09/21/20 Smoke taint is the story of the 2020 vintage, so how can winemakers work around it? Ash on grapes can put out volatile phenols for a week, so when possible, growers should wash the ash off of their grapes. A number of companies are selling airblast cleaners but she said they are not as effective as water.

09/21/20 Sicilian Wine Pioneer Diego Planeta Dies He founded his family wine estate Planeta in the 1980s and released his first wines in the 1995. The estate now has 400 hectares of vineyards and six wineries in five different areas in Sicily: Menfi, Vittoria, Noto, Etna and Capo Milazzo.

09/21/20 Napa Winemakers Are Pledging Over $1 Million to Make the Wine Industry More Inclusive Napa Valley Vintners will allocate the money towards scholarship and mentorship opportunities.

09/21/20 Sonoma, Napa wine groups give $2M to affordable housing project, diversity scholarships Vintner groups in Napa and Sonoma counties have announced separate contributions jointly totaling $2 million toward affordable housing and scholarships to increase diversity in the wine industry.

09/21/20 3 Badge Beverage Corp. Introduces Guinigi Wine Portfolio, Grown and Produced in Northern Italy The initial Guinigi release includes two single-varietal expressions of Prosecco and Pinot Grigio, both of which will appeal to lovers of crisp, clean whites with refreshing acidity and low levels of alcohol and residual sugar.

09/21/20 Bogle Vineyards Bolsters National Sales Department with Three New Hires; Promotion as Part of Expansion The newest hires are Matt Mitchell, East/Southeastern Sales Director, Heather Peterson, Northeast/Midwest Sales Director, and Robin Parranto, Key Accounts Manager-Central Region. Current Bogle Director of National Accounts, James Eichel, adds the duties and title of Director of Sales-West.

09/21/20 Patz & Hall Founder & Head Winemaker James Hall Promotes Members of His Winemaking Team Tom Klassen has been promoted to Winemaker. Tom joined Patz & Hall as Assistant Winemaker in 2017. Ross Outon, who has been with Patz & Hall for the past seven years, has been promoted in his role as Cellarmaster. Jasmine Daniel joined Patz & Hall in 2017 as Senior Lab Tech/Winetracker. She has just been promoted to Enologist.

09/21/20 William Chris Vineyards Welcomes Joseph Burns as Director of Wholesale In his role as director of wholesale, Joe will focus on expanding William Chris Vineyards' retail presence in both off-premises and on-premises accounts throughout the country.

09/21/20 Quintessential Wines Makes Additional Investments In Talent Wine importing, marketing and sales company Quintessential has added six additional team members to support sales and marketing efforts within the organization. This announcement is the second of its kind in the last month, with the company continuing to invest in talent to support its growing portfolio. Bill O'Neill, Terri Richie, Bill Ballentine, Raquel Royers, Rachel Dimattia, Justin Matthews, Timothy Gordon and Edward Blakely have all have recently joined the growing organization to support new acquisitions and the company's expansive portfolio of family-owned wines.

09/21/20 Dream Big Darling to Host Virtual Leadership Retreat on October 22-23 The 2020 Dream Big Darling Leadership Retreat on October 22-23 will be a multi-day virtual experience featuring notable speakers, workshops, networking and more-all with the goal of fostering professional development and career opportunities across the industry. The retreat will feature an all-star cast of speakers touching on a range of personal and professional development topics.

09/21/20 Amazon was the USPS' "largest customer" in fiscal 2019, generating $3.9 billion in revenue and $1.6 billion in profit The relationship between the USPS and Amazon grew strained in April, amid the coronavirus pandemic, as the e-commerce giant asked the Postal Service to answer questions about its financial viability.

09/21/20 Clos Du Val brings affordable to-go wine -- in a refillable jug The main difference between then and now? This wine actually tastes good.

09/21/20 San Francisco says indoor dining won't resume until end of month at earliest San Francisco County currently has a green light to bring back indoor dining as a result of its status in the red tier of the state's color-coded reopening plan, but city officials said Friday that restaurants cannot let patrons dine inside until the county changes tiers once more.

