The wizard behind the curtain. That has always been the image that comes to mind when I ask wine people about data from their distributors. We’ve made headway on pulling back the curtain on distributor data, thanks to our relationship with VIP (Vermont Information Processing) and our ability to combine it with a winery’s DTC data. There’s clarity now. And visibility. And much less of a sense of mystery or smoke and mirrors. For wineries, it’s empowering. Here's a use-case example. Today we’re announcing a new development that goes even further. We call it RFV, or Recency-Frequency-Volume. It’s a twist on RFM (Recency-Frequency-Monetary), which is a key variable in DTC data to track customer behavior and their risk of dropping out of wine clubs. We’ve taken that idea and applied it to wholesale depletion data, to help wineries track their risk when it comes to their distributors. That’s RFV. We take the value of distributors' Rece

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

Study after study has proved that consumers prefer glass over other packaging materials for several reasons: Because it is aesthetically pleasing, is virtually inert and doesn’t interact with the food or beverage it holds, and because it is recyclable. Global Package has a long tradition of promoting glass in the wine and spirits industries for these very reasons. Our latest collection of Wild Glass, produced by Estal Packaging, is 100% sustainable “real cycled” and boasts a production process that is both efficient and ecologically sustainable. It utilizes only post-consumer recycled glass collected from municipalities and its production method uses lower fuel consumption, resulting in a reduction of CO2 as well as less extraction of virgin material. Importantly, glass addresses the sustainability issue that today’s consumers are demanding. According to an article in Chemical & Engineering News: “Glass can be recycled endlessly by crushing, blending

Feeling lost in the sea of options and different people telling you what to use? Is your vendor or IT provider trying to convince you to use some great new website building platform for your new website? We get it, the allure of the latest and greatest is strong. But remember, new doesn't always mean better. Newer platforms often come with growing pains such as bugs and glitches, security concerns, limited features and editing capabilities, smaller communities, and just too darn difficult to use for the average website marketer.  Don't worry, we've got your back! Join us for a fun and informative webinar hosted by Gorilion, where we'll spill the beans on why WordPress is still the reigning champ of website creation and management. In this session: Why WordPress is the Cool Kid on the Block: We'll explore the unique advantages of WordPress that make those trendy new platforms look like they're trying too hard. Marketers, Rejoice! Learn how WordPress gives y

Sealionne Wines Launches Seasonal Tasting Pavilion Featuring a Vintage Airstream Trailer at Ribbon Ridge Vineyard

Reservations Now Open for Camping-Inspired Tastings Designed for Outdoor Adventurers and Wine Lovers. Newberg, Oregon – June 25, 2024 – Sealionne Wines, the vision of husband-and-wife team Piper Underbrink and Ben Stalker, is […]

Depending upon where you are in the country, it’s no secret that independent liquor stores are fighting for their very survival. And yet, every day of the week, wine and spirits vendors darken their doors, intending to “present” the items on their quote sheets. It can’t be easy being a package store owner these days. Wouldn’t it be great if ALL sellers of wine and spirits flipped the “selling” model on its ear and focused on what the package store owner wants instead of what they want? In this spirit, we spoke to some of our package store owner fans, who now present the six things every package store owner wants (and how to give it to them).  1) A mutually-beneficial relationship It could be due to the intense pressure to sell in a ridiculously overcrowded, competitive market, but our industry's buyer-seller relationship is very one-sided. The seller pushes what THEY need to sell, not what the buyer truly wants.  From the buyer&#

Going Low: Making Lo-Alc Wines Isn’t Always Trendy

One Ohio winery is making low-alcohol wines as a matter of course. By Paul Vigna   You could say winemaker Joe Juniper at Vermillion Valley Vineyards in Wakeman, Ohio, is […]

"GROUNDWATER . You can't see it, but millions of Californians depend upon it as a vital source of water for their homes and businesses." Those are not my words but the introductory words for the promotional video that appears on the SGMA (Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) website1 . The statement is a rather simply worded way to convey the obvious: that groundwater is vital to our livelihood here in California, and especially important to honoring and sustaining our agricultural heritage. While groundwater provides needed sustenance for numerous rural, as well as urban communities, it is agriculture that demands the lion's share of the resource. Central Valley agriculture turns to groundwater pumping whenever drought or poor rainfall years reduce the availability of surface water deliveries. Cries for construction of more reservoirs to capture and store more stormwater and snowmelt so that canals can be filled with more water are always being heard. Yet, apart f

Afternoon Brief, November 10th

France Raises Wine Output Estimate, Regains Top Producer Spot: France's farm ministry on Friday raised its estimate for this year's wine production, confirming that it will regain the top spot among world producers although some major producing regions including Bordeaux have been hit by disease...