Oh my, is Christmas here already? That must mean New Year’s is right around the corner. It’s been a fairly good year for the wine industry, even though it was a disaster politically, brought on by party politics and bickering with nobody being right and certainly no problems fixed. Shouldn’t we really “throw the bums out” (including the entire federal and state senates and houses)? I only mention this because it’s true. Politics and fighting bureaucracies are going to have a major impact on grape growers this coming year, and it’s all going to revolve around that precious commodity we take for granted: water.
There’s an alphabet soup list of agencies that are all throwing in their two cents and want a piece of the action. Add to that a private group called the Russian River Watershed Protection Committee, and you end up with a real three-ring circus. The single biggest issue revolves around the river’s flow. It appears that low flows in the summer are more favorable for fish than higher flows. Should I perhaps preface all of this by saying everything revolves around endangered and threatened fish, namely the Chinook salmon? Being a fisherman, I have no problem with this. However, the real shortage isn’t the fish but the knowledge of what’s necessary to restore their habitat. Every agency and scientific body (and I should use those words very loosely, I think) has a different opinion, quite frequently at the opposite ends of the answer spectrum. In a devil’s advocate role, one might ask if we really need to have salmon in the river. Yes, it would be nice, but these salmon like to come into the river in early fall when there’s very little water in the first place. At least the steelhead run waits for adequate water to enter the river where they swim like bullets heading to Dry Creek and the hatchery. I really think government programs revolve around the statement, “Well OK, let’s try this this time.”
I get particularly upset because they want you to put in reservoirs to frost protect existing vineyards. Wonderful idea, you knuckleheads. In the late 1970s until the 1980s, nearly every vineyard we planted in frost-prone areas was planned with a reservoir. Trying to get a permit was impossible “because it would stop the water from getting to the river.” Now they want us to put them in. Fish and Game, local water agencies, the state water agency, National Marine Fisheries Service and several others are all worried about their own little turf and fiefdom. It sounds like local law enforcement agencies, where they all worry about their own territory. Local police, sheriffs, state highway patrol, CIA, FBI and now Homeland Security share about as much information as two dogs with one bone. And we, the grape growers or the general public, pay the price with this total inefficiency. I better quit ranting before I really get in trouble.
Speaking of trouble, I still get a few repercussions from my comments about Mendocino County, but the facts about its ineptitude in trying to become known keep coming. I just reviewed the results of three recent wine competitions: International Women’s Wine Competition, Next Gen Wine Competition and the West Coast Wine Competition. Looking for Mendocino wines winning gold medals was like looking for a needle in a haystack—virtually none except a couple of late harvest sweeties. There were a few silvers and mostly bronze (which is about exciting as kissing your sister).
There are probably at least two ways to look at this: One being that Mendocino wines aren’t up to the quality standards of the rest of the country, or they say they didn’t enter. If the latter is true, then how in the hell do they ever expect anybody to know they even make wine? Maybe they’re afraid to enter and prove we’re right about their lack of quality. Can Concho-y-Toro be their knight in shining armor? Or will they need to keep saying “California” on the label for quality sake? Enough is enough; this is the last of it.
On another front, I just read Chardonnay Chalice by Kathleen Tosh (also known as our very own Liz Thach, who directs SSU’s wine program), and it’s a fun book with a very local setting that you’ll all recognize. (P.S. There’s also a quote from yours truly in it!)
Last, as I try to catch up on things, there are a couple of issues I need to touch on. First is that I still think having breathalyzers available in tasting rooms is a wonderful educational tool for the public but I haven’t seen it happen yet. What are we afraid of? Being proactive is better than paying the price later, and I think we all know that some DUIs will be given as law enforcement agencies are stepping up their efforts. But on the more humorous side is the battle of us oldies vs. the next gen group. We old folks like tasting wine with peace and quiet and seriousness, while the youngsters are out for a good time and the word “quiet” isn’t in their vocabulary. But they spend money, and that’s good. I’m not sure how to solve the problem without two different tasting rooms, but my analogy is it’s similar to the difference between baseball and golf. In baseball, a batter stands in front of a guy throwing a little round thing about 90 mph at his head with 40,000 people yelling and screaming. In golf, a poor little while ball is sitting all by itself waiting to get hit with a club while the golfer must have absolute quiet so he can concentrate (I guess)—or maybe he’s afraid if somebody so much as sneezes, the little white ball will jump up and hit him the head.
By the way, I hear COPIA, the wine industry fiasco, is still for sale. If you want a second one, the same type of fiasco just closed and is for sale in Ithaca, N.Y., for the same reason. Not enough food and art enthusiasts to keep it flying. Will we ever learn that the average person is who we need to get interested in wine? OK, go and unscrew your homework!
