Category: Wine News

The Top Ten Winegrowers in Sonoma, California by Acreage

A Wine Business Monthly survey indicates Jackson Family Wines grows the most grapes in Sonoma County, followed by E&J Gallo. Other top growers include the pension fund owned by TIAA-CREF, Treasury Wine Estates and Rodney Strong Vineyards.

The survey was completed by phone, email, and analysis of Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner records and other public databases. Growers in the survey noted that planted vineyard acreage is bound to change as they pull vines or replant.

Tony Correia, president of The Correia Co., also expects to see new vineyard transactions. Some may be driven by the lack of family succession planning or “just plain owner fatigue” due to challenges property owners face, including; weather, regulations and a slowing wine market. Correia also predicts that larger wineries may decide to liquidate vineyards to improve financial performance.

Vineyard pricing in Sonoma, like in Napa, is either flat or up while prices in California’s other wine regions are down, according to Ciatti’s presentation during Wine Business Monthly’s Vineyard Economics Symposium (VES) in May.

Correia, who also spoke at VES, stated the average cost for prime vineyards in Russian River Valley or the Sonoma Coast runs between $175,000 and $180,000 per acre.

For a full list of the Top 100 Growers in Sonoma County, check out the July 2019 issue of Wine Business Monthly.

1. Jackson Family Wines, 3,700 acres
The Jackson family owns 3,700 acres of planted vineyards in Sonoma County, according to the company.

2. E&J Gallo, 3,665 acres
The biggest winery in the world owns 3,665 planted vineyard acres in Sonoma County, according to the company.

3. TIAA/Silverado Investment Management Group, 2,000 acres
TIAA/SIMCO has about 2,000 acres of planted vineyards in Sonoma County, according to the company.

4. Treasury Wine Estates, 1,375 acres
Treasury Wine Estates owns about 1,375 acres of planted vineyards in Sonoma County, according to the company.

5. Rodney Strong Vineyards, 1,369 acres
Rodney Strong owns about 1,369 acres of planted vineyards in Sonoma County, according to the company.

6. Ferrari-Carano Vineyards, 1,285 acres
Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery owns 1,285 planted vineyard acres in Sonoma County, according to the Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner’s database.

7. Constellation Brands, 1,150 acres*
Constellation Brands owns about 1,150 acres of planted vineyards in Sonoma County, according to the Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner’s database and other public records.

8. Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards, 1,128 acres
Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards owns about 1,128 planted vineyard acres in Sonoma County, according to the Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner’s public database.

9. Foley Family Wines, 1,100 acres
The Foley family owns about 1,100 acres of planted vineyards in Sonoma County, according to the company. The vineyards include Roth, Foley Sonoma, Chalk Hill, Sebastiani, and Lancaster Estate.

10. Sangiacomo Family Vineyards, 1,100 acres
Sangiacomo Family Vineyards owns about 1,100 acres of planted vineyards in Sonoma County, according to the company. The family also leases another 500 acres in the county.

Source: Wine Business

The International Sustainable Wine Growing Summit is coming to San Luis Obispo, California on November 11-13, 2019

The International Sustainable Winegrowing Summit will be held in the U.S for the first time. The event will run in conjunction with the Sustainable Ag Expo and will bring together leading experts from Italy, South Africa, France, Canada, and the US, and will be held be in San Luis Obispo, California on November 11-13, 2019.

The 15th Annual Sustainable Ag Expo includes three days of seminars and a full-service tradeshow and equipment showcase that provides an opportunity for farmers, ag professionals, and pest control advisors to learn about the latest in farming research, resource issues, business trends related to sustainable agriculture. Participants can earn 15+ hours of DPR/CCA continuing education.

“We are thrilled to welcome a number of distinguished international speakers to the International Sustainable Winegrowing Summit” said Kris Beal, Executive Director of the Vineyard Team. “They include Carlo Duso, PhD from the University of Padua, Italy, Gerhard Pietersen, PhD from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, Jose Ramon Urbez Torres, a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and Sabine Wiedemann-Merdinoglu, PhD from the Institut National de Recherches Agronomique (INRA) in France.”

The Sustainable Ag Expo will also feature numerous experts from the U.S. including Jennifer Lester Moffit, Undersecretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Julian Gervreau, Vice President, Sustainability at Jackson Family Wines, Dr. Michael Costello, Department of Wine and Viticulture, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and Rachel Naegele, PhD, Research Horticulturist, USDA, ARS, US.

Seminar and panel discussions will cover a wide range of topics from “Climate Change and the Future of Agriculture” to “Insect, Pest, Environment and Ecology Systems.” A full list of speakers and topics along with registration information can be found at

www.sustainableagexpo.org

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https://twitter.com/sipcertified

Georg J. Riedel Honoured by Wine Spectator Magazine

10TH GENERATION GLASSMAKER ACKNOWLEDGED FOR “DISTINGUISHED SERVICE”

Writing in Wine Spectator, News Editor Mitch Frank states how Georg Riedel “revolutionized how we drink wine by spreading the gospel of his family’s wine glasses”. Georg educated tens of thousands of wine drinkers on the benefits of varietal-specific glassware and brought financial stability to the company in the 1980s through savvy business development and an evangelist’s approach to marketing his products.

