TODAY'S TOP NEWS

• Court Dismisses Empire’s Lawsuit Against NYSLA
• Immigration reform: Farmworkers, agribusiness feel left out
• Americans' Projected Holiday Spending Up Slightly From 2013
• Bringing movie magic to the wine world will win new drinkers
• How Climate Change Will End Wine As We Know It
• Take control of your wine costing and set your prices with confidence *Sponsored Link*

• Turmoil Over Immigration Status? California Has Lived It for Decades
• A Legal Look At Reform Of The Immigration System

• 2014 Vintage Report: European Wine Harvest
• Small harvests hit Burgundy exports
• OZ: Frankland wine producers moving on after devastating hail storm wiped out crops in October
• Northwest ice wine harvest comes early
• 2014 California Winegrape Harvest: Outstanding

• Jackson Family Pres to Open 2015 Unified Symposium
• Few signs of summer’s earthquake in Napa, Vallejo
• See the world of wine in 4 minutes – ProWein 2015 presents an unparalleled diversity of wines from all continents. *Sponsored Link*

• Drought revives forgotten art of dry farming vines
• Drought worries deepen for groundwater users
• Back-to-back _ to back _ storms in California raise hopes of ease in drought
• How this week’s rain figures in California’s drought
• ‘Weak’ El Niño won’t bring much relief to drought-stricken California this winter
• Orange County Recycled Water System Shows Importance of Collaboration
• Getting our money’s worth from $7.5 billion water bond
• Sacramento to speed water meters
• Drought requires fresh thinking on residential water use
• WSU wins national award for water-saving research

• Do bloggers have an obligation to wineries that wine and dine them?
• Is Wine PR Nothing More Than Bribes?
• Newspapers are dead as we knew them

• Do you need to smell wine to enjoy it?
• Rotundone: Is there anything new to learn?
• If You Smell Something, Say Something

• Putting the Focus on Oak in Winemaking
• Sherry and The Raw Revolution
• Buy a Nouveau Today
• "Painting" the 2012 Zinfandel

• Great Napa Valley wines will rival Bordeaux First Growths

• Wacky winemaker Yealands tastes success
• Change in winemakers at Washington’s Swiftwater Cellars
• A French style Thanksgiving in Lodi
• How Do You Say Sommelier in Mandarin or Cantonese?
• The Tastemakers: Why We're Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed Up with Fondue *Sponsored Link*

• Baja's wine country is crushing it
• South Okanagan winery redefines winemaking excellence
• Leading Idaho wine out of the wilderness
• Donnafugata and the New Western Sicily

• Beychevelle to showcase winemaking with glass-walled winery

• Could a restaurant charge customers a "bad review" fee?

• There is a wine class to suit all palates

• How wine tourism has taken off in Catalonia
• Global Wine Tourism *Sponsored Link*

• TX: Farmers' war on weeds threatens neighboring vineyards

Thanksgiving Store Openings Remain Controversial

Source: eMarketer

TODAY'S FEATURED WINE

Gran Conti: Sangiovese: Rubicone IGT: : 2012: Italy

This is a light, adequate wine whose limited flavor vocabulary speaks just above a whisper.

To truly be enjoyable, it needs to be sipped from a tumbler while sitting amongst friends under an olive tree on the side of a steep Umbrian hill.

$8.99 at Whole Foods - priced a couple of dollars too high for the quality.

 REVIEW POLICY:

For winery tasting samples, gifts from friends or family or samplings at a party or event, review it truthfully, but only if I like it. If I have paid my own very-hard-earned money on a bottle, the gloves are off and it gets what it deserves ... whether perfect or puerile.