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• Steve Lutz Of Lenne' Sells Willamette Valley Vineyard Estate
  Having achieved what is essentially cult status over 20 years as a craft producer, Lutz quips, "It's more work than you can imagine!"
  
  
• Winc files for bankruptcy following declining sales
  Winc is the latest DTC booze company to face challenges, especially in maintaining the growth that the online alcohol industry experienced in 2020.
  
  
• Winc Files BK - the filing (PDF - 432 pages)
  Winc filed a voluntary bankruptcy petition with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware listing $50,318,000 in assets and $36,751,000 in liabilities ... it's up for sale, ...etc.
  
  
• A Winemaker's Lawsuit Against Napa County is About More Than Sour Grapes
  When Jayson Woodbridge, a former Canadian infantryman turned banker, changed careers and founded a winery in Napa Valley in 1998, he named it Hundred Acre. The name was a tribute to A.A. Milne's "Winnie-the-Pooh" and was meant to evoke carefree whimsy. More recently, however, Mr Woodbridge has been pondering a different sort of fiction: that of Franz Kafka, famous for his portrayals of labyrinthine bureaucracy (This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the hea
  
  
• 'Really a cause for alarm': Wineries urged to go digital as tasting room traffic declines
  Visits to West Coast tasting rooms fell 39% in 2020 from a year before after public health orders restricted access to such "nonessential" gathering places with the intent of slowing the coronavirus, according to Community Benchmark's monthly survey of about 450 wineries. After reopening early last year, tasting room visits for 2021 were still down 7% from 2019 levels. Through October of this year visits were off by 12% from pre-pandemic.
  
  
• DTC Wine Symposium 2023 Workshops Announced
  Presented by and a fundraiser for Free the Grapes!, the DTC Wine Symposium will be held January 18-19, 2023 at the Hilton Concord Hotel in Concord, California and virtually via livestream.
  
  
• Monarch Tractor Launches Production of Founder Series MK-V: The First Commercially Available Electric, Driver-Optional Smart Tractor
  Constellation Brands is purchasing the first six units of the Founder Series MK-V tractor
  
  
• Watch: Chief Farming Officer Carlo Mondavi at Monarch Tractor Launch - 15:08
  An overview of climate change and how the new MK-V Founders series tractors, launched Dec. 1, will help farmers.
  
  
• Bulk Wine: Demand up for Chardonnay, Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc
  Sauvignon Blanc is one of the few varieties that Turrentine Brokerage projects to have a larger crop in 2022 from the desirable North Coast counties than in 2021. So even though it's hot, the prices for consumers may stay where they have been.
  
  
• Wellness Trends Drive Growth For Non-Alcohol Spirits, Wines, And Beers
  Even with tough comps against the prior year, alcohol-free beverages' momentum has not waned much.
  
  
• Distilled Spirits Council Code Review Board Issues Guidance for Suppliers and Retailers of New Crossover Alcohol Products
  The booming consumer interest in ready-to-drink alcohol beverages has resulted in a number of new products, including some alcohol crossover products launched by traditional soft drink producers and beverage alcohol companies. These crossover brand products often retain many of the same branding elements and consumer recognition as their non-alcohol beverage counterparts.
  
  
• Accolade Wines Announces National Strategic Alignment with Republic National Distributing Company
  The alignment with RNDC is a part of the strategic growth plan for Accolade in the Americas.
  
  
• Brown-Forman's Marshall Farrer, President, Europe, Expands Leadership Role and Adds Chief Strategic Officer Responsibilities
  Farrer is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  
  
• Anthony von Mandl, O.C., O.B.C, Founder, Owner & CEO, The Mark Anthony Group of Companies, is the recipient of the 2023 International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award
  Mr. von Mandl is the proprietor of a collection of family-owned luxury wineries in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, and the creator of a collection of innovative new to world beverage brands.
  
  
• Secretive Wine Billionaire's 'Old-Style' Habits Blur Succession
  Pierre Castel built a global wine and beer empire from a small trading outpost in Bordeaux, but who actually owns the business and what will happen after the 96-year-old dies?
  
