#Andy Beckstoffer

[globetrottingwino]

Legendary Wine Makers and the Vitners Line the Hall of Fame at the Culinary Institute in the Napa Valley in St. Helena California

Legendary Wine Makers and the Vitners Line the Hall of Fame at the Culinary Institute in the Napa Valley in St. Helena California

On February 18, 2013, The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) at Greystone held the 7th Annual Vintners Hall of Fame Induction Celebration. The official induction celebration of the 2013 Vintners Hall of Fame honorees took place  in St. Helena, California. The historic Greystone Building in Napa was the Christian Brothers’ former sparkling wine and aging cellars. It is now the home of the…

[leanpick]

The Grapelord of Napa Faces a Threat Worse Than Plague One balmy winter afternoon, Andy Beckstoffer, a grape grower who has done more than nearly anyone to shape the premium U.S.

[tumbledsom]

The Grapelord of Napa Faces a Threat Worse Than Plague For 50 years, Andy Beckstoffer drove up the price of wine. Did the strategy work too well?. via NYT Business New York Times

[ciuvba-kouvta]

The Grapelord of Napa Faces a Threat Worse Than Plague

By Ben Ryder Howe For 50 years, Andy Beckstoffer drove up the price of wine. Did the strategy work too well? Published: May 8, 2020 at 03:00PM from NYT Business https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/09/business/beckstoffer-wine-napa.html?partner=IFTTT via IFTTT

[whatstheweather]

The Grapelord of Napa Faces a Threat Worse Than Plague

By Ben Ryder Howe For 50 years, Andy Beckstoffer drove up the price of wine. Did the strategy work too well? Published: May 9, 2020 at 03:00AM from NYT Business Day https://ift.tt/3fxuJAl via IFTTT

[wineanddinosaur]

How Napa Valley Became the Country’s Second (Not First) AVA

When Augusta, Mo., was named the first American Viticultural Area in June 1980, it surprised many that it beat Napa Valley to the designation by just eight months. But Missouri winemaker Lucien Dressel predicted a much tougher road for his California counterparts, whose stature was skyrocketing in the global wine industry following the 1976 Judgment of Paris. “Nobody knows where the Napa Valley begins or ends,” Dressel told reporters. “That will be a real battle.”

That issue — what defines Napa Valley and the wines it produces — was indeed the crux of a cumbersome, sometimes contentious saga of meetings, petitions, and hearings leading up to the creation of the Napa Valley AVA, which became official on Feb. 27, 1981. In 1978, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (now known as the TTB) established criteria for defining an AVA and, as such, the appellation of origin on a bottle. But a major sticking point that emerged among vintners and grape growers across Napa County was how one of those factors — the geographic boundary — would be determined.

There were two opposing viewpoints, one maintained by the prominent Napa Valley Grape Growers Association, led by Andy Beckstoffer, who remains one of the most powerful names in Napa, and the 35-member Napa Valley Vintners. Both groups agreed that the watershed of the Napa River should set the boundaries of the AVA, and in 1978, they jointly commissioned an engineering firm to draw a map showing those boundaries based on U.S. Geological Surveys.

On the other side were growers from eastern Napa County, including prominent names like Inglewood Winery and Domaine Chandon. Calling itself the Eastern Valley Growers, the group asserted that grapes grown throughout the county, not just in the watershed area, had long been associated with the Napa Valley, and that their contributions had helped its rapidly rising stature. That contingent ponied up to hire an attorney, Washington D.C.-based William Demarest, who also noted that using the more limited watershed designation would mean fewer grapes, less wine, and higher prices for consumers.

The years-long debate culminated in a two-day hearing in late April 1980, at a Holiday Inn in Napa, where a five-member BATF panel from Washington, D.C., heard testimony from dozens of witnesses about soils, climate, and geography (in other words, excellent reading for wine geeks). The statement from Bill Jager, a partner in Freemark Abbey and Rutherford Hill wineries (who didn’t attend but had his commentary read aloud), was especially direct (if not a bit dramatic): “If BATF fails to recognize the universal notoriety that Napa Valley wines have achieved … our government will be brought under worldwide ridicule and the full brunt of that fiasco will fall upon the Bureau.”

In the end, the Eastern Valley Growers prevailed, and the BATF allowed the inclusion of Pope, Wooden, and Gordon valleys, among others, into the newly formed Napa Valley AVA when the bureau’s labeling regulations went into effect on Jan. 1, 1983. And even though the watershed recommendation failed, Beckstoffer credits the AVA’s creation for setting a new standard for savvy consumers who want to know exactly where their wine is coming from.

“Since that time, all the sub-appellations — Rutherford, Oakville, St. Helena — have been developed,” Beckstoffer told VinePair. “Now people are looking for vineyard designate, so you peel that onion all the way down to that. That’s the evolution that helps define the Napa Valley and its quality.”

