Word: grapes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Many of these flaws were partially overcome by the spectacular scenery, designed by Gianni Quaranta. Act I transpires before the backdrop of elaborate, orangeish, interlaced trees set against a vibrant blue sky; traditional German houses and a grape arbor complete the dramatic set. Act II begins with dry ice sweeping over the stage which, far from disappearing, is contained by a filmy curtain to create the illusion of snow...
...large fortune. For all its aura of romance, making wine is an enterprise fraught with woes -- both man-made and natural. Government regulators have been acting lately as if wine were as much of a health hazard as tobacco. Even in sunny, bountiful California, frosts can shrivel vulnerable young grape buds. Untimely rains can ruin a harvest. And periodically, vineyards are assaulted by plagues of voracious insects...
...Grape growers in Northern California have not one but two of these hungry bugs to contend with. About 30,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties, site of the state's most prestigious vineyards, will eventually have to be replanted because of infestation by minute root lice called phylloxera. Now many of those same vineyards, as well as others in Lake and Mendocino counties, are battling even more dangerous pests: tiny insects called "sharpshooters," which spread a bacterium that causes Pierce's disease...
Phylloxera can be stymied by regrafting grape buds onto resistant varieties of rootstock. No such defense is available against PD. The sharpshooter aphids attack the moisture-carrying vessels of vines and can kill them off in a year. Particularly vulnerable are vineyards near lakes and rivers, where the bug lives, since spraying with pesticides is banned because of the danger to fish and water. In case of a sharpshooter onslaught, says viticulturist Jim Wolpert of the University of California at Davis, a grower's only recourse is to "yank the vines and start over...
...banning of grapes on campus in response to accusations that migrant workers are mistreated by California grape farmers...