Hey cool kids, I’ll keep this short. Once again I find myself preparing for another long weekend of WSET Diploma Zoom-ing. Not complaining—enjoying myself, learning a lot and tasting some really interesting wines I probably wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to taste. I hope all of you have something fun and relaxing planned as well as some fun in the glass in hand.
There’s a lot of news this week. So while you’re sipping, take your time and scroll through—even the press releases are pretty interesting this week. (Well, I wouldn’t include them if they weren’t…)
Stay well, stay healthy, and drop me a line anytime…cheers!
Wine Enthusiast: Duckhorn, Vintage Wine Estates and Other Wineries Go Public. What’s the Cost?
The New York Stock Exchange welcomes The Duckhorn Portfolio (NYSE: NAPA), today, Thursday, March 18, 2021, in celebration of its Initial Public Offering. Carol Reber, Sean Sullivan, Lori Beaudoin, Alex Ryan, Dan Duckhorn, Jamie O’Hara, Pete Przybylinski, and Zach Rasmuson. Our Executive team, founder, and the president of TSG Consumer Partners.
Photo Credit: NYSE
Last month, Napa’s Duckhorn Vineyards announced an IPO, or initial public offering, trading under the ticker “NAPA” on the New York Stock Exchange. As shares approached the $20 mark on its first day, Duckhorn Portfolio’s market cap briefly pushed past $2 billion.
A spokesperson for Duckhorn says that the company is currently in a mandatory SEC quiet period and unable to publicly comment. Its IPO is part of a wave of recent public offerings that demonstrate the financial potential of major U.S. wine brands in a volatile global market.
For some wine brands, an IPO grows both profitability and reach. READ MORE…
New York Times: Grenache Three Ways, and Over Many Decades
What does history tell us? Efforts to narrow the stylistic or quality potential of many grapes are doomed to failure. Somewhere, an idealistic winemaker will pop up with wines that prove the narrative wrong.
We have seen this again and again, whether it’s to demonstrate that aligoté is not always thin and acidic, that zinfandel need not be heavy and alcoholic or that silvaner can be inspiring rather than insipid.
Here at Wine School, we never want to blame the grape. We try to keep in mind that the wine in the bottle is most often dictated not only by the grapes but also by the site in which they were grown, the character of the vintage, the farming, the winemaking and the choices made by the people in charge of production. READ MORE…
Wine Spectator: Mess on the High Seas—That Imported Wine You Want Might Be Stuck on a Boat
U.S. importers are struggling to find freighter space for their wines, as they feel the rippling effects of tariffs and the COVID-19 pandemic
When the massive container ship Ever Given managed to wedge itself sideways in the Suez Canal on March 23, blocking traffic for nearly a week, it provided a fitting symbol for the state of global shipping in the past year. And while dredging, tug boats and the high tide of a full moon freed the ship, the shipping slowdowns continue. For wine lovers, that means some of their favorites may not be on store shelves anytime soon.
Importers breathed a sigh of relief when the Biden Administration paused the tariffs on wines from France, Spain and Germany last month. But they continue to face a major challenge: It has become increasingly difficult to get wines, or any cargo for that matter, to the U.S., and in the short term it’s possible the tariff reprieve has made things worse.
It’s a panic … READ MORE….
Vitisphere: Bordeaux converting to organic on a massive scale
Although no precise figures are as yet available, the wave of conversions to organic in the vineyards of Bordeaux is undoubtedly growing: “People are talking about 300 conversions to organic this year”, says Patrick Vasseur, vice-president of the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture. It’s quite simple, “everyone is switching over” sums up winegrower Philippe Carrille, whose 23-hectare Château Poupille in Castillon Côte de Bordeaux has been certified since 2008.
This influx of new converts, “can only be cause for rejoicing”, stresses Gwénaëlle le Guillou, director of the New Aquitaine organic wine producers’ organisation (SVBNA). Pointing out that Bordeaux had been “lagging behind” … READ MORE…
The Drinks Busines: Organic viticulture ‘almost impossible’ in Champagne
While Perrier-Jouët’s brand ambassador, Jonny Simms, says going organic would be “nirvana”, he believes practicing organic viticulture in the region is “almost impossible”.
Speaking during the UK launch of Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque 2013, Simms said: “Being organic would be nirvana, but it’s almost impossible in Champagne. Mildew is such a big problem in the region that the only solution is spraying with the appropriate chemicals.
“You can do organics plot by plot in Champagne but mildew is too big a problem to be able to practice organic viticulture across the entire region.”
