Domaine Della 2023 Soberanes Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir Takes Top Prize  November 18, 2025 — Winners have been announced in the 2025 Harvest Challenge Wine Competition. After two spirited days of judging, Domaine Della 2023 Soberanes Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir took the top prize. It was also awarded Best of Show Red Wine and Best of Monterey County AVA. Coming in at 98 points, judges praised the wine as “warm and spicy” with “fig and nutmeg.” Other descriptors included “meaty,” “prosciutto,” and “dried rose petal.”  With entries from across the globe, the Harvest Challenge bases judging on a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions and grapes that combine to give personality to the wine.  In other competitions, this terroir is ignored. At the Harvest Challen

So far this year three additional states—Arkansas, Mississippi, and most recently Delaware—have approved the issuance of licenses allowing DTC wine sales. Here is a brief overview of these new licenses: Arkansas The new Arkansas Wine Direct Shipping Permit went into effect on August 5, 2025. Older AR Wine Shipping Permits were automatically converted to the new permit type on that date without requiring any application or additional fees. Registration of labels to be shipped DTC is required via Product Registration Online (PRO) before shipping can commence under the new permit. Any labels that are registered for sales at wholesale in AR are considered also registered for DTC. However, at the time of this posting, the PRO system does not allow DTC-only product registrations to be completed. We are monitoring the status and will post an update once DTC label registrations can be successfully submitted. Mississippi The MS Alcoholic Beverage Control is now issuing the new Direc

Two K Farms Cidery and Winery 2022 Bubbly Riesling Takes Top Honors November 15, 2024 — Winners have been announced in the 2024 Harvest Challenge Wine Competition. After two spirited days of judging,Two K Farms Cidery and Winery 2022 Bubbly Riesling took the top prize. It was also awarded Best of Show Sparkling Wine. Coming in at 97 points, judges praised the wine for its “Mouth watering citrus and honeysuckle”; “Lingering tropical finish”; and “Perfect bubbles.” They also called it “Well balanced.” With a record number of entries from across the globe, the Harvest Challenge bases judging on a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions and grapes that combine to give personality to the wine. In other competitions, terroir is ignored. At the Harvest Challenge, judges taste wines alongside other wines of the same appellation. W

Afternoon Brief: Court OKs $140 Million in Vintage Wine Estates Assets Sales

Nearly two dozen wineries, brands and other assets of the defunct Santa Rosa-anchored Vintage Wine Estates portfolio got the green light to change hands in a Delaware bankruptcy court Tuesday...

Bucking the trend of everything going up, up, up in price, Graver's ZTEC WB prices have dropped about 20% thanks to manufacturing efficiencies, and we're passing along the savings. They're still made in Delaware, USA in an ISO Class 7 Cleanroom, and lab-tested for integrity. You can clean them, re-use them, bubble point test them, etc. The one and only difference is that they're less expensive now. Graver's ZTEC WB filters are specially designed for sterile filtration in wineries & breweries (hence the "WB" in their name).  0.45 µm filters are specifically designed for sterile filtration of white wines, while the 0.65 µm filters are typically used for sterile filtration of red wines. Graver ZTEC WB Pricing 10": $106.42 20": $207.63 30": $314.10

Are compliance checks done in real time? Compliance checks must happen in real time to ensure a smooth transaction for the customer, and to provide a safety net for yourself. This begins with precise age verification. It's essential to confirm that only adults of legal drinking age (LDA) can make purchases online. Subsequently, compliance extends to accurately calculating and applying the appropriate tax rates, taking into account the location of the sale and the destination of the order.  Are the compliance rules automatically setup?  Producers should not have to worry about managing their own set of tax rates, shipping limits, and pre-purchase age verification as this easily leads to mistakes. Compliance solutions should have a built-in tax rate table, working on 9-digit zip codes, so you feel confident all taxes are correct.  Can states rules be manually bypassed? This should be a no brainer, if states rules can be bypassed, you should question how compliant you

Lula Cellars 2020 Rescue Block Pinot Noir Takes Top Honors November 17, 2023 — Winners have been announced in the 2023 Harvest Challenge Wine Competition. After two spirited days of judging, Lula Cellars 2020 Rescue Block Pinot Noir took the top prize. It was also awarded Best Red Wine and Best of Anderson Valley AVA (Mendocino County, Calif.). Coming in at 98 points, judges praised the wine as “rich, ripe” and for its “Bing cherry,” and “hint of orange peel.”  Lula Cellars is a boutique winery located in California’s Anderson Valley. Its focus is on world-class Pinot Noirs both from its estate and across Anderson Valley, as well as other single-vineyard offerings from the greater Mendocino County. When preparing to plant their own vines, Lula owners discovered some-1,000 old vines “literally lying down, as if waiting to be rescued.” Lots of TLC later, these mystery Pinot Noir grapes have thrived. There’s no in

Chicago, Illinois – September 5, 2023 - Today, Multi-Color Corporation (MCC) announced the appointment of Hassan H. Rmaile as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Rmaile comes to MCC from Avery Dennison, where he most recently served as the President of its global Materials group, the firm’s largest operating unit. With a deep understanding of the label industry across the value chain, Rmaile is a high energy and passionate global leader.  He brings two decades of experience in global manufacturing businesses across label, packaging materials and specialty chemicals, with relentless focus on leveraging innovation and sustainability to drive highly differentiated customer solutions and business value creation. Prior to leading the $6.5B, 10,000-employee Materials group at Avery Dennison, he oversaw its Label and Graphics Materials business in Europe, Middle East and North Africa (EMENA) from 2020 to 2022, where his unit delivered significan

The wine industry is still recovering from the 2020-2021 COVID pandemic. A November Geisenheim University survey for the ProWein Business Report found that two-thirds of global wine industry representatives it surveyed identified supply chain disruption as the biggest threat to their businesses after cost increases. 92% reported that they had experienced availability issues with glass bottles, significantly more than for any other products. Sand Castle Winery, which lies along the Delaware River in beautiful Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is one winery that decided to pivot away from its specialty cobalt blue glass bottles to shrink sleeves that simulated the blue on a more readily available clear glass bottle for three compelling reasons: To control the supply chain. To ensure uniformity across bottle orders so the visual footprint on the shelf would not change. To gain significant cost savings. “Like every business in the country, COVID made us face a decision about how to go forw