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The Two-Way

'I Am Not A Sixth Grader': Sens. Feinstein, Cruz Spar On 2nd Amendment

A curious shift has happened in global wine-drinking trends: Americans have overtaken the French and Italians, Europe's traditional lovers of the fruits of the vine, as the world's top wine guzzlers.

And it's not just wine drinking that's taken off stateside: U.S. wine production is also on the rise.

Back in the 1970s, there were about 400 wineries in America. Today, there are more than 7,000. And they're not just in locations like Napa, Calif.; Walla Walla, Wash.; and Williamette Valley, Ore. They're in places that are less familiar as wine regions: Texas, Ohio, Hawaii and even Alaska.

"I've had some stunning American wines, and I don't think anyone should think that American wine is necessarily inferior to, say, French or Italian," Jancis Robinson, a leading authority on wine, tells Weekend Edition host Scott Simon

Robinson is the co-author of American Wine: The Ultimate Companion to the Wines and Wineries of the United States. The book traces an American "wine revolution" that is kind of amazing, considering it was only 20 years ago that the industry was feeling threatened by Neo-Prohibitionists.

"But now, wine seems to be such a popular interest with a whole load of people — particularly young people," Robinson says.

That interest has even led to wineries sprouting up right in the middle of cities. Just ship in grapes from a nearby vineyard, and you've got a resource for city-dwellers to see how wine is made.

While you may think your local wine can't possibly be as good as something imported, that's not necessarily the case, Robinson says.

She says she's especially a fan of some wines produced around the Finger Lakes in New York. She's also found a very good copy of champagne from the Gruet family in New Mexico.

"Pretty much all countries that make wine make some good wine and some bad wine," says Robinson. "Yes, it's true that the majority of the very, very, very finest wines I have ever had have been from France, but then, France makes more wine than everyone else most years."

Because winters can be pretty harsh in the American interior, European grapevines are tricky to grow. But new varieties like Traminette were bred to survive the climate. Then there's the all-American Norton grape, discovered in Virginia and particularly popular in Missouri vineyards.

"It makes some really serious red wines," Robinson says. "So you can have very respectable Missouri Norton that has not an ounce of influence of France or Italy in it."

Israel appears to have a new government, nearly two months after parliamentary elections.

Since the voting in January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle that just would not fit.

If he included traditional allies, such as the religious parties, he would close out a chance of forming a government with a popular political newcomer, Yair Lapid.

A former TV newsman, Lapid is secular and centrist. His party was the second largest in the balloting and has demanded that ultra-Orthodox Jews perform military service, rather than receiving an exemption.

Professor Reuven Hazan of Hebrew University says that in the end, Netanyahu had to make major concessions to Lapid's centrist movement. The prime minister also made room for the right-wing Jewish Home party, which is strongly supportive of West Bank settlers.

Meanwhile, ultra-Orthodox parties are not included in the government coalition for the first time in more than three decades.

"He has formed a government that is not focused on the main issue of Israeli politics, which is security," Hazan said of Netanyahu.

The new government appears more concerned with domestic questions, such as mandatory military service and government reform. Attacking those problems is likely to make life harder for Netanyahu, as he will have to take things away from his traditional supporters.

The new coalition may allow Netanyahu to continue his hard-line approach toward the Palestinians.

Jewish Home is opposed to the two-state solution entirely. Yair Lapid supports negotiations, but has made clear he will not make major concessions.

Hazan says that means "we might get back to negotiating, but these negotiations will lead nowhere and they won't last for very long."

The new government is expected to be sworn in just in time for the arrival of President Obama next Wednesday.

Pope Francis, in his first audience with the cardinals since becoming head of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, praised his predecessor, Benedict XVI, and urged the evangelization of the church's message.

Francis said of Benedict, who served as pontiff for eight years before his historic resignation last month, that he "lit a flame in the depths of our hearts that will continue to burn because it is fueled by his prayers."

On his first full day as pope Thursday, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires called on the cardinals "to find new ways to bring evangelization to the ends of the Earth" and cautioned against giving into pessimism — "that bitterness that the devil offers us every day."

The 76-year-old pontiff, formerly Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, encouraged the prelates — many in their 60s and 70s — to pass their wisdom to younger members of the church. "Like good wine, [it] gets better with the years. Let's give the young the wisdom of life."

Meanwhile, the Rev. Francisco Jalics, a Jesuit priest who was abducted along with fellow priest Orlando Yorio by Argentina's military during the country's so-called "dirty war," says he and Yorio reconciled with Bergoglio, who was accused at the time of having not done enough to prevent the kidnapping.

According to The Associated Press:

Bergoglio has said he told the priests to give up their slum work for their own safety, and they refused. Yorio, who is now dead, later accused Bergoglio of effectively delivering them to the death squads by declining to publicly endorse their work.

'It was only years later that we had the opportunity to talk with Father Bergoglio ... to discuss the events,' Jalics said Friday in his first known comments about the kidnapping, which occurred when the new pope was the leader of Argentina's Jesuits.