- Author: Ann King Filmer
California's drinking age of 21 prohibits many undergraduate students from learning critical skills early in their academic careers — sensory skills that they will need when they move on to jobs in the multimillion-dollar winemaking, brewing, and food industries.
Not until students turn 21 can they taste the wine and beer they make and learn to assess its sensory quality. Learning the characteristics of a wide assortment of good (and not-so-good) wines and beers is an important component of winemaking and brewing. Having to wait until their junior or senior year to learn these skills is a disadvantage for these students.
Legislation (AB 1989) has been proposed by California Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro (D-North...
- Author: Ann King Filmer
While many of us cherish the mystique of popping a wine cork, screw caps are becoming more commonplace in the wine industry. Half a century ago, screw caps were associated with cheap rotgut wine, but now they have replaced corks in many premium wines and at many of the world’s best wineries.
Wine bottles are sealed primarily in three ways — natural corks, synthetic corks or screw caps. All have their advantages and disadvantages, and most certainly their proponents and opponents. While synthetic corks never gained much of a foothold in the wine industry, screw caps are being studied more frequently for their efficacy and quality.
While screw caps were originally thought to be airtight, resulting in the...
