The North Bay Business Journal’s Wine Industry Conference is one of the publication’s annual networking events that’s taken place for over two decades. The wine-centric soiree brings in a variety of attendees with wine industry backgrounds, as well as attendees from other general business backgrounds in the North Bay. It acts as a great hub of knowledge and networking for the North Bay Business Journal community, featuring expert keynote speakers and panelists each year. This year’s theme is, “Elevating Your Wine Business through Strategic Succession Effective Distribution and Innovative Marketing.” Joining us at the conference will be Keynote Speaker Remi Cohen, CEO of Domaine Carneros Winery, presenting: “Strategies for Success — Mentorship, Succession, and Business Continuity Planning for the Future.” To follow, Tahlia Suggs, Marketing Apprentice at Price Family Vineyards & Estates, and Courtney Guntz-Summer, Assistant Direc

Lumo hasn’t been around all that long. In fact, the California-based, smart irrigation company was first launched by CEO and Founder Devon Wright and his team just two years ago. But within that very short time frame, Lumo’s cutting-edge water delivery system has captured the attention of the Northern Californian winegrowing community and truly shifted the way irrigation is done. Three Lumo One smart valves installed at a Jackson Family Wines vineyard in northern Sonoma County.  Last summer, Lumo put the industry’s first smart irrigation valve, Lumo One, into the hands and vineyards of some of California’s top grape growers, including; Treasury Wine Estates, Wente Vineyards, Clos Du Val, Spottswoode Winery, REVM, Boheme Wines, Price Family Vineyards & Estates, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Pine Ridge Vineyards. Now, after one full growing season, users are reporting groundbreaking results. “Lumo valves have the potential to unite my wate

The definition of a disruptive company is one that causes “radical change in an existing industry or market through being innovative.” (Oxford Languages). This is exactly what Lumo, a California-based, smart irrigation technology company, has done and is continuing to do in the winegrowing industry..  Since Lumo CEO and Founder Devon Wright and his team launched the company’s cutting-edge, water delivery system two years ago, growers have gained access to a game-changing technology to meet the challenges of grape cultivation in a water-scarce world. This past summer, Lumo put the industry’s first smart irrigation valve, Lumo One, into the hands and vineyards of some of California’s top grape growers, including; Treasury Wine Estates, Wente, Clos Du Val, Spottswood, REVM, Boheme, Price Family, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Pine Ridge Vineyards. The expectations of even these seasoned professionals were surpassed by Lumo’s incredible tec

Afternoon Brief, September 13th

New Wine Market Council Study Shows How Consumers Are Shifting in the Wine Category and Desired Price Points: Lately the wine news has been filled with reports of declining wine consumption in the U.S. Because of this, Wine Market Council (WMC) launched a new research study to investigate why this is happening and what types of wine and price points are still desirable...

American winery owners from coast to coast rely on Process2Wine winery management software to make each day run smoothly. Process2Wine software is developed by Ertus Group, a French company that came to the US with decades of grape-growing and winemaking experience built into a grape-to-bottle software solution packed with functionality and backed by a technical understanding of what vineyard and winery owners need to succeed.  The founder Alain Sutre was formerly the director of prestigious estates in Bordeaux. Thanks to his vision, and to collaboration with experts in the field, Sutre launched Process2Wine in 2011 with the aim of planning and managing all the winemaking operations. We reached out to users to find out why they like working with Process2Wine winery management software. Here are the results: Why they chose Process2Wine Some wineries find Process2Wine through word of mouth. That includes Wes Jensen at Sages Vintage in Nacogdoches, Texas, who says, “I

20th annual report indicates changes to wine sales in a post-COVID world Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the bank of the world’s most innovative companies and their investors, today released its 2021 State of the Wine Industry Report. Now in its 20th year, this authoritative annual report assesses current conditions in the wine industry and provides a unique forecast for the year ahead based on proprietary research and economic and behavioral trends.  Highlights and predictions from the 2021 wine industry conditions survey and report: As the hospitality, travel and entertainment industries rebuild, there will be strong consumer demand and a bounce in overall sales that will gain momentum in 2021, but may not be sustainable into 2022. The wine sales growth rate across all price segments has been declining for many years. The wine industry will need a national marketing organization to deliver a unified consumer message. Price Overall bottle pricing should hold in both off- an