• Munson bio wins award: Roy E. Renfro Jr. and Sherrie S. McLeRoy have won the international Gourmand Award’s Best Wine History book for their Grape Man of Texas: Thomas Volney Munson & the Origins of American Viticulture, published by the Wine Appreciation Guild. This is a big deal; Munson was the Texan whose pioneering work with grapevines helped save the French wine industry during the phylloxera epidemic a century ago.
• Wine shipping precedent? A federal judge in Michigan has overturned the state’s ban on direct shipping, saying that the 2005 Supreme Court ruling that allowed consumers to buy directly from wineries also includes out-of-state retailers. This is the second or third lower court ruling that applies the Supreme Court decision to retailers, something the court didn’t specifically mention in its 2005 decision. It means that we’re likely one step closer to buying any wine from any one, without states limiting that choice.
• Beaujolais nouveau controversy: Dr. Vino, one of the leading wine bloggers, has launched a campaign to boycott Beaujolais nouveau when it is released in three weeks. His point? The wine’s carbon footprint is too high, so we should drink wine that is more local (though he neglects to mention DrinkLocalWine.com, sadly). This does seem a bit much. If we’re going to boycott the nouveau because it wastes natural resources because it is shiooed, and even flown from Europe, we need to boycott Bordeaux, Burgundy and everything else. Boycott the nouveau because it’s badly made or it’s too expensive – as much as $15 this year because of the weak dollar.
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