One of a vineyard manager's worst early morning sights is walking among their vineyard and finding fruit damaged by birds. To combat this force of nature, growers have traditionally tried expensive and labor-intensive methods of mitigating bird damage in their vineyard. They've used sound-emitting devices, introduced other large birds of prey, placed netting in the fruiting zone and even tried netting the entire canopy, ultimately learning that nothing has truly provided an economic or socially acceptable solution to the problem. Luckily, the industry has been buzzing about a new solution that has shown spectacular results from guarding against bird damage without any netting whatsoever. Falcon Crop Protection has developed a falcon-shaped kite that is attached to a moveable pole and behaves like a real bird of prey. Their "FrightKite" looks like the real deal and has proven highly effective in fending off birds that would otherwise do damage to valuable crops. We

James Beard Nominated Chef Mike Easton Joins the Kitchen at Abeja in Walla Walla

Walla Walla, WA – June 26, 2024 – Renowned chef Mike Easton, a four-time James Beard Award nominee, will join The Kitchen at Abeja as Executive Chef on July 1. […]

Free membership site to foster community and nurture industry collaboration Winemakers and wine industry professionals can now save time, money and eliminate frustrations with the launch of The Punchdown, an online community designed to foster collaboration and professional growth within the wine industry. The free community website and mobile app have been customized by leading wine technology software developers to make life easier and work more productive, by empowering wine teams and other industry professionals to: Convene Socialize Network Share resources, and Collaborate “Like many, I was first drawn to the wine industry by how passionate, helpful, and supportive everyone is. Winemakers are always encouraging and helping each other. But during the pandemic and fires we realized how isolated we are. There was no great place online where the community could gather. The idea that ultimately led to The Punchdown is that we wanted to create an online community that would natura

Afternoon Brief, September 30th

Serial ADA Plaintiff in California Alleged to Be Feigning Blindness in Order to Sue: A Southern California law firm announced Wednesday that it has obtained footage of a frequent filer of suits under the Americans with Disabilities Act that allegedly shows he is not "legally blind" as he has maintained in hundreds of ADA lawsuits...

Afternoon Brief, June 28th

Napa Winery Turns Wine to Water: A bottling line mishap left some red faces at a winery that sent samples to a competition...

Situation: Winemakers producing premium wines know that wine quality is dependent upon the efficient removal of fruit from the vine and preparing the berries for destemming, a critical process requiring high-end, sophisticated, and reliable grape handling equipment. Jeff Pisoni, Winemaker at Pisoni Vineyards, had been looking to upgrade their previous destemmer for quite some time. “There was a lack of innovation in destemmers for a while,” comments Pisoni. “Purchasing new processing equipment is a big investment and long-term commitment, so we were waiting for the next generation of destemmers to come to market since destemming and sorting is such a critical part of the winemaking process.” When new destemmers did start to become available, it was clear they all had the common goal of giving wineries a very clean destemming process with as little MOG (material other than grapes) as possible. However, only the Armbruster Rotovib Destemmer delivered a f

Krasilsa Pacific Farms Sells Sonoma County Vineyard for $4.7 Million: A Sonoma County vineyard belonging to a partnership led by well-known wine executive Hugh Reimers has been sold for about $4.7 million, according to county records... The post Afternoon Brief, April 23rd appeared first on Wine Industry Advisor. Url:https://wineindustryadvisor.com/2021/04/23/afternoon-brief-1850?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=afternoon-brief-1850 Published Date:Fri, 23 Apr 2021 20:43:37 +0000 

Sonoma County Winemaker Seeks Zero-Tolerance Policy for Sexual Assault and Harassment: In a bid to improve the treatment of women in Sonoma County’s wine industry, an influential female winemaker has drafted a zero-tolerance policy for sexual assault and harassment and is calling on trade groups representing wineries and grape growers across the county to adopt it in a unanimous show of support for women working in wine... The post Afternoon Brief, April 19th appeared first on Wine Industry Advisor. Url:https://wineindustryadvisor.com/2021/04/19/afternoon-brief-1846?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=afternoon-brief-1846 Published Date:Mon, 19 Apr 2021 21:38:20 +0000 

Scott Laboratories, the leading supplier of packaging, equipment, filtration and fermentation products for the North American wine industry, is excited to announce that they are the new exclusive distributor of Amcor tin capsules for the United States market.    After just over two short years of collaboration, Scott Labs has already increased new account sales for Amcor tin capsules in the US by 10%. With demand for quality tin capsules increasing, coupled with the need for more efficient and economical distribution, Amcor wanted to consolidate their US representation. Scott Labs was perfectly positioned to help Amcor achieve these objectives, which will result in shorter lead times for custom and stock tin customers, increased local presence and consistency.   Frederic Catteau, Director of Amcor Capsules North America, comments &ld