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Home » Archives by category » Featured Articles (Page 36)

Plowing Is Pollution, Dry Streams Are Navigable Water Says Federal District Judge In Duarte “Plow A Field, Go To Jail” Lawsuits

Plowing a field is pollution according to Judge Kimberly J. Mueller in an order issued June 10 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.   The decision carries significant implications for agriculture of every sort.     The order said that, according to the U.S. Clean Water Act (CWA) soil is a […]

June 13, 2016 | Filed under Featured Articles | Read More

Bill Hambrecht Hit By New Multi-Million-Dollar Federal Lawsuit

Yet another multi-million-dollar lawsuit over unkept personal guarantees has been filed against financier/vintner William R. “Bill” Hambrecht.   Hambrecht has lost a steady series of similar lawsuits among more than $22.5 million in judgments since April 2012. (See links at the bottom of this article for Wine Industry Insight coverage.)   Hambrecht’s failure to disclose […]

May 24, 2016 | Filed under Featured Articles | Read More

Lead, cancer, arsenic and now BPA — A new Prop 65 warning requirement hits food, alcoholic beverage retailers.

A consortium of food and alcoholic beverage trade groups have sent all of their California members the offer of a free Prop 65 warning sign for BPA and stern advice to post the sign immediately at cash registers.   Most holders of California ABC retail licenses received their signs in the mail within the past […]

May 18, 2016 | Filed under Featured Articles | Read More

Trade a bottle go to jail? That’s what the Calif ABC may have in mind if you use this new app.

If you — a private citizen without an alcoholic beverage license — want to exchange a bottle of your wine, spirits, craft beer or cider for another one offered by a like-minded (and equally unlicensed) private citizen, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control wants you to know they want to prosecute you.   And […]

May 12, 2016 | Filed under Featured Articles | Read More

Some see conspiracy in missing wine-pesticide story pulled by San Francisco TV station

ABC television affiliate KGO-TV (ABC 7) in San Francisco is locked down tighter than the Nixon White House and refusing to comment or even return phone calls about why its segment on weed killer in wine is now missing.   In the April 29th issue of Wine Industry Insight’s NewsFetch,we included a link about the […]

May 3, 2016 | Filed under Featured Articles | Read More

Calif ABC Handed Its Head In A Bag By Appeals Board Which Rips Agency and Rejects Its Winery-Bottlerock Tied-House Cases

Note: This is the main story in a total of four on this case. The other three are linked from this article. Appeals Board quotes are in red The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has been handed its regulatory head in a bag by the ABC Appeals Board which resoundingly rejected every tied-house allegation […]

April 18, 2016 | Filed under Featured Articles | Read More

Appeals Board Opinion Tears Into ABC and ALJ on Tied-House Rules, Schools Them on The Differences Between Evidence and Speculation

The following excerpts (in red) from the Appeals Board’s opinions exemplify its sharp criticism of the ABC and the ALJs in the 2013 Bottlerock tied-house cases. These excerpts are a sample, but not a complete compendium of all the Board’s extensive negative comments. Appeals Board quotes are in red Bold, italic emphasis has been added […]

April 18, 2016 | Filed under Featured Articles | Read More

What is “tied-house” and why is it a thing?

Direct excepts from the Appeals Board’s opinions Appeals Board quotes are in red. Footnotes and citations have been omitted and extra paragraph breaks added for readability. At the heart of the tied-house issues in this case are: California Business and Professions Code section 25500, subdivision (a)(2) (hereinafter, section “tied-house” prohibition) which  says that winegrowers cannot […]

April 18, 2016 | Filed under Featured Articles | Read More

Finra’s Hambrecht Action No Surprise to Wine Industry Insight readers

The Finra action should come as no big surprise to readers of Wine Industry Insight. Here is a sampling of our original coverage: Hambrecht Debt and Legal Woes Keep Mounting Hambrecht Sells Floodgate Vineyard To Pay Obligations Truett-Hurst Sues Hambrecht Over Winery Eviction Effort Hambrecht To Leave Truett-Hurst Board Mapping Part of The Hambrecht Empire […]

April 1, 2016 | Filed under Featured Articles | Read More

Napa is missing a prominent sommelier (and his defunct wine brand and failed shipping service

  Prominent New York sommelier Michael Greenlee has gone missing from Napa Valley along with his failed wine brand, and defunct direct shipping company. Left behind are an unpaid court judgment brought by a former winery client along with a series of unanswered questions, evasive and contradictory statements, claims to a company that does not […]

March 30, 2016 | Filed under Featured Articles | Read More