Saturday, July 07, 2012

News (to me) from the Wine Biz

Somehow this one eluded me: apparently the wine folks down around Paso Robles are signatories (since 2007)  to the "Napa Declaration on Place," designed as a conspiracy in retraint of trade compact to promote "the importance of location to wine and the need to protect place names." I remember Paso Robles from just 10-12 years ago when it seemed like just a bump in the road; now, apparently, it can style itself a terroir, up there with Tokay, Jerez, Napa, and yes, Champagne.

Which leaves me wondering: when an agent of the French gendarmerie du vin fetches up at immigration in San Francisco, will we hear:
Et quelle est votre profession?

je suis un terroiriste.

2 comments:

dilbert dogbert said...

Back in the mid and late 50's there were if I remember correctly two wineries near Paso. The wife's granddad's place is now a winery. The damn things sprouted like weeds. I think Steinbeck wrote of the area in East of Eden. It was the poor part of the valley. Got lots of family buried in Adeladia. A couple of years ago I visited an old friend in SLO and we spread my mom's ashes on my Grand dad's old place up Cayucos Creek and then over to Creston and the wife's granddad's place for lunch and some wine. Not bad wine.

Buce said...

'Steinbeck wrote of the area in East of Eden." Um, wouldn't that be Salinas, a bit up the road?