Since its launch in 2022, ChatGPT has swept into our lives like a whirlwind romance. It’s the new Google for our age. Don’t know what to cook for dinner? ChatGPT it. Need to finally draft that pesky email? ChatGPT it. In fact, some people are literally dating the chatbot. CBS Saturday Morning recently reported on Chris Smith, a man who claims to have fallen in love with ChatGPT. He’s even proposed. She said yes. It’s a heartwarming tale that forebodes the end of human civilization as we know it. Of course, the insatiable demand to have all our questions answered and our heart’s deepest desire fulfilled at the push of a button comes with ripple effects—not only for our souls, but our wallets. The AI boom has unleashed a construction spree of energy-hungry data centers to support the tech’s exploding use, requiring utility companies to upgrade their infrastructure, which is then passed on to the average consumer in the form of electricity bills

Winegrowers are nothing if not adaptable, given that the grape is a harbinger crop, or in more prosaic terms, the canary in the coal mine for agriculture. As a result, when climate shifts generate more frequent heat waves of higher temperatures and longer duration, viticulturists swing into action with a toolbox of methods to mitigate the effects.  Growers use misters to cool the air around the grapes, irrigate in advance of heat waves to prevent dehydration, and even apply anti-transpirants that work like sunscreen to protect from sun damage. Medium-term options include changing canopy management to delay ripening and using regenerative farming techniques to boost water retention in the soil.  The most aggressive strategies involve relocating vineyards to cooler microclimates or pulling up and replacing less heat-tolerant varietals. However, vineyard owners are unlikely to invest in these approaches while consumption and demand are declining.  A better alternative wou

Afternoon Brief, February 13th

January Deep Freeze Causes Near-Total Loss in Okanagan Vineyards: The Okanagan’s grape crop has been decimated by a mid-January freeze with losses expected to approach 100 percent this year...

While associated with fun and frivolity, sparkling wine is a complex wine of many moving parts that requires serious skill to make. We catch up with some of the leading lights in the fizz industry, from Champagne, Spain and England, to find out the secrets of their craft and the challenges surrounding creating a consistent sparkling wine style in an ever-changing climate. Synonymous with celebration, sparkling wines are easy to enjoy but challenging to create. Crafting quality fizz requires a skilled hand, well-trained nose, razor-sharp intuition and nerves of steel come harvest time, when deciding on the perfect moment to pick feels like a game of Russian roulette. Cellar masters are the wizards of the wine world, able to create a consistent style of wine each year from hundreds of elements amid increasingly erratic weather conditions. They have to be time travellers too, projecting themselves into the future when tasting aggressively acidic base wines, working out how they will harmo

Unstable weather is making it increasingly hard to decide picking dates for grapes. We caught up with leading winemakers from Australia, France and the UK to find out how earlier harvests are impacting on grape quality. Having always been at the mercy of Mother Nature, winemakers are acutely aware of the impact climate change is having on their livelihoods. Temperatures aren’t only rising, weather patterns are becoming increasingly erratic and extreme, and incidents of devastating wildfires, floods, droughts and late spring frosts are becoming more commonplace in the world’s leading wine-growing regions. In 2021, France was besieged by a cocktail of climate catastrophes, from destructive spring frosts and raging wildfires to violent hail storms. The April frosts across swathes of French vineyard land were particularly brutal, resulting in losses of up to EUR 2 billion. Yields across France hit historic lows in 2021, down 30% on average, though losses were far worse in many

Congratulations to the illustrious winners of our annual Sunset International Spirits Competition. Despite the Western origins of the margarita and the martini, for the better part of a century, the history of spirits in the United States has been rooted toward the east, with its storied New York cocktail culture and the iconic distilleries of the South. But over the years, enterprising distillers, itinerant cocktailians, bartender visionaries, and homegrown drinks enthusiasts have transformed the West into one of the most vibrant, progressive, and thriving regions for all things drinks. Our annual Spirits Issue is where we celebrate the people and companies keeping this spirit of the West alive. In these pages you’ll find the illustrious winners of our annual Sunset International Spirits Competition. Every year, we convene to taste and evaluate hundreds of worthy competitors and bestow awards on the best spirits brands in the West and beyond. The list of winners is a handy way

"It's a wonderful, wide world of wine in the West, and each year we host the Sunset  Wine Awards to steer you to bottles worth seeking out. We assembled a panel of judges and tasted our way through hundreds of bottles that collectively represent what's being grown, made, and poured throughout the West. You'll find the winners at the top and other notable bottles throughout. These vintages deliver what wine lovers want most: accessibility, satisfaction and, above all, deliciousness. Cheers!"  ~ Sunset Magazine, Digital Issue ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Click Here for the 2021 Sunset International Wine Competition Digital Issue See Pages 91-142 for Competition Winners

Welcome to the first installment of LibDib’s multi-part series on E-Premise. E-Premise is a term we LibDibbers use often. It’s really important  as we think about the evolution of this industry. Now, more than ever there are three channels to invest in when developing a brand: On-Prem, Off-Prem and…E-Prem! We took some time to sit down with each of our E-Premise partners to find out more about their company and offerings to Makers. First up is Speakeasy, based in San Diego. For the newbies out there: What is E-Premise? E-Premise is a “direct to consumer” (DTC) way to build a brand online. DTC is in quotes because these programs are within the three-tier system where all orders to consumers are fulfilled via licensed retailers. In the past, wine and spirits brands were separated from the end customer (sometimes by two tiers), but E-Premise strategies have ended that division, compliantly, and allowed for more visibility into the person buying and cons

By Charlotte Seligman 10 years owning and working the vineyards of Limerick Lane Cellars, Jake Bilbro, decided it was time to recast the winery’s brand to be more reflective of the estate’s unique 110-year history. He wanted to convey the rich story of the land and the people who worked it. But how to weave a visual and verbal narrative that succinctly speaks of the land’s magic and the world-class wines it produces? These questions haunted Jake Bilbro for weeks, until one day he found his inspiration. In his own words, Bilbro describes the experience: “Often, I find the answers to many questions associated with Limerick Lane in the property itself: the hills, the vines, the rocks, the trees, and of course, my family. This would be no different. At home, where my family sleeps, and the original founders of the vineyard slept, covered with grass and flowers at the end of our driveway lies a section of a tree stump. I have passed by the stump hundreds of