As the newly crowned NCAA basketball national champions make their media rounds, you might think that NIL is just about athletes getting paid to play. But NIL is a legal concept that encompasses an individual's right of publicity and allows all individuals, not just student-athletes, to control and profit from the commercial use of their identity NIL, short for Name, Image, and Likeness, has grown far beyond endorsement deals for athletes. It’s about the core pieces of your identity: your name, your face, your voice, and the ways you present yourself to the world. In a digital world where anyone can build an audience (or be impersonated by AI), those things have real value for everyone. On March 26, 2026, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched a new resource page that centralizes guidance on navigating name, image, and likeness in connection with trademarks and related intellectual property issues. This is a helpful first stop for understanding how branding an

Demand decline improving with stabilization on the horizon Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank, today released its 2026 State of the US Wine Industry Report. Widely regarded as the leading source of market trends in the premium wine sector, SVB’s 25th annual report provides an analysis of current market conditions, success strategies, and forecasts for the year ahead. The 2026 report estimates the following industry sales totals for 2025: Total volume of ~329 million cases (down from 335.9 million in 2024) Total value of ~$74.3 billion (down from $75.5 billion in 2024). The wine industry is moving through a multi-year demand correction, largely driven by value wines at the under $12 price point. Industry sales in 2025 declined 2.0% (by cases) and 1.6% (by dollars), yet both represent improvements compared to 2024. The industry ended the year with both profit margin compression and higher levels of inventory. The premium industry will likely experience its

Vineyard owners and grape growers lie awake at night trying to map a path to the future through today’s volatile market. Worries that run through their minds include the overflowing bulk market that is cancelling contracts and lowering grape prices, and the higher pay rates and immigration raids that are compounding an already stressed labor supply. Two clear steps forward are to lower operational costs and reduce existing staff workload. Automating irrigation management is a logical way to achieve this, as it reduces labor, water usage and materials costs. But small or mid-sized growers often forego these benefits because the automation price tag outweighs the return on investment. Instead, 95% of growers still choose to continue irrigating manually. Verdi addresses this ROI concern with affordable irrigation automation technology that growers and their teams can easily install themselves without any training. What makes Verdi unique is how its smart hardware and easy

FLASH2 has a fantastic home at Sonoma Bespoke in Napa! Congratulations on your automated pH, TA and SO₂ titrator, Kristen Black.🍷 From all of us at Admeo, we thank you for your continued trust in us to support QC in your lab. We so happy your Y25 and SPICA have a new friend to make your labwork easier and more efficient. Kristen Black of Sonoma Bespoke with Matthew Bacler of Admeo with Steroglass FLASH2

Join us to explore how fewer row passes can enhance vineyard health, improve grape quality, and boost sustainability. We'll begin with a presentation on climate change impacts and actionable strategies. Lisa Francioni (CSWA) will share key research findings on California viticulture and introduce a Climate Action Toolkit to help prioritize resilient practices. Next, we'll head to the vineyard for an equipment demo, followed by a panel discussion with experienced growers. They'll share practical insights, success stories, and real-world solutions for sustainable, cost-effective vineyard management—reducing compaction, preserving soil integrity, and maximizing efficiency. REGISTER   Speakers: Lisa Francioni, California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance Jeff Lehar, Monterey Pacific Oliver Matthews, Vineyard Professional Services John Pierini, J. Lohr Vineyards Eric Steiger, Coastal Vineyard Care Associates   CE: CCA 2 - S

Verdi’s mission is to make modern irrigation automation accessible to all growers, regardless of vineyard size or type of irrigation system — even manual systems can be automated.  Most automation solutions for irrigation are expensive and tailored toward the upper tier of vineyard operations. Existing systems also fail to address the worsening conditions farmers face, including labor shortages and environmental concerns such as droughts, water scarcity and new water usage monitoring requirements from the government.  Yet, every grower needs to reduce water costs and waste and the time their team spends patrolling the vineyards for valve malfunctions and line breaks, as well as improve the quality and yield of their crop. As Verdi’s founders, CTO Roman Kozak and CEO Arthur Chen, worked to solve these problems, they realized the solution was to make the latest technology affordable and simple enough for farmers to install themselves.  “Arthur and I

Expert Editorial: Distilling Simplicity for Wine and Spirit Manufacturers

Wine and spirit manufacturers can find value in using technology to tackle pressing challenges head-on. By Matthew Riesenbach For food and beverage

Afternoon Brief, January 31st

Washington the Winner in Bad Wine Year: Each year, when many of Sonoma County’s 1,800 certified sustainable winegrape growers gather for the Sonoma County Winegrowers’ (SCW) annual meeting, they want to know what is next for one of the world’s most sustainable winegrowing regions. Today, they learned the answer to their question...