  
• Turning 'Mines To Vines'--Minefields Into Vineyards--In Ukraine
  The Rotary E-Club of Ukraine will partner with Roots of Peace to remove landmines in the Mykloaiv region of Ukraine
  
  
• Talking Frankly about Ungrafted Vines
  A movement to promote the use of ungrafted vines is growing stronger, but what is it all about?
  
  
• Devil's Advocate: Bordeaux - The Rich Get Richer, While the Poor Uproot Their Vines
  Robert Joseph looks beyond the financially attractive top Grands Crus Classés, at the far less successful mass of Bordeaux and its sub-appellations where large swathes of vines are due to be uprooted.
  
  
• Opinion: The Prisoner Wine Co. says it's reforming its problematic imagery. Is it enough?
  "Is the Prisoner reveling in the sensationalist trappings of shackles and chains, or exposing the brutal inhumanity of shackles and chains?"
  
  
• Risk and Reward in Austria's Warming Wachau
  Austria has no ambivalence on its signature region: The Wachau has been top dog for three decades running. Its status once allowed it to set rules rather than obey them; to create trends, not follow them. But in an age more and more defined by climate emergency, does this quietly conservative region now risk complacency -- or can its winemakers react and adapt to maintain the Wachau's pole position?
  
  
• Quilceda Creek Gets High Praise from Critics in 2022 Top 100 Rankings
  This year marks the fourth time Quilceda Creek has placed among Wine Spectator's Top Ten Wines of the Year, the only U.S.-based winery to have achieved this accolade this many times in the past 20 years, and one of only four wineries in the world to do so.
  
  
• Senate approves bill enforcing railroad labor agreement ahead of strike deadline, sends to Biden
  A separate vote on adding seven days of paid sick leave to the agreement failed.
  
  
• Biden's Première State Dinner Wines Have a French Accent - Wine Spectator
  Guest of honor French President Emmanuel Macron treated to an all-American menu featuring U.S. wines with a noteworthy French connection
  
  
• Biden's Guests at Dinner with Macron Include LVMH Billionaire Arnault
  Biden's guests at dinner with Macron include LVMH billionaire Arnault, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Bank of America chief Brian Moynihan and Laurene Powell Jobs
  
  
• Smith Story Wine Cellars Celebrates First Year in Healdsburg, California
  The Smith Story tasting room is situated in the corner suite inside the new Bacchus Landing, decorated with natural elements and vintage design.
  
  
• Total devotion to her craft and colleagues sets local winemaker Justin Trabue on a path to icon status
  Justin Trabue has wine in her veins. She was born and raised in Washington, D.C., but California beckoned since birth, with her namesake being Justin Vineyards and Winery in Paso Robles.
  
  
• Hopewell winery says customers paid with fake $100 bill
  The incident happened the day after Small Business Saturday. It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and communities are encouraged to support small businesses and shop at these locations for holiday gifts.
  
  
• History of Oregon wine decanted in McMinnville
  "There's Oregon wine, there's grapes coming across the Oregon Trail and people bringing grape vines around the Cape as they were coming to settle Oregon in the 1840s," he said. "But the modern industry isn't that old. So the modern industry starts in the 1960s."
  
  
• The LCBO sells more than 45,000 cases of this California wine from Three Thievesper year. Here's their story
  
  
  
• 11 Capital Wine Lists to Try in Washington, D.C. - Wine Spectator
  For wines foreign and domestic, these restaurants' lists have our vote
  
  
• Officials fear 'complete doomsday scenario' for drought-stricken Colorado River - Washington Post - paywall
  It could happen if the surface of Lake Powell, a man-made reservoir along the Colorado River that's already a quarter of its former size, drops another 38 feet down the concrete face of the 710-foot Glen Canyon Dam here. At that point, the surface would be approaching the tops of eight underwater openings that allow river water to pass through the hydroelectric dam.
  
  
• Duarte nearing pick-up victory as eyes turn to Fresno Co. vote update
  Modesto nursery owner John Duarte is continuing to inch closer to a victory in the open, north Valley-centric 13th Congressional District.
  
  
• Biden and Macron state dinner menu lists California wines
  Three California wines have been chosen to accompany a White House dinner including lobster and award-winning blue cheese, held to mark French president Emmanuel Macron's US visit.
  
  
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