Despite the challenges Champagne producers face with going green, Perrier-Jouët is going to great lengths to minimise its impact on the environment. READ MORE…
VinePair: Okanagan Valley to Become Global Leader in Certified Organic Wine Production by the End of 2021
The Okanagan Valley’s current proportion of certified organic vineyards is approximately 5 percent. In comparison, IWSR data published by Forbes cites the global organic production rate as roughly 3.6 percent. The drive to increase organic vineyards in British Columbia’s flagship region by 15 percent is being spearheaded by the Mark Anthony Group of wineries, which have been going through various stages of organic transition for the past three years. READ MORE…
Napa Valley Register: Napa County asked to spend $42 million to reduce wildfire threat
Local wildfire prevention advocates want $42 million over five years for fuel reduction and similar projects to prevent a repeat of large fires that in recent years destroyed about 1,500 homes, businesses and other structures.
The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday held what amounted to a wildfire summit. Wine industry officials and residents implored the county to take further preventative steps before another fire season begins.
“Napa will burn again,” said Christopher Thompson of Napa Communities Firewise Foundation. “We now have a plan of action and we need funding … and we need lots of it.”
County Fire Chief Geoff Belyea asked for $6.4 million in the short-term. County supervisors responded by agreeing that the county should find the money to make that contribution. READ MORE…
Wine Searcher: Wine Media Darling’s Reputation Takes a Hit
Feted for her unique wines, a flagbearer for diversity has been hit with accusations of harassment.
Scruggs makes unusual natural wines, such as some combining biodynamic hybrid grapes with foraged apples for a wine/cider crossover. Her first vintage was 2017 and immediately she began being lauded by some of the highest-profile media venues a winemaker could hope for.
Wine Enthusiast put her in its Top 40 under 40 list of tastemakers in 2018. Bon Appetit magazine ran a feature in 2019 titled “Krista Scruggs Is Making the Most Exciting, Most Delicious Natural Wine Right Now”. Time magazine called her tasting room, a joint operation with a cider producer, one of its 100 Greatest Places of 2019.
In August 2020, NBC’s Today show did a segment on her. Host Sheinelle Jones opens it with the prophetic line: “Krista Scruggs has always been a bit of a rulebreaker.”
After the Boston Globe did a feature on her in December 2020, Food & Wine magazine gave Scruggs a chance to write her own column for its April 2021 issue, and she wrote “This Land is My Land”.
“I’m a Black queer woman doing the work of my ancestors here in America,” she wrote. “Everything within the umbrella of Zafa Wines symbolizes anti-colonialism.” READ MORE…
Wine Spectator: Bollinger Champagne Owners Buy Oregon’s Ponzi Vineyards
A pioneering Willamette Valley family, who arrived in the region in 1969 when Oregon Pinot Noir was considered impractical, sells control to marquee Champagne house
Ponzi Vineyards, a pioneer of Oregon wine, has been acquired by the Bollinger family, owners of Champagne Bollinger. It’s Bollinger’s first winery purchase outside France. The sale price was not disclosed but the deal includes the 40,000-case winery and hospitality facilities in Willamette Valley and 35 acres of vineyards. The Ponzi family retains 100 acres of vineyards and will continue to sell grapes to Bollinger under a long-term contract.
Founders Dick and Nancy Ponzi handed control of the winery to their children nearly 30 years ago. CEO Anna Maria Ponzi will oversee sales and marketing until a new CEO is in place. Luisa Ponzi will continue her duties as director of viticulture and winemaking. READ MORE…
Santa Barbara Independent: Wine Bar Owner Is Santa Barbara County’s First COVID-19 Defier to Be Criminally Charged
Kurt Hixenbaugh Openly Ignored Winter Lockdown and Now Faces Four Misdemeanor Counts
A former police sergeant turned wine bar owner is the first person in Santa Barbara County to be criminally charged with violating COVID-19 health orders.
Kurt Hixenbaugh, 49, faces four misdemeanor counts for refusing to close Vino et Amicis, located in Old Town Orcutt, during the statewide shutdown that was in effect this winter. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine. READ MORE…
South China Morning Post: Tax on Aussie wine gives Rothschild family’s estate the chance of a lifetime to supplant Australia’s wine in tempting Chinese palates
The family of Baron Philippe de Rothschild, owner of one of the most sought-after great wines of Bordeaux, is allocating a record volume of its entry-level wine to China, as it sees the chance of a lifetime to sell more to the world’s fastest-growing population of wine drinkers.
