"Redwoods versus Red Wine" in Northern California - LAtimes.com

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0825-redwoods-vineyards-20110825,0,3104451,full.story

The above is a local story, though printed in LA Times.

I look out over several vineyards that were forests when I moved here 30 some years ago. Many never got approval to clear cut or log, they just did it and payed the fine later. Now the tasting rooms are moving in.

Goddess help us...

[CrispyQ]

1. I vote for the trees. --nt

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

2. here is another link to some news of this project:

http://www.gualalariver.org/vineyards/Mendonoma-Coasts-Second-Spanish-Invasion-AVA.html

snip

Artesa has outdone nearly all other wineries, however, by actually having featured its own artist-in-residence at the winery, a nationally famous Napa Valley sculpter named Gordon Huether. The amount the company spends annually to maintain its modernist art image, then, would seem to be greater than the wine production budgets of many modern wineries.

Codorníu's financial and cultural stature is far greater in its home country than in the United States, of course. Take one member of the company's former majority owning family, Manuel Raventós, who parlayed his stature as a one-time owner of Codorníu to become director at Criteria CaixaCorp, the principal investment holding arm of Europe's largest savings bank, La Caixa, which has literally tens of billions of dollars under management. Raventós is also a director of Spain's largest health insurance company, VidaCaixa Group. Raventós formerly was a director of Spain's largest oil refining company, Respol, the 15th largest such outfit in the world.

In spite of its financial successes, Codorníu as a company does not always make wise investments. The decision by its Napa proxies to go to such extreme lengths to develop a pinot noir vineyard outside Annapolis was made during the height of the premium grape rush, which statistically peaked in the late-'90s in terms of the number of vineyard acres being planed, tapering off noticeably after the Silicon Valley bubble burst in 2002. Since 2008, the market for high-end wine has been severely glutted in particular, with countless Sonoma and Mendocino growers having to sit on their grapes or sell them at an unprofitable price.

snip...

[Rabblevox]

3. I lived in Santa Rosa (near Napa) wineries fucking DESTROYED the area...

Northwest California is one of the most productive agricultural spots in the world. When I was young, it was a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables, (and wine grapes), a large percentage grown by small family farms.

Starting in the 80's, though, the region got a reputation for wine. Acre after acre, we watched orchards and farms being replaced by vinyards and casinos. It's a more genteel tactic than clear-cutting, but the results are the same. Where once there was variety, now there is mono-culture. It's not that vineyards or wine-makers are evil, they are not, and some are awesome people (the same can also be said of soldiers and bankers)

The few who tried to protest were completely ignored, because they were fighting a river of money. And the money always fucking wins.

Just god-damned sad.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. No kidding. NorCal needs diversified ag again.

It makes me sad to go by malls and office parks with names like Pruneyard or _________ Ranch.
The monoculture of grapevines is just another symptom of the same disease.

[Joe Fields]

4. Un-fucking believable...

These assholes equate grapes to the most majestic living things on earth?

And the arrogance of this asshole..Tom Adams, who said,

"These forests can be cleared and preserved at the same time, he said, to serve the needs of the land and its residents — as well as the corporations' financial interests."

Fuck Tom Adams and all those greedy motherfuckers in the ass with a downed redwood.

[Pooka Fey]

5. Those redwood forests are sacred. Enough already.

God, this pisses me off. :grr:

[many a good man]

7. But someone should stand up and speak for the vines

Can anyone stand up?

[Odin2005]

8. Bastards! Those redwoods are FUCKING SACRED.

:grr:

[Pooka Fey]

9. Kicking for the Redwood Forests of Northern California

[closeupready]

10. If this succeeds, I'm going to boycott CA wine.

nt

[mulsh]

11. do they have to plant god damned vinyards everywhere in Sonoma?

Over the past decade "vineyards" have spread exponentially. From major industrial wine makers like the Spanish group in the article to wealthy folk who plant a handful of vines and call their McEstate a "Vineyard. Vines are spreading like controlled kudzu through out Sonoma County.

"Enough is too much!"

The disease has spread as far south as the Oakland Hills where I've seen a few houses with "vineyards" in their back yards.

[RedCappedBandit]

12. People need their drugs!

[fifthoffive]

13. Vineyards in Sonoma/Nape

I was talking to an employee at one of the Napa wineries last week. Seems a lot of vineyards have opened up without also starting up wine-making.

There's a glut of grapes and many vineyards cannot sell their grapes.

Maybe the rush is over, and there will be less of this from here on out.

[dana_b]

14. no!!

"Opponents organized under the banner Friends of the Gualala River have enlisted allies among the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, who worry that the project would destroy sacred remains scattered throughout the targeted groves."

Great - selling wine is more important than this? How would these corporations like it if someone built a mall on top of their grandparents' graves?

These redwoods have been here long before us and HOPEFULLY will be here long after we're gone.

[CrispyQ]

15. Consuming the eco-system for the profit of a few.

That was in some eco-movie - The 11th Hour or something like that. But it really resonated with me.

[dana_b]

16. the Leo DiCaprio film, right?

I still need to see that. Thanks for the reminder and yes - they will rape the land/sea if it it will put a buck in their pockets. Pinot noir? Really??

[DisgustipatedinCA]

17. here's the 1-star rating I just posted on Yelp for Artesa

"I have no particular complaints about Artesa's wine, or their winery--it's a really nice place to visit. However, I have a huge problem with Artesa wanting to clear-cut 2000 acres of redwood forest along the Sonoma coast where I live. They want to put in 2000 acres of Pinot grapes. There are lots of grapes already growing in Napa and Sonoma Counties, and destroying old growth (and second-growth) redwoods in order to squeeze out some more profit is completely unacceptable.

Please do consider visiting Artesa's winery and buying their wine as soon as they abandon plans to destroy the redwood forest that means so much to so many people.

Thank you."