The Amazon is the largest tropical rainforest in the world. Spanning eight countries, it has been called the “lungs of the planet” for its vital service of converting enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into oxygen.Now, Brazilian lawmakers have approved a bill to allow conservation funds to be used to pave a highway — BR-319 — that cuts through the middle of the Amazon; researchers say the road could threaten the rainforest’s existence, reported Reuters.The bill would allow use of the funds for the “recovery, paving and increasing the capacity of the highway,” according to Reuters.This means capital such as the Amazon Fund’s $1.3 billion — supported by European and United States allies to be used for conservation — could go toward the project.“I don’t think it makes any sense. This project does not fit into any of the fund’s planned support lines,” Tasso Azevedo, one of the creators of the Amazon Fund, told Climate Home News in September.BR-319 was built in the early 1970s by the country’s then-military dictatorship, but quickly deteriorated, and by 1988 had become impassable.Preventing more access is one of the biggest defenses the Amazon has against deforestation. A new road opening up in the undisturbed rainforest provides a way in for loggers, farmers, miners and developers, who often conduct their activities illegally.Since 1978, the Amazon has lost more than 185 million acres to deforestation, and the rate of destruction is accelerating, according to the Amazon Conservation website.Nearly all Amazon deforestation — 95 percent — happens within 3.4 miles of a roadway, Leanderson Lima of Amazônia Real and Micael Pereira of Expresso reported in The Guardian in June.“Deforestation follows a fairly predictable pattern,” NASA Earth Observatory said, referring to satellite images on its website. “The first clearings that appear in the forest are in a fishbone pattern, arrayed along the edges of roads. Over time, the fishbones collapse into a mixture of forest remnants, cleared areas, and settlements. This pattern follows one of the most common deforestation trajectories in the Amazon. Legal and illegal roads penetrate a remote part of the forest, and small farmers migrate to the area. They claim land along the road and clear some of it for crops. Within a few years, heavy rains and erosion deplete the soil, and crop yields fall. Farmers then convert the degraded land to cattle pasture, and clear more forest for crops. Eventually the small land holders, having cleared much of their land, sell it or abandon it to large cattle holders, who consolidate the plots into large areas of pasture.”
Job seekers and employers are increasingly “ghosting” each other during the hiring process.A hot job market and “circular” behavior have led the practice to become more common in recent years, said career experts.However, ghosting risks reputational harm in the long run, they said.
In the 1980s Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher built a new conservatism around markets and freedom. Today Donald Trump, Viktor Orban and a motley crew of Western politicians have demolished that orthodoxy, constructing in its place a statist, “anti-woke” conservatism that puts national sovereignty before the individual. These national conservatives are increasingly part of a global movement with its own networks of thinkers and leaders bound by a common ideology. They sense that they own conservatism now—and they may be right.Despite its name, national conservatism could not be more different from the ideas of Reagan and Thatcher. Rather than being sceptical of big government, national conservatives think ordinary people are beset by impersonal global forces and that the state is their saviour. Unlike Reagan and Thatcher, they hate pooling sovereignty in multilateral organisations, they suspect free markets of being rigged by the elites and they are hostile to migration. They despise pluralism, especially the multicultural sort. National conservatives are obsessed with dismantling institutions they think are tainted by wokeness and globalism.
Certainly! When shopping online, it’s essential to protect your privacy and security. Here are some practices you can follow to safeguard your online shopping experience:
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Investigate individual vendors on social network sites like Facebook or Instagram. Look for verified profiles and read reviews from other buyers.
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Be Cautious of Warning Signs:
Avoid poorly designed or unprofessional websites.
Broken or deactivated links and back buttons are red flags.
Check if the website displays contact information.
Unclear or missing return policies and privacy policies should raise concerns.
Be wary if your credit card credentials are requested for reasons other than your purchase.
Extremely low item prices or deals that seem too good to be true may indicate fraud.
Protect Your Personal Information:
Always ask yourself:
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Read privacy policies, terms of use agreements, or other privacy communications provided by websites or email providers.
If unsure, contact the organization’s privacy officer directly.
Avoid providing sensitive information if you’re uncomfortable with a site’s policies.
Beware of Online Scams:
Phishing emails lure you to fraudulent websites under false pretenses.
