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Which California Counties Added the Most Vineyard Acreage in the Past Five Years?

General Interest

Written by Fred Swan

Created on Tuesday, 04 September 2012 05:11

In honor of California Wine Month, I'll be providing a variety of details about the scope of the state's wine industry. Last week, I published California Wine by the Numbers. Today, We'll look at growth in vineyard acreage. Tomorrow, I'll highlight those wine grape varieties seeing the biggest growth.

California’s wine industry is growing not just in sales volume, but also acres under vine. In the past five years, California added 76,651 acres of wine grape vineyards, an increase of 17.5% from 2006. The expansion is broad-based. High-volume growing areas added vines, but so did the highest-quality regions. No county experienced a decrease. The biggest increases in acreage came in counties that already had substantial plantings.

The 12 California Counties which Added the Most Vineyard Acreage, 2007 - 2011

[Only one other county, Merced, added more than 1,000 acres.]

Fast Fact: San Luis Obispo County has nearly 31,000 acres of vineyards. That's almost as much as New York State (approximately 32,000 acres).

As you might expect, counties with the largest percentage growth in vineyard acreage over the past five years are relatively low in plantings overall. Marin County, which is emerging as a very good cool-climate growing region, boosted its vineyard land by nearly 66% but is still well under 200 acres overall. Other small, yet high-quality, growing areas with significant growth are El Dorado and Santa Cruz counties. Surprisingly, Fresno and Monterey counties, among California’s biggest growers of wine grapes, managed to increase their plantings by roughly 25%.

The 14 California Counties which Increased Vineyard Acreage by more than 20%, 2007 - 2011 

The 6 Counties with Zero Growth in Vineyard Acreage

Source: The raw data was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2012 NorCal Wine. All rights reserved.

6 Ways to Re-Use Empty Wine Bottles

General Interest

Written by Fred Swan

Created on Wednesday, 07 July 2010 01:57

Unless the wine you drink comes out of a box, you probably empty a least a few bottles every month. And you probably drop the empties into a recycling bin. That’s a responsible thing to do, though just 28% of glass bottles get that treatment in the U.S. Apparently, most people just throw them away. [The link is to an EPA PDF.]

Not only does recycling keep the bottles out of landfills where they last eons — about one million years in fact — it saves energy. Recycling just ten bottles saves enough energy to run a laptop computer for an hour. [The link is to an EPA Excel spreadsheet that calculates the energy value of recycling various materials.] And for every ton of glass recycled, 1.2 tons of raw materials are conserved.

Of course, recycling consumes energy too. Recycling a bottle requires two-thirds the energy it would take to make a new one. If we can re-purpose a few wine bottles here and there, we can save energy and reduce carbon emissions. We might be able to save a few dollars too. Here are six ways you can re-use your empty wine bottles.

“Tiki” Torches
Add mood lighting to your outdoor parties, and shoo the insects, by turning some wine bottles into oil lamps with industrial chic. The photo below comes from Gerardot & Co. which also has complete instructions for the project. [If you like the blue bottles, you might drink some La Sirena Moscato d’Azul.]

Rolling Pin
The super smooth, non-stick surface of glass is ideal for use as a rolling pin. It works especially well when chilled.

1. Remove the label from an empty Cabernet-style wine bottle by soaking it in water. Make sure to get all of the glue off too.

2. Wash the outside of the bottle thoroughly.

3. Fill the bottle with water.

4. Reseal the bottle with a cork.

5. Put the wine bottle in the refrigerator.

Now you have a smooth, heavy, cold rolling pin, just the thing for rolling out pastry dough. The bottle full of water will help keep the temperature inside your refrigerator stable too, saving a little bit of electricity.

Candelabra
When we were taking a tour of Chateau Lafite Rothschild, we noticed they were using wine bottles as candle holders everywhere. But, the Chateau wasn’t doing it by shoving a candle into the neck of the bottle like some neighborhood spaghetti restaurant might  (though that’s charming in its own way). Things are a bit more formal in Bordeaux. They used inserts to turn empty bottles into full-on candelabras.

When we got back from our trip, one of the first things we did was track down those inserts. You can find nice ones for $20 or less. Just do an online search for “wine bottle candelabra insert.”

Tip: Make sure you fill the wine bottle with water, sand, marbles or something else heavy. If you don’t weigh it down, the bottle will be top heavy which is dangerous when flaming candles are involved. Using a Pinot Noir or Syrah bottle with a wide base will give you a more stable candelabra too.

