• How do you quench your thirst for good wine when your wallet is near empty? This guide will help you get the biggest vine for your buck.
• The number of U.S. wineries is growing as newbies like Blue Door and Escondido Sunrise get into the business.
• This week's Produce Picks include Washington asparagus and Packham pears from Argentina.
• Hmm ... Can you have clam chowder without clams?
• The Union-Tribune takes a peek at new notable products from spicy chicken sandwiches to low-fat ice cream.
• Recipe: Scrumptious Coffee Cake, Brownie Cookies, an Infamous Wedding Green Sauce, Cranberry Oatmeal Chews, Fire-Roasted Tomatoes and Chicken over Ziti

Wine sales in France are on the decline, and that has several wineries turning to other ways to use their crops, such as grape-based sodas and beers, according to a recent Times article. The Times' Adam Sage reported on several such products unveiled at last week's International Food Fair in Paris. While one of the new products, Le Soda de la Vigne, is alcohol free, other new grape-based products like Ensô are more akin to beer, and others are simply wines with lower alcohol contents. These are aimed at "drinkers who have grown more health conscious and in some cases more wary of France's tougher drink-driving laws," The Times reported.

Yesterday, NPR's All Things Considered featured a story about how current restrictions on flying with liquids is affecting Napa Valley tourists and wineries. Obviously, it's common to bring some wine back from the wineries you visit, but not being able to carry those bottles on-board a plane is posing a problem that has many wineries worried. The situation is especially troubling to small wineries that rely on sales directly to visitors, as opposed to distributors. Checking glass of any kind in one's luggage is a scary prospect, of course. So, some wineries are offering styrofoam wine carriers that they hope will protect checked wine. Others are offering free shipping on large enough purchases. The styrofoam box pictured here comes from Uline Shipping Supplies.

Three old-school wineries in the Russian River Valley, Rochioli Vineyards & Winery, Williams Selyem Winery and Gary Farrell Vineyards & Winery, show the rest how Pinot Noir is done.

In keeping with the theme, the Wine Selection of the Week is Pinot Noir, these 38 bottles from the Santa Lucia Highlands. The highest rated bottles of the group were 2005 Hayman & Hill Reserve Selection No. 41 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir ($14) and 2004 Miner Rosella's Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir ($50), both which received three out of four stars (***).

A recipe for Spiced Lamb Kebabs pairs well with Pinot Noir, and the Cheese of the Week is Chevrot, a traditional goat cheese from France.

According to Chuck McMinn of Vineyard 29, his winery in Napa Valley, high tech wine is better.

Chuck is one of many "Silicon Valley refugees," who, after success in technology, leave Silicon Valley and pursue a second career in making wine. However, rather than technology behind, this new breed of winemakers is taking the technology right along with them. They use all kinds of high-tech gadgetry in the wine-making process - everything from moisture probes monitoring water use to weather stations to sap-flow sensors to Tanknet, a system that manages software at 80 vineyards. Tanknet links thermostats on the tanks to Web-based software to regulate fermentation and aging.

The question is, how does this high-tech wine match up against, say, French wines, which have been made for hundreds of years without so much as irrigation? Some experts believe that high tech is the future of wine, but you be the judge. Here are three they recommend you try: Clos De La Tech (www.closdelatech.com), Clos LaChance (www.closlachance.com), and the aforementioned Vineyard 29 (www.vineyard29.com).

If you've got millions of dollars, you could probably buy a winery somewhere in the south of France to make wine yourself. But then again, you've got to not only know about wine, but how to make wine. Come to think of it, you're probably going to need to grow some grapes, too.  

If that's a problem for you, then you can buy a $1,999 WinePod from ProVina instead. The WinePod is a complete state-of-the-art winery all rolled up into a tiny four-foot-tall pod that fits inside your home. You don't even have to hide it in your garage because it's not ugly. If you're into the Jetsons, that is.

The San Francisco Chronicle has some details about how the WinePod works, from ordering grapes all the way to bottling. If you want one, you have to act fast. There's already a waiting list.

One of the reasons I miss the Bay Area is the San Francisco Chronicle. Now don't get me wrong, I love the Los Angeles Times and a couple of the writers in the weekly food section are ones I look forward to. However, the San Francisco Chronicle dedicates a whole section to wine on Thursdays (and the fact that there is no need to "register" right away).

As we've already posted, the Chronicle pays homage to the wines of New Zealand this week, but their list of 36 recommendations from the 52 wines that they tasted deserves to be singled out. They're all Sauvignon Blanc, which is what New Zealand is famous for.

• Highest ranked of their list, rated three and a half stars (***½) to 2005 Framingham Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($17), 2005 Matua Valley Paretai Estate Series Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($17), and 2005 Sauvignon Republic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($18). 2005. That was a very good year.
• Three stars (***) out of four awarded to 2005 Forrest Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($16).
• Two and half stars (**½) for just about everyone else.

  Aw, they didn't even mention my favorite Monkey.

   

If you've got 35 million euros (that's $42.6 million), then according to Decanter, you could buy the St. Emilion grand cru classe Chateau Soutard. Dating back to the 1700s, it is one of the oldest wineries in the region.

The family that has owned and run the winery since 1836, des Ligneris, has decided to sell it, but has not given specific reasons as to why. However, decanter does note that director Francois de Ligneris is very traditional in his appraoch to wine-making, is deeply opposed to the St. Emilion syndicat, and the INAO.

[via Luxist]

Today was the first day that three new Viticultural areas, or wine regions, in Washington (Wahluke Slope), Texas (Texoma) and California, can be noted on wine labels. NPR has a nice piece on how this happened in Ramona Valley, near San Diego, Calif. In order to be designated as its own appellation, a region must prove that it has unique topography and climate; that there is some history of the area being called, in this case, "Ramona Valley"; and that wine grapes can, and are, being grown there.

Ramona Valley is distinct thanks to its position about 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and about 20 miles from the desert. It cools off quickly during the evening, but the days provide long hours of warmth and good ripening time. Grapes that do well in Ramona Valley, says a winemaker, include Zinfandel, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc.