- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
When winemaker Merry Edwards was a student at UC Davis in the 1970s, there were no women professors, she said, according to a Reuters feature about her career. After graduation, Edwards faced gender discrimination when looking for her first job.
But times have changed, Reuters reported. David Block, the head of the university's viticulture and enology department, said about 60 percent of their graduate students this year are women. Edwards now has her own winery in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley and her own...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Like many business sectors, the California premium wine industry is suffering under the weak economy, according to an article published over the weekend in the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.
Wine produced in Napa and Sonoma counties used to be cheap alternatives to French wines. Now connoisseurs are turning to less expensive wines from Australia, South America and California's Central Valley.
UC Cooperative Extension viticulture farm advisor Glenn McGourty told reporter Glenda Anderson that he believes consumers will return to North Coast wines when the economy...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Latino winemakers are rare, but some are finding success by catering to Latinos developing a taste for fine wine, according to an Associated Press article by Olivia Muñoz. The story ran in the Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, on the ABC News website and other media outlets.
The article profiled two Latino family wineries whose founders started out working in the fields.
"I would work my regular shift and then pester the vineyard manager with questions until...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A two-acre vineyard on the Shasta College campus will produce grapes for the school's growing wine-making program and a venue for collaboration with UC Cooperative Extension, according to an article in the Redding Record Searchlight.
Although the young vineyard is still about a year away from producing its first crop, the college is already working with UCCE to use the vineyard for research and community workshops.
“That’s been a good partnership,” Shasta College horticulture instructor Leimone Waite was quoted in the article. “We are trying to be a completely organic vineyard, which has been a real...