One of the better and most established wine blogs out there (est. 1994) is the one written by Alder Yarrow who posted a pretty amazing report a few days ago you probably haven't heard about.  Now, growing up with a box of wine in the fridge labelled "Chablis", I always assumed that it was just another kind of wine or "Daddy's Happy Juice."  But later in life when I began to appreciate wine, I began to understand why the French were really pissed off that we threw around their centuries old hallowed parcels of land as mere marketing terms for sugary wine (fyi - we're slowly but surely pulling my Dad away from the dark side).   Grand Cru Chablis is about as good as white wine can get on our lovely earth and there it is printed on a box just to sound French.  Add to this the fact that our wine industry also stole "Champagne" and "Burgundy" and it definitely adds up to something pretty egregious.  But as of last week, Europe seems to be fighting back.   If the following terms are on a wine label, that wine can not legally be imported or sold in Europe any longer:

chateau

classic

clos

cream

crusted/crusting

fine

late bottled vintage

noble

ruby

superior

sur lie

tawny

vintage

vintage character

Now let's list the wineries this will effect just by winery name:

Chateau Montelena

Chateau St. Jean

Chateau Souverein

Chateau Sinnet

Chateau Potelle

Clos Pegase

Clos du Bois

Clos du Val

Clos LaChance

Clos Pepe

     Perhaps this is a hangover from the "Freedom Fries" days in '02  or as Alder suggests,  "a bit of sneaky revenge against Chateau Montelena thirty years after the fact".  Many of these terms should be protected but "Chateau"?  Chateau means "estate".  Are Mexico and Spain going to ban "Casa"?   "Vintage"???   This all just really sucks because we were about to bottle and export our first wine called "Chateau Crusty - A Classic Ruby Vintage Superior to Cream"  Guess that one is going down the drain.  Bummer. 

     So this is recession related and Eagle Rock related, but only tangentially wine related.  In case you missed it, the NYTimes did a piece last week on the struggling businesses in Eagle Rock and it has caused quite a ruckus amongst Eagle Rock natives and newbies alike.  The writer and everyone interviewed for this article are either customers, friends or both, and Jennifer and I were both interviewed a handful of times, but were ultimately edited out of the final piece. 

     While there are very respectable arguments for and against the opinions in this piece, there is no doubt that it struck a cord.  I'll just throw one opinion into the mix on the whole idea of gentrification/de-gentrification/ hipsterville/ the next silverlake this-and-that.... As much as any neighborhood in Los Angeles, the Eagle Rock commercial corridor is full of first-time entrepeneurs making a very conscious decision to bet their dreams and livelihoods on this neighborhood -- it's diverse, it's open, it's wacky as all hell (that's a good thing) and it's a great place to raise a family.  If the idea were to make a quick buck, all these businesses would have sprung up elsewhere in LA.  Eagle Rock is not going to be the next anything, it's Eagle Rock and that's a unique and wonderful thing in a city where neighborhoods are becoming bland cubby holes for big chain stores.  And to those that are wishing for the 'new' businesses of Eagle Rock to go out of business or go away?  Sorry, Charlie....aint gonna happen.