Next Generation
VinePair asked sommeliers to name the new California producers they’re most excited about, and they came back with nine. The list includes Dorsal, Emme, Lady of the Sunshine, Llewelyn, Madson, Marioni, O’Neill Latta, Stagiaire and Brij.
From the article:
There is scarcely a corner of the wine world that Rajat Parr hasn’t mastered. Over the course of his decades-long career, Parr established himself as one of America’s most influential sommeliers, overseeing the wine programs for Michael Mina’s more than 30 restaurants, co-founding San Francisco’s acclaimed RN74, authoring several award-winning books, and helping lead the natural wine movement worldwide. All this before he became one of the most influential winemakers in California today. In his early years as a founding partner and winemaker at Evening Land Vineyards, Sandhi, and Domaine de la Côte, Parr helped drinkers redefine California Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Freeze Survivors
Dave McIntyre, writing on his Substack DM Wineline, visits a young Maryland vineyard of disease-resistant, cold-hardy varieties that came through the April 21 freeze with only a few losses. Around it, many Mid-Atlantic growers lost much of their crop.
From the article:
At least at their experimental plot, the Aellens won’t have much replanting to do. The varieties there — Merlot Kanthus, Cabernet Volos, Helios, Monarch and Johanniter — survived the freeze, with just a few casualties. These were grouped together, Parker explained, suggesting that some rocky areas of the vineyard had prevented the vines from establishing their roots fully and left them vulnerable.
Napa Cabernet Costs
Jake Kloberdanz, founder of ONEHOPE Wine, has built an interactive tracker showing what Napa Cabernet costs, vintage over vintage and AVA by AVA.
The tracker puts the average Napa Cabernet release price at $72 a bottle for the 1999 vintage and $186 for 2023, with the median rising from $55 to $140 across the same span.
By AVA, Oakville sits at the top with a $160 median price, while wines under the valley-wide Napa Valley designation sit at a $75 median.
AI Writing Row
Henry Jeffreys, writing on his Substack Drinking Culture, questions whether the shortform winner at this year’s 67 Pall Mall wine writing awards was written with AI. The awards’ founder and head judge both pushed back, so this is an allegation, not a finding.
From the article:
This year’s winner in the shortform writing category was a London-based sommelier called Fikayo Ifaturoti with a piece entitled Collector Logs, No. 4 | The Stradivarius Violin × 1969 Bollinger VVF. She formerly worked at 67 Pall Mall and now works for Moët Hennessy. When I saw her name on the list, I thought how good it was to have a new face as wine writing is a small world and it tends to be the same people over and over again who get nominated.
Then I read her piece and I got a sinking feeling.
There’s the very short sentences and paragraphs. Well, really no paragraphs at all. The use of three: “We’ve scanned it. Measured it. Analysed it.” The ‘it’s not one thing it’s another’ construction: “Not because we lack the recipe. Because we lack the world the recipe came from.” These tics are repeated over and over again. Then there’s the arid impersonal style and multiple lines that promise profundity but ultimately add up to very little. I put it through the AI detection site Pangram which came back with 100% machine generated. I should caveat that this is not infallible but combined with the other tells a pretty strong signal that the writing is at the very least AI-assisted.
I sent it to a couple writers I trust who all agreed that something was up. On social media others including Hudin, Andy Neather, Felicity Carter and Alice Feiring have come to the same conclusion that I did.