Domaine de Baronarques, a 370-year-old vineyard owned by the family behind the legendary Chateau Mouton Rothschild, plans to ship about 11,000 bottles – or 25 per cent of annual production – to China, more than doubling its current allocation for the market, said its managing director Augustin Deschamps.
“Customers [in China] are looking for a bigger diversity of wine than before, with more curiosity and a high level of expectations,” Deschamps said in an interview with South China Morning Post from Limoux city in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France, about four hours drive from Bordeaux. “It’s now a very exciting competition, with more space for new quality wines.” READ MORE…
Press Democrat: Sonoma County cannabis growers and rural residents still at sharp odds over cultivation rules
Nearly 8 million Californians voted to make cannabis cultivation, sales and consumption legal in 2016, and the following year more than 360 farmers sought permission to farm the intoxicating plant in Sonoma County.
Since then, only 184 permits have been granted in a county that at that time was home to about 3,000 growers. Under pressure from many of those frustrated farmers, the Board of Supervisors 15 months ago agreed to streamline the permit process and treat marijuana more like other crops.
VinePair: Napa Green—How One Sustainability Program Is Working to Save Napa Valley
Napa Green works with individual wineries and vineyards to develop customized plans for sustainability all the way from soil to bottle. The program is not one size fits all. Instead, it takes into account participants’ current practices in order to set ambitious yet tangible goals for improvement. Participants in the program are constantly pushed for advancement. In order to maintain their certifications, vineyards and wineries must be re-evaluated every three years and demonstrate improvement over past metrics.
Since the program’s inception in 2004, 657 Napa wineries and vineyards have obtained Napa Green certifications, covering more than 80 percent of Napa’s vineyard acreage. And participating wineries have discovered that preserving the environment pays off in more ways than one; collectively, the wineries have saved over 12,600,000 gallons of water and more than 4,125,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, resulting in almost $1 million in electricity savings. READ MORE…
ABC: Disneyland’s popular Blue Bayou restaurant to serve alcoholic beverages
When Disneyland reopens next month, alcohol will be served at the Blue Bayou restaurant, adding one more option for visitors to consume alcohol beverages in the park.
Up until now, the alcoholic beverage offerings within the theme park were limited. Club 33, a private dining club located within the park, and Oga’s Cantina in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, were the only places that served cocktails and beer.
The announcement posted Wednesday on the Disney Parks Blog unveiled a revamped menu for the atmospheric restaurant located inside the Pirates of Caribbean ride. The new additions include beverages such as wine, beer and a specialty Hurricane Cocktail. READ MORE…
Eater: It’s Time to Forget the Old Rules of Wine Pairing
Because drinking what you like shouldn’t be hard
On any given night in the pre-pandemic days, there was a four-top at a restaurant with a small-share-plates-so-order-several-items-and-I’ll-course-it-out-for-you type of menu, and, inevitably, someone in the group would want the sommelier to recommend a wine to pair.
Many times that sommelier was (or is) me, and often in that moment, I’ve hesitated. You want to know what I, a stranger, think you should have with your meal, with no clue what you actually like? Sometimes I just want to look you in the eye and say, “This is your dinner; it’s not about me.”
There is a long history of the all-knowing wine guru telling you that you absolutely must have X with Y. Sommelier courses like the Wine and Spirit Education Trust train and test students on traditional, tried-and-true pairings, maximizing the enjoyment of food and wine. This skill is among the most important components of the sommelier’s expertise, a supposedly quantifiable measurement that, in reality, is completely subjective. It’s also wildly outdated in terms of how we currently eat. Shared plates have transformed the job of the sommelier into something new: Where we were once asked to recommend a bottle to complement a few entrees, now we have the impossible task of finding one that pairs with seven different things, ranging from Sichuan lamb ribs to shrimp and grits to hamachi crudo. It can be done, certainly, but that’s not the point. If the meal has changed, it’s time for the way we think about drinking with it to change, too. READ MORE…
Eater Philly: It’s an Exciting Time to Be a Wine Drinker in Philly
The wine scene in Philadelphia is bursting with lesser-known and intriguing grape varieties, styles, and regions of origin — and the choices are only getting better
It wasn’t long ago that the wine selection in Philadelphia was uninspired at best and non-existent at worst. In a city full of notable chefs, craft beer, and outstanding places to eat, interesting wine has often been a state-hampered afterthought. But over the past few years, more exciting wine styles have begun to step into the spotlight in Philly, and finally, our city is having its much-deserved wine renaissance.
It all started around the summer of 2015 when rosé was rising in popularity.
