Wine-shipping laws to get full airing in Maryland legislature on Friday (The Patriot-News, by Paul Vigna)

Better know a wine law: Maryland! (Dr. Vino, by Tyler Coleman)

For California Vintners, It’s Not Easy Being Green (redOrbit.com, by Meg Sullivan)

Local Versions of Europe’s Everyday Wines (The New York Times, by Jordan Mackay)

More Winegrapes for Nevada County (Wines & Vines, by Jane Firstenfeld)

Foley Family Wines Announces Hiring of Kerry Manahan-Ehlow (Wine Business Online)

Six arrested in Australian wine fraud (Decanter.com, by Jim Budd)

The business end (Napa Valley Register, by Paul Franson)

San Francisco, March 5, 2010 – Which wines go best with the “green food” that we’ll enjoy on St. Patrick’s Day, such as corned beef and cabbage or Irish stew? How about those fresh spring vegetables that will soon be on our plates?

“Green foods are the problem children of the wine world,” says Natalie MacLean, editor of one of the largest wine sites on the web at www.nataliemaclean.com. “But as a stubborn hedonist whose grandmother’s name was Brophy, I’ve found some terrific wines to drink with them on March 17.”

Natalie has just launched a new mobile application for iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Droid and other smartphones. Developed by Cerado, this app builds on the success of her Drinks Matcher and includes all the pairings in the original app, plus thousands of wine reviews, recipes, articles, blog posts, glossary definitions, cellar journal and winery directory. You can access the new app at www.nataliemaclean.com/mobileapp.

In the spirit of going green (and giving back green), the new app is free. With the Nat Decants Mobile App, you won’t need the luck of the Irish to pick the right wines, whether you’re in the pub, at a friend’s house or at the liquor store restocking. It’s like having a sommelier (and leprechaun) in your pocket.

Nat Decants Free Mobile App Features:

- Find 380,000 professionally tested food and wine pairings
(not generated by computer algorithm)
- Access thousands of wine reviews by an independent journalist
- Search the reviews by winery, price, score, region, grape, vintage, food match
- Track your wines in your virtual cellar and add your own journal notes and scores
- Search a directory of 10,000+ wineries to buy wine or plan a visit
- Find thousands of tasty, tested recipes for every wine
- Get wine savvy with articles, glossary definitions & blog posts
- Share on Twitter, Facebook and e-mail with friends

Natalie’s Top 10 Green Wine & Food Matches

1. Corned beef and cabbage: Pinot Blanc
2. Irish Stew: Cabernet Franc
3. Spring Asparagus: Gruner Veltliner
4. Field greens salad: Riesling
5. Tomatoes: Pinot Noir
6. Green peppers: Sparkling Wine
7. Grilled veggies: Rose
8. Green peas: Sauvignon Blanc
9. Spinach and bacon salad: Merlot
10. Artichoke: Verdicchio

For more tips on pairing green food and wine, visit http://bit.ly/dsYG0g.

To get the free Nat Decants Mobile App visit:

www.nataliemaclean.com/mobileapp

On the page above, click on the words iPod or iPhone under the iPhone image to go to the iTunes store for the app. The direct link is:

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/nat-decants/id353052386?mt=8

For BlackBerry, Droid, Nexus One, Nokia, Palm Pre and other smartphones, click on those words under the BlackBerry phone image. The direct link is:

http://www.nataliemaclean.com/mobile

Josh Wade, from DrinkNectar.com, has organized an upcoming Live tasting with a number of Washington State Merlot producers. This will be a live event via Twitter (#WAMerlot) – you can go to this site to sign up. They also have links to online retailers who sell the Merlot’s to be tasted.

The Seattle Wine Gal also has a great write-up on this event as well.

The USAToday is reporting that Paso Robles is now the number one spot for wine tourism in California:

PASO ROBLES, Calif. — The February issue of a respected wine industry trade publication gives only one of the world’s wines both a rarefied 98 score and the top spot in the “highly recommended” section.

Near perfection came from Saxum, a well-regarded but obscure winery in Paso Robles, a one-time California cow town becoming a superior wine-producing region known by few non-aficionados outside the state.

Located on California’s Central Coast, the Paso Robles viticultural area’s consistent quality and relatively moderate land prices have combined for phenomenal growth.

