Starbucks goes upmarket with Seattle test cafe | Reuters

It’ll be interesting to see what the wine list looks like.  Has to have a mass-market appeal, I would expect.  And either huge production levels or generic styles are probably required in order to build a reliable brand identity in the new marketspace…unless they’re going so edgy that novelty becomes one of the big reasons for choosing “Starbucks, After Hours”.   What’ch’all think??  I think I might stick with the Irish Coffee for now…or maybe an Americano with a Frangelico shot… 

Starbucks goes upmarket with Seattle test cafe | Reuters.

Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog: A Manifesto For Change In The Wine Industry

Check out Tom Wark’s latest entry on his Wine Blog Fermentation for a lengthy, but thorough, discussion of the Three-Tier Distribution System for alcoholic beverages that’s still in place across much of America. It’s an excellent explanation of why the Three Tier system exists, why it’s completely outdated, and why regulatory change is in absolutely everybody’s best interest.

Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog: A Manifesto For Change In The Wine Industry.

Then make sure you join Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws and, of course, Free the Grapes to show support for your local family farmers, your local wine industry, and  your state’s depleted treasury.  (Facebooker’s, you can Fan these groups as well.  Please do…)

Wash. Co. Lawmakers See Economic Boost in Wineries

Every time I drive west on I-70 and I-68 I ask myself why we don’t have more vineyards and wineries on this side of the state.  Well maybe one day soon! 

Wash. Co. Lawmakers See Economic Boost in Wineries.

Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard in the news…

Check out Sonya Lowery’s “World Next Door” coverage of Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard  Who knew dogs were welcome?!  Nice!  We’ll be there soon, maybe over the Thanksgiving holidays!

In a Pinch…

Pretty cool!  I’ll bet if you’re a Boy Scout in Napa Valley you can earn a “Wine” badge.  I’d argue that it’s a skill every bit as important as being able to start a fire without matches.    Must try this the next time I open an inexpensive bottle! 

It’s Started…2008 Is Officially Underway!

Seyval Blanc at J Rose Vineyards in Damascus, MD

For me, at least, the 2008 harvest is underway. It began on Saturday, the 13th of September when I picked 128# of Seyval Blanc at J Rose Vineyards in Damascus, MD. I was feeling really discouraged because Hurricane Hanna had dropped all kinds of water on us last week and then we got lots more rain all day Friday and most of Friday night — ending just before the Saturday harvest. So I didn’t have my hopes up…

But thanks to Jan Rieke’s excellent skills and a lay to the land that allows good drainage, the numbers were about all I could have hoped for: 21 Brix, 6.6 g/L of titratable acidity, and a pH of 3.17. I would have been pretty happy with those numbers even if it hadn’t rained!

Looks like Jan doesn’t have a web site but you can see the vineyard site on Google maps here.

A hopper full of Seyval...

My Seyval came from the vineyard at the far lower left. Chardonnay and table grapes are in the vineyard at the lower right, and Cabernet Sauvignon occupies the two vineyards nearest the house.

The grapes have been pressed, the juice cleared, the yeast pitched, and fermentation is underway. On Saturday the 20th it’s back to Jan’s to get some Muscat, which produced an incredible dessert wine for me in 2007.

A hopper on the hopper!

Following that it looks like Cab Franc and Lemberger from Bob Scott over at Bellendene Vineyards in early October.

Finally, the Napa Cab Sauv and Lodi Malbec will bring up the rear through the only guy I go to for out-of-state grapes, Rob Hamilton at MD Crush.

I’ll be reporting on all of those soon enough. Stay tuned!

Making “the switch”…

OK, these past two years have been vicious. Back in 2006 a winemaker friend of mine came over and decided I had too many empty carboys. She threw down the gauntlet and I foolishly picked it up… Now I’ve got wine spread out across the whole year — a wine for almost every month it seems.

Yes, we can…

Here’s an interesting post off of Belief.net by a spiritually and politically conservative blogger who calls Barack Obama “The Democrats’ Reagan”.

No matter who you support in the political process this year, I find it hard to believe anyone could find Obama’s South Carolina victory speech anything less than inspirational. It’s about 15 minutes long but if you’re as jaded and disappointed in the American political system as I am, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I, for one, have found the last 20 years of politics exhausting for the most part. So many people have subscribed to the fear mentality that Washington has built to bolster the status quo — fear of terrorists, fear of illegals, fear of a shaky economy, fear of diversity, fear of conservatives, fear of liberals — that the fear mindset will be difficult to shake off.

But not since King and Kennedy has anyone communicated as emotionally stirring a message of hope for the future as has Obama. Can he do it? Who knows. But at this point I’m inclined…no, eager…to meet the devil I don’t know. Because I know the other devil all too well…

And please folks, whatever your political bent, please, please participate in the debate…and then vote. Make no mistake, we’ll all be eating “Change” a year from now. Can we make that change be change for the better? I fervently hope the answer is “Yes, we can…”

Validation…

If you look at this post by Amy Lillard, over on La Gramiere in my Blogroll, you’ll understand where this is coming from.

Wines really are a lot like your children in some ways. That is, they both are a product of nature and nurture, you make every effort to see that they turn out well and be all they can be, and you don’t really know how you did until years later when they make you proud (or profoundly disappoint you). And, of course, no matter how good or bad they turn out, you end up second-guessing yourself. If only I had done this differently or been more on top of that… Oh, if only I hadn’t