Winebits 817: Mel Master, Rioja, North Carolina

This week’s wine news: Mel Master, one of the world’s great cheap wine advocates, dies, Plus, shakeups in Rioja and North Carolina.

• Mel Master dies: Master, the man behind great labels like Mont Gravet, Tortoise Creek, and Le Charmel, has died. He was 79. The obituary is quite vague about what happened, though it notes his wife, Janie, died as well. I was lucky enough to meet Masters once, and we discussed his ability to buy grapes and to turn them into terrific wines at more than a fair price. The 2015 Gravet carignan was one of the all-time great cheap wines (and even the very tough critics at an American Wine Society seminar thought so). Masters will be much missed, and especially because wine needs his talents more than ever, given the grape glut around the world and how he could have turned it into something cheap and delicious.

• Trouble in Rioja: A group representing more than 200 producers in Rioja has left the group that regulates wine production in the Spanish wine region. The story in the link is a little dense for those of us who don’t follow Spanish wine politics, but it apparently has something to do with Big Wine, consolidation, overproduction, and premiumization in Rioa. Sound familiar? Decanter reports that the breakaway group opposes says the “current strategy and decision-making ‘goes against the business models of small and medium-sized producers.’ ” I’m not sure how will affect U.S. wine drinkers, but it’s worth noting that Rioja and California seem to have much in common as wine continues to struggle with its problems.

• Booze on Sunday! The blog’s readers in North Carolina will be glad to know that the state will likely separate itself from Texas when it comes to selling spirits on Sunday. We can’t do it here, and those there may get the chance sooner rather than later. A bill in the state legislature would permit seven-day sales of spirits as well as holiday sales (with local option), and allow cocktails to-go and delivery of mixed beverages. My favorite bit? “Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Utah are the only remaining states that prohibit seven-day spirits sales.”