• They have wine vending machines now in Pennsylvania grocery stores, but the driver’s license readers haven’t been working that well. [PA Independent, CS News]
• Korbel Champagne Cellars is helping try to solve a hit-and-run case in Forestville, California, where a white pickup truck — caught on the winery’s surveillance cameras — struck and killed a prominent San Francisco Republican Sunday evening. [Chron]
• Modeling themselves on old-timey milk-delivery services, Wine Bottle Renew washes used wine bottles and sells them back to wineries for reuse. [WSJ]
• “Despite numerous iterations of the famed 1976 Paris Tasting — nearly all with results replicating the original — a surprising number of folks cannot wrap their brains (never mind their palates) around the incontrovertible fact that California can create a helluva Cabernet Sauvignon.” Also, there are many other prejudices still out there. [Wine Spectator]
• The New York Times’ Eric Asimov and company conclude this week that “barbera has settled into a more confident period after a prolonged, awkward battle with its oak issues.” [NYT]
• A first-of-its-kind wine bar within a retail jewelry store, called Rose Cut Wine Bar, just opened in San Francisco’s Castro district. [Grub Street]
• The Napa County Farm Bureau recently accepted marijuana grower Joe Rosato Jr., into their mostly grape-growing ranks, making him the first pot farmer in the nation to be recognized by such an agricultural body. Below, see a video from NBC Bay Area about Rosato’s backyard grow operation. [NBC]
View more videos at: http://www.nbcbayarea.com.