Not only had rosé proven itself as a legitimate style of high-quality wine, but its beauty was also Instagram-worthy, and lots of millennials were turning 21. The seemingly sudden embrace by producers, sommeliers, and consumers of a style that had largely been viewed as less-than-serious was the first step away from more traditional, perfunctory wine lists. Skin contact wine, pèt-nat, and other varieties of natural wine followed rosé onto wine lists.
Each of these styles dates back to the very origins of winemaking. READ MORE…
WineTitles Media: Cheers to Wine Australia’s US Market Entry Program
SA wineries are set to grow their businesses by entering and expanding into the US market through Wine Australia’s US Market Entry Program – with the State Government delivering support by subsidising 50 per cent of the cost for 15 wineries.
The program will run from July 2021 to June 2022, be delivered in partnership with Wine Australia and has been designed to educate wineries about the realities of the US market, including compliance, marketing, pricing, sales, PR and logistics.
In 2020 South Australian producers exported just under $50 million of labelled, bottled wine to the US market. The US has been identified as a priority market for the South Australian wine sector and has been earmarked by Wine Australia as the most attractive market for Australian wine based on economic and market analysis.
Minister for Trade and Investment Stephen Patterson is encouraging South Australian wineries to register their interest for the US Market Entry Program as the industry faces challenging times following bushfires, COVID-19 and market access difficulties. READ MORE…
Press Democrat: Why was Dominic Foppoli, now accused of sex assault, just appointed to the Golden Gate Bridge District?
The vote was set for April 6 after being pushed back in March by two weeks.
It was little more than a formality — the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors was scheduled to sign off on the choice of Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli as the county’s newest representative on the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District.
Foppoli, 38, has served as mayor of Windsor since 2018 and had won the post in 2020 in the town’s first direct contest for the seat. In February, he emerged as the top choice for the Golden Gate Bridge District appointment among the nine local city councils.
The Board of Supervisors’ role was to affirm that choice.
But as the vote neared, supervisors had caught wind of a forthcoming, damaging news report on Foppoli, four members of the five-person board told The Press Democrat.
Still, on Tuesday they proceeded to unanimously approve Foppoli’s appointment to the district, making him one of three representatives sent by Sonoma County to sit on the 19-member board.
Then on Thursday morning, the news broke: Four women had come forward with detailed accounts in the San Francisco Chronicle accusing Fopppoli, a local winemaker and Cardinal Newman High School graduate, of sexual assault over a 16-year period dating back to 2003. READ MORE…
ABC News: King Estate Winery Requiring Employees to Get COVID-19 Vaccine
Whether or not a company can require employees to get the vaccine is a hotly contested issue.
King Estate Winery in Eugene is requiring employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine, a move that is drawing controversy.
“We’re very proud as a company to put such an emphasis on workplace safety and provide the resources to employees, staff, as well as their families,” Chief Operating Officer Brent Stone said.
If employees want to continue to work at the winery, they must have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by May 20. The winery hosted its first on-site vaccine clinic in partnership with Lane County Public Health Thursday, where employees and their family members received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Stone said the winery is planning an additional on-site clinic in the coming weeks. READ MORE…
Blogs Worth a Read
Taken from the list of Blogs I follow regularly, here are just a few posts from this past week I think are worth a read. Shoot me a note if you have suggestions of blogs to follow or want your blog included on that list.
Trink Magazine: It’s the Nitrogen, Stupid!
As recently as a decade ago, biodynamic viticulture could be shrugged off as “some dogma about phases of the moon and cow horns.” But now that we find a who’s who of the wine world on the member lists of relevant biodynamic organizations, it’s no longer so easy to cancel adherents to this form of farming. Those who set the oft-cited cow horn aside and look more closely will recognize that numerous aspects of biodynamics are just as topical today as they were a century ago when the farming form first took shape.
Food security has always been the objective of agriculture. The challenge in this is keeping the same areas fertile over the long term. Some civilizations have had more success with this than others; failure was a contributing factor to their decline. China appears to have been a positive example of this, as Sir Albert Howard describes in his 1943 book An Agricultural Testament: “…despite 4,000 years of cultivation, soil fertility was not diminished.” This was, mind you, before conventional agriculture took hold there.
Howard (1873 – 1947) is considered a pioneer of organic agriculture. In the early 20th century, he was appointed by the British government to be agricultural adviser to the states of central India and Rajputana. There he observed, among other things, how the local population farmed successfully with natural crop rotations and without fertilizers. READ MORE…
Vinography: Wine Tariffs to Be Replaced by Wine Glass Tariffs?!
