Good news for importers: the US started accepting applications for tariff refunds.
Consumers can't expect lower prices BUT this might mean we won't see price increases in the near future.
www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/04/wi...
A little bit of good news for wine importers today: Tariff refunds are coming!
Don't expect lower prices on the shelves. But this could keep wine prices from rising more in the near future.
www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/04/wi...
Hey folks, I believe Uber's support number has been hacked. I got a robocall from Uber last night, and it looked real, but after looking further I think it's phishing.
But, it came from a real Uber phone number.
So, be careful.
It's not just this site.
I reported on a story last year where I think I was the only person in the US to do so. I wrote that here and a troll said, "Lots of others have covered it. Google it."
I did. A half-dozen sites I had never heard of had stolen my work and put a different byline on it.
NEW: We caught a site run by a buzzy PR firm ripping off local and national journalism at an almost incomprehensible scale -- it's like a fully automatic machine gun spraying bullets of pure plagiarism directly into the internet
futurism.com/artificial-i...
Family feud has siblings suing each other in a scorched-earth way that might ultimately lead to none of them owning the winery.
It's so nasty that one side used AI to invent legal citations.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/u...
No, can you summarize?
I'll be honest, I don't really know what this means, but I'll bet the answer is "layoffs."
www.winebusiness.com/news/article...
How desperate are small Napa wineries to sell wine?
I just got an email offering me 2026 Cabernet grapes from St. Helena OR cases of bottled wine from 4 previous vintages ...
and this email was from a realtor. How they got stuck with the St. Helena property, I don't know.
"This is not an old-fashioned supply and demand cycle. This is a structural change."
Everyone says Napa has too much Cabernet Sauvignon now. But what else could farmers do with their land? Walnuts? Pears? Christmas trees?
Tony Correia is a leading expert in valuing agricultural properties, especially vineyards. Here's what he has to say.
www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/04/na...
Everyone says Napa has too much Cabernet Sauvignon now. But, what else could farmers do with their land? Walnuts? Pears Christmas trees?
Tony Correia is a leading expert in valuing agricultural properties, especially vineyards. Here's what he has to say.
www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/04/na...
This is potentially a big deal in the organic/sustainable farming world. A lot of farmers were waiting for Monarch's self-driving tractor to become functional. Now Caterpillar owns the technology. Will that get a working model to market sooner?
www.msn.com/en-us/money/...
A South African wine figure says that if the wine media dies, you'll all be drinking AI-created plonk.
I don't know if he's right ... but maybe you'd better support the wine media, just in case. 😉
winemag.co.za/wine/opinion...
California Democrats have to ask ourselves this morning how a nonentity backbencher and sexual predator became our leading candidate for governor.
I have a theory: Because we're not taking the role of governing in that job seriously. All Swalwell had was bluster. That shouldn't be enough.
My latest Sunday wine news roundup:
🍷 Torres in debt restructure talks;
🍷 Champagne frost damage revised upwards;
🍷 Rémy Cointreau announces reorganization;
🍷 Argentina wine crisis deepens; and
🍷 Barrel hire firm goes under
www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/04/sp...
Perhaps he is both? How can you tell? Is that even possible?
US wine imports were down for every one of our top 12 -- but not Austria. For some reason, Austrian wine imports were up slightly.
Grüner revival?
U.S. wine imports fell by $565 million (-8.3%) year-over-year. Italy (-$220M) and France (-$119M) accounted for the largest absolute losses. Among major trading partners, the steepest percentage declines were recorded for Moldova (-63%), Switzerland (-33%), Georgia (-33%), and South Africa (-30%).
You hate to see this. They call themselves “the first winery in the United States to be founded by Mexican vineyard workers on their own land.”
Sorry, paywall.
www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/ar...
When I was a poor college student, a bonus from these frozen dinners was that the plate was reusable. Not exactly the "good china," but I had several of them.
If you're in San Francisco, you can have a good, cheap lunch at a culinary school, made by students. I once worked near such a school and enjoyed such lunches all the time. Recommended.
www.sfgate.com/food/article...
Though it has never been his profession, Randall Grahm is one of the greatest living wine writers. His prose style is inimitable, and I love his dry sense of humor.
Here, Randall shares his view of the current state of affairs in wine.
www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/04/us...
The New York Times writes about Buzzballz so I don't have to.
No matter what brand of wine you like, Buzzballz sells more. This is at least a $500 million brand.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/s...
Not every day has to be a 100% work day.
I struggle with this myself. On days when I don't write a story, unless I spent that day out interviewing people, I feel guilty. But I am my own boss, like you, and I don't HAVE to work 100% every day.
I support you, Randall. Sleep in. Listen to your body.
The 4 Types of Rich Outsiders Screwing Up Napa Valley:
Napa has 400+ wineries and needs 100 to 170 of them to go out of business, says a local mogul.
But the rich outsiders aren't in it for the money, and they're mucking up the system.
www.wine-searcher.com/m/2026/04/in...
Yellow Tail records A$5.5m loss as U.S. sales falter.
Casella Wines, maker of Yellow Tail, has reported its first loss in 13 years as sales to the U.S. fell by almost 17%.
winetitles.com.au/yellow-tail-...
Super long but interesting essay about ageism in restaurant seating.
The author says that once he passed age 60, every restaurant wants to seat him in the worst booth in the place, next to the bus station.
robertsimonson.substack.com/p/bus-statio...
I've only been to Alaska once. The wine selection was very limited there and we had Pacific Rim wines almost every day. (Great seafood, so we usually had Pacific Rim Riesling.)
What will they drink now?
www.winebusiness.com/news/article...
The original Charles Shaw property is up for auction, again. I liked its wines in its most recent incarnation as Benessere. But the market for Italian varietals in California has never been strong, even though they grow well here.
Paywall, sorry.
www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/ar...