Not to mention set an ever-higher price tag for some of the world’s most coveted bottles. “This changed the world of California wine forever,” says George Webber, staff historian for the Boisset Collection and an expert on Northern California wine history. “If it wasn’t for the Judgment of Paris, we wouldn’t have the AVA, and then we wouldn’t have $1,500 bottles of Screaming Eagle, which almost defies human understanding.”

The article How Napa Valley Became the Country’s Second (Not First) AVA appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/how-napa-valley-became-the-countrys-second-not-first-ava/

[johnboothus]

How Napa Valley Became the Countrys Second (Not First) AVA

When Augusta, Mo., was named the first American Viticultural Area in June 1980, it surprised many that it beat Napa Valley to the designation by just eight months. But Missouri winemaker Lucien Dressel predicted a much tougher road for his California counterparts, whose stature was skyrocketing in the global wine industry following the 1976 Judgment of Paris. “Nobody knows where the Napa Valley begins or ends,” Dressel told reporters. “That will be a real battle.”

That issue — what defines Napa Valley and the wines it produces — was indeed the crux of a cumbersome, sometimes contentious saga of meetings, petitions, and hearings leading up to the creation of the Napa Valley AVA, which became official on Feb. 27, 1981. In 1978, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (now known as the TTB) established criteria for defining an AVA and, as such, the appellation of origin on a bottle. But a major sticking point that emerged among vintners and grape growers across Napa County was how one of those factors — the geographic boundary — would be determined.

There were two opposing viewpoints, one maintained by the prominent Napa Valley Grape Growers Association, led by Andy Beckstoffer, who remains one of the most powerful names in Napa, and the 35-member Napa Valley Vintners. Both groups agreed that the watershed of the Napa River should set the boundaries of the AVA, and in 1978, they jointly commissioned an engineering firm to draw a map showing those boundaries based on U.S. Geological Surveys.

On the other side were growers from eastern Napa County, including prominent names like Inglewood Winery and Domaine Chandon. Calling itself the Eastern Valley Growers, the group asserted that grapes grown throughout the county, not just in the watershed area, had long been associated with the Napa Valley, and that their contributions had helped its rapidly rising stature. That contingent ponied up to hire an attorney, Washington D.C.-based William Demarest, who also noted that using the more limited watershed designation would mean fewer grapes, less wine, and higher prices for consumers.

The years-long debate culminated in a two-day hearing in late April 1980, at a Holiday Inn in Napa, where a five-member BATF panel from Washington, D.C., heard testimony from dozens of witnesses about soils, climate, and geography (in other words, excellent reading for wine geeks). The statement from Bill Jager, a partner in Freemark Abbey and Rutherford Hill wineries (who didn’t attend but had his commentary read aloud), was especially direct (if not a bit dramatic): “If BATF fails to recognize the universal notoriety that Napa Valley wines have achieved … our government will be brought under worldwide ridicule and the full brunt of that fiasco will fall upon the Bureau.”

In the end, the Eastern Valley Growers prevailed, and the BATF allowed the inclusion of Pope, Wooden, and Gordon valleys, among others, into the newly formed Napa Valley AVA when the bureau’s labeling regulations went into effect on Jan. 1, 1983. And even though the watershed recommendation failed, Beckstoffer credits the AVA’s creation for setting a new standard for savvy consumers who want to know exactly where their wine is coming from.

“Since that time, all the sub-appellations — Rutherford, Oakville, St. Helena — have been developed,” Beckstoffer told VinePair. “Now people are looking for vineyard designate, so you peel that onion all the way down to that. That’s the evolution that helps define the Napa Valley and its quality.”

Not to mention set an ever-higher price tag for some of the world’s most coveted bottles. “This changed the world of California wine forever,” says George Webber, staff historian for the Boisset Collection and an expert on Northern California wine history. “If it wasn’t for the Judgment of Paris, we wouldn’t have the AVA, and then we wouldn’t have $1,500 bottles of Screaming Eagle, which almost defies human understanding.”

The article How Napa Valley Became the Country’s Second (Not First) AVA appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/how-napa-valley-became-the-countrys-second-not-first-ava/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/how-napa-valley-became-the-countrys-second-not-first-ava

[delfinamaggiousa]

How Napa Valley Became the Country’s Second (Not First) AVA

When Augusta, Mo., was named the first American Viticultural Area in June 1980, it surprised many that it beat Napa Valley to the designation by just eight months. But Missouri winemaker Lucien Dressel predicted a much tougher road for his California counterparts, whose stature was skyrocketing in the global wine industry following the 1976 Judgment of Paris. “Nobody knows where the Napa Valley begins or ends,” Dressel told reporters. “That will be a real battle.”

