The Duckhorn Portfolio, North America’s premier luxury wine company, has selected InnoVint as its winery operating system following a comprehensive evaluation and RFP process. The decision reflects Duckhorn’s focus on modernizing its winemaking operations with a platform and a partner capable of supporting both current complexity and long-term growth. Why The Duckhorn Portfolio Chose InnoVint The Duckhorn Portfolio sought a modern, scalable solution to unify winemaking operations across multiple facilities while maintaining accuracy, compliance, and operational visibility. InnoVint was selected not only for its integrated, production-first platform, but for its deep industry expertise and proven ability to guide complex wineries through system transitions with confidence. “InnoVint stood out as more than a technology provider,” said PJ Alviso, Vice President of Winegrowing at The Duckhorn Portfolio. “During our evaluation of the winemaking software options

The Missing Link Between Production and Sales When you’re involved with wine inventory and sales, a few nagging questions can keep you up at night… "Did we get our excise tax payment right this month?" or "Was that library wine really still available?" or "Did we ship enough wine to our warehouse for wine club processing?" These are tough questions to answer if your case goods inventory isn’t reliable. It's not uncommon for a few cases of wine to fall through the cracks. In a warehouse with dozens of SKUs, dark corners can hide inventory from the team—leading to missed sales, overpaid taxes, or incorrect wine club shipments when outdated spreadsheets are the only source of truth. “What's unique about the wine industry is the diversity of its sales channels,” explains Ashley Leonard, CEO and Co-Founder of InnoVint. "You're selling direct to the consumer a few different ways, occasionally direct to t

In this episode of the WIN Insider Series, George Christie sits down with Ashley DuBois Leonard, the founder and CEO of InnoVint, to explore how her hands-on winery experience inspired a revolutionary wine production software platform. Ashley shares her journey from cleaning tanks and crafting wine in Santa Cruz to launching one of the industry’s most widely used vineyard and cellar management systems. Learn how her technical curiosity, entrepreneurial spirit, and deep industry knowledge led her to create tools that help wineries not only operate more efficiently, but thrive.

In a down market like the one the wine industry faces today, wineries are taking different paths to adapt. Some pull back, reducing production or pulling vineyards. Others seek to acquire struggling wineries, consolidating to broaden their portfolio and leverage their production facilities. Another route is to premiumize their brands to rise above the fray and appeal to confirmed oenophiles with white glove winemaking and customer service. The other turn along the price path is to downgrade to a more affordable price to attract shoppers who are increasingly price-conscious in this economy. These are only a few of a bewildering array of choices for wineries, and the decision tree will take each winery owner or winemaker to a unique solution. Chris HollingsworthChris Hollingsworth, General Manager at Punchdown Cellars in Santa Rosa, outlines three reasons a winery might choose a custom crush facility like the one he runs. “An established brand might want to change facilities to tak

You have to be quick on your feet to make sparkling wine. Harvest starts earlier than for still wines and the time frame is considerably more condensed because there just isn’t as much time to pick the grapes. Harvesting is done during the cool nights to eliminate the need to chill the juices and reduce energy consumption. Pauline Lhote, the Director of Winemaking at Domaine Chandon in Napa, describes the pace. “We process fruit every single day. When a block is ready, we have only a couple of days to pick it. If today were a harvest day, we would be pressing, and tonight, we would start doing flotation to clarify the juices. By later tonight or tomorrow morning, the wine would already be inoculated.” Chandon is, of course, all about sparkling — 98% of its wines have bubbles. Its winemaking and production team of nearly 45 employees turns around 30 sparkling wines in this fast-paced environment, from the large case production for its brut and rosé blends

On July 24th, join Remi Cohen (CEO, Domaine Carneros), Janie Brooks Heuck (Managing Director, Brooks Wine), and Ashley Leonard (CEO, InnoVint) to discuss the vital role of organizational culture in winery success.  Register to save your spot and get the recording!  

On July 15th, join Juan Muñoz-Oca (COO, Marchesi Antinori), Ryan Pennington (COO, L’Ecole), and Ashley Leonard (CEO, InnoVint) to discuss best practices for efficient winery operations.  Register to save your spot and get the recording!

On July 9th, join Peter Willmert (CEO, Hudson Napa Valley), Rick Lawson (Director of Finance, Shafer Vineyards), and Ashley Leonard (CEO, InnoVint) to discuss best practices for running a financially healthy wine business. Register to save your spot! Register to save your spot!

Decades of Dedication: A Special Tribute to Vineyard Team Members Vineyard Team, a trailblazer in sustainable viticulture, was founded on the principle of fostering sustainable stewardship. For the last 30 years, the organization has stood as a beacon for innovation, education, and community in the wine industry. As they celebrate this milestone, Vineyard Team takes immense pride in recognizing some of its longest-standing members and supporters, whose dedication and passion have been pivotal to the organization’s success. Their contributions shape the landscape of sustainable winegrowing and ensure the legacy of Vineyard Team for future generations. Steve McIntyre, one of California’s most knowledgeable viticulturists and founding member of Vineyard Team, reflects on the significance of the organization: "We felt it was really important within the wine and grape industry to not only be science-based, but also able to change and adapt to information as it was dis