Don’t you just love the Bay Area weatherpersons proclaiming ‘massive amounts’ of rain that result in one-half to three-quarter inches? Whoever said that, with all of our wonderful technologies, we should be able to figure out what the weather is going to be?
I read an interesting perspective from the Southern California alfalfa growing area, which is watered with federal Colorado River water. Alfalfa is one of the highest water-using crops we regularly grow, using roughly six acre-feet of water per acre (nearly 2 million gallons). Today, that cheap federal water is being used on alfalfa instead of other (more necessary) crops—or even people. So what’s the big deal? The hay is being sold to Asia for big bucks and hurting our own cattle producers who are just trying to stay alive without pasture, mandating buying “golden hay” or selling their herds. Strange how money talks, isn’t it? I guess all is fair in love and war. And now we’ve added water.
Rather than harp on water problems, recently, I’ve been laid up, rehabbing from a hip replacement and have had a chance to read several interesting articles from around the globe and the challenges facing the wine industry.
From a wine supply viewpoint, a short or very short frost/drought-induced crop in 2014 will not be a real problem overall. Remember the big crops in 2012 and 2013? I hope you didn’t buy all new pickups and tractors with that windfall, ’cause 2014 might need a little help. The bulk market is huge with lots of sound wine available and lots of very full winery tanks. I’m not sure wineries would be broken-hearted with a small crop. I guess it’s time for us drinkers to sit back and wait out Mother Nature.
Meantime, as we slowly begin to pride ourselves on becoming a green industry, unlike the bottled water industry, whose carbon footprint looks like Godzilla and is also an unnecessary product, we now learn that, in Green Oregon, glass recycling is a real problem (California also). Glass placed in recycling containers usually ends up in landfills, where it’s used to aid drainage instead of making new bottles. The reason is that, to be recycled, it needs to be color-sorted, and that’s cost-prohibitive at this point. Help might be on the way with Owens-Illinois planning to open a sorting plant in Portland.
In California and elsewhere, much of the recycled glass comes from single-stream recycling, which results in glass that’s too contaminated to be recycled. Improved sorting techniques will hopefully improve our situation. And here we thought we were being so good recycling all our beautiful wine bottles. Another myth shot to hell for now.
Since I seem to be on a roll with environmental topics, it’s with great interest that I read about a grower getting sued by the government in France for refusing to spray his vines. Because of the sudden appearance of a particularly dangerous disease to vines, the government ruled that all vineyards in the region must be sprayed. It may sound ridiculous, but with all the organic and sustainable farming locally, this same scenario could well be played out here. Let’s say a serious pest suddenly appears in the Russian River Valley and threatens to kill acres of vines. To stop the spread, an insecticide program is mandated through the Agricultural Commissioner’s office: All vineyards must be sprayed. What do you do? Could it happen? Yes. Remember the helicopter spraying in the Santa Clara Valley a few years back?
In ending, I might as well stay on an international kick with a recent Australian fuss over wine shows. In Australia, each state capital hosts an annual wine competition for its state and a national show in Sydney at the end of the season. These shows are meant to highlight the regions’ wine and promote quality. Now, as in America, every Tom, Dick and Harry is sponsoring pseudo-national wine competitions that do nothing but bleed money from the industry. They’re frequently called “second tier” shows and are generally supported by the big wine companies. Oh my God, the Australians have learned another nasty habit from us Americans. Question of the day: When does too many become over-saturation? This sounds like a topic for a new day, so I better stop while I’m behind. The beer and spirits people are beginning to overrun us, so you might have to increase your homework in the near future.
