The Waiting Game Washington, DC is a bizarre place in many ways, including the variable pace of work—from frenetic to idling. When Congress is in session, typically it’s a three-day week, because they fly in on Monday afternoon and leave Thursday afternoon, meaning Tuesday and Wednesday, and half of Thursday comprise their “work week”. However, … Read more

Oil…Rodeos…Brisket…Wine(?) When we think of major wine states beyond California, the usual suspects are Washington, Oregon, and New York—but Texas has passed them all in terms of wine’s economic impact on the state ($24.39 billion) and moved ahead of New York for number of wine producers (617 vs. 507). “Big” is the image of the … Read more

In the 43 years I’ve been in the wine industry, I’ve seen many challenges, but never so many major ones all at once: generational shifts, increased competition, cannabis legalization, climate change, global efforts to eliminate alcohol consumption, the whiplash of uncertainty surrounding tariff wars, potential changes to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, major cuts in … Read more

West Virginia is one of the smallest states, and with a climate combining continental with humid-subtropical, including cold winters, it has a challenging environment for growing grapes. But French-American varieties are able to weather the weather and support the small but growing grape and wine industry. The state has its own AVA (Kanawha River), and … Read more

DC Fly-In There are over 10,000 wineries in the U.S., of which about 300 invest in WineAmerica and the other 9,700 benefit for free. About 30 of our members attended the recent DC Fly-In, meaning they’re basically the 1% carrying the 99%. Those people are the heroes of our industry. The two-day Fly-In was orchestrated … Read more