Wine News April 4, 2017

The Guardian on how organic wine sales rising in the UK. "As well as the benefits of producing grapes without using pesticides, organic wine also contains less sulphur dioxide which can contribute towards hangovers."

In the San Francisco Chronicle wine investor Charles Banks pleads guilty to fraud charges. "Banks announced Monday morning that he had stepped down from “day to day management of Terroir.” Convicted felons cannot manage wineries."

The Independent on how to shop for wine. "Not every wine within the same region will taste identical, as winemakers use many different methods to produce them, but it does give you a good idea of what you are more likely to enjoy."

The Globe and Mail profiles winemaker André Heuston Mack. "In a remarkably short period, the self-taught sommelier was making a name for himself. In 2003, he was awarded the Best Young Sommelier in America award by Chaine des Rôtisseurs (the first African-American to do so) and scooped a job with acclaimed chef Thomas Keller, first at the French Laundry in California and later at New York’s Per Se."

In Decanter Andrew Jefford on Valpolicella. "Disagreements about practices and strategies run deep, meaning not only that large producers like Masi and Allegrini have long since left the local Consorzio, but that squabbles here between producer groupings often end in the plump hands of lawyers (at present these include a disagreement concerning the name of the ‘Amarone Families’ or Le Famiglie dell’Amarone d’Arte, as well as a challenge to the regulations controlling the permitted percentage of Amarone which can be made from each year’s crop)."