For almost 30 years French winegrowers battled to combat the dastardly bug while wine yields plummeted.
When drunk cool, not cold, the wine yields apricot and peach flavors along with litchi, a basic trait of gewürztraminer.
Over 20 years and more than 1,000 encounters with stars of stage, screen and sporting arena, I've found that an atmosphere of conviviality, preferably involving lunch and at least one bottle of wine, yields the best interview.
The cycle: Higher alcohol in the wine yields a higher score from a critic; a higher score equals higher sales for the winery; the next vintage rolls around, and the winery lets the grapes ripen a bit longer than the year before (weather permitting).
There is a group on Facebook called, "Moms Who Need Wine" that currently has nearly 725,000 members and a quick search of the words "moms" and "wine" yields hundreds of other smaller groups with no doubt dedicated members.
Years of trying many dishes with different wines yields preferences that can stand in for any system.
There, in the 13th century, Cistercian monks undertook the first rigorous assessment of vineyards, exploring the compatibility of various wine grapes to the environment and carving up the land in such a way as to reflect differences in the caliber of the wines yielded from one parcel to the next.
Despite an increase in the number of wineries and continued expansion of the amount of land devoted to wine production, the average yield fell to 9.2 tons a hectare, from 9.7 tons.
Berry size and number are major yield components for both table fruit and wine production.
Low glycerol production is essential for maximal yield in bioethanol production [ 5, 9, 10] while a high glycerol yield and a reduced ethanol yield are positive traits in wine production [ 11- 14].
