• Gen Y wine tasters are increasingly flocking up to northern Sonoma for the Wine Road’s annual barrel-tasting weekends, mostly to get wasted. With one weekend left to go, the wineries are already feeling a little bruised, and at least two large groups of twentysomethings (traveling by limo) had to be escorted out of wineries last weekend by cops. [Press-Democrat]
• Food & Wine just named their top sommeliers of 2012, and among them are Michael Madrigale at Boulud Sud in New York; Jennifer Ingellis at Brassica in St. Helena, California; Ted Glennon at the new Restaurant 1833 in Monterey; Jeremy Quinn at Telegraph in Chicago; and Eric Espuny at The Langham in Pasadena. [Food & Wine]
• Following reports that Lady Gaga had been wandering around Sonoma County last week, we now hear via a source close to her that she’s a big wino and may be trying to buy a vineyard. [Grub Street, Earlier]
• Prowein, the huge annual wine convention in Dusseldorf, just wrapped this week, with almost 4,000 exhibitors and 40,000 attendees. [Wine Business]
• A Wine Spectator writer discusses the etiquette surrounding the dicey situation of whether or not to tell one’s hosts if an expensive wine they’ve presented at a dinner party, which they’re proud of, is corked. [Wine Spectator]
• A good wine-nerd read: Regarding the necessity, or lack thereof, of decanting red wines, and the value and use of a proper “wine cradle” when decanting an old bottle that’s been stored on its side. [NYT]