next! 🍷 ✨ https://lnkd.in/emdgfXDV #PresidentialReserve #TrumpWine #PoliticalVintage #CheersToHistory 🍇🍾

In today's Lodi Wine post on "What is Lodi terroir?"(https://lnkd.in/g35-zu3f), we dive into the primary soils and topographies differentiating each of Lodi's seven nested appellations (i.e., officially recognized American Viticultural Areas). #lodiwine #lodiwinecountry #terroir #loditerroir

Most wineries start to tune me out when I talk about actually REMOVING subscribers from their email list... So good for you for reading this caption! Keeping unengaged subscribers on your list can hurt your sender reputation and make it so your REAL fans don't get your emails in their primary inbox. What should you do? CLEAN YOUR LIST! I'll show you how here: https://lnkd.in/g8aUqgrf :: :: #listcleanup #emaillistmanagement #emailmarketingforwineries #listchurn #sellmorewineonline #unengagedsubscribers

What makes certain grapes come in ahead of others? Chris Kenefick, owner and CEO of Kenefick Ranch Winery, gives a little insight into this in our latest #Harvest2024 update. Since all grape vines are in the ground and don’t get planted each spring (like tomatoes, for example), the grapes themselves follow their natural growth cycle each year. And, like the humans who tend them, some are early and some are late. Whites always tend to ripen first and then reds follow, but there are differences within the grape color. As Chris points out, Malbec comes in before Cabernet. Pinot comes in before all of them. This is just one of the many elements that the grape growers and winemakers of #NapaValley have to plan for! Follow along and catch up on the entire #2024vintage at harvestnapa.com.