09/21/20 The weather chills, and restaurants face a choice: invest in extending outdoor dining or let the changing seasons shut them down Reduced-capacity indoor dining alone isn't enough to keep a restaurant afloat. So restaurateurs are scrambling to figure out how, and whether, to extend their outdoor dining operations, even as the clock ticks and winter gets closer.

09/21/20 Somm TV to Release "Sip Trip, Italy" Series Starting October 1 Sip Trip host and producer, Jeff Porter, and Jason Wise, SOMM TV producer and founder, announced the partnership today. "We love fun and informative video content about wine, and we love Jeff," said Jason. "Like a glass of Chianti Classico and Bistecca alla Fiorentina, this is a perfect pairing." Jeff added, "SOMM TV is the leader in producing and distributing great content for wine lovers. There's no better home for the Sip Trip series, my passion project for the past 3 years."

09/21/20 Brandt Expands Ag Sales Team in Pacific Northwest and Canada BRANDT Specialty Formulations has added two new territory sales managers, Cody Massey and Nate Britt, to its North American Ag sales team, covering the US Pacific Northwest and Canada. Both Massey and Britt will report to BRANDT regional sales manager, Dan Pinther. They will focus on selling the company's proprietary foliar nutrient technology, BRANDT Manni-Plex® and BRANDT Smart System®, as well as a wide range of sustainable crop inputs.

09/21/20 ACME Fine Wines Announces ACME Unfiltered Experiences for Holiday Gifting Join an ACME sommelier, along with one of these famed winemakers, including Julien Fayard (Fayard Wines, Covert Estate, Purlieu), Maayan Koschitzky (La Pelle, Brilliant Mistake, Skipstone, Perfect Season), Aaron Pott (Pott Wine, Wingspan, Perliss) and Bibiana González Rave (Cattleya, Shared Notes, Alma de Cattleya), for an exploration of their wines and backgrounds.

09/21/20 Quintessa Introduces Inaugural Decade Release with 2010 Vintage First made exclusively available to Quintessa Vineyard Circle members in 3-packs of 750ml bottles and in 1.5L (magnum) bottles, the Quintessa Decade Release is now available in highly limited quantities in the wholesale market.

09/21/20 Vallejo Adobe's fresh look Walk in to the Adobe tasting room of Three Sticks Wines and it feels as if being welcomed into someone's home. A warm glow washes the rooms and there are intimate seating areas inviting one to sit down, look around, relax and enjoy really good wine.

09/21/20 My Experience Cruising On A Luxury Barge In Bordeaux And Why You Should Try It Although I like cruises, I have only been on two of them -- once when I was 10 years old, in the mid-1960s with my parents, and in 2007, on the Queen Mary II, with my family for my mother's 80th birthday. Last May, I received an opportunity to go on a mini three-day cruise from Bordeaux on a converted barge, and I said yes immediately.

09/21/20 Napa County balks at amplified music request by St. Helena winery Napa County will give Rombauer Vineyards and its neighbors a chance to solve concerns over proposed winery changes before stepping in itself, with amplified music high on the list.

09/21/20 Canada's Napa Valley Seeks Elusive Audience: Canadian Wine Drinkers - NYTimes, paywall British Columbia's wines are improbably being embraced by wine snobs around the world. But legal restrictions, and regional biases, are getting in the way at home.

09/21/20 His Dream Is Now Ours: Legendary Vineyard Manager Ulises Valdez Sr.'s Children Carry on His Legacy In vineyards across Sonoma and at Valdez Family Wines, Valdez Sr.'s widow and four children are continuing his American dream

09/21/20 Sonoma Valley wineries embrace changes they once resisted to survive during pandemic In Sonoma Valley, home to 60,000 acres of grapes and 400 wineries, the pandemic has disrupted an 150-year-old supply chain.

09/21/20 Beta to unleash days of flooding rainfall, pounding surf from Texas to Louisiana Forecasters say Beta could become the ninth-named storm to make landfall in the United States this season as it unleashes days of flooding downpours along the Gulf coast.

09/21/20 California fire activity 'slowly picking up again,' air quality worsens Wildfires have burned more than 3.5 million acres in California this year.

09/21/20 Harvest Finally Brings Good News for Champagne After a year to forget for the Champenois, a stunning vintage goes some way towards making 2020 tolerable.