Be cautious of unsolicited emails or spam from unknown sources.
Don’t click on questionable links in social media messages.
Use strong passwords and update your software regularly.
Additional Safety Tips:
Use a credit card or payment service instead of a debit card for added protection against identity theft and financial loss.
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Avoid clicking on suspicious links.
Consider using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) when shopping online to enhance security.
Remember that while these practices can reduce risks, no method is foolproof. Stay vigilant and prioritize your privacy when shopping online!
Welcome to The Oeno Files, our insider’s guide to fine wine. Each week Robb Report‘s wine editors Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen explore the people, trends, and bottles every oenophile should know.
Spanish Wine Is More Worthy of Your Cellar Than EverIn an admittedly wildly unscientific study conducted over the past 25 years, we believe we’ve uncovered something of an enigma—Spain. To elaborate: When asking oenophiles about Spanish wine, we tend to hear mention of just two (yes, two) esteemed producers: Vega Sicilia and Pingus. Now, this pair of outstanding Ribera del Duero wineries are certainly deserving of their collective accolades, but the fact that savvy drinkers can name fewer than a handful of elite winemakers from the fourth-largest (by area) European nation is… just weird.
Home to over 100 wine regions, Spain produces red, white, rosé, and sparkling wines across the entire quality and price spectrum. Just two, Rioja and Priorat, have received the highest designation, D.O.Ca. (which translates to “denomination of qualified origin”), a step above the 68 D.O.-level (“denomination of origin”) regions that are the backbone of Spain’s top-tier wine industry. For the past 20 years, the Iberian nation has also permitted single-estate wines of high quality to be labelled with the special vino de pago (V.P.) designation, which indicates an exclusive area limited to the confines of a wine estate. With stringent requirements regarding permitted grape varieties, aging time, alcohol levels, and even the number of kilograms of grapes per hectare, the country is seriously committed to protecting the quality and reputation of its vinous output.
Rules, regulations, and initials aside, it is, of course, only the character and quality of the juice in the bottle that matter. And Spanish wine is good. As much as we believe Burgundy to be the sole region in the world that produces equally superlative reds and whites, as a country, Spain is right up there, offering a wide range from red grapes such as Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mencía, and Monastrell and whites such as Albariño, Verdejo, Viura, and Godello. Having had a home in Spain for nearly two decades and travelled to all of the country’s major wine regions, we cannot fathom why the wine is not more popular in the U.S., particularly among serious wine lovers. For collectors of red, search for bottles such as Torres Reserva Real, Mauro Terreus, Valduero Una Cepa Premium, Muga Aro, Vatan Arena, and Sierra Cantabria Amancio. For whites, try Campo Eliseo Harmonía, Resalte Albillo Mayor, or Granbazán Limousin Albariño.That said, it is easy to understand why Spanish wine doesn’t have a reputation equal to French or Italian. The saying “If it grows together, it goes together” is especially applicable to pairing food with wine, so producers from countries with popular culinary styles have an easier and more obvious route to gaining traction in export markets. America has a long history of emigrants from Italy, and with that comes a tradition of Italian restaurants. Over time, these have evolved from “red sauce” joints to fine-dining establishments serving elevated regional Italian cuisine. An awareness and enjoyment of the country’s wine has expanded alongside this culinary evolution, transitioning us from bottles of fizzy, semisweet Lambrusco and straw-wrapped jugs of Chianti to Barolo, Amarone, Brunello, and Super Tuscans.
Likewise, America’s relationship with wine from France has enjoyed favored status from the time of the Founding Fathers. More recently, U.S. soldiers stationed in France during World War II returned home with a hankering for Gallic cuisine. French restaurants became the epitome of elegant dining, even if they were tarted-up bistros serving onion soup and steak frites, and Julia Child taught an entire generation how to master the art of French cooking. From the postwar boom through the Judgment of Paris in 1976, Americans enjoyed a love affair with French wine that continues to this day.
Meanwhile, dictatorial rule until Francisco Franco’s death in 1975 did little to bolster Spain’s image as a tourism destination. Historically, Spaniards have preferred to immigrate to South America, Central America, and the Caribbean over moving to the U.S., so America has lacked a specifically Spanish influence on cuisine and culture. It’s only in the past 20 years that Spanish food has been popularized across this country, especially in cities, via tapas bars. While casual evenings standing at high tables, dining on small plates paired with wine by the glass is our idea of a great time, it doesn’t advance the concept of fine dining accompanied by fine wine. In fact, the entire experience reinforces the idea of Spanish food as enjoyable but ultimately inconsequential.
