Afternoon Brief, September 26
How Cameron Hughes Plays the Allocation Shuffle with California's Wine Glut - The last time I interviewed Cameron Hughes, CEO of the giant wine distributor under his name, he told me about how some of most illustrious cult wines of California, whose bottlings win 95-point ratings from the wine media and sell for hundreds of dollars ...
Afternoon Brief, September 25
The Mysterious and Not Fully Understandable Wine Defect Popping Up in Natural Wines: Mouse - You can't smell it. At first, you can't taste it. But once you do, you'll wish you'd never opened the bottle. It's a stealthy little pest known as mouse, or mousiness, an off-flavor that can infect wines ...
Afternoon Brief, September 24
For California Wineries During Harvest, PG&E Power Outages Could Be Disastrous - Jon Phillips, a Santa Rosa winemaker, walked into his local hardware store in search of a generator only to learn another customer had walked out with the last one ...
Afternoon Brief, September 23
Vintage Wine Estates Continues to Grow in the Pacific Northwest with the Acquisition of Owen Roe: Vintage Wine Estates announced the addition of Owen Roe, with locations in Yakima, Washington (winery, vineyards and tasting room) and Willamette Valley, Oregon (tasting room) to its fine wine portfolio ...
Afternoon Brief, September 20
North Coast Grape Growers Fear Tons of Fruit Will Be Left on the Vine Unsold: As he hustled around a flatbed trailer parked along the road earlier this week, Will Ivancovich was abuzz during the first day of grape picking for this years harvest at his Kenwood vineyard. Clad in a white fedora hat and with an unlit cigar dangling from his mouth, the 71-year-old Ivancovich easily kept up with the workers decades younger...
Afternoon Brief, September 19
Napa Planning Commission Asks for More Time to Study Bremer Winery Compliance: Bremer Family Winery, which has been a focus of thorny county code and permit controversies, ran into a delay as it works to come into compliance. The winery recently settled with Napa County over a lawsuit in which the county alleged a variety of illegalities, which the Bremers contested...
Afternoon Brief, September 18
Would New Fee Empower Wine Country Marketing Efforts? : Should Santa Barbara County wineries impose a two percent fee on each bottle sold to help pay for regional marketing efforts? The staff and board members of the Santa Barbara Vintners certainly believe so...
Afternoon Brief, September 17
Accountants Calling the Shots at Wineries: A cooper claims that reduced use of new oak in winemaking is a result of pressure from bean-counters...
Afternoon Brief, September 16
As Harvest Season Ramps Up, Napa Wineries Mindful of Carbon Dioxide Poisoning: Harvest season isn't just a hectic time for winemakers in the Napa Valley. It's also a busy stretch for wine country safety consultants, including Nicol Cadet-Cottam of Nicola Health and Safety. Among the major safety concerns for wineries is the possibility that workers could pass out in confined spaces, such as wine storage tanks or presses...
Afternoon Brief, September 13
Napa County, Bremer Family Winery Reach Lawsuit Settlement - Napa County and Bremer Family Winery settled a lawsuit brought by the county against the winery over alleged permit and code violations, ending a dispute that called into question how the county interprets older use permits ...
Afternoon Brief, September 12
Global Leader in Sustainability Achieves Record Breaking Participation and Announces a First for Agriculture - Five years ago, the Sonoma County Winegrowers (SCW) made a bold declaration to the wine world that its more than 1,800 winegrowers were committed to becoming the nations first 100% certified sustainable wine region in 2019 ...
Afternoon Brief, September 11
Why X Marks the Spot for Selling Wine - Generation X, the most infamously pilloried and self-deprecating population cohort the world has known since it started naming generations, may finally get its due ...
Afternoon Brief, September 10
Some of California's Most Famous Wines Came from a Science Experiment - Starting out as a research specialist at the University of California at Santa Barbara in the late 1960s, botanist Michael Benedict had no idea that his studies of the oceans effect on plants would lead him to found one of California's most famous vineyards, Sanford & Benedict, in the Santa Ynez Valley, 48 years ago ...
Afternoon Brief, September 6
Why Winemakers Should Be Fighting Against Herbicide Drift: A grape grower whose vineyards have been damaged speaks out on why it's a threat to the industry...
Afternoon Brief, September 5
Alleged Marijuana Damage to Grapes Ruled Plausible: A federal judge has ruled that an Oregon vineyard has plausibly alleged harm from a neighboring marijuana operation and may proceed with a racketeering lawsuit against it...
