Zinfandel, TERMINATED
With California state wine month a mere three days away, the state will be without a “historic” grape. Eegads! Amador County loses…
From the SF Chronicle
(08-29) 07:40 PDT SACRAMENTO — Zinfandel will not be designated “California’s historic wine” after legislation to do so was vetoed Monday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said it was “inappropriate” to single out one variety for recognition.
Initially, the bill — SB 1253 by Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco — would have made zinfandel California’s official state wine, a designation the rest of the state’s wine industry strongly opposed.
Weakening the bill to simply labeling zinfandel as historic since it’s been grown in the state since the 1849 Gold Rush still did not win Schwarzenegger over.
“California wines have inspired authors, artists and Oscar-winning motion pictures,” the GOP governor said in his veto message. “Singling one out for special recognition would be inappropriate.”
Migden said the veto showed the governor didn’t have much of a sense of humor.
“It ought not to be a zin to be for zinfandel,” she quipped.
UPDATE: here’s the NYT lede on the same subject
Sorry, Zinfandel, Maybe Next Term
By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: August 30, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 29 — In a robust, full-bodied move with just a hint of censure, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill on Monday that would have declared zinfandel to be the “historic wine” of California. [link]
tags: wine | zinfandel | Schwarzenegger
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On August 31st, 2006 at 12:05 am ,SeattleWineBlog wrote:
Another misstep by the Terminator to terminate Zinfandel as the state grape. Perhap the governor watches too many movies and thinks that Pinot Noir should be the state grape, although Oregon’s got California beaten hands down in this category or perhaps Schwarzneggger prefers sour grapes.
On August 31st, 2006 at 9:43 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
I don’t really view it as much of a loss for other than the Big Zin constituency. The “historic” compromise language was more watered down than a lot of big zins. “Historic”? The mission grape could be historic. Having September designated as wine month is a bigger boon for the industry…