Who (or what) is this eddy you keep talking about? Efficient water management has never been more critical for agriculture and specifically for viticulture. High-end viticulture needs to manage water to not only cut costs, but to keep quality high in a market of oversupply and buyers who hold the upper hand over the grower. High production viticulture may not need the water management finesse for quality that high-end viticulture does, but regulatory demands for groundwater protection as well as limitations on water deliveries push growers into making the most out of every gallon. Here at AV, we’ve made use of impactful technologies to help growers irrigate efficiently and control vine stress to improve wine quality from their vineyards. Our primary tools have been the soil moisture probe and, more recently, the Florapulse microtensiometer. Both tools have been indispensable and even more so now that we have our own data portal to view and analyze these data streams. More recen

Afternoon Brief: What Do Neo-Prohibitionists Really Want?

Organizations that advocate for more stringent policies around the sale and marketing of alcohol are gaining momentum. What does this mean for the beverage industry?...

The wine marketplace continues its post-pandemic shifts.  By Laurie Wachter The August 24 Wine Industry Sales Symposium consisted of four sessions covering the value of DTC and sales data in boosting sales, planning for the holidays, corporate gifting and luxury marketing strategy. Here’s a quick look back. Using Data Analytics to Optimize DTC Pricing and Inventory Depletion Costs have risen exponentially since the onset of the pandemic, making it even more critical to use data analytics to guide wine pricing to maximize profits.  “Wineries have an amazing amount of data from their POS systems and wine clubs that can be used to build a depletion curve, price elasticity estimates and predictive models,” says Bob Terzotis of Mather Economics.  Jim Moroney reached out to Mather after opening Sixmilebridge Vineyards (Paso Robles, Calif.) during the pandemic. “We were running out of Cabernet Sauvignon partway into our first vintage. I needed to raise t

Erica Harrop, President and CEO of Global Package LLC, will be giving a presentation on “All Things Bottle Sustainability” next week at Nickel & Nickel, 8164 St. Helena Highway in Oakville, CA. She will be first on the panel, beginning at 9:30am, and will discuss considerations for lighter bottle glass and using recycled glass bottles.            Global Package is well known for both its lighter-weight Elegant Light™ line of bottles, as well as for its distinctive 100% sustainable Wild Glass™ bottles.         Addressing environmental concerns, Global Package has in stock the full line of Elegant Light™ bottles, lighter weight bottles that result in more economical and ecological shipping, and which come in the full range of classical shapes and colors.            The company’s beautiful and ecological Wild Glass™ line of bottles has become widely