Word: grapes
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...organizing the migrant farm workers of California’s fields and co-founded the UFW in 1962. Later that year she pushed for legislation repealing the inhumane Bracero Program, which legally exploited the labor of Mexican nationals. In 1965, she directed the UFW’s national grape boycott, which communicated the worker’s suffering to the consumers in order to end subhuman wages, worker abuses, poor living conditions, and the use of toxic pesticides, among other atrocities. Her efforts culminated in a three-year collective bargaining between the UFW and the entire California grape industry...
...Italian Bernardino Branca developed a cure-all he called Fernet - an 80-proof concoction containing myrrh (what's with all the myrrh?), rhubarb, chamomile, aloe, cardamom, peppermint oil and a number of other ingredients including a lot of grape-infused spirits and some opiates. Branca used the drink to treat a number of ailments, including hangovers and cholera. Fernet is still available (now opiate-free), although it's usually served as an after dinner drink...
...terroir is definitely questionable, since no region of the country seems ill suited for winemaking except the Deep South, all of which I think Sherman salted. Though I didn't touch the dirt on these vineyards, my impression is that it's more a matter of finding the right grape for your climate. (Michigan's riesling was one of my favorites...
Sure, most of these wines were overly simple, and I could get a much better bottle for the money from Spain or Portugal, but I got to try several grapes I'd never heard of. Chambourcin is being used on the East Coast to make weird, interesting reds. And I loved the Midwest's big, tannic Norton grape. I had a dark red grape called Marechal Foch from Pennsylvania that was really different. After all this, though, I still don't know if terroir matters. It could be that the South's muscadine grape is inherently horrifying or just that...
...Using first grape juice and then wine as their test samples, Jonquera-Jiménez and her team attached a series of synthetic membranes to a silicon chip called a microsensor. Each membrane detects a different chemical component of the liquid - components that, when combined, mark the distinct characteristics of each grape varietal. So far, the device can distinguish among four: chardonnay, Aisén, malvasia and macabeu. It can also measure the difference between a 2005 vintage and a 2007. "It should even be able to identify, say, a chardonnay regardless of whether it was grown in France...