(via Wine Spectator)

“Best known for coffee, as well as bananas, tea and cocoa, the fair-trade movement is taking hold in the U.S. wine market, with a tiny but growing presence among imports from Argentina, Chile and South Africa… Wineries must provide a living wage and safe conditions for workers, and must pay growers a fair price for their grapes to cover the cost of production. Environmentally friendly viticulture—to protect the local ecosystem and workers’ health—is a key requirement; for example, pesticide use is restricted and genetically modified organisms are banned.”

Learn more about Fair Trade Wine from the official site here.
Is Fair Trade really fair? Read this for an opposing opinion.

(via DCist)

From the Washington Post:

“We taste thousands of wines from around the globe to provide a curated selection just for you,” an announcement on the club’s website says. “When we launch, we welcome you to join The Washington Post Wine Club on a worldwide adventure in wine…”

“According to a press release, members will receive four bottles of red wine and two bottles of white every three months. They will also get old Washington Post recipe pairings, “expert tasting notes” and a 10 percent discount on club wines.”

Sign up for updates here.
Read about the world’s best wine clubs here. [Forbes]

(via Corkscrewed)

‘Terroir’ is an illusive (and overused?) term that embodies every element that goes into making wine. But Mr. Camuto takes it to a new level:

“While all wines taste best as close to their area of production as possible, this is particularly true of Burgundy. It’s one thing to make delicious wines that win contests. But to make particular delicious wines that combine with a partcular cuisine to do a yin-yang dance on the palate, and then to have a whole lexicon of particular bawdy songs to consme them – that, to me, is terroir.”

What’s he talking about? On the third Sunday in November every year in Burgundy, the Hospices de Beaune hosts black-tie dinners leading up to a wine auction. At these dinners, everyone drinks PLENTY, which leads to yearly drunken chants of “Ban Bourguignon” (watch here) like this one and that one.

(via The Wall Street Journal)

“WHEN MICHEL ROLLAND was named the winemaking consultant to France’s Château Figeac two months ago, a great protest was registered in certain wine-drinking circles. The St. Émilion grand cru would be ruined; the wine would be “Rolland-ized,” opined drinkers posting on a popular discussion board. One reader even declared that the move was “a disaster for all fans of Figeac.” The impassioned discussion ran to seven pages and lasted two weeks. Who would guess that a winemaking consultant—even the world’s most famous one—had the power to provoke such an outpouring of passion, not to mention a purported ability to destroy a Bordeaux estate?”

First Episode: Simple, nice and easy chat about Pinot Noir with one of the first winemakers of that ilk in Russian River Valley: Burt Williams of William Selyam.

See the official press release here.
See the intro video for “Balancing Act” here.
Read about Rajat Parr here.
Learn more about William Selyam wines here.