That issue — what defines Napa Valley and the wines it produces — was indeed the crux of a cumbersome, sometimes contentious saga of meetings, petitions, and hearings leading up to the creation of the Napa Valley AVA, which became official on Feb. 27, 1981. In 1978, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (now known as the TTB) established criteria for defining an AVA and, as such, the appellation of origin on a bottle. But a major sticking point that emerged among vintners and grape growers across Napa County was how one of those factors — the geographic boundary — would be determined.

There were two opposing viewpoints, one maintained by the prominent Napa Valley Grape Growers Association, led by Andy Beckstoffer, who remains one of the most powerful names in Napa, and the 35-member Napa Valley Vintners. Both groups agreed that the watershed of the Napa River should set the boundaries of the AVA, and in 1978, they jointly commissioned an engineering firm to draw a map showing those boundaries based on U.S. Geological Surveys.

On the other side were growers from eastern Napa County, including prominent names like Inglewood Winery and Domaine Chandon. Calling itself the Eastern Valley Growers, the group asserted that grapes grown throughout the county, not just in the watershed area, had long been associated with the Napa Valley, and that their contributions had helped its rapidly rising stature. That contingent ponied up to hire an attorney, Washington D.C.-based William Demarest, who also noted that using the more limited watershed designation would mean fewer grapes, less wine, and higher prices for consumers.

The years-long debate culminated in a two-day hearing in late April 1980, at a Holiday Inn in Napa, where a five-member BATF panel from Washington, D.C., heard testimony from dozens of witnesses about soils, climate, and geography (in other words, excellent reading for wine geeks). The statement from Bill Jager, a partner in Freemark Abbey and Rutherford Hill wineries (who didn’t attend but had his commentary read aloud), was especially direct (if not a bit dramatic): “If BATF fails to recognize the universal notoriety that Napa Valley wines have achieved … our government will be brought under worldwide ridicule and the full brunt of that fiasco will fall upon the Bureau.”

In the end, the Eastern Valley Growers prevailed, and the BATF allowed the inclusion of Pope, Wooden, and Gordon valleys, among others, into the newly formed Napa Valley AVA when the bureau’s labeling regulations went into effect on Jan. 1, 1983. And even though the watershed recommendation failed, Beckstoffer credits the AVA’s creation for setting a new standard for savvy consumers who want to know exactly where their wine is coming from.

“Since that time, all the sub-appellations — Rutherford, Oakville, St. Helena — have been developed,” Beckstoffer told VinePair. “Now people are looking for vineyard designate, so you peel that onion all the way down to that. That’s the evolution that helps define the Napa Valley and its quality.”

Not to mention set an ever-higher price tag for some of the world’s most coveted bottles. “This changed the world of California wine forever,” says George Webber, staff historian for the Boisset Collection and an expert on Northern California wine history. “If it wasn’t for the Judgment of Paris, we wouldn’t have the AVA, and then we wouldn’t have $1,500 bottles of Screaming Eagle, which almost defies human understanding.”

The article How Napa Valley Became the Country’s Second (Not First) AVA appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/how-napa-valley-became-the-countrys-second-not-first-ava/

source https://vinology1.wordpress.com/2020/03/04/how-napa-valley-became-the-countrys-second-not-first-ava/

[kaplanwineweek]

“did we do anything noteworthy before getting in the car to go to b cellars”

“well I exercised which is noteworthy because that rarely happens”

So, morning activities included exercising, eating breakfast, reading, playing sequence and finishing the french laundry blog, and Katie had 1/2 of her GF donuts from The French Laundry that they sent home with her.

Then we were wheels up and over to Napa for a visit to B Cellars. Recommended by Eater and Food & Wine as a top tasting for foodie/winos, we were looking forward to learning more. 

First impression: Beautiful!

Second Impression: Creepy, very realistic statues. We didn’t take any photos because...creepy... but if you are curious, we found some photos here

Then we entered the hospitality center and met our guide, Forrest, who walked us through to the kitchen where we started with a Sauvignon Blanc and a jerk Hawaiian shrimp with pineapple salsa and plantain chip.  Terri did a happy dance. 

Then we got a tour of their property. Different than some of our other visits, B Cellars aims to make the best possible wine they can from the Napa Valley, which is not dependent on their land. They buy most of their grapes via long term contract of some of the famous Napa vintners. Dutton, Beckstoffer (Andy), and others. 

They also are very culinary and their culinary garden has us all needing to run home and plant vegetables, fruit trees, and herb gardens. 

Then we got a tour of their fermentation tanks. The red thing behind Terri is the cement tank for the sauvignon blanc. They also have the only visual sorter in the valley. 

Then we crossed over and went into their cellars. 15,000 feet of cellars and event space, it's very impressive. 

We got a little cask pull in the cellars of the Cask 27 they are going to bottle in July.. high in Petit Verdot it was ��almost blue with blueberry flavors”

anyone for a dinner party...?

