Sommlight Wine Podcast Pt 1
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. If you are a wine lover, or just curious about Washington wines, and you have not yet heard of ‘Sommlight’ then have we got a podcast for you.
Hosted by Washington Wine Commission’s David Flaherty, Sommlight pulls back the curtain on Sommeliers, or more casually, Somms …
FLAHERTY … “Sommelier, we’re leaving as a restaurant focus position. Where, in the wine world, Somm, S-O-M-M, has become more of a ubiquitous title for “wine pros,” so that can be people that work in the retail sector, people that are educators. A lot of events around the country have started to adopt that nomenclature as well. Texsom is a big event every year in Dallas. SommCon is a big conference for wine people in San Diego.”
Flaherty says these are some of the biggest supporters of Washington wines in the country …
FLAHERTY … “And right now, these people, many of them are hurting, many of the are out of work and they’ve been huge advocates for us, as a young industry, trying to get into important markets like New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and having these advocates on the ground, that have been out to Washington and seen what we’re doing, they’ve been giving us support for years. So, the project was designed, how do we support them.”
Sommlight, Flaherty says is a way to connect or reconnect with these folks …
FLAHERTY … “And really give them a platform to share their stories and really kind of get people to understand that these are some of the most dynamic people in the business.”
Go to www.sommlight.com to catch the first five or any future episode.
Tune in tomorrow for more.
Find out more at www.sommlight.com , or the Washington State Wine Commission website www.washinigtonwine.org , or a new website called www.drinkforwa.com
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BL: Welcome back to another “Fruit Bites” brought to you by Valent U.S.A. With us again is Valent’s Allison Walston. And this week Allison, let’s talk about the process of getting pesticides registered.
AW: All pesticides, even organic, are regulated through the EPA (environmental protection agency). A company can spend over $330 million dollars on regulatory and development costs including residue work, environmental fate, toxicity to animals and nontarget organisms, formulations, crop safety and efficacy against the targeted pests. Then finally after about 10 years, we can write a label recommendation for use.
BL: that process takes 10 years?
AW: at least sometimes upwards to 15 years on a 17-year patent. Once the data package is submitted to EPA for their review, add another 2-3 years before the pesticide is registered. Very few of the experimental products that I test in my R&D role, even make it to the market. But every so often, a product makes it through all the hurdles and gets registered.
BL: Well, thanks Allison. Join us again next time for Fruit Bites, brought to you by Valent. Until then, I’m Bob Larson.