One challenge is that, with the exception of high-end offerings from Spanish chefs such as José Andrés and Dani García, diners in the U.S. have limited opportunities to become exposed to great bottles alongside an elevated meal. Spain is home to some of the best restaurants in the world, certainly in Barcelona and particularly in Donostia-San Sebastián, but something gets lost in translation when outposts move to our side of the Atlantic.Spain is one of the top three wine producers on the planet, behind France and Italy, but you wouldn’t know it from its lack of representation in many wine shops and eateries. Look at the selections from France, Italy, and California and compare them to the paltry Spanish choices. Part of the blame lies with thirsty natives: Just shy of 60 percent of Spanish wine is drunk domestically. But we’re simply not doing our part. While 16.4 percent of Spanish wine is exported to the U.K., Americans consume only 10.4 percent, yet our population is five times greater. The most widely drunk Spanish wine in the U.S. is Cava; despite its “cheap and cheerful” reputation, Cava is on the up. The number of single-vineyard and vintage Cavas released is increasing, especially since the D.O. updated its rules in 2021—with Rioja trailing closely behind.
But that status quo might be changing. According to an October 2023 report issued by ICEX, the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade, Spain ranks eighth for volume of wine imported into the U.S. but fourth for value. It’s focusing its exports “on higher-priced wines, in line with the trend observed in the country in recent years of declining demand for ‘cheap’ wine… and increasing interest in premium wine,” the report states.
For many years, industry insiders have hailed Spain’s excellent quality-to-price ratio, and while that remains true, prices are now rising as winemakers focus on single-vineyard bottlings, micro-vinification, and small-batch artisanal wines. Yet many still represent far better value than their counterparts from more widely known European neighbors—which makes them our tip for a more prominent place in your glasses, and collections, as a result. This article originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Robb Report. Subscribe today to receive our award-winning journalism delivered right to your door.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith recently visited Washington, where she met with Republicans like senators Rand Paul and J.D. Vance. Vance has said that recent court decisions against Donald Trump have no validity because of “left-wing jurors” and Trump should be able to defy the Supreme Court, while Paul has said that Dr. Anthony Fauci should be put in jail.This all comes after Smith’s public love-in with prominent Putin asset Tucker Carlson.What’s next for Smith?Signed,Jones
Two years after Apple halted exports to Russia to protest the Ukraine invasion, the company’s new Vision Pro goggles are for sale by a former official Apple reseller.The fact that the goggles are available in Moscow before they go on sale in London or Paris demonstrates how difficult it is to unravel Russia’s ties to the global economy.At one location in Moscow, clerks offer by-appointment demonstrations and the cheapest model costs about $6,307 — over 57 percent more than it does in the U.S.
An elderly, ultra-secretive Chicago businessman has given the largest known donation to a political advocacy group in U.S. history — worth $1.6 billion — and the recipient is one of the prime architects of conservatives’ efforts to reshape the American judicial system, including the Supreme Court.Through a series of opaque transactions over the past two years, Barre Seid, a 90-year-old manufacturing magnate, gave the massive sum to a nonprofit run by Leonard Leo, who co-chairs the conservative legal group the Federalist Society.Get Our Top InvestigationsSubscribe to the Big Story newsletter.Email address:The donation was first reported by The New York Times on Monday. The Lever and ProPublica confirmed the information from documents received independently by the news organizations.
A skier slides through slushy snow at Whistler, B.C., Friday, Dec. 29, 2023. B.C. ski resorts are looking for ways to mitigate the impacts of climate change. ARLEN REDEKOP, PNG
Cherie Kroll does the math every time she steps into her skis.
So far this year, she’s skied five times, choosing not to go when conditions are poor. She paid $800 for her season pass at Grouse Mountain, including equipment and parking passes. That adds up to about $160 a visit.
“I don’t like those numbers,” she says.
Kroll, who learned to ski on the North Shore mountains as a kid, once skied so often that each visit cost less than $20. But she also remembers being 14 and scraping together $75 for a pass, only to find just one run open.
