The 5th Annual Par Then Bar Open® (PTBO) Golf Tournament is back on May 16, 2025, at Eagle Vines Golf Club in American Canyon—and this is your chance to be part of an exclusive wine industry tradition that blends competition, camaraderie, and connection. Why Play in PTBO? This one-of-a-kind industry event, presented by APS Packaging & MBF North America, is more than just a golf tournament. It’s a chance for winery professionals, suppliers, and service providers to step away from the daily grind and enjoy a fun, relaxed atmosphere while building meaningful industry connections. With a field of industry professionals from across the wine sector, PTBO creates the perfect setting for networking—whether it’s chatting between holes, sharing a meal at the post-game dinner and awards ceremony, or celebrating at the after-party with music and an open bar. What Are the Requirements? Wineries are welcome to play in the tournament for free! A compl

Imagine a warm and sunny day in May. You're walking across the green fairway of a golf course (or riding in a cart if you prefer), surrounded by vineyards and oak-studded rolling hills. When you arrive at the tee, there's a gathering of friends and colleagues. You mingle—catching up with old friends or meeting new ones. You stop at a booth to snag a glass of sparkling wine or limoncello and place a bet on how many capsules are in the jar; if you're right, it could win you a prize. When it's time for your foursome to tee off, you move on through the course to the next tee, where more fun awaits. The day ends at the clubhouse with a full dinner, awards ceremony and a party with the DJ spinning music for dancing, drinking and good vibes. This scenario isn't just a daydream or another weekend golf game in wine country; it's an entirely different experience designed to provide a casual environment for the hard-working folks in the wine and spirits industry to h

With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic receding, wineries are increasingly upgrading and modernizing equipment for the vineyard, winemaking, and packaging to optimize and automate more manual processes. Machinery like depalletizers is gaining traction because they play a crucial role in automating the handling of bulk glass. Bulk glass lowers costs and the winery’s carbon footprint by eliminating third-party charges for packing glass into cases before delivery. It reduces the number of trucks (and thus CO2 emitted) by 35 percent or more. Mimi Storts, Senior Director of Planning and Operations at Hess Persson Estates, recently upgraded the Hess Collection bottling line. She explains, “At Hess Collection, we had only one bottling line, and it was nearing its end of life. Quality is number one, so we wanted the new bottling line to maintain that quality and retain our internal quality oversight.” Storts also needed two capabilities the old line didn’t have: to h