Water Pitcher
This one is pretty obvious, but charming nonetheless. Just clean a bottle thoroughly, remove the label if you like, and fill with fresh water. I think colorless bottles look the nicest in this application.

A bottle takes up less room on the dinner table than a pitcher, looks nice and gives you a bit of bistro ambience. In fact, we had a very nice dinner at Bistro M in Windsor recently and they were using wine bottles in exactly this way.

Wine Storage
People spend a lot of money trying to preserve left over wine. You can use a vacuum pump, or spray a bunch of nitrogen into the bottle, before you seal it. Or you can insert one of those funny looking “wine condoms” into the bottle. They lay on top of the surface of the wine, theoretically reducing exposure to oxygen.

I don’t do any of that these days. The vacuums can pull delicate aromatics out of the wine, the gas sprays aren’t cheap and those inserts are just weird. Instead, I pour leftover wine into small, clean wine bottles.

We keep a number of bottles on hand for this purpose. Half-bottles get the most use at our house. Once you’ve drunk about half of your regular-size bottle of wine, pour the rest into a half bottle and seal it with a cork or whatever cheap or fancy stopper you prefer. Then, pop the bottle into the fridge. It’ll be good for at least a couple of days — even longer with some wines.

There will be very little oxygen in the bottle and very little surface area exposed to it. The cold refrigerator will also help keep the wine fresh, but the half bottle won’t take up much room. Take red wine out of the fridge about one-hour before you want to drink it. Whites are generally served colder so they take even less time to warm up.

We also keep a couple of empty 750ml bottles around to deal with the remaining wine from magnums. And, if you have a Piccolo, a 0.1875ml Champagne bottle, you’ll never have to abuse your liver finishing a bottle because “there’s not enough to save.”

Philippe Dambrine of Chateau Cantemerle shows off his assortment of bottle sizes.

If the wine ends up sitting in the fridge a little too long to be perfect for drinking, you can always use it as cooking wine. And if cooking is to be the wine’s sole use, you can even blend different wines in one bottle. If you do this, try to stick to one color of wine per bottle though.

Vinegar and Oil
We make our own vinegar at home from leftover wine. It’s better tasting than most of the stuff we could buy in stores and it’s free from artificial additives. Empty wine bottles are a great way to store the vinegar. We don’t pasteurize our vinegar, so we seal it tightly and refrigerate it. Pasteurized vinegar you can just keep in the cupboard.

On a similar note, some of our favorite high-quality olive oil comes in large metal containers. Those aren’t practical to use on a daily basis. We pour it into 375ml wine bottles which are just the right size for easy pouring. They don’t take up much space in the cupboard or on the counter either. Olive oil doesn’t like sunlight, so green or brown bottles are the best ones to use.

If you enjoyed this article, please share it! Icons for popular sharing services are at the right above and also below.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check outour comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2010 NorCal Wine. All rights reserved. Banner from photo by Wolfgang Sauber.

5 Amusing Uses for Old Wine Corks

General Interest

Written by Fred Swan

Created on Thursday, 14 October 2010 21:13

If you open as many wine bottles as I do, you may find yourself with two problems: sommelier elbow and a vast surplus of corks. You can make your elbow feel better by drinking some of the wine. But what do you do with all of those corks. Here are a few inspiring examples of what other forks with too many corks — and plenty of time on their hands — have done. Enjoy!

"Cork in the Road" by Steven Leslie; check out his site for other creations. He has other designs and sells his creations as well.


It took more than 300,000 wine corks to create this huge mosaic.


The shading the artist gets is impressive. Imagine sorting all of those corks!

The artist, Saimir Strati, not only uses different colors of cork, but different lengths to create depth. Don't try this at home if you've been drinking the wine! (via TheContaminated)

Wine cork "art" can be practical and doesn't have to be hard to make yourself. Craftynest has instructions for making your own wine cork bath mat.

On the other hand, the creations that are difficult to create and epic in size can be pretty amazing. This cork cow can be seen at the Charles Creek Vineyard tasting room on the square in Sonoma. Photo: Charles Creek Vineyard

After a hard day of building cork cows, you'll want to sit back and relax. So build yourself a chair too!