“There have been bad years before,” she says, “but I do wonder if this will become the norm.”
Experts believe it will.
By mid-century, about half of the ski seasons on the B.C. coast will be warmer than this one, with “bad years” becoming as frequent as good years or even more frequent than good years, said University of B.C. climate scientist Michael Pidwirny.
Using historic data and climate models based on the current trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions, he estimates the average season at Whistler will be similar to this dismal season by 2050.
By 2080, some models predict, 50 to 75 per cent of North America’s ski resorts will disappear.
“The coastal mountains face the most dire situation,” Pidwirny said, referring to the Grouse, Seymour and Cypress ski operations on Vancouver’s North Shore and Mount Washington on Vancouver Island.
But it’s also bad news for B.C. in general, where the ski business employs about 21,000 people, generates $2.02 billion in revenue, including $1.3 billion from out-of-province visitors, and provides outdoor recreation through 7.4 million skier visits each year.
While some mountains may fare better than others, it’s clear serious changes are on the way for B.C.’s snow seekers.
Ski hills mostly brown
The challenges facing the North Shore resorts have been obvious this winter. At times, the ski runs cut into the forested slopes above Vancouver have looked brown, not white.
As B.C. basked in a balmy December, resorts delayed their opening day, then struggled to stay open over the Christmas holidays as warmth records were broken across the province.
January brought a cold snap and then an atmospheric river. Rain melted snow at lower elevations, forcing some of the coastal mountain ski operations to temporarily close. Whistler Blackcomb asked beginners to take the gondolas down from mid-mountain after runs on the lower mountain that lacked much snow were damaged.
While February started off warm and dry, the last few weeks have been cooler, allowing most mountains to reopen.
But that hasn’t stopped pass holders from posting online about a lack of transparency — and lack of snow — at some resorts.
Kroll believes the North Shore mountains will need to change their business model to provide pass holders with some guarantee of compensation in bad years, or people won’t buy in.
“People won’t be able to afford the risk, and they’ll say ‘I’m not doing it again,’” she said.
Susy Bell, who spent almost $2,000 at Sasquatch near Agassiz, said she’ll never gamble on it again. She was also planning to buy a condo on the mountain, but has decided against it.
“If you’re going to take that kind of money from families, you need a plan when there’s no snow,” she said.
Cherie Kroll, a season pass holder at Grouse Mountain, prepares to ride the gondola for her fifth day of skiing this season. Kroll wants the mountain to provide better information and compensation when conditions are poor. JASON PAYNE, PNG
Pidwirny said he was surprised resorts haven’t been more open with the skiing public about a situation that isn’t really a surprise.
B.C.’s ski resorts have a “pretty good understanding” of the weather patterns that bring snow to the mountains. El Niño years, like this one, are usually warmer, with more rain than snow. Many skiers will remember 2014-15 as the year “without a ski season,” he said.
This year, El Niño has likely contributed to a snowpack that’s about 39 per cent lower than normal across B.C., said Dave Campbell, head of the B.C. River Forecast Centre. About two-thirds of snow accumulation typically happens by early February, with a “wholesale switch” to snowy weather at this point unlikely.
But El Niño isn’t the only factor at play as B.C. begins to feel the bite of climate change. The record low snowpack across the province follows a 50-year trend toward smaller snowpacks, meaning a decrease in annual snow accumulation, said Campbell. Areas where the temperature typically hovers around freezing are increasingly likely to be above zero more often, resulting in rain, not snow, on mountain slopes.
“That change in phase, based on the zero degrees level, really jumps out in the February snowpack numbers,” he said. Coastal B.C. and Vancouver Island, where winters are usually milder, have had some of the biggest drops in snowfall this year.
Warm weather and heavy rain prompted Mount Washington Alpine Resort in the Comox Valley to temporarily closed in late January and early February, when its snowbase dropped to 44 centimetres. (It was back up to 97 cm on Monday.)
Across Canada, snow is arriving later in the fall and melting earlier, said Chris Derksen, a research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Meteorologists are also noticing the freezing level bouncing around more. In the past, high elevation areas would freeze in the fall and remain frozen through the winter snow accumulation, before thawing in the spring, he said. “Now we see that freeze-to-thaw transition happening more frequently” over the course of the winter.
