These wineries and leaders are setting the standard for innovation, engagement, and operational excellence across our community. Active Participant 🔹 Galen Becker Drace — Arkenstone Estate Winery Continuous Learner 🔹 Angela Walker — Corison Winery Community Champion 🔹 Truman Prewitt — Sculpterra Winery & Vineyards  The Unity Award 🔹 Karen Darling — Bella Vineyards Feedback MVPs 🔹 Adam C. — Somerston Estate 🔹 Marian Kildahl — Imagery Estate Winery  Super Users 🔹 Harry Bagnaschi — Treasury Wine Estates 🔹 Doug M. — The Duckhorn Portfolio 🔹 Jessica Hartin — JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery Early Adopter Excellence 🔹 Far Niente Wine Estates 🔹 Hess Persson Estates  🔹 Laurel Glen Vineyard 🔹 Sangiacomo Family Wines Transformation Champions 🔹 Alyssa Kosan 🔹 Eric Mueller — Antica Terra 🔹 Kevin Jessen — Firstleaf User of the Year 🔹 Rebbecca Ingalls — Crimson Wine Group Congratulations to our 2026 honorees! Lea

Sorren, a Top 50 national tax, accounting, and advisory firm, has announced that Hess & Rohmer, a well-respected full-service CPA and advisory firm, has joined its national network. The partnership reinforces Sorren’s growth in Texas, building on its existing Houston presence while uniting Hess & Rohmer’s local legacy and trusted client relationships with Sorren’s national resources and expertise.   Established in 1999 by Brian Hess and Melody Rohmer, the firm was founded on a relationship-driven approach to client service. This philosophy, rooted in the belief that the firm’s success is directly tied to the success of its clients, has supported steady growth and service expansion over time.   “From the beginning, it was clear our firms share a common approach to serving clients and supporting our people,” said Josh Tyree, President of Sorren. “Together, we’re strengthening our ability to serve Texas businesses with the

Join wine industry icon Karen MacNeil, RedChirp co-founder Jennie Gilbert, and Laurelle Turner-Clemons from Hess Persson Estates for a practical, idea-packed webinar to help you promote and sell your wine using the Come Over October campaign for creative traction.  Co-created by Karen, Kimberly Noelle Charles, and Gino Colangelo, the Come Over October campaign is focused on telling the positive story about wine by celebrating togetherness, connection, and hospitality. The campaign has experienced extraordinary success thus far—reaching nearly 2 billion media impressions in its first year. In this session, we’ll highlight how your winery can easily participate, benefit, and be a part of Come Over October this fall.  You’ll get proven text message marketing strategies, ready-to-use SMS campaigns, and expert tips to drive traffic and boost sales, all tailored to the Come Over October theme. Whether you're joining for the first time or returning for ano

Bridging the Gap: APS Packaging Launches Experiential Learning Fund for Future Wine & Beverage Leaders APS Packaging, in collaboration with the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, took a group of students to tour Hess Persson Estates and Infinity Bottling! We noticed the need for real-world skills and industry knowledge in the classroom, so we kick-started the “APS Packaging Experiential Learning Fund.” This fund is a game-changer for students as it provides students with invaluable opportunities, including field trips, guest speaker presentations, and hands-on education focused on bottling and its significance. A huge thank you to David Davenport and Jessica Tuteur from Infinity Bottling, Mimi Storts and Andy Strasser from Hess Persson Estates, and Sergio Ciocchetta from MBF North America for taking the time to talk to us about the importance of automation. Automating a bottling line boosts efficiency, consistency, and cost-effectiveness, making it a vita

Wine fulfillment isn’t just about getting bottles from point A to B—it’s about delivering an exceptional customer experience while keeping costs under control. In this Wine Sales Symposium session, Devin Joshua and Jim silver from WineDirect will break down the key strategies wineries can use to streamline fulfillment, minimize expenses, and enhance customer loyalty. From smart inventory management to optimizing packaging, discover how the right fulfillment approach can drive both efficiency and satisfaction. Join us at the Wine Sales Symposium, May 14 at the Hyatt in Santa Rosa. The Secret to Seamless Wine Fulfillment: How to Reduce Costs While Improving Customer Satisfaction Register with promo code: WINEDIRECT2025 to get $20 off the ticket price Devin Joshua, VP of Fulfillment Sales Devin Joshua is a seasoned wine industry executive and currently serves as Vice President of Fulfillment Sales at WineDirect. With more than 25 years of experience across nearly every t

EasyCheck has found a wonderful home at Hess Persson Estates - congratulations on being the first EasyCheck installation in the US!🍷 It was awesome implementing cold and calcium stability in your winery's lab, Amanda Curley! We are thrilled to support your saving time and energy consumption with this Steroglass analyzer. Are you curious if automation would be useful for your lab? Please reach out, we would be happy to chat with you!

The Hill Country Wine Symposium was established in 2015 by Texas Hill Country Wineries.  Symposium includes THREE days of seminars, lectures and panel discussions with over 20 sessions in 4 dedicated tracks: Vineyard, Winery, Business & New Vineyard/Winery.  Past speakers have included Tammy Boatright-VingDirect, Al Wagner-Clos du Val, Clark Smith-WineSmith, Don Brady-Robert Hall Winery, Gary Finnan-GFC|Evoke, Doug Beckett-Peachy Canyon Winery, Christophe Hedges-Hedges Family Estate, Dr Andrew Landers-Cornell University, Sandra Hess-DTC Wine Workshops, Dr Gregory Jones-Linfield College, Michael Wangbickler-Balzac Communications and many more. The Symposium also includes an intimate trade show for the opportunity to connect with your current Texas clients while meeting new potential accounts.  With a small ratio of exhibitors to attendees, there is ample time and space to visit with all attendees.  Sponsors, Exhibitors and Attendees are able to enjoy the  re

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

Afternoon Brief, February 3rd

Storms Are Another Disaster for Sonoma County Farmworkers Who Call for More Aid: Because of the work interruptions caused by the January storms, hundreds of farmworkers have turned to local nonprofit organizations and now the county for emergency financial aid and support...