If you enjoyed this article, please share it! Icons for popular sharing services are at the right above and also below.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

6 Excellent Reasons to Decant a White Wine

General Interest

Written by Fred Swan

Created on Tuesday, 28 June 2011 21:58

Decanting a red wine is almost automatic for some people. If it’s a young wine — and not something light such as Pinot Noir or Gamay — SPLASH, into a decanter it goes. And most people readily decant older red wines to separate the good juice from the unpleasant sediment. How often do you hear about white wine being decanted though?

Christopher Watkins of Ridge and I had a brief discussion about it recently when I asked if he’d decanted the excellent 2008 Ridge Monte Bello Chardonnay he’d poured for us on blogger day. (He hadn’t, the wine was fantabulous out of the bottle.) But, in his blog post yesterday, A Chardonnay Vertical? Oh, no you didn’t! Oh, yes I did!!!, Christopher touched on the topic of decanting white wines. He agreed that decanting can help some young Chardonnay blossom. There are other situations that call for decanting white wine too.

Here are 6 excellent reasons to decant a white wine:

• The wine is too cold.
  When you’re in a rush, it’s easy to forget to pull wine out of the refrigerator soon enough. Almost all white wines should be served at less than room temperature. But, if the wine is too cold, many of the aromatics are hidden. Cold wine comes up to prime drinking temperature more quickly if you pour it into a room temperature decanter.
  
  
• The wine is too warm.
  This may seem counter-intuitive based on the previous tip. However, the principle is the same. Wine bottles do a good job of insulating the wine they contain from external temperature changes. To get your wine to the right temperature quickly, you need to get it out of the bottle. By spreading the wine out over the broad but thin glass of a decanter, you can more easily change the wine’s temperature.

  
  To cool wine using a decanter, immerse the decanter in a bath of water and ice. Be careful not to let any water get into the decanter. Give the decanter a minute or two to chill and then pour in the wine. Leave it in the ice bath until it reaches the temperature you like.
  
  
• The wine is “closed.”
  Most white wines, served at the proper temperature, having enticing aromas right out of the bottle. Some are shy though. This can be due to winemaking style, because the wine is very young or in an awkward phase, or just the nature of that grape variety. If you pour a white wine into your glass and it smells like... nothing, decant it. Believe it or not, some experts regularly decant Champagne for this very reason. Bubbles are pretty, but aroma and flavor are more important.
  
  
• The wine evolves beautifully over time, but you don’t have time.
  Some wine has attractive aromas right out of the bottle, but they really blossom with time in your glass. A perfect example of this is Robert Mondavi Winery Fumé Blanc Reserve. Pour the wine and you’re greeted by lovely white peach, vanilla and gentle oak. But, over time, numerous more subtle notes of white flowers, spice, sweet herb and other fruits emerge.
 At a recent dinner party, I served that wine with one specific dish in a 6-course meal. I needed the wine to be at peak right away to optimize the guests’ experience and keep the dinner running on time. I decanted the wine and it blew people away.
  
  
• The wine has some “bottle stink.”
  Okay, no reason to be embarrassed. We’ve all had moments when we weren’t as fresh as we’d like to be. That happens with wine too, but it doesn't mean the wine is bad. With young white wines bottle stink is most often due to excess sulphur (used by winemakers to kill bacteria) or a very tight seal, such as screwcap, that doesn’t allow any gases to escape from the bottle. If you pour that wine directly into a glass, some of the gases will go with it.  And other gases that were in-solution with the wine will gradually emerge in glass too. Splashing the wine into a decanter gives those (ob)noxious gases a chance to dissipate well away from your sensitive nose. Some  German Rieslings I own show a lot of sulphur on the nose when first opened. Decanting them really helps.
  
  
• Two bottles of exactly the same wine are showing bottle variation.
  This isn’t a situation that will arise often for most people, but it is common for those who regularly lead large wine tastings or classes. With a large group, you need more than one bottle of each wine. Yet each glass of wine should taste and smell the same so everyone has a common frame of reference for discussion.
 If there is significant variation between bottles of the same wine, whether they are at slightly different stages of development or one bottle is a touch flawed, you can blend the bottles using a decanter. A magnum decanter easily holds two bottles. If you only have a one bottle decanter, you’ll need to pour just half of each bottle (or less if you have three or more bottles) in at a time.

Decanting white wine isn’t something you need to do every day. But it is something that can add to your enjoyment on occasion. Don’t let a wine’s color make you shy about decanting it if necessary.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2011 NorCal Wine. All rights reserved.