That change has been evident at Big White near Kelowna, where the resort once marketed itself as a place it never rained. That’s no longer true, said senior vice-president Michael Ballingall, although the mountain’s location means it has a decent snow base this year.
Big White usually aims to open by American Thanksgiving, but the opening was delayed four times this year. That unpredictability is hard to manage, said Ballingall. Staff arrive in mid-November and must be housed and trained, regardless of when guests start to come.
“There’s an enormous cost to open every season — and then we wait.”
Dirt shows on part of a run near a chairlift at Mount Seymour, conditions that have discouraged many skiers this season. ARLEN REDEKOP, PNG
Ballingall said climate change also brings other challenges.
If the North Shore mountains have a bad year, it hurts the entire B.C. ski industry. Big White relies on the smaller resorts to help people fall in love with skiing — and to train their kids to ski.
Big White is working to remind people that it is open well into the spring, when conditions are often fantastic. But people have started playing golf or baseball by then, and skiing is no longer on their minds.
But overall, Ballingall believes Big White is in a good position. Interior B.C. should continue to get snow for decades to come and its business could benefit as mountains on the coast struggle, he said.
“We don’t have to reinvent ourselves. We just need to remind people we’re here.”
Climate change threatens snow sports
The National Ski Areas Association calls climate change “the No. 1 threat to the snow sports industry.”
On its website, the American organization said it supports “regulatory standards and legislation to curb carbon emissions.”
Several B.C. operations, including Cypress and Big White, are part of a Canadian advocacy group called Protect Our Winters.
But ski resorts are also looking for ways to mitigate the impacts of climate change, said Christopher Nicolson, president of the Canada West Ski Areas Association.
That includes summer grooming — removing rocks, stumps and other obstacles on ski runs to make them skiable when the snow cover is thin. Adding dirt and smoothing it, rather than waiting for deep snow to fill in the bumps, can also allow resorts to open earlier in the season, he said.
Winter snow management, or “snow farming,” will also be important. Resorts can use snow-making machines and install snow fences to catch blowing snow, stockpile it and then “spread it like peanut butter on the slope” as needed.
Nicolson said he expects to resorts to continue to diversify to become all-season mountain resorts, with several revenue streams, like mountain biking or hiking, in the summer.
Some resorts are also changing their business model to sell more season passes, which gives them a stable income, no matter what kind of winter it is.
“The ski industry used to be ruled by weather,” said Dane Gergovich, senior communications manager for Whistler Blackcomb. But Vail Resorts, which bought Whistler Blackcomb in 2016, has been trying to “change that dynamic” by selling more season passes.
Young snowboarders walk on thin snow with bare patches showing dirt at Mount Seymour on the North Shore on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. ARLEN REDEKOP, PNG
Vail’s “Epic Pass,” a season pass that provides unlimited access to a network of Vail Resort mountains, could be a better deal for skiers as the price of a single-day lift ticket for Whistler Blackcomb has risen. The pass is only on sale until early December — before winter snow conditions are known — and it’s non-refundable.
“We incentivize the pre-season purchase of passes by offering incredible value, flexibility and benefits to skiers and riders that is only offered with our passes versus in-season lift tickets,” Gergovich said in a statement. “In return, that commitment provides our company, our communities, and our employees with stability in the face of weather variability. In other words, we know who’s coming before the season really kicks off.”
Other B.C. mountains seem to be following suit, raising the price of single-day lift tickets, while promoting early-bird sales of season passes. But without a network of mountains, or clients who can afford to chase snow across the globe, the concept has the potential to backfire in a bad year.
Some B.C. mountains, like Revelstoke, Sun Peaks and Panorama, have joined a multi-resort pass called Mountain Collective. Skiers get two days each at 24 resorts around the world, allowing them to find good conditions when snowfall is “variable,” said CEO Todd Burnette.
For Vail Resorts, with 2.4 million people “pre-committed” to its 41 resorts through passes, the income allows them to “continuously reinvest back into the employee and guest experience, no matter the winter we have,” said Gergovich.
That includes big spending on snow-making systems, another pillar of the ski industry’s plan to adapt to climate change.
Snow-making will become critical as mountains warm, said University of Waterloo geography professor Daniel Scott.
