I’ve been working really hard lately. Not here on Vinography, but at the day job that pays the bills. So I can understand the desire to get off work, grab a bottle of wine, and relax a little.

Apparently though, that’s not so easy if you’re any sort of uniformed service officer in the UK. There, they’ve got laws that say, if you’re wearing your uniform, you don’t get to buy alcohol.

Presumably, this law exists because there either was a problem at one time with uniformed public servants drunk on the job, or simply because politicians and the public are paranoid about that happening.

Unfortunately, what might be a well meaning (if a bit patronizing) law, creates situations like this one, for a poor (if a bit addled) paramedic in Surrey, England.

The guy wanted to buy a bottle of wine, but the clerk wouldn’t sell it to him because he had his paramedic’s uniform on. So he went outside and took off the uniform, returning to the store in just a thong and some socks.

Apparently the store also had a “no shirt, no shoes, no service” policy, so the guy never did get his bottle of wine. Instead, he got questioned by the police. Must have been an especially hard week for him.

Read the full story.

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In an age of backlash against big-business agriculture and of increasing value placed on local, sustainable living, the phenomenon known as urban farming flourishes. From tiny planters on the balconies of chic lofts to reclaimed industrial lots, city dwellers in some of America’s larger urban centers are finding joy and sustenance in growing their own organic food.

And if people can grow tomatoes and corn in an old vacant lot, then why can’t they grow wine grapes?

My friend, winemaker Bryan Harrington, has planted Pinot Noir in several places within the San Francisco city limits over the years and I know a couple of people who have a few vines in their back yards in the city, which they use to make tiny quantities of wine.

Urban viticulture may have just entered a new era, however, as a substantial commercial vineyard has been installed in the city limits of London. A joint venture between a local horticultural college and the urban farm that provided the land, Forty Hall Vineyards hopes to produce a commercial product in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

I wish them luck, if only because I’d love to see more of these types of experiments that can bring wine that much closer to everyone’s back yard. With a little more global warming, I might just be able to put a couple of vines in mine.

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While in most media circles, the larger global economic meltdown consumes the lion’s share of attention, the wine world is experiencing its own nasty correction. Many top wineries, especially those with bottle prices over $80 find themselves struggling to sell their wines as the usual outlets are simply refusing purchases that they used to beg for.

Vegas restaurants, long-standing bastions of “I don’t care what it costs as long as it sounds expensive” buying habits, are dumping their allocations of high-end wines like ballast water from an unstable ship. Cult wineries with mailing lists that had waiting lists thousands of members long are now struggling to find people to buy their wines, especially if they make more than a few thousand cases.

But more than anything else, the largest bellwether of a true collapse in the fine wine market are the high end Bordeaux wines, and the companies that have pimped them along a skyrocketing trajectory of pricing whose incline was no less irresponsible and unsustainable as any of the credit-default-swaps that brought down the global economy.

My fellow blogger Keith Levenberg wrote a lovely piece about this phenomenon that I highly recommend reading.

The phenomenon is certainly not restricted to Napa and Bordeaux, however. There are plenty of other wine regions that have massively over-invested based on the impossible hope that wine prices and demand would continue to soar at the top end of the market.

It’s sad to see the wine industry suffer at all, but it certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing to weed out a lot of chaff from the marketplace, and bring some of the outrageous prices (and pretensions) back down to earth.

Thanks to Jack at Fork & Bottle for the tip on Keith’s post.

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Anyone who hasn’t yet discovered Paso Robles wines is missing some of the most interesting and dynamic wines that California has to offer. And anyone who hasn’t discovered Paso Robles, would do well to mosey on down there for their 27th Annual Wine Festival in a couple of weeks. Once a sleepy undiscovered little wine town, Paso has become the epicenter of a wine explosion in the last decade with wineries popping up like Spring crocuses every year. The limestone terroir of western Paso Robles in particular is producing some absolutely stunning Syrahs and other Rhone Varietals that every wine lover in California should know about.

The Wine Festival takes place over a (usually sunny) weekend in May. Starting off with events and dinners held at wineries around the area on Friday, the event culminates in a Grand Tasting in the town park on Saturday, which is certainly the highlight of the weekend and should be the goal for anyone looking to learn more about the area’s wine.

At only a three hour drive from San Francisco, it makes for a very nice weekend trip should you feel inclined.

Paso Robles Wine Festival Grand Tasting
Saturday May 16th, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Paso Robles Downtown City Park
Paso Robles, CA 93447

Tickets are $55 and should be purchased in advance online.

Remember to wear something you don’t mind spilling red wine on; drink lots of water; make sure you have a full stomach; and spit out the wine if you want to actually learn something and avoid a nasty headache the next day. And for this event, I also recommend sunscreen and a sun hat.

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Tom Hyland reports on new wines from this spring’s Sicilia en Premeur, and talks with some of the island’s vintners about what they’re doing today.

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Simple but clean and well-made, affordable Pinotage in the modern style.

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