Wine Business Editorial

Cindy Lauper said it best: girls just want to have fun. And women pretty much want the same thing. Women in the wine industry just want to make wine fun. Women winemakers mostly want to make wine that’s fun, and have fun doing it. Otherwise, what’s the point? And in general, we wine women are just like other women: we mostly want to drink wine that’s fun.

Most wineries call their customer space the “Tasting Room” for the very good reason that wine tasting does take place there, and it’s usually...

Only three percent of the wine grapes grown in California are grown at altitudes above 1,000 feet in elevation with some of the most uniquely fascinating wines sharing a common characteristic, volcanic rocky soils.

Measure C, also known as the Napa Oak Woodlands and Watershed Protection Initiative, came out of election night with a slim 42 vote lead,...

I was checking my emails the other day and came across an email from LinkedIn with a request ostensibly from a woman in New...

In our office, nearly every day, we get a pitch deck from the “next” Tito’s, Sophia, Yellow Tail, Estancia, Josh Cabernet, Fireball, Goose Island,...

As Sonoma County Supervisors weigh and discuss how the cannabis industry should be regulated, concern is rising that those regulations could in turn affect other agricultural industries in the county. As the cannabis industry reels from restrictions, Sonoma County is losing potential business and tax dollars while cannabis growers leave their operations to counties with fewer restrictions.

If you’ve never seen a NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) map, they look pretty much like a topography map, which shows a green color in areas denoting healthy vegetation and yellow to red colors in more difficult areas. For the science-oriented, according to the GISgeography website, NDVI quantifies vegetation by measuring the difference between near-infrared (vegetation that strongly reflects) and red light (vegetation that absorbs). Healthy vegetation (chlorophyll) reflects more near-infrared (NIR) and green light compared to other wavelengths. But it absorbs more red and blue light, which is why our eyes see vegetation as the color green.

Recent political developments in Europe have had a significant impact on the value of the Euro, with exchange rate volatility increasing the risk for wineries importing oak barrels for harvest.

Not everyone who is ever going to purchase from your business will do so the first time they come into contact with you. Yet...

As with any extreme weather event, wildfires have the potential to devastate businesses caught in the turmoil. But, like any other event, proper planning can mean the difference between business-as-usual and bust.

Summer is here. Officially not yet, but the weather says different. Memorial Day has come and gone and all over America the summer booze...

I came across an article in Marketing Profs today by John Miller, the title of which caught my eye, “Brand Love is Bull****…So Now...

As we gathered for the judging of the sweepstakes wines at the Dan Berger International Wine Competition earlier this month, the suspense was killing us. Did any of the wines we loved on our panel make it? Not that it really mattered. We trusted all the wines would be great. And we knew there would be some Berger ringers: we anticipated a Gamay Noir, as he mentioned it the night before at the judges dinner, graciously hosted by the generous Cline Family at their stunning Jacuzzi facility, where they served grass fed beef from their Meadowbrook Ranch accompanied by a panoply of produce from their Green String Farms. The meal was as memorable as the bottle of 1978 Ahlgren Zin brought by long-time judge Tom Bohr.

It’s Friday morning, early, early Friday AM, I am sitting here in my office working away. Coaching our sales and strategy teams to finish...