Last week the European Union drastically reduced the amount of copper that grape farmers can use each year in their vineyards. Through the 2018 harvest, the EU allowed growers to use 6 kg per hectare per year. Beginning on January 1, 2019, they will be allowed to use “an average of” 4 kg per hectare […]
As European Union organic grape growers anxiously await a Brussels decision on new and more stringent restrictions on copper fungicide use, the highly controversial issue continues to be a focus of media, industry observers, and winemakers in Italy. In many instances, organic and conventional producers — together with their supporters and detractors — are pitted against […]
This week, Slow Food published a statement declaring that the association favors newly proposed limits on copper fungicide use. “Slow Food says ‘yes’ to limits on copper,” read the title of a post on the advocacy group’s website. Earlier this summer, the European Union signaled that it might reduce the allowable amount of copper fungicide […]
Above: “Bordeaux Mixture” — copper sulfate and lime — has been used to prevent downy mildew in vineyards for generations. Europe’s organic and biodynamic grape growers are anxiously waiting to hear whether or not the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will further limit the use of copper fungicide. Last week, the European Union’s Plants, Animals, […]
It was impressive to watch last night as 60 Minutes journalist Lesley Stahl dived into one of wine’s thorniest issues: the impact of climate change on grape growing. Doubly impressive when you consider that the overwhelming majority of commercial winemakers are deeply reluctant to raise awareness of the climatic issues they face now with every […]
When the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce South Central, my longtime client, first contacted me about helping out with a virtual trade tasting, I have to admit that I was skeptical. The concept was as simple as it was ambitious. The project leader planned to convince producers in Italy not to send just a handful of […]
Happy International Workers’ Day, everyone! At Vinitaly this year, I had the opportunity to sit down with Matilde Poggi (above), president of the Italian Federation of Independent Grape Growers (FIVI as it is known in Italy). I was eager to ask her about the EU’s newly implemented limits on the use of copper to combat […]
Happy new year, everyone! Here are some of the trends in Italian wine that I’ll be following in 2019. It’s incredible to think that more than 20 years have passed since the first major all-Italian wine lists were launched in New York in the late 1990s. Two decades after the advent of the Italian wine […]
Dispatches from Italy’s 2018 harvest are just beginning to come in. That’s a shot from Oltrepò Pavese, snapped earlier this week. They’ve started picking their Chardonnay (below) and Pinot Noir for their classic method wines. From what I’ve been told, Oltrepò Pavese was spared a lot of the late spring and early summer rain that […]
It seems like a lifetime ago that leading Italian wine blogger Alessandro Morichetti grabbed me by the arm at Vinitaly 2014 and whispered in my ear: “Jeremy, man, you just have to taste this wine. It’s incredible.” The wine in question was a rosé made from Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and named tauma, which means twin in […]
Do Bianchi 