In fewer than 20 years, the number of wineries has grown from 30 to 250 and counting, plus at least 600 hopefuls making boutique bottles at custom crush co-ops to hawk at restaurants and local wine bars.

Esteemed reviewer Robert Parker has said the region of rolling, oak-studded hills holds California’s greatest potential. Winemakers swear by a climate and limestone-infused soils that mimic the southern Rhone region of France.

Source: USAToday

The recent 8.8 Earthquake that rocked major cities in Chile have really done a lot to hurt the wine industry of that country. The Washington Post article quotes Rene’ Merino, president of the Wines of Chile Group. estimate that $975 million was wasted alone in spilled wine. Here’s a snip:

The full extent of the damage to the industry, which has annual sales of about $1.3 billion, is only now coming into focus as wine producers take stock of their losses. Some industry officials played down the damage, saying there would be little long-term effect on price or supply.

Officials from Chile’s biggest producers, representing 95 percent of the industry, met Wednesday and concluded that the earthquake’s effects on business were not as bad as initially feared. Merino, who led the meeting, said about 12.5 percent of the country’s cellared wine was lost.

But others said perhaps 20 percent or more of the Chilean industry’s stored wine was destroyed, which could create serious problems for Chilean exports in the coming months.

Source: The Washington Times

Here’s a snip from the full story on Newberg Graphic:

Yamhill County’s wine country has drawn attention from the Old Country for quite some time — most notably with the 1988 decision by French winemakers Maison Joseph Drouhin to purchase a vineyard in the Dundee Hills. Now, a noted German vintner is following suit.

Ernst Loosen (pronounced “loh-zen”) is one of Europe’s leading producers of riesling, a versatile white wine native to Germany and also grown successfully around the Pacific Northwest. It is a fact which led Loosen to partner with Washington state’s Chateau St. Michelle to produce a high-end riesling for them (named “Eroica” after a Beethoven symphony).

Now, according to an Oregonian story published in early February, Loosen is going a step further and has purchased 40 acres outside Newberg for development as a winery in partnership with local winemaker Jay Somers.

While Loosen was not available for an interview with The Graphic, Somers was quite willing to discuss his and “Ernie’s” plans for the Hillside Drive site, future home of the J. Christopher Winery.

SEATTLE, March 2 /PRNewswire/ — Wines of Washington Promotion, an interactive and integrated marketing agency based in Seattle, created special on- and off-premise, traffic building, point-of-purchase floor and end-aisle displays: (http://bit.ly/9srRXU) to celebrate March Washington State Wine Month at grocery stores, convenience stores and wine shops.

Wines of Washington Promotion, working to help increase the brand awareness of Barnard Griffin, developed creative materials based around the winery’s tulip theme for this month-long promotion.

Barnard Griffin is recognized as one of Washington State’s most renowned family-owned wineries.  Barnard Griffin is located in Richland, WA. www.BarnardGriffin.com.

In addition, Wines of Washington Promotion develops marketing, advertising, public relations, publicity and WOM activities in support of the winery’s wine clubs, affiliations, participations, sponsorships and special events including, WineYakimaValley.com, Tri-Cities Visitor & Convention Bureau, Washington Wine Commission, Wine Clubs and Affiliates, AmericanWinery.com, Taste Washington, Experience Washington, and 20something Wine Event as well as the Wine Bloggers’ Conference to be held in Walla Walla in June.  The agency has set up a digital countdown clock for this event on its web landing page: www.WOWpromotion.com.

Creating and promoting Crush and Tasting Room events and activities is another area of strength for the agency.  These hospitality and destination marketing activities include: “Wines on the Nines,” the “CRUSHtacean Celebration” and many more.  Support includes concepting and copy for the winery’s monthly eNewsletters and PR/publicity campaigns.  The agency also creates digital and print merchandising and PR support for remote market winemaker’s appearances, winery tastings, winemaker’s dinners, chef wine-food pairing events and bottle signings.

The agency has created and placed print and digital advertising for the Barnard Griffin Tulip and Reserve brands in WINE ENTHUSIAST, ExperienceWA Travel Planner, TRI-CITY HERALD’S Escape to Wine Country, WINE PRESS NORTHWEST Magazine, WINO Magazine, MID-COLUMBIAN Magazine, Washington Wine Commission’s WINE TOURING GUIDE, WASHINGTON TASTING ROOM Magazine, and SEATTLE WEEKLY.

