NEWS FETCH — May 4, 2016

TOP NEWS

• Southern Glazer’s is top giver to Calif lawmakers so far this year
• Vineyard & Winery Management Closes Its Doors
• California’s senators just proposed a path to legal status and citizenship for farmworkers
• Napa Valley tourists spent nearly $2B in 2016
• Grab Your USA Trade Tasting Business Conference Tickets This Week and Get a Free Annual BTN Membership Valued at $249 *Sponsored Link*

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

• Virginia Doubles Down on Mexico Trade Push After TPP Withdrawal
• If U.S. wants wine war with B.C., ‘bring it on,’ says Clark

WINE SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION

• Extreme weather & natural disasters across wine regions cause $10bn in annual wine losses
• 2017 Loire – April frosts strike again
• Bordeaux’s worst frost since 1991 – What now?
• Wonderful Nurseries Moves to 100% Root Socks for All Potted Vines! *Sponsored Link*

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Newly Identified Climate Pattern May Have Caused California’s Drought
• French Laundry’s Thomas Keller, an exacting chef at a crossroads
• Charter Oak Winery doubled its production without doubling its costs. You can too. Click to learn how. *Sponsored Link*

DROUGHT/WATER

• Guide helps farmers navigate water reporting
• Retail point-of-sale materials don’t need to be expensive! Click now to learn more about high-quality, affordable displays and ads. *Sponsored Link

CONSUMER SALES: DTC, ON- & OFF-PREMISE

• Grow Your Private Label, Contract Winemaking, Contract Bottling and Bulk Wine Business Today. Only 10 Exhibitor Spots Left For IBWSS San Francisco! *Sponsored Link*

PUBLIC COMPANIES

• Anheuser-Busch takes over US craft beer maker Wicked Weed
• The Success Of Amazon’s Click-And-Collect Grocery Stores Will Rest On Automation
• Sainsbury’s heralds “pivotal year” but profits down
• Morrisons confident after strong Q1 results

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Suduiraut 2016 released

DATA & TRENDS

• Italy and Australia dominate the US import market, but NZ and Argentina are gaining

TAKING THE HIGH ROADS

• Napa council leans toward allowing marijuana plants outside homes

HEALTH

• One step closer to finding out how wine may protect your neurons
• Is wine actually good for you? We asked 2 Harvard-educated doctors
• Half a bottle of wine a week enough to put breast cancer survivors at risk

REGULATION & LEGAL MATTERS

• Grape Balls of Fire in Texas
• Texans, please call our legislators and ask them to support a bill that would allow Texans to DRINK WHAT THEY WANT

WINE SELECTION AND RECOMMENDATION

• How Wine Labels Influence Purchase Decisions Using Eye-Tracking Technology

MARKETING & SALES

• LeBron upset with brewery over photo with beer

PACKAGING, LABELS & CORKS

• The art of bottling wine and its importance in the wine making process

CUSTOMER RELATIONS

• 3 Tips to Avoiding an Event-Planning Fail

SOCIAL MEDIA & TECH

• Snapchat is opening itself up to advertisers of all sizes with new buying tools

PAYMENTS

• Bitcoin blows through $1,500 for the first time

MANAGEMENT & EMPLOYMENT

• April Hiring Down for Wineries
• Strained Relations – Wine Family Feuds

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Why wine is like football (soccer)

WINE PEOPLE

• Meet Helen Johannesen, the wine director behind five hot L.A. restaurants
• Cookbook author wine talk with Joanne Weir
• First Jobs: A toast to how winemakers got their starts
• Uncorked: Paul Bridgeman of Levantine Hill

WINE PLACES

• Napa or Sonoma: Which to Visit?
• Rippon, Lake Wanaka, Central Otago: the vineyard as part of the complete farm

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• PLCB Awards Nearly $1 Million in Grants for Developing, Promoting Pennsylvania Wines
• Maryland Wineries Grow as the State Rushes to Catch Up

ACADEMIA

• New wine and grape educator hired in northwest Michigan

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• Is Organic Food A Scam?

EUROPE & THE UK

• Sicily eager to prove itself
• Britons fall out of love with booze

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: Cultivating wine cred in Nagambie Lakes

LATIN AMERICA

• Chile: How a former arms dealer created one of the world’s most spectacular wine regions

SOUTH AFRICA

• South Africa over-delivers at entry level, but needs to work harder to push premium message

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• Wine flows through history of world’s religions

CRAFT BEVERAGES: BEER, CIDER, WINE & SPIRITS

• US hop acreage grows 95% in five years
• Finnish brewery sells 1,000-can pack