In this episode of the WIN Insider Series, George Christie sits down with Alison Crowe, Vice President of Winemaking and Partner at Plata Wine Partners, to explore her remarkable journey through the wine industry. From her early days growing up in California’s Central Coast to studying viticulture and enology at UC Davis, Alison shares how curiosity, hands-on experience, and a willingness to take risks shaped her career across roles at Chalone Vineyard, Curtis Winery, and Bonny Doon Vineyard. She also reflects on authoring The Winemaker’s Answer Book and how translating complex winemaking concepts into practical insights has been a common thread in her work. Alison offers a candid look at today’s wine landscape, from the collaborative, client-focused model at Plata Wine Partners to the broader challenges facing the industry, including shifting consumer preferences and increased competition. She discusses the importance of making wine more approachable, the need for

Plata Wine Partners is a premium “vineyard-to-bottle” production house rooted in California’s top coastal AVAs. With more than 20,000 acres of sustainably managed vineyards, Plata provides bulk-wine, private-label, and custom-program solutions for brands of all sizes. Their team brings together expertise in viticulture, winemaking, production, and finance to deliver programs aligned with modern consumer preferences. As the business evolved, Plata recognized that their Winemaker’s Database (WMDB) system lacked the accuracy, speed, and real-time visibility required by a 12+ facility production model. Plata implemented InnoVint in 2024, and the difference after just one harvest was remarkable. The Challenge: A System That Slowed Down the Entire Business Before InnoVint, Plata’s production and finance teams were burdened by manual processes that made everyday work harder and introduced costly risk.  Excessive manual data entry. Every two weeks, the

Afternoon Brief, January 26th

Axe Falls Again at Vintage Wine Estates: After announcing the sale of several wine brands last week, VWE is now offloading employees...

Afternoon Brief, September 30th

Serial ADA Plaintiff in California Alleged to Be Feigning Blindness in Order to Sue: A Southern California law firm announced Wednesday that it has obtained footage of a frequent filer of suits under the Americans with Disabilities Act that allegedly shows he is not "legally blind" as he has maintained in hundreds of ADA lawsuits...

Afternoon Brief, May 17th

Southern Glazer’s Hit with Wine Sales Consultant Class Action Employment Lawsuit: A federal employment lawsuit that seeks class action status was filed May 5, 2022 against Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits. The lawsuit against the distributor’s primary LLC and its Texas operation was filed in Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division...

Plata Wine Partners Expansion Continues with Addition of Two New Hires

Jessica Valenzuela and Shane Owens Join Plata Wine Partners Napa, CA, May 17, 2022 — Plata Wine Partners, California’s largest independent grape grower and a leading strategic brand producer, launches into full-blown […]

In the two-day wine innovation event in Zaragoza, 500 technicians attended the presentation of innovative solutions from researchers from 10 countries and 28 leading companies in the sector The third edition of Enoforum Spain, which took place at the Zaragoza Trade Fair Congress Center on 20th and 21st April and was attended by no less than 500 conference attendees, has come to an end. After the first edition in attendance in May 2018, the pandemic in 2020 forced a virtual edition, which nonetheless expanded participation to as many as 1,500 people, with significant involvement from South America.      “The success of Enoforum – says Gianni Trioli, founder of Vinidea and creator of Enoforum – lies in the fact that it represents a unique opportunity for technicians involved in innovation to acquire in a short space of time all the information they need to successfully transfer a new technology to their own production: the principles and the scienti