Past client projects include: collateral for the Prosser Art Walk & Wine Gala and Jones of Washington Wines’ eCommerce website and Oenotourism (Wine Tourism) rack cards.

“This is a challenging time for Washington State wines.  While sales are slightly up in some price categories, there continues to be downward pressure on pricing due to consumer concerns over the economy.  We suggest that this is an excellent time for wineries to focus on their marketing foundations and infrastructure so they are poised and ready to take maximum advantage of the inevitable rebound in the marketplace,” says Bruce Bieber, Chief Marketing Officer of the agency.

Wines of Washington Promotion’s expertise in building and bootstrapping brands with affordable design, marketing and promotion is key to helping winemakers so they can devote the majority of their time to what they do best — making great wine.

This is the namesake Spring event along the Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail. For the first three weekends in April 2010, the wineries along the trail will offer a select pairing of two wines and two specially crafted cheese dishes prepared with Texas cheeses from the area along the trail. As an added bonus, receive a packet of Texas Wildflower seeds at each winery you visit while supplies last. The Bluebonnets will be in full bloom, so this is the perfect opportunity to see beautiful Texas wildflowers, enjoy fine Texas wine and fantastic cheese pairings. This event will be posted for the first three consecutive weekends in April. Your trail tickets are good on any of the dates, April 3-4, April 10-11 or April 17-18, 2010, regardless of when you purchase them.

April 3rd & 4th
April 10th & 11th
April 17th & 18th

Saturday’s 11am- 6pm
Sunday’s Noon- 5pm

Tickets are $25 for an individual or $45 for a two
Visit http://www.texasbluebonnetwinetrail.com/events.asp to purchase tickets.

Premiere Napa Valley one third up on last year (Decanter, By Cheryl Lincoln)
http://www.decanter.com/news/295376.html

State on alert for destructive grapevine moth (The Fresno Bee, By Robert Rodriguez)
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/02/25/1836050/traps-set-statewide-for-destructive.html

Wine Tasting at Farmers Markets? (Wines & Vines, by Peter Mitham)
http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=71731&htitle=Wine%20Tasting%20at%20Farmers%20Markets%3F

2010 wine prospects ‘looking good’ (Stuff.co.nz –New Zealand)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/agribusiness/3370906/2010-wine-prospects-looking-good

South Beach Wine & Food Festival founder impressed with this year’s lineup (Miami Herald, by Micaela Hood)
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/24/1496574/fest-founder-impressed-with-this.html

According to this latest article on SlashFoods, it seems the butcher is coming back in vougue and that’s great news for food fans everywhere.  Here’s a snip from the full story:

There was a time when only rock stars were rock stars. Then, sometime in the last decade, the public decided that chefs were rock stars, too. The latest profession to get the nod? Butchers. Yep, this unlikely profession — a mix of blood, dead animals, and sharp knives — is now, well, cool. East Coast hipsters eager to show off their adventurous side (and their food knowledge) started the trend, and recently, things have taken a turn for the weird: A slew of articles in the past year, including a splashy piece in the New York Times, have dubbed the profession “sexy.”

Julie Powell, of “Julie and Julia” fame, is partly responsible. Her recent book, “Cleaving,” chronicles her eight-month apprenticeship at Fleisher’s Meats in upstate New York in between her descriptions of her torrid affair with an ex-boyfriend. But Powell’s voice is only one of many. Butchers have a cult following, fans eager to learn the trade and pick up some of the foodie credibility it suddenly provides. San Francisco butcher Ryan Farr’s shop, 4505 Meats, doesn’t bother trying to be coy. Their apparel line (Apparel! Butcher shop apparel!) includes a t-shirt depicting a curvaceous woman with a whip, along with the caption “Say it sexy: Chicha-r-r-r-r-r-ones.” Another shirt quips, “Pork. The noun, not the verb.” Farr’s classes, sessions like “Whole Hog,” where participants butcher a 250-lb hog and take home the spoils, routinely sell out.

Joshua Applestone, owner and self-described “Head MooRoo” of Fleisher’s, trained Powell in 2006, and says people tend to miss the point: Butchering is a lot of work. His eight-week course (which runs a cool $10,000) is in high demand, and he doesn’t apologize for the fee. “It’s a bargain,” he says. “It really teaches people to cut, to handle the muscles and deal with the whole animal.”