• GQ scribe Alan Richman recently got a little tipsy and clumsy while tasting wine at a couple chateaux in France, and he proceeds to round up some “don’ts” for Americans tasting wine abroad. A couple obvious ones: do not ask if they have Merlot, and “try not to be an asshole.” [GQ]
• Prompted by the visible trends of climate change, California researchers are discussing how to cross-breed grapes to make them more heat- and drought-resistant. But a hybrid of pinot noir and something else wouldn’t be pinot noir anymore, so there’s that. [NPR]
• Behold a purse designed for carrying your box of wine. [Grub Street]
• We all know “Champagne” gets used to label wines not from Champagne, but did you know some Chinese wines have tried to slap the word “Napa” on their labels? Chefs Ferran Adrià, Thomas Keller, Alain Ducasse, and others have signed on to the Declaration to Protect Wine Place and Origin, which hopes to combat all such misleading labeling. [Decanter]
• Alice Feiring, a wine writer and vocal Robert Parker foe, discusses the pleasures and “perils” of natural wine. [Press-Democrat]
• Pixar’s chief creative officer John Lasseter has been secretly making wine in Napa for about a decade, and only recently decided to go public with it. [Grub Street]
