Winebits 772: Montana wine, wine pests, Aztec alcohol god

This week’s wine news: Montana wants to be Napa, plus wine pests in the east and archaeologists uncover an Aztec alcohol god

• Bring on Montana? This is how far we’ve come with Drink Local: Montana wants to be the next Napa. We’ll excuse the cliché – most rookie wine regions haven’t learned yet that the goal is not to emulate another region, but to be the best region they can be. Having said that, the story hits all the right notes – using locally grown grapes and focusing on varieties that can withstand Montana’s extreme climates. And it also notes that the state is not well known for fruit of any kind, as one of the many challenges facing the few growers the state has.

• Spotted lanternfly: The spotted lanternfly doesn’t get as much publicity as other wine pests, like the glassy winged sharpshooter, but it can be just as ruinous. Which CNBC reports is the case in a variety of states east of the Mississippi, including key wine regions like New York, Virginia, and Michigan. One Maryland grower says he has lost half his crop this year. Insecticides do some good in controlling the lanternfly, but one experts says there may be billions of them in the region.

• Pulque: A pre-Columbian wall mural, buried under several layers of whitewash in an ancient Spanish convent, may depict Tepoztēcatl, the Azetc god of the alcoholic beverage pulque. The god was worshiped by the Nahuatl-speaking Aztec who inhabited the area before the 16^th century Spanish conquest, The Art Newspaper reports. Researchers didn’t expect to find the mural; weren’t even looking for it, in fact. If it is what they think it is, it is a significant archaeological discovery.