But it has its limits.
The temperature must be low enough — usually around -2 C — for the water droplets sprayed by snow cannons to freeze and fall as snow. In mid-January, temperatures on the North Shore mountains were often warmer than that. Another issue is the cost of the systems, which use large amounts of power and water.
In terms of sustainability, “snow-making has a fairly minor footprint” in B.C., said Scott, due to the province’s hydroelectric power and access to water. He’s also weighed the environmental cost of using snow-making machines against the cost of getting on a flight to a ski resort.
“One flight of ski tourists to Whistler uses more carbon than all of Quebec’s snow-making for an entire winter,” he said. “If you can keep B.C. ski tourists in B.C., it is actually a climate mitigation strategy.”
Scott said there will be winners and losers in each ski market as the climate changes. He predicts consolidation of resorts, with just as many ski visits packed into a shorter season and less terrain. High-elevation resorts in colder areas will gain market share and improve their capacity for more people.
Postmedia was unable to reach Grouse, Cypress and Seymour for comment on how the local mountains are preparing for climate change.
Sasquatch general manager Todd Muir said that, at the moment, the mountain is “still focused on the season at hand.”
Robert Wilson, president of Bridal Veil Mountain Resort, an all-season resort proposed for the mountains above Chilliwack, said its application with the province remains in the early stages, but its “long-term goal is to offer year-round recreation opportunities at a destination mountain resort that is owned, designed, managed and governed with participating Stó:lō First Nations.”
But as Pidwirny noted, the challenges facing ski hills in 2050 might pale in comparison to those on the areas down below.
As sea level rise reshapes coastal cities like Vancouver and impacts the everyday lives of citizens, adaptation isn’t the answer.
“We need to get our act together and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
IN THE DOG DAYS OF the summer of 1955, hundreds of magazine editors, columnists, and radio broadcasters around the United States received an unusual cool-off care package. The contents included an ice bucket, a set of tongs, and a can of Campbell’s beef bouillon. To avoid any confusion, the gift basket also contained a recipe booklet instructing what to do with the soup: Pour it into an over-sized rocks glass and sip it like an Old Fashioned.“For a summertime drink, it is low in calories—less than 30 calories per generous serving,” enthused a company report at the time. “It is inexpensive… It is especially valuable to athletes and golfers in replacing salt lost through exercise. Best of all, it is downright delicious.”Don Draper might have snorted at the idea of a zero-proof libation, but Campbell’s took their “Soup on the Rocks” campaign completely seriously. In August 1955, the company rolled out a splashy ad with a color illustration of its “cocktail” in LIFE magazine. More ads followed, along with promotional gifts of Soup on the Rocks to actors and athletes, including the entire Chicago White Sox and Brooklyn Dodgers. The drink appeared on menus from the Brown Derby in Los Angeles and Sardi’s in New York.
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That said, it is easy to understand why Spanish wine doesn’t have a reputation equal to French or Italian. The saying “If it grows together, it goes together” is especially applicable to pairing food with wine, so producers from countries with popular culinary styles have an easier and more obvious route to gaining traction in export markets. America has a long history of emigrants from Italy, and with that comes a tradition of Italian restaurants. Over time, these have evolved from “red sauce” joints to fine-dining establishments serving elevated regional Italian cuisine. An awareness and enjoyment of the country’s wine has expanded alongside this culinary evolution, transitioning us from bottles of fizzy, semisweet Lambrusco and straw-wrapped jugs of Chianti to Barolo, Amarone, Brunello, and Super Tuscans. 
Spain is one of the top three wine producers on the planet, behind France and Italy, but you wouldn’t know it from its lack of representation in many wine shops and eateries. Look at the selections from France, Italy, and California and compare them to the paltry Spanish choices. Part of the blame lies with thirsty natives: Just shy of 60 percent of Spanish wine is drunk domestically. But we’re simply not doing our part. While 16.4 percent of Spanish wine is exported to the U.K., Americans consume only 10.4 percent, yet our population is five times greater. The most widely drunk Spanish wine in the U.S. is Cava; despite its “cheap and cheerful” reputation, Cava is on the up. The number of single-vineyard and vintage Cavas released is increasing, especially since the D.O. updated its rules in 2021—with Rioja trailing closely behind. 
