"winery" news and stories

I was in Napa a few weeks ago for the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers, and had the opportunity to visit Tres Sabores Winery on my way out of town. (I won a fellowship to the symposium, and Tres Sabores was the sponsor. One of the reasons the judges matched me with that particular winery is that I write a lot about green issues, and Tres Sabores is a sustainable winery.)

At the Tres Sabores ranch, I toured the property with owner Julie Johnson and one of her sweet dogs, who acted as if she owned the place. Turns out, she does. She and Julie's two other dogs have been featured in the U.S. Wine Dogs book, one in a series taken all over the world by Australian photojournalists Craig McGill and Sue Elliot.

To date, they've got two U.S. editions, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, and the Australian Deluxe edition. It seems they've tapped into something: wherever there's a winery, there's a dog (or two or three).

If you love dogs and wine, this book is a winning combination.

Have you ever wanted something so badly you could just...taste it? In my case, the tasting won't be possible, I'm afraid. You've probably heard of those swanky little boutique wineries in the Napa Valley that have such exclusive mailing lists that there's a waiting list to get on the waiting list? Some cult Cabernets like Screaming Eagle and Harlan Estate fetch thousands at auction, and people buy them just because they can.

Enter Cayuse, Walla Walla's most disarmingly exclusive winery. Owner Christophe Baron didn't set out to make a cult wine; he just happens to be a fabulous winemaker with great viticultural principles who stumbled upon an excellent piece of land in Walla Walla, which used to be home to fields of sweet onions and now is surrounded by vineyards.

Baron farms his vineyards biodynamically, which is basically a step beyond organic: it's not just avoiding chemicals and fungicides, but proactively keeping the plants and soil healthy and in cycle with each other and the cosmos. (Yeah, it sounds a little wacky, but you should taste the wine. Biodynamic wine is truly alive in the glass, as one winemaker described it.)

Alas, the Cayuse wines are just too good for their own good. A sign on the door of the downtown tasting room says they're open "a few days a year"--with those days unspecified, of course, and possibly never even to be. My dad, who lives in Walla Walla during the summers and has developed quite the wine palate, tried to get on the Cayuse mailing list. He got a letter back saying he was accepted for the waiting list, but with Cayuse getting wine scores in the mid- to high-90s and everyone from investors to fanatics panting to get ahold of the wine, I advised him to adopt a burgeoning winery elsewhere.

If you're an eternal optimist, go ahead and sign up for the waiting list to the mailing list. Or head to Walla Walla on some odd day--maybe the tasting room will be open after all.

If you've ever run a race - or missed a meal - you know the name "Clif Bar." Packed with protein and carbs, these pocket-sized portions can get you through a tough race or a long meeting.

Between energy bars, sports gel, and even kids' granola bars, the Clif family has sure made a name for itself. So now that they've conquered the sports food arena, why not go for something a little more...laid-back?

Clif Bar's owners, Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, fueled by motivation, entrepreneurial spirit, and probably a few bites of Maple Nut-flavored Clif bar, are now pouring their energy into wine. The Clif Bar Family Winery focuses on sustainably-farmed and organic grapes, and the collection includes a white and red both named "The Climber," as well as a zinfandel, a syrah, and others.

Energy bar to wine might not be the most obvious transition, but since they opened up shop in 2004, things seem to be going just swimmingly for the Clif Bar family.

Ernest Gallo, co-founder of the E. & J. Gallo Winery empire, passed away peacefully on Tuesday at his home in California, two weeks shy of his 98th birthday.

As children, the family lived in Modesto, California where Ernest and his brother Julio worked in the family vineyard. In 1933, after the tragic death of their parents and at the end of prohibition, the two brothers founded the company as we know it today with $5900 in borrowed money and a recipe for wine from the Public Library. They sold their first bottles at 50 cents a gallon, just half of the going price at the time, and reportedly made $30,000 in their first year of sales.

At one point they became the largest wine company by volume, though that title now belongs to Constellation Brands of New York. Gallo still holds strong in second place though - generating, according to their website, sales of more than 75 million cases under 40 different labels.

Ernest was predeceased by his brother and co-founder of E. & J. Winery, Julio, who passed away in 1993.

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