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Leaf blown; Where are the women winemakers; Smoking out new business; and more

Posted on July 23, 2015 by Sonoma Valley Sun

One more thing about leaf blowers. Using them is littering. Can you imagine dumping your green waste can all over your neighbor’s yard? That’s what, in increments, leaf blowers do – blow your crap onto the neighbor’s lawn until his guy blows it back. Putting it in the street is no better. Any new rule about leaf blowers should include the provision that the leaves (et cetera) get picked up and hauled away.

Are women winemakers in California breaking through the cork ceiling in an industry historically dominated by men? The answer, as clear and crisp as a dry Sauvignon Blanc, is no, according to a study published by the American Association of Wine Economists. Despite the fact that about half of the graduates of premier enology programs in California are women, only about 9.8 percent of California wineries have a woman as lead winemaker. If it seems like more, it’s because of all the good press those female winemakers get. The study also concluded that women winemakers are more highly acclaimed than their male counterparts, so the (incorrect) perception is that more women winemakers have “made it” in a male-dominated industry.

The Friday morning Sonoma Valley Certified Farmers’ Market has its annual evening gig on Friday, August 31, for the annual Zucchini Car Races at Sebastiani Winery. It’s the latest in the Farm to Table movement – the vegetable drives itself.

Tim Tesconi, retiring as the director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, had this to say about his likely successor: “The bureau will soon hire a new executive director, likely someone from the next generation eager to lead us into the future. It will be a person who begins each day by Tweeting and posting on Facebook. But it also will be someone rooted in agriculture who knows which end of a cow gets up first or which end of the grapevine goes into the ground.” And there goes Tim, out to pasture – in a good way.

When did potential business revenue become the overriding criteria for Planning decisions? Your tasting room will generate more money than a clothing store? Come on in! Pet Food Express: Sit! Stay! Williams-Sonoma: yes, approved – you had us at Williams!… It follows, then, that when marijuana becomes legal, pot stores – and their 15% sales tax – should be welcomed like fresh cookies at a pot party. Like Arcata, where the city council is intrigued by the future marketability of the Humboldt brand, Sonoma Valley should get to work on a branding campaign for its own weed appellation… And where will the revenue go? To fix the pot holes, of course.

Lorrie (one of our dear Facebook friends with one name) agreed with the recent Sun editorial on the need of enforcement in a culture where rules, when found to be inconvenient, are simply ignored. “It’s true. People don’t do what’s ‘expected,’ only what’s ‘inspected’.

— Val Robichaud

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