First they came for our imported wines and sparkling wines. With a herculean effort and a bit of luck we finally seem to have averted an ongoing disaster.
But now they’re coming for our Zaltos, dammit!
Unless you were living under a rock, or don’t give a fig about wine, you will have heard that the horrific 25% tariffs on imported wines have been suspended for 4 months while the Biden Administration works out a permanent solution for the trade war over large aircraft subsidies.
But there is another trade dispute in progress that also threatened to impact the wine world this past year, through proposed taxes on sparkling wines. This other kerfuffle resulted from a Digital Services Tax imposed by France on the likes of Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Ultimately, the Trump administration opted to not include wine in the list of retaliatory tariffs. READ MORE…
Science & Wine: Understanding 21st Century Bordeaux Wines from Wine Reviews Using Naïve Bayes Classifier
Wineinformatics was proposed that incorporated data science and wine related datasets, including physicochemical laboratory data and wine reviews to discover useful information for wine producers, distributors, and consumers. Wine reviews are produced by sommeliers, people who specialize in wine. These wine reviews usually include aroma, flavors, tannins, weight, finish, appearance, and the interactions related to these wine sensations. For computer perspective, the physicochemical laboratory data is easy to read and apply analytics to, while wine reviews’ data involves natural language processing and a degree of human bias. A new technique named the Computational Wine Wheel was developed to accurately capture keywords, including not only flavors but also non-flavor notes, which always appear in the wine reviews. READ MORE…
The Wine Gourd: Beer countries and wine countries
In the world of alcohol consumption there are beer drinkers, wine drinkers, and alcoholics. Some countries are considered to have mostly beer drinkers, and others have mostly wine drinkers. But how many countries are there of each?
In order to find out, I have had a look at the data for 2015, as contained in the Annual Database of Global Wine Markets, compiled by Anderson, Nelgen and Pinilla. Tables 41b (Volume of beverage wine consumption per adult) and 45b (Volume of beer consumption per adult) contain the information that we want. READ MORE…
James Suckling: More than Malbec—Argentina’s Experiential Evolution
Bring on the asado. Dip the chorizo in the chimichurri sauce. Take a bite of an empanada. And then have a swig of what the best Argentine wines have to offer to the world of wine and gastronomy today. We found 100s of terrific wines in this report to take you to a uniquely Argentine wine experience and back.
This year we rated around 1,800 wines and it was one of our best tastings yet for this South American vinous powerhouse. With some of the finest terroirs being discovered, blessed by a few consecutively invigorating vintages, Argentina showed wall-to-wall excellence this year with its fast-advancing winemaking and terrific value that few countries can emulate. Not many countries have trodden this far down the path of great wine in such a short time.
Last year, our Wine of the Year was awarded to a 100-pointer from Rio Negro of Patagonia, the Chacra Patagonia Treinta y Dos 2018, not even a malbec, but a pinot noir. We realize this must have meant a lot for Patagonia and Argentina, yet the message was crystal clear: Argentina is ready to blow you away with great wines that are off the charts, and they are not just malbecs or the various malbec blends that deserve buying, drinking and collecting.
We are sad about not being able to go to Argentina this year because of the pandemic, so we tasted everything in our office in Hong Kong. In addition, we did few dozen Zoom calls with the winemakers/owners behind some of these great bottles. It was an awesome experience.
Argentina has been blessed with four successful vintages – 2017, 2018 2019 and 2020.We feel that the country has reached a new summit that illustrates an incredible precision in winemaking with hundreds of outstanding quality wines at great prices and dozens of fantastic vineyard-specific wines that can compete with the best in the world. These wines are among the finest to date from Argentina, showing a breakaway from the manipulated recipe winemaking for which Argentina was known in the past. Jammy wines are dying out. Long live vibrancy, balance and flavor with precise winemaking that reveals place with nuance. READ MORE…
Deborah Parker Wong: Following Malbec’s fingerprints to identify terroir
What Argentina’s savvy winemakers have known for many decades—that certain vineyards reliably produce superlative wines despite vintage variations—is now scientific fact.
Researchers at the Catena Institute of Wine in Mendoza used a combination of chemometric data and sensory analysis to group a selection of Malbec
wines into distinctive regions and identify the specific vineyard site, or parcela, they hailed from with a high degree of certainty.
