winefeed

Vineyard idling gains traction as producers manage market slowdown

• A 2025 study of 19 northern Willamette Valley vineyards found idling reduced management costs by an average of 38 percent per acre, with some cutting costs in half.
• Vineyard idling, a temporary production pause lasting one to three years, allows growers to avoid removal while preserving assets until market conditions improve.
• Successful idling requires careful management: aggressive pruning, minimal irrigation year-round starting mid-June, weed control, and light fungicide spraying to prevent vineyard damage during dormancy.

Early harvests and heat strain wine regions beyond the cellar

• Domaine Lafage in Roussillon started harvest on July 23, Jean-Marc Lafage said he had never seen it before; California Central Coast growers like Kevin Merrill reported harvests six to eight weeks early, the earliest in 27 years.
• Aaron Wines in Paso Robles saw July visitation drop sharply as heat rose; shipping blackout periods for direct-to-consumer sales are lengthening, forcing delayed payments and cash-flow strain across small producers in Europe and California.
• Wineries face rising costs for refrigeration during peak-heat harvests, water fees in Napa Valley, insurance, and supply-chain pressures on glass bottles and packaging, though fall tourism to Champagne and northern regions is extending into November.

American single malt ratification fails to lift sales amid broader whiskey slowdown

• The TTB ratified American single malt as an official whiskey category in December 2024 after a decade of petitioning by distillers via the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission, but sales have not risen as hoped.
• Major producers including Diageo-owned Balcones Distillery in Waco, Texas, stopped production in August 2025 and laid off 17 staff; Westland Distillery in Seattle lost $1 million to theft and cut jobs; Westward Whiskey in Portland filed for bankruptcy.
• Producers are adapting by creating lower-priced cask-finished variants, blending single malt with bourbon, and diversifying into other spirits to maintain growth as consumers remain unfamiliar with the category outside connoisseur circles.

Federal THC limit threatens hemp-drink retailers after state rollback

• Congress passed legislation effective November 2026 setting a federal THC limit of 0.4 milligrams per container, effectively banning hemp-derived THC drinks nationwide despite FDA already deeming them unlawful under federal law since 2018.
• State regulation remains fractured: Minnesota, Georgia, and Tennessee permit hemp beverages, while California, Washington, and Vermont restrict or ban them, forcing manufacturers and retailers to navigate conflicting rules or operate in legal limbo.

VinePair names 30 best Sauvignon Blancs for 2026 across regions

• VinePair's tasting staff scored hundreds of Sauvignon Blancs on a 100-point scale, evaluating aromas, flavors, structure, balance, and regional typicity to compile the final 30.
• Virginia emerged as a standout producer this year, with examples from Dogwood & Thistle and Emily Hodson's work praised for quality and value.
• Traditional regions like Loire Valley and Friuli continue to lead alongside newer terroirs in Oregon, Napa, Colorado, and Slovenia.

AriZona Iced Tea launches artist residency at New York headquarters

• AriZona launched a six-week artist residency program at its Woodbury, N.Y. headquarters in July 2025, hosting four artists per session with stipend, housing, studio access, and materials.
• Artists including Eleanor Dexter and Lucas Carlo Monasterio work alongside AriZona's creative team in The Lookout workshop, a fully equipped studio with digital and woodworking tools.
• Completed works enter AriZona's permanent collection or are exhibited on social media; recent artist Anna Fleury created stained-glass installations inspired by the brand's Southwest design language.

Wildfires destroy 200 hectares in Sierra de Gredos wine region

• Between July 22 and 26, wildfires destroyed 77,000 hectares across Ávila and Madrid provinces, with approximately 200 hectares of vineyards in Cebreros DO sustaining fire or smoke damage.
• Bodegas Bernabeleva lost vineyard land and winery infrastructure including office, facade, and tanks; Bodega El Reventón expects to recover 80 to 90 percent of vines in San Gregorio parcel.
• Comando G's Las Iruelas bottling in Cebreros suffered heavy smoke exposure, likely resulting in loss of the vintage; other Comando G vineyard sites in different locations were spared.

Seven volcanic regions beyond Mount Etna produce distinctive mineral wines

• Volcanic soils from ancient and active eruptions create high-acidity, saline, savory wines across Santorini, Soave, the Canary Islands, Hungary's Tokaji region, Oregon's Willamette Valley, Auvergne, and Lake County California.
• Volcanic terrain shapes viticulture: Santorini trains vines in low basket shapes to protect from wind; Lanzarote hand-digs individual "hoyos" holes with rock walls due to intense heat and winds.
• Volcanic soils resist pests and disease, enabling organic farming and preserving old indigenous varieties; the Canary Islands' isolation from phylloxera allowed centuries-old Listán Blanco and Listán Negro vines to survive.

Pierce's Disease Threat Expands Across Europe as Climate Warms

• Xylella fastidiosa, the bacterium causing Pierce's disease, has been detected in grapevines in Portugal (2023), Mallorca (2016), and regulated zones in Spain, Italy, and France, with an estimated potential economic damage to Europe of €5.5 billion.
• California growers and researchers are sharing decades of experience with Pierce's disease management, including early detection, vector control, and genomic surveillance, to help Europe develop strategies before the pathogen becomes widely established.

Raising Standards

• Montpeyroux became France's 369th AOC last week with stricter red grape controls and 45 hectolitres per hectare maximum yields.
• Muscadet rebuilt its reputation through 1990s producer lobbying for ten site-specific crus and vineyard area shrinking by over half, improving quality.
• Soave created 33 geographic crus in 2020 but producers remain confused about designations and Italian consumers lack clear perception of the wine.

Rheingau Riesling: tasting through some of the best examples at the VDP tasting 2026

• August Kesseler, Prinz, and Josef Spreitzer's 2025 Rheingau Rieslings scored 92-95 points at the August 2026 VDP tasting in Wiesbaden.
• Peter Jakob Kühn's 2024 Hallgarten Jungfer scored 96/100, the highest mark among 2024 Rheingau Rieslings tasted.

Of Substack & wine

• Substack created a Wine & Spirits subsection within its Rising and Top lists, separating wine from the broader Food & Drink category to improve discovery.
• Author Miquel Hudin updated the Wine Substack List (WineStack), requiring paid subscriptions and human-written text only, removing 'Thirst Behavior' by Bodhi Landa for AI-generated content.
• Seven of the top 10 earning wine publications on Substack focus on niches like natural wine or wine marketing, suggesting specialization performs better than broad wine coverage.

Napa’s Singular Loire Love Affair

In 1996, after long careers working in Napa’s wine industry, John Skupny and his wife Tracey did something quietly radical:

Remembering Branko Čotar

• Branko Čotar, pioneering natural winemaker from Slovenia's Karst region, died aged 78 on 27 August following a short illness.
• Čotar started with 500 vines for his restaurant in 1974, began bottling professionally in 1990, and built a winery producing around 30,000 bottles annually.
• Čotar made skin-fermented white wines and organically-grown reds with no added sulphites since the 1980s, joining Luca Gargano's Triple A portfolio in 2003.

M is for Method

• Traditional method sparkling wine undergoes second fermentation in bottle with sugar and yeast, then is disgorged and dosed; wines with zero dosage are called brut nature.
• Ancestral method sparkling wine completes fermentation in bottle without disgorgement, remaining fully dry and cloudy with retained lees; it predates traditional method.
• Tank method (Charmat/Martinotti) uses pressurized tanks for second fermentation, producing cleaner, fresher sparkling wines with less lees contact than bottle methods.

What I Learned at a Conference on Drinking

From the invention of moderation to the return of temperance