“I am sincerely grateful to Wine Spectator for offering me this outstanding reward and it is an honor to be named in line with the most respected personalities of the wine and food industry,” says Riedel. “I am not the first Austrian, but the first glassmaker to be called to the Wine Spectator Olympus, and am very proud to share the honor with my team and family.”

Riedel follows luminaries of the global wine community in his receipt of the award and stands apart as the first glassmaker to receive the accolade. Past honorees include Julia Child, Robert Mondavi, Christian Moueix, Angelo Gaja, Francis Ford Coppola, Andre Tchelistcheff, fellow Austrian Wolfgang Puck, and Californian Governor Gavin Newsom – larger-than-life personalities whose contributions to the wine and culinary world are innumerable.

The Riedel family’s business began in 1756 when Johann Leopold Riedel (3rd generation) founded a glass factory in Bohemia (in what is today’s Czech Republic). In 1945, the successful family business came to an abrupt end due to World War II, when all German possessions were nationalized and German-speaking people expatriated.

In 1956, some two hundred years after the first factory was opened, Walter Riedel (8th generation) and Claus Riedel (9th generation) were offered the unique opportunity to take over the bankrupt glass factory Tiroler Glashütte in Kufstein, Austria. It was in this new period that Claus Riedel became known as the first glass designer to create wine-friendly glassware. His designs were launched from the 1950s to the 1970s, and continue to have a major impact on today’s universally known glass shapes.

Georg Riedel (10th generation, born 1949) joined the family business in 1973 as the company’s accountant. At an early stage, he became passionate about wine and how glass shapes profoundly influence the perception of wine’s aromas and flavors. Gifted with fine senses and supported with strong commercial talents, he quickly took over the company’s direction, developing varietal specific glassware.

At the same time, a New World wine boom created new demand and highlighted new wines of classic varietals grown on foreign soils. The launch of Riedel’s first machine-made line, VINUM – the perfect wine glass at a popular price level – built the foundation for a solid future for the company.

Georg opened his first subsidiary as importer and distributor in the USA in 1979 and have since opened eight more around the globe including China, Japan, and Australia. He was the first to approach wine distributors to represent the Riedel brand, which grew the company’s presence around the world to over 100 countries. As a shrewd businessman, without bank loans and using accumulated company cash, Riedel acquired the then much larger glass companies Nachtmann and Spiegelau in 2004. With this takeover came the opportunity for Riedel to produce all glasses in the company’s own factories.

Today, Georg’s children Laetizia, a solicitor and Maximilian, the current CEO, are the Riedel team members responsible for directing and guiding the family business as the 11th generation.

Source: Riedel, Austria

Vinexpo New York Launches 2020 Brochure

Vinexpo New York has released its brochure for its March 2-3, 2020 trade show, which provides details for those attending the event.

Vinexpo is urging exhibitors to join its regional pavilions which it says gives produces “added presence and recognition within the exhibit hall” and helps top buyers “seek products from specific regions.”

To view the brochure https://www.vinexponewyork.com/visitor-brochure/
Vinexpo New York made its debut in 2018, followed by 2019 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center March 4-5.

The 2019 show featured more than 400 exhibitors from 26 countries and 3,000 wine and spirits professionals – including a mix of importers, distributors, wholesalers, buyers and e-commerce specialists from over 40 US states and seven Canadian provinces. Its conference program included six sessions addressing issues such as global climate change and its impact on the wine industry, emerging technologies in the wine and spirits industry, and trends in the US wine market.

The 2019 edition also saw several new additions, including the WOW! World of Organic Wines pavilion, which hosted more than 20 organic wine producers from five countries; a Wine & Spirit Education Trust Pop-Up classroom; Uncork New York, sponsored by the New York Wine & Grape Foundation; and the Wine Spectator 90+ Showcase and Tasting Bar, highlighting wines to have earned 90 points or higher in its blind tasting reviews.

Previous exhibitors include Diego Bertolini, manager of Wines of Brazil, who said of the show: “Our expectations were exceeded on the first day: we met more than 50 distributors and 10 importers. It’s a great opportunity to develop and increase awareness and sales in the US.”

Wines of Chile to increase small producer participation

Aurelio Montes Sr., president of Wines of Chile, recently outlined his objectives in getting smaller producers involved in the trade group “Wines of Chile”.

Montes took over as president last month has stated that one of his objectives is to offer reduced or free-entry for smaller producers to join the organization.

“My role is to make Chile better known and more respected,” he said. “I think small producers are weaker as they don’t have the resources to travel and put their wines out into the market, in the same way that a larger producer does.”

Speaking more generally about his plans for his two years in office, Montes echoed the trade organization’s goal to raise the profile of Chilean wine.

“I aim to make Chile better known, although we are pretty successful already. In terms of wine production, we are number one among the new world countries and we are fourth in the world as a whole. So that puts Chile in a very privileged position and we’re really happy about that.

“Chile is perceived as a country with good value for money, inexpensive wines – unbeatable value for money I would say. One of my targets is to put Chile where it deserves, although it is already a well-renowned country, it deserves to be a couple of steps higher and in a better position.”

Montes also revealed that the organization was focusing its attention on its top three markets – China, the US and Brazil – with the aim of doubling its activities in each of the markets. In particular, he spoke of a desire to “recover the American market” after losing ground since the financial crisis in 2008.

Montes will be president of Wines of Chile until 2021, and he is a well-respected figure in the industry and a founding member of Viña Montes.

Source: Drinks Business