{"id":2456096,"date":"2020-03-20T18:16:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T00:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=322956"},"modified":"2020-03-20T18:16:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T00:16:00","slug":"wineink-the-new-wine-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/wineink-the-new-wine-world\/","title":{"rendered":"WineInk: The New Wine World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It is both personal and global.<\/p>\n

As this column was about to go to press last week, I received notification of the postponement of an Italian wine dinner at Aspen\u2019s The Little Nell hotel\u2019s Element 47 restaurant, scheduled for March 13.<\/p>\n

Though the markets were in turmoil and the state of Washington was already fully engulfed in the madness and Italy was closing its borders, the reality of how it could affect us here was not something that I had fully reckoned with. Perhaps I was na\u00efve and a bit selfish, living in my own little bubble, but it took a personal experience to bring home the global implications of what we are going through.<\/p>\n

Over the next 48 hours the news came hot and heavy. The NBA shutdown seemed like the big brick in the crumbling wall, especially since it was quickly followed by the NHL, the MLB, the XFL and \u2014 perhaps most depressingly \u2014 the entire NCAA spring sports schedule. Even if you are not a sports fan, these are significant American happenings and to suddenly, unequivocally, have them gone so quickly was mind-bending.<\/p>\n

News that a group of Australian tourists had tested positive in Aspen, the closure of school districts and finally, the shuttering of Colorado ski resorts all in just a few days\u2019 time showed how fluid the situation was (and still is) for us here in the Rockies.<\/p>\n

My wife and I made an early morning trip mid-week to shop for essentials in the event that we would be \u201chunkering down\u201d for more than just the weekend. And yes, we made a stop at the wine\/liquor store on the way home. While we stocked up on some beer, a few bottles of quaffable wine and a spirit or two, I noted that the shop I was in was empty.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeen pretty slow,\u201d said the proprietor with a grim shake of the head.<\/p>\n

Personally, that all seems like a long time ago.<\/p>\n

Then there is the global side of things.<\/p>\n

Australia was the first wine-exporting country to fall victim as the virus caused the shutdown of much of China in January and February, including the important Lunar New Year. Over the past decade China has become far and away the largest export market for Australian wines, with wines from Australia trailing just France in Chinese imports. China, as of yet, does not produce and export much wine, but their factories produce many goods like labels, closures, bottles and parts that are important to not just the wine industry, but just about all industries. Luxury French wine producer LVMH, owner of Maison Veuve Cliquot, Mo\u00ebt & Chandon and Dom Perignon also saw dramatic drops in the Chinese marketplace<\/p>\n

Italy was the next wine producer to be hit by the coronavirus and, as of this writing, is still in total lockdown. It was just March 3 that VinItaly, one of the largest wine shows in the world and arguably its most important, announced that it was moving the event in Verona from April to, hopefully, June. That now seems unlikely.<\/p>\n

This is the time of year when Italian wines like prosecco and ros\u00e9 are in the process of being shipped to export markets for summer sipping. The effects on the wine industry in Italy are, at this point, closely tied to the progress of the nation\u2019s recovery from the virus. It is impossible to predict what will happen in either the short or long term. Day by day, or perhaps giorno per giorno, is the best way to approach it.<\/p>\n

And if you think it\u2019s hard for Americans to be without March Madness, imagine the French without their caf\u00e9s. As of last Saturday, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has decreed that all \u201cnon-essential\u201d commerce be closed. This includes bars and caf\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

While the southern hemisphere is in the midst of the 2020 harvest in countries like Argentina, Chile and South Africa, if there is a silver lining for those vineyards in the Northern Hemisphere it is that they are very early in the stages of the next vintage. While workers are in the process of preparing the vines for the coming vintage, there is not the pressure of a harvest to complicate things at this time.<\/p>\n

However, last Sunday, Gavin Newsome, governor of California and a man who has a long history in wine as both a retailer and producer, shut down tasting rooms at all California wineries. This comes as the spring tourist season begins and the wedding schedule in the Napa Valley is chock full. The disappointment will be personal.<\/p>\n

Looking for a sunnier note? The first \u201cbud break\u201d of 2020 in the Napa Valley occurred last Friday in the Carneros appellation. A dry February in the region led to the mid-March break in the southernmost part of California\u2019s most famed wine region. Nature maintains its rhythm.<\/p>\n

May it herald brighter days ahead. Both globally and individually.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is both personal and global. As this column was about to go to press last week, I received notification of the postponement of an Italian wine dinner at Aspen\u2019s The Little Nell hotel\u2019s Element 47 restaurant, scheduled for March 13. Though the markets were in turmoil and the state of Washington was already fully […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 09:03:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}