Papapietro Perry Winery and Four Roses Bourbon Take Top Honors (March 6, 2026) — Winners have been announced in the fifth annual Los Angeles Invitational Wine & Spirits Challenge. A pinot noir from Papapietro Perry (Sonoma County, Calif.) and a small batch bourbon from Four Roses Distillery (Lawrenceburg, Ky.) topped their fields to be named Best of the Best. The competition was established in 2022, in conjunction with Los Angeles-based beverage professionals (representing both the on- and off-premise channels), to highlight the best of the best wine and spirits producers in the world, and to introduce those producers to the largest market of consumers in the United States. Judging took place February 18-19, 2026. Competition this year was stellar, says event producer Debra Del Fiorentino of Wine Competitions Management & Production: “Year after year, our judges continue to be impressed with the depth in each category. The quality of product was fantastic!” Wh

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

The Vineyard Team's Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship Published in Wine Business Monthly February 1, 2025 The Vineyard Team, a non-profit organization, has been around for 30 years, and from the beginning its focus has been on providing education in sustainable winegrowing. "Something that we talk about a lot is the three P's: people, planet and prosperity. The scholarship program is our way of giving back to the people," explained Beth Vukmanic, The Vineyard Team executive director. "And it's really just been wonderful to see it grow over time." Launching in 2015 with money raised from a food and wine event, the scholarship program has since grown, awarding a total of $350,000 in scholarship funds. SHARE THIS OPPORTUNITY Funds for the program now come from direct donations to the scholarship. In 2022 Must! Charities-a Paso Robles-based non-profit that helps fundraise and support programs in the area-decided to make an investment in The Vineyard Team'

Crop appears lighter in some areas; grape market activity still limited Following an easing of heat levels in mid-August, 100-105°F temperatures returned to some areas of California toward the end of the month and into the first week of September. Reports of the hottest summer on record – for the western US as well as the Northern Hemisphere as a whole – obscure a more nuanced picture at the local level: While heat has been consistently intense in California’s southern Interior, Coastal areas have tended to avoid the worst extremes and, in some cases, even experienced cooler-than-average August temperatures. It has, in general, been a good growing year. The picking timetable is well in advance of last year – when it was delayed by unusually mild conditions – and close to normal, with harvesting of the early whites getting started in the Interior by mid-July and in the Coast at the beginning of August. The return of higher temperatures has likely quick

Heatwave arrives; grape market remains slow July was likely the warmest on record for much of the western US, with California receiving the highest heat levels and areas of the Central Valley suffering two weeks of 100-110°F temperatures. The heat has since dissipated slightly in early August, although consistent, more normal temperatures in excess of 85°F are forecast. The general feeling is that vineyards across the state will have been affected by such a prolonged heatwave: Some – limited – burn damage has been in evidence and there is a suspicion that berry sizing has been hindered. The dividends from California’s wet winter are now making themselves felt: Despite the hot summer, soil moisture levels in many places remain relatively good – even at this stage – and canopies appear healthy. Given this and the fact many cash-strapped growers are economizing on treatments, there has been some mildew pressure, but still at normal levels. Also normal

Continuing a Legacy of Learning Vineyard Team proudly announces the selection of six new exceptional recipients of the Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship, continuing its mission of investing in higher education for the children of California's vineyard and winery workers. These students are set to embark on a transformative journey. This year's recipients, all first-generation college students, have been chosen for their academic achievements, financial need, inspiring stories, community involvement, and the potential to make significant contributions to their communities . Among them are a future viticulturist with a commitment to sustainable agriculture, a budding real estate developer with aspirations of owning their own farm one day, and a prospective legislator/politician, passionate about public policy and social justice. Congratulations to This Year’s Recipients: Daisy from Paso Robles, planning to attend California Polytechnic State University. David from Paso Ro

Afternoon Brief, May 8th

In a Major Pinot Noir Purchase, Constellation Buys Sta. Rita Hills Icon Sea Smoke: The Santa Barbara County winery was a key player in the region’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay renaissance...

I had an macroeconomics professor preface the start of the semester stating that any question asked in his class was answerable with “it depends”…or “China”. While I don’t remember a ton about that class or the intricacies of U.S. tariff policy towards Chinese manufacturing, I find that at least the former part of that statement applies to frost season. In this case, how you handle your frost damage depends on a few factors. How hard did you get hit? When did the damage occur? What are your winemaking goals? Let’s start with this last one. What wine is this going into? Frost damage always looks like Armageddon the morning after. Give it a month though, and it may look not much different than normal. You may even get just as big a crop as you would have if no frost had occurred. This is because the vine is resilient and pushes a lot of secondary and tertiary buds to make up for your burned-up primary bud. Whatever fruit you have from these late

Since 2016, farmers, winemakers, and wine enthusiasts have listened to the latest science and research for the wine industry from the world's top experts and experienced growers via the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. In the time it takes to drive between vineyards, listeners enjoy technical episodes featuring expert discussions covering every aspect of wine business from