Day-long exploration of the collaborative opportunities between cannabis & wine
Healdsburg, CA, August 12th, 2019 – The Wine Industry Network (WIN) hosted the 3rd Annual Wine & Weed Symposium on August 8th at the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country in Santa Rosa, CA. Professionals from the cannabis and wine industries came together again to explore the impact that the legalization of recreational cannabis consumption has had on wine and review the latest developments between the two industries over the past year.
The 3rd annual symposium hosted nearly 500 attendees who came from as far away as Florida. Of the days attendees, 53% were from the wine industry with cannabis and other industry professionals making up the remaining 47%.
This year’s keynote was delivered by Corey Beck, CEO, Francis Ford Coppola Winery who was able to share experiences from his twenty plus years in the wine industry and his unique insight into the collaborations that are possible between wine & cannabis as Coppola recently launched The Grower’s Series, a cannabis lifestyle brand with a limited edition collection featuring three unique 100% organic cannabis flower strains.
A talented line-up of expert speakers from both industries discussed a wide range of topics throughout the day including a presentation on the impact on wine sales in legal states, beverage industry’s investment in cannabis, cannabis consumer purchasing trends, marketing lessons learned from cannabis, and women and the cannabis industry, among other topics.
More than 40 companies were on hand to showcase new products and services, and attendees had the opportunity to participate in a unique cannabis sensory experience offered by Garden Society, a cannabis confection company that specializes in low dose edibles. The interactive experience allowed people to examine whole cannabis plants, flowers, and leaves, to smell different identifiers in different strains, and taste foods that share similar terpene profiles.
A one-of-a kind extracurricular event, The Sonoma County Experience Tour, was back by demand again this year and designed exclusively for Wine & Weed Symposium attendees. Featuring a behind the scenes visit to CannaCraft, Solful Dispensary, a tasting at Barrel Brothers Brewing Company and concluded with a visit to Francis Ford Coppola Winery. In addition, attendees were invited to finish their symposium experience by attending the sophisticated Terpenes and Terroir, a Crop-to-Kitchen dining experience hosted by TSO Elevated Events, The Herb Somm, and C2K Community at Gary Farrell Winery.
“The reason this conference continues to grow in popularity is because we have outstanding speakers, we’re tackling a topic where there’s a tremendous amount of curiosity and things are evolving so quickly between these two industries that we’re never out of things to talk about,” said George Christie, President & CEO of Wine Industry Network, “Next year will be even better.”
About Wine Industry Network (WIN):
Wine Industry Network (WIN) (wineindustrynetwork.com), is based in Healdsburg, CA and is THE business resource for the wine industry. WIN produces three annual trade shows & conferences, the North Coast Wine Industry Expo (WIN Expo) (wineindustryexpo.com), the Wine & Weed Symposium (wine-weed.com), the 3-Tier Wine Symposium (3tierwine.com); as well as the online daily news publication, Wine Industry Advisor (wineindustryadvisor.com); an online employment resource, WIN Jobs (wineindustry.jobs); and THE North American Wine Industry Database, Wine Industry Data (WIN Data) (wineindustrydata.com).
