land, money, labor, and stains

October 12, 2017 7:39 AM

The Forgotten Kingpins Who Conspired to Save California Wine

Frances Dinkelspiel goes into the dark history of the California wine industry

"While things are better now, the history of the wine business in California is in part a story of injustice and exploitation -- one that's not widely recognized or acknowledged by wine makers and trade organizations."

" The author of Tangled Vines was one step ahead of me. She sees the relationship between wine crime and art crime as meaningful and mentions it in the text. As I sat there, sipping my California Zinfandel (real? fake?), highlighting passages of the book where wine criminals remind me of art criminals (and wine collectors of art collectors), Dinkelspiel flat out said it. "

posted by the man of twists and turns (3 comments total)

Oh hey, only part way into this (it's fascinating!), but here's a Napa Valley Wine Crime Story of recent vintage: Top Stories of 2015, No. 6*: Winemaker’s dream collapses in murder-suicide:

What began as a conference call with the men’s lawyers suddenly erupted into a volley of bullets, as Emad Tawfilis – a Los Gatos man who had given Dahl $800,000 of his investment as cash stuffed into a duffel bag – ran desperately for his life out of the winery building and past the grapevines lining Hoffman Lane.

As the 48-year-old Tawfilis screamed for help in a cellphone call to police dispatchers, Dahl, 47, followed in his black Toyota SUV, blasting four shots into him from a .22-caliber handgun before firing the killing round to Tawfilis’ head, a 911 recording would reveal.

Sheriff’s deputies arriving where Tawfilis fell pursued Dahl’s vehicle north until it became trapped on a densely wooded dirt path west of the Oakville Grade.

A SWAT team would find the vintner’s lifeless body inside, after he apparently shot himself.

From the main link, a critic's take on California wine of the time: "In 1862, a professional wine taster in New York dismissed what was considered one of the best Los Angeles-area Angelicas, made by Sainsevain Brothers, as follows: 'A bottle full of it contains I don’t know how many headaches.'"

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*How is that only No. 6 on the NVR's list of the Top Stories of 2015?
posted by notyou at 9:03 AM on October 12, 2017

"While things are better now, the history of the wine business in California is in part a story of injustice and exploitation -- one that's not widely recognized or acknowledged by wine makers and trade organizations."

Exploitation in California agriculture? < mind blown >
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:20 PM on October 12, 2017

The Forgotten Kingpins Who Conspired to Save California Wine

Better be out there with buckets and hoses :/ ❤️🙏 Wine country 🔥🔥🔥
posted by Ogre Lawless at 2:13 PM on October 12, 2017