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Good food and wine sustain us best when produced with care and shared with friends.

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2月, 2020

BEE MINE

In California’s sustainable vineyards, there’s an invading army you mostly can’t see. Ladybugs, beneficial mites, bees, parasitic wasps, praying mantis, spiders and other tiny soldiers are patrolling the leafy grapevines, hunting for aphids, harmful mites and other destructive insects that are up to no good.

By growing cover crops and maintaining thick stands of host plants, known as insectaries, grape growers can attract the hard-working predators that keep pest populations under control.

 

 

The Pour

Which Wine?

California sparkling wines range in price from easily affordable to big splurge, but all reliably lift the mood when that cork pops. No special glassware required. Slender sparkling wine flutes are nice for admiring the bead (that’s the bubble), but many somms prefer a standard wine glass.

Despite its delicacy, sparkling wine can handle the riot of flavors on a cheese board, from savory to sweet. Choose a blanc de blancs if the cheeses are mostly young and fresh, a brut if the selections are mostly aged or more robust. Sparkling rosé, with its romantic blush, is a Valentine in a bottle.


Wine Institute is an association of nearly 1,000 California wineries and affiliated businesses from the beautiful and diverse wine regions throughout the state. Wine Institute works to create an environment where the wine community can flourish and contribute in a positive fashion to our nation, state and local communities. For information please contact communications@wineinstitute.org.