Then we headed back to the main hospitality room for our tasting. We appreciated the personalized nature of the tasting menu. 

The lobster corndog was a bigger hit than our first malolactic fermented chardonnay of the trip. 

Then we had the three reds at the same time as the three bites. 

The very smoky pinot noir tasted much better and less smoky after the pork taco. And the high alcohol content/heat of the zin settled a little bit with the spice and red sauce of the stromboli. Overall, the Cask 27 was the fan favorite as most drinkable and likeable. 

Don’t worry, you haven't had too much wine...You are right that picture doesn't have stromboli in it. The picture is of Katie’s version, so just the cured meats without the dough. 

We thought it was nice to be beginning our morning with a winery that uses Andy Beckstoffer’s grapes to make some of their most famous Cabernets because we were headed to see Boo and Tuck next. So it was super cool when Forrest got out the Coravin and poured us all some of the Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Cabernet Sauvignon for us to taste. 

and WOW it was delicious!! 

Then after a quick group photo, we hustled up the street to Tuck Beckstoffer Estate. 

Boo, Mimi, and Jessica met us in the courtyard with a hug and a glass of Semper Chardonnay. 

We loved getting to see Boo and hear her stories around the wines, the vineyard, and catch up about their family and chat Atlanta. 

We got a tour of their cellar and ended up in their tasting room, which is basically a living room, and tasted the Amulet, and Mockingbird Red and Blue. The stories and thoughtfulness behind the wine names, labels, and production of each blend is so special and the attention to detail and care comes through in the wine and the setting. 

Then we ended with some delicious Macaroons and a group photo. 

Then we borrowed the Tuck Beckstoffer Estate bathroom for a quick change for dinner and then the trusty church van (which still doesn’t have a name) took us just down the road to Long Meadow Ranch. 

We walked around the property and Jamie & Drew got palate cleansing cocktails as to not get too wine-y. 

Then, at 6 pm the shop and cafe closed and we were escorted inside for our private dining experience. 

The Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch is the more well-known and much larger restaurant. We were eating at what is technically a completely different restaurant, The Chef’s Table at Long Meadow Ranch. 

We got a more in-depth tour of Long Meadow Ranch and its history as we sipped Sauvignon Blanc. We saw their culinary garden (now we REALLY want to go home and plant vegetables). They also have a huge open fire cooking area and BBQ pit where they have guest chefs and weddings. 

We ended up back in the cafe at our communal table and met the couple joining us for dinner. They were also from Philadelphia and foodies... so there was lots of common ground for Jamie & Katie to discuss “with our dinner guests”

We were also invited to go into the kitchen at any time to talk to Chef and ask questions or watch... so we did. 

The meal ended with an invitation for an after dinner drink and some time by a bonfire that our waiter had made for us outside. Slightly smoky but very scenic, it was a lovely end to the dinner. 

[michaelgabrill]

For 50 years, Andy Beckstoffer drove up the price of wine. Did the strategy work too well?

[smugrocknation]

The Grapelord of Napa Faces a Threat Worse Than Plague

For 50 years, Andy Beckstoffer drove up the price of wine. Did the strategy work too well?

[togiweb]

The Grapelord of Napa Faces a Threat Worse Than Plague

The Grapelord of Napa Faces a Threat Worse Than Plague

One balmy winter afternoon, Andy Beckstoffer, a grape grower who has done more than nearly anyone to shape the premium U.S. wine industry, was sitting in Mustard’s, a restaurant in Napa Valley that is a kind of clubhouse for the vintner class. Although Beckstoffer Vineyards, the largest private grower in California, had recently set a sales record with a blockbuster harvest of $55 million…

[i-grow-greens]

For 50 years, Andy Beckstoffer drove up the price of wine. Did the strategy work too well? via Agriculture and Farming

[tumbledsom]

The Grapelord of Napa Faces a Threat Worse Than Plague

The Grapelord of Napa Faces a Threat Worse Than Plague

For 50 years, Andy Beckstoffer drove up the price of wine. Did the strategy work too well?

from NYT > Business https://ift.tt/3dmwwXg via IFTTT

[its-lifestyle]

Few have made a larger impact on the evolution of Northern California’s wine industry than Andy Beckstoffer and the company he founded in 1970 at the age of 30, 

... via JustLuxe.com from JustLuxe: Luxury News and Reviews https://ift.tt/3cSqoGQ

[life-of-luxe]

Influential Grapegrower Andy Beckstoffer Celebrates 50 Years of Napa Valley Success

Few have made a larger impact on the evolution of Northern California’s wine industry than Andy Beckstoffer and the company he founded in 1970 at the age of 30, 

... via JustLuxe.com via https://ift.tt/3cSqoGQ