TODAY'S TOP NEWS

• Audit reveals 7 wineries exceeding visit/marketing limits
• City Council to weigh how to handle future BottleRocks
• Sonoma Sustainable Winegrowing Field Day, Aug. 8
• William Cole Vineyards, county settle lawsuit
• Santa Barbara Wineries seat new board
• Acampo winery appeals county denial
• Express Wine Delivery triples size in Windsor move
• New winemaker at Winesecrets

• Innovative Investments Drive UK Drinks Firms

• Margaux ’96 Bordeaux Hits 6-Month Low

• Government regulation US, UK, Canada
• Liquor Privatization Saves Lives?

• Follow-Up: Gallo Drops the Bomb, Sues Grenade Energy Drink
• Legally Challenged entrepreneur not discouraged by adversity

• Free Flow’s kegs tap wine-by-glass thirst
• FLASQ Wines Now Available at Cost Plus World Market
• Paper wine bottles
• Self-Serve Wine Is Hot in Cleveland
• New adhesive for condensation-coated wine bottles

• Vin65 adds iPhone to its POS suite
• How Pinterest could perform better on mobile
• Movea makes strides with indoor mobile navigation
• A global perspective is now a requirement for Internet businesses
• How to be more efficient and manage your Facebook fan page

• PharmHackers Nail The Blend
• Beyond blogging: Teaching real journalism to younger wine writers
• Why PR is your best marketing weapon — and how to use it

• Saving the Wine World's Unheralded Grapes
• Booze will NOT last indefinitely in an opened bottle
• Does Temperature Really Matter? Wine Serving Survival Guide
• How John Kongsgaard rewrote the rules of white wine
• Charles Smith – A Winemaking Rock Star

NEWS FETCH'S FAVORITE SONG TODAY:

While creating this issue, I liked this song best: The Borderline By Goldspot.

TODAY'S FEATURED WINE

No specific wine today.

Just thanks for heroes who keep us safe and their wives and partners who hang in there with them year after year of nail-biting missions.

We had long wonderful visits this weekend with a good friend and his wife. He's a Chinook pilot with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment the "Night Stalkers" who fly the SEALs wherever SEALs need to fly: He's one of those special pilots with nerves and skills of steel who guarantee arrival any time, anywhere on the planet "plus or minus 30 seconds" regardless of weather or hostile fire.

His wife of 21 years deserves a medal for more than two decades of sleepless nights.

He gave me this medallion (above) with the unit insignia. It's a great reminder of having been in the presence of courage and intelligence. And a quiet, immensely intelligent hero  whose glacier-blue eyes and intense gaze never waver and never miss a thing: including the nuances of wine he likes.

We all had a great time Sunday after tastings at Jacuzzi and Larkmead who gave us all SpecOps-quality hospitality.