Wine News: What I’m Reading the Week of 8/16/20

Welcome to my weekly roundup of the wine stories that I find of interest on the web. I post them to my magazine on Flipboard, but for those of you who aren’t Flipboard inclined, here’s everything I’ve strained out of the wine-related muck for the week.

Fire Threatens Napa Vineyards
Unfortunately this is the latest news.

Nearly half of California Wine Country businesses closed in the coronavirus pandemic won’t reopen, says Yelp
Ouch.

People Of Color Break Barriers In White-Dominated, ‘Impenetrable’ Alcoholic Beverage Industry
NPR talks race in the booze biz.

Lost in Translation?
Wine Intellectualism at its most dense. You have been warned.

South African Wine’s Political Nightmare
I learned a new word: parlous.

Tuscany’s Wine Harvest At Risk As Seasonal Workers Blocked By Italy’s Black List
We’ll see a lot more articles like this in the next 4 weeks.

Drinking With Food Media’s Flamethrower
Except they don’t tell us really, what she’s drinking.

Women in Senior Positions in the Wine World – A Guest Post by David Morrison (a.k.a. The Wine Gourd)
A statistician looks at representation.

Valentina Passalacqua – an inconvenient truth?
Long read worth the time, here.

Bordeaux Tries Youth Appeal Again
And again, and again.

South Africa Lifts Its Alcohol Ban as Coronavirus Crisis Eases
‘Bout damn time.

How the pandemic is upending business in wine country
Marketwatch on wine.

Napa County’s Cain winery request involves detective work
And heaven forbid we just act rationally.

Tracking down Stalin’s wine cellar
And what did Stalin like? Sweet.

The New Wall of Wine & Why Some Wineries Aren’t Even Making it to the Shelf
Ignore Amber at your peril, wineries.

Pioneering Study ‘Fingerprints’ Russian River Valley Sites
Can you say microwave plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy?

A Call to Action for the Wine Industry: Diversity Organizations Need Your Support
Yes, please.

Proof that old vines add value
If only we knew that 20 years ago.

Wineries worry about impact of water rules
It’s a real issue.

What Does It Mean to Make Wine Right Now?
More than it did.

Laurent Ponsot promises revelations in Kurniawan novel
And it’s fiction because… ?

Can a rosé ever be worth £100+ a bottle?
Not to me. But to some, sure.

China wine imports down by a third
Not good news for many.

Science whiz-turned-winemaker launches award-winning custom crush facility in East Texas
Texas diversity.

Small Wineries With Inventory Problems May Have An Escape Hatch
Not just Cameron Hughes.

Memories of Milla
A wonderful set of remembrances.

If You Want ‘Authentic’ Wine, You Need to Understand Terroir
An excerpt from Jamie’s book.

WWC20 – My 500 Mates, Inner Mongolia
A fascinating read.

Fire season: Napa Valley’s wineries dig their heels into lowering their risk
Even as blazes threaten Napa this evening.

China Hits Australian Wine Imports With Probe as Relations Fray
Accusations of dumping.

Meet Piquette, Natural Wine’s New Favorite Bubbly
Tasty, but it’s not wine.

French wine exports body ‘regrets’ U.S. move to maintain European tariffs
You don’t say.

Dismay in Burgundy and New York as US keeps wine tariffs
Suffering will continue.

Colorado wine seeks to survive 2020
Stay strong!

World War 2 deception: How Monaco’s vast wine collection was hidden from Hitler
Stack up the empties.