The study, which is the first of its kind, took its cue from smaller-scale research done in Burgundy and Valpolicella. But it went a step further in analyzing the phenolic profiles of renowned Malbec wines from 23 parcels distributed across 12 geographic indications in the Uco Valley and Luján de Cuyo—located at the foothills of the Andes Mountains at elevations of 900–1,600 meters—that were made under the same winemaking conditions over a period of three vintages: 2016, 2017, and 2018. READ MORE…
Jancis Robinson: Frost strikes European vineyards
Large parts of Italy, from the north to the centre, have been hit by frost damage due to exceptionally cold nights last Tuesday and Wednesday. The violently cold spell, made more severe by strong winds and clear skies, is said to be the coldest since 2003. The unusually warm weather in the previous week triggered shoot growth, especially of early-budding varieties, while enormous damage to crops cultivated on the plains, such as peach, kiwi and vegetables, have been reported in Emilia-Romagna, the Veneto and all the way down to Marche and Molise.
First reports from the Langhe speak of widespread frost damage, although the real situation will become clear only in the next few days after a thorough inspection of the vineyards. Although Nebbiolo is an early-budding variety, the most important crus of Barolo and Barbaresco tend to be on slopes, and hence relatively protected from spring frost. Lower parts of the Langhe have reportedly been hit more severely. READ MORE…
Press Releases
These are some press releases I received this week that I actually thought were interesting…enjoy!
Office of Governor Gavin Newsom: Governor Newsom Outlines the State’s Next Step in the COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery, Moving Beyond the Blueprint
California has administered 20 million vaccines, including 4 million to the hardest-hit communities. State aims to fully reopen on June 15, will continue to require masking and encourage all Californians to get vaccinated
As California surpasses a major milestone in the fight against COVID — administering more than 20 million vaccine doses, including 4 million in the state’s hardest-hit communities, and with hospitalizations continuing to steadily decline — Governor Gavin Newsom today outlined the state’s next step in the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, moving beyond the Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
On June 15, California will fully open its economy if two criteria are met:
- If vaccine supply is sufficient for Californians 16 years and older who wish to be inoculated; and
- If hospitalization rates are stable and low
Everyday activities will be allowed and businesses can open with common-sense risk reduction measures, including encouraging all Californians to get vaccinated and mandating masking, to prevent illness and promote health. The state will continue contact tracing and testing to detect cases early and contain spread of the virus. The entire state will move into this new phase as a whole. The state will monitor hospitalization rates, vaccine access and vaccine efficacy against variants, with the option to revisit the June 15 date if needed. READ MORE…
Free the Grapes: Everyone Benefits If NJ Adopts Free the Grapes Legislation
Passage of bills A 1943 and S 2683, which would allow US wineries that produce more than 106,000 cases of wine per year to ship directly to New Jersey consumers, would be a win for consumers, retailers and state government, a new report shows.
Key findings from the study on winery direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipments:
- New Jersey would gain $3 to $4.4 million in tax collections per year in the short-term, and up to $6 million annually in the longer term.
The state would gain new fees from winery licenses and wine label registrations, as well as sales and excise tax remittances from wineries. READ MORE…
CSWA: New Website Spotlights Certified California Sustainable Wines, Vineyards and Wineries
The California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) launched a new website today, the start of Down to Earth month, dedicated to the Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing program at californiasustainablewine.
Developed for trade, media, consumers and visitors who want to find sustainable wines, wineries and vineyards that are certified with a rigorous third-party audit, the website also illustrates how sustainable vineyards and wineries are making wine in an environmentally and socially responsible way.
“The new certification website is a tool to convey key sustainability messages and to connect certified wines, wineries and vineyards with interested trade and consumers,” said Allison Jordan, CSWA’s Executive Director. “The California wine industry is a global leader in sustainability and well positioned to meet the growing interest we’ve seen in recent research.” READ MORE….
Wine Industry Network: Enoforum USA Opens Registration
Ponte dell’Olio, Italy – Vinidea and Wine Industry Network announced today that registration is now open for Enoforum USA, a two-day technical conference.
Enoforum is known as the largest technical-specific wine industry event in Europe. It takes place every other year attracting 1,200 attendees in Italy, 500 in Spain, and 450 in Portugal, while bringing together over 1,900 technicians with 70 research groups and 40 leading companies; more than 2,100 people over a 2-year cycle. Leading suppliers present and demonstrate the result of recent R&D, as well as receive input from practitioners regarding tailoring new technology to individual real-world wine producing situations.
The symposium will be held virtually Tuesday – Wednesday, May 4-5, from 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Registration is free for wine industry professionals and opens today. READ MORE…
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