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US Wine Sales Looking Up: It's been a rocky year, but the signs are promising in the world's largest wine market...

Millennials Drive the Sparkling Wine Category: New insight from Wine Intelligence sparkling wine reports shows some consistent patterns emerging across the major ‘anglosphere’ consumption markets of the US, Canada, UK and Australia. As with many Covid-era trends, there appears to be an acceleration of patterns that were already present...

—Kim Badenfort Health authorities have given the green light for a return to large events provided Covid precautions are taken (Sonoma County Health Orders). While...

Newest Approved AVA—Virginia Peninsula: The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) had officially given its blessing to the Virginia Peninsula American Viticultural Area (AVA), which includes five wineries and 112 acres of commercial vineyards...

California Farm Worker Union Marching to the French Laundry After Newsom Vetoes Labor Bill: Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have allowed farm workers to vote by mail in union elections, a change the United Farm Workers pressed for after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year dealt a setback to its organizing practices...

Females in the Field—How Women in the Vineyard Make for Better Wine Business: Unlike reports on women’s tasting abilities, there are no studies on relative merits of female vs. male vineyard workers, but anecdotal evidence abounds. Wine Industry Advisor speaks to winery owners and winemakers about why they’ve welcomed more women as full-time field crew...

New Capstone California Global Education Program Focuses Exclusively on California Wine: The first-of-its kind California wine certification and education program, Capstone California, has launched onto the global wine stage during California Wine Month...

Scientists Develop Organic Cure for Pierce’s Disease: Testing continues, but new treatment meets approval of U.S. EPA and several state regulators...

Wine Industry Analyst Weigh-in: JUSTIN’s Acquisition of Lewis Cellars: It has been a trend recently for wineries to acquire other production capability while eliminating overhead to streamline processes, yet offer a larger range of brands to consumers under one banner...

2021 Close to Reaching 2019 Sales Levels in the On-Premise: It’s not news that 2020 was a volatile and challenging year for the On Premise, and with many openings and closings, sales suffered in comparison to previous years...

Family of 10-Year-Old Girl Who Drowned in Lake at Washington Winery Sues for Wrongful Death: Danika Ross died in July after being sucked into a pipe in a man-made lake in Quincy, Washington. The lake is for both recreation and winery irrigation...

North Coast Judge Denies Release of Wine Held in Smoke Damage Case: A Sonoma County wine grape grower had a setback in trying to convince a Lake County judge to order the release of tens of thousands of gallons of 2020 wine being held by a vintner that’s alleging hundreds of thousands of dollars in smoke damage from the fruit...

Multi-State Partnership Advances Sustainability in the U.S. Wine Industry Through Research, Education and Promotion: The largest winegrowing states in the country — California, Oregon, New York and Washington, which produce 95% of U.S. wine — have established educational and certification sustainability programs over the past two decades, furthering the widespread adoption of sustainable practices by U.S. winegrowers and winemakers...

Increase in wine purchases means increase demands for wine storage solutions. —Melanie Young The wine storage business experienced a measurable uptick during the pandemic-induced, wine-buying boom....

Wildfire Smoke Ruins Taste of Some Wines: Grapes exposed to smoke absorb chemicals that can alter — and sometimes ruin — the taste and smell of resultant wines. This “smoke taint” has become a growing concern for the industry...