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May's Contributors A Laurie Daniel s a former newspaper editor, wine writer and naturally curious person, Laurie Daniel is well-suited to her role as author of the winemaker and grapegrower interviews that have run in Wines & Vines nearly monthly since she started with us in 2006. For our annual Packaging Issue, her challenge was to find a vintner doing new and interesting things with packag- ing. The search quickly focused on Charlie Wagner of Mer Soleil in Monterey County, Calif., after we spotted the winery's Silver Chardonnay bottle during the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium. It's one of two envelope-pushing wine packages on our cover this month. Wagner tells Daniel in the interview (page 52) that a beer packaged in a ceramic bottle inspired him to try this ancient type of presentation. Fritz Westover varieties that are well suited for southern and eastern vineyards. In our February 2012 issue the Texas viticulturist gave a great introduction to the white winegrape Blanc du Bois. In this issue he briefs us about the F red variety Lenoir. His piece in the Wine East section (page 94) explains that this rather old variety shows Vitis vinifera charac- teristics that make its taste profile appealing along with showing great resistance to Pierce's disease. Westover works for the Texas AgriLife Extension Service (Texas A&M) as a viticulture program specialist for the Texas Gulf Coast region and super- vises three extension program specialists. for seizing on current topics of concern to winemakers and then boring deeply into them to grasp the subject from a technical viewpoint and detail its ramifications for our many winemaking readers. His approach T usually involves several interviews with working winemakers, researchers and other experts in the field. He lays the facts out in a witty but substantive way for our readers in his monthly column. The widespread appearance of botrytis in California vineyards last fall sparked his inquiring mind this time. On page 82, read all about laccase, the nasty spawn of botrytis, which may be lurking in your 2011 wines as we speak. May's Cover Historic meets futuristic in this month's cover image. Mer Soleil winemaker Charlie Wagner II uses a ceramic bottle to package his unoaked Silver Chardonnay, while JT Wines produces Flasq, a line bottled in light- weight, shatterproof aluminum. Photogra- pher Stacy Ventura was able to capture the dichotomy. Visit stacyventura.com. 4 Wines & Vines MAY 2012 Tim Patterson he Inquiring Winemaker, Tim Patterson, has done it again. Patterson has a knack ritz Westover contributes the second article of a two-part series on winegrape A Member of Wine Communications Group Inc. EDITORIAL Editor Jim Gordon Managing Editor Kate Lavin Staff Writer Andrew Adams Contributing Editor Jane Firstenfeld Senior Correspondent Paul Franson Northwest Correspondent Peter Mitham Winemaking: Tim Patterson, Clark Smith Grapegrowing: Cliff Ohmart, Glenn T. McGourty Columnists Editors: Hudson Cattell, Linda Jones McKee; Writer: Richard Carey Contributing Writers Wine East Laurie Daniel, Jamie Goode, Chris Stamp, Thomas Ulrich, Wayne Wilcox, Stephen Yafa President & Publisher Chet Klingensmith PUBLISHING Hugh Tietjen Chairman Publishing Consultant Ken Koppel WEST: Jacques Brix, Vice President & Director of Sales (707) 473-0244, jbrix@winesandvines.com ADvERTISING MIDWEST: Hooper Jones Associates Inc. (847) 486-1021, hooperhja@aol.com (215) 794-3442, marshatabb@comcast.net EAST: Marsha Tabb INTERNATIONAL: Dave Bayard (973) 822-9275, dave@bayard.com Advertising Manager Christina Ballinger ADMINISTRATION Publishing Assistant Caroline Shakeshaft CIRCULATION & DATABASE DEvELOPMENT Database Manager Lynne Skinner Circulation Manager Emilee Schumer Circulation Assistant Alia Vander Lind Research Assistant Allison Bowser Design & Production Manager Bridget Williams James Rust, Peter Scarborough DESIGN & PRODUCTION Web Developer WEBSITE Ad Prepress Deborah Roberti Wines & Vines, ISSN 043-583X, a member of Wine Communications Group, Sonoma, CA, is published monthly. Periodicals postage paid at San Rafael and at additional mailing offices. Publishing Information Volume 93, Number 5 (866) 453-9704 • subs@winesandvines.com • www.winesandvines.com Subscription Rates Wines & Vines, 65 Mitchell Blvd., Ste. A, San Rafael, CA 94903 Customer Service Send address changes to our publication office: Postmaster U.S., $38.00; Canada/Mexico, $48.00 All other countries, $85.00 (for airmail add $85.00) Reproduction in whole or part without permission is prohibited. Wines & Vines does not assume responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or materials. Contributors are responsible for the proper release of proprietary and/or classified information. Wines & Vines is distributed through an audited circulation.