NEWS FETCH – August 20, 2015

TOP NEWS

• Reports That Oakland Port Labor Fiasco Is Over: “A Lie” Say Wine Country Shippers
• Lake Chelan wildfire destroys winery in Washington
• Losing Water, California Tries to Stay Atop Economic Wave
• 21 California groundwater basins in ‘critical’ condition, state panel says
• Maps Show Impending Impact From Waters of the United States (including MT, PA, and VA)
• TTB Compliance can be simpler. Here’s how. *Sponsored Link*

GLOBAL WINE SUPPLY

• Paso Robles: Harvest 2015 begins at Tablas Creek and sounds alarm bells about yields
• Italy (Sicily): Announcing the first day of harvest at GULFI wine estate
• Lake County harvest underway, well ahead of normal
• ‘Nothing wrong’ with 2012 vintage in England

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Farmworkers-growers battle reaches California Supreme Court
• Wagner shifts focus from Meiomi to Dairyman winery project
• Inundated with information, planners continue Girard Winery hearing
• Napa seeks stronger oversight of reservoir areas
• Revisiting Trefethen’s historic winery one year after a devastating earthquake
• Silicon Valley Technology to Fuel a Craft Spirits Revolution Inspiring Innovation Against Beer and Wine
• Will Calif regulate medical marijuana with a 3-tier system like alcohol’s?
• VinoPRO Makes Inc. Magazine 500|5000 in the U.S. for third straight year
• Exhibit at USA Trade Tasting (New York) and Grow Your Distribution in USA. Super Early Bird Ends August 31 *Sponsored Link*

CALIFORNIA BURNING

• Thousands forced out as Rough fire surges to 31,000 acres
• Cuesta Grande fire grows to 3,500 acres, 20% contained
• Faulty water heater a cause of devastating Rocky Fire
• Western wildfires burn unchecked as resources stretched thin

DROUGHT/WATER

• California drought: Climate change plays a role, study says. But how big?
• If Drought Continues: Environment and Poor Rural Communities Most Likely to Suffer
• Groundwater over-pumping has caused some parts of Calif to sink 10 FEET or more!
• Another 2 or 3 years of drought? Report looks at what it might mean
• Questions remain when it comes to tunnel plan
• Aging Irrigation Systems Lead To Crop Losses In The West

GROUNDWATER BASIN REPORTS

• DWR Releases Draft List of Critically Overdrafted Groundwater Basins
• Another toll of the drought: Land is sinking fast in San Joaquin Valley

EL NIÑO

• ‘Godzilla’ and California’s long drought
• El Niño brings reason for hope, but no sure thing
• Will El Niño Ease the Pain of California’s Drought?

DIRECT SHIPPING & PRIVATIZATION

• Your Guide to Entering the Direct-to-Consumer Industry
• How User Choices Can Boost Your Wine Club Membership & Loyalty. Click For A Free Best Practices Webinar *Sponsored Link*

PUBLIC COMPANIES

• Willamette Valley Vineyards Offer Stock to Fund New Wineries
• Treasury Wine Estates finishes disposing of US plonk
• Tesco share price: Retailer draws line under Wine Community venture

DISTRIBUTORS

• Distributor Business: The Owner’s Scorecard
• Wineries and Wine Importers: Here are some basic support programs and incentives to that can be used to drive your wine brand in distribution channels*Sponsored Link*

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Mouton overtakes Lafite as most popular wine on Liv-ex
• Lafite’s premium continues to fall
• Chance to taste 1915 Krug this autumn at Sotheby’s

ALCOHOL, HEALTH, AND THE FRENCH PARADOX
Click the link above for more news, articles and archives.

• Here’s How Much Wine You Should Drink If You Want to Be Healthy
• Do the drugs still work? Why Gen Z are getting their kicks elsewhere

REGULATION & LEGAL MATTERS

• TTAB Allows Trademark Registration of French Town Montussan
• National Survey Finds Americans Overwhelmingly Support the Current System of Alcohol Laws and Regulations

MARKETING & SALES

• Why Social Media Shops Fail Faster Than Restaurants
• How to Manage Cash Flow to Expand your Winery, Distillery or Brewery’s Distribution. *Sponsored Link*

PACKAGING, LABELS & CORKS

• Building Value with Wine Packaging
• Australian wine boxes feeling similar pinch to market for bottles

SOCIAL MEDIA & TECH

• Social Networks Aren’t Drawing U.S. Adults Like They Used To
• No brand’s campaign needs a hashtag. Ever.
• Growth at LinkedIn and Twitter has slammed to a halt in the US

PAYMENTS

• Pay With Your Heartbeat

MANAGEMENT & EMPLOYMENT

• Facebook is at the forefront of a radical workplace shift — and every business in America should take notice
• Why you should never say these 3 common words at work

MEDIA MATTERS

• Acceptance Speech for Best Overall Wine Blog by the Academic Wino

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Who Will Save Sangria’s Soul?
• We need a better way to describe wine
• Back to the future
• 11 Obscure Grapes You Need to Know
• Just because it’s more expensive doesn’t mean it’s better
• Enthusiast’s Guide to Sauvignon Blanc
• Filtering wine one way doesn’t mean it’s the only way. Click now to see the alternatives *Sponsored Link*

WINE PEOPLE

• Gerardo Michelini of Zorzal
• Vino virtuoso lives his dream in world of wine
• Antonio Flores of González Byass (podcast)

WINE PLACES

• New York’s Finger Lakes Wine Country
• Jerez de la Frontera
• The Veneto Region: Home of Venice and Some of the Most Prevalent Wines
• Robert Biale Vineyards ~ A New Generation ~ the Founding Partnership

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• BC fire: Winemaker re-lives ‘terrifying’ near miss

ACADEMIA

• Want to Be a Winemaker? Yavapai College in Prescott, AZ Can Help With That

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• Climate change a ‘plus’ for Swiss wine growers
• Grape waste could make competitive biofuel

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Praxair unveils sanitary version of oxygen stripping system

EUROPE & THE UK

• UK: Retail volumes up 4.2% but price deflation keeps lid on value growth

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• Transforming basements into wine cellars

CRAFT BEVERAGES: BEER, CIDER, WINE & SPIRITS

• Dozens of Craft Breweries For Sale
• What happens to a craft brewery after it’s sold?
• 9 Craft Breweries Land on Inc. 5000 List
• Craft brewers tap down resistance to Wall Street investors
• Craft Sodas are becoming a consumer craze, with millennials ahead of the trend
• Small Wisconsin brewers kept out of state fair because of fees
• Dust Bowl Brewing signs with Bay Area Distributing
• FCB Switches to Republic National in Florida August 19, 2015
• Four tips for creatively using mobile payments in your brewing business
• Michigan’s Short’s Brewing installs solar panels
• 10 Barrel Brewing To Open Seven New Mini-Pubs In Oregon
• Beer Institute updates marketing, ad code
• Craft beer flows through Connecticut River Valley
• 9 things to know about craft beer In Colorado
• Craft beers get heavy … on the alcohol
• Craft Beer Boom Inspires New UVM Professional Certificate
• Raise A Glass To The Whiskey Rebels At Corsair Distillery
• Dude’s Brews to Release World’s First Line of High CBD, Cannabis-Infused, Craft Beer
• Soon you can toast Pope Francis with a commemorative papal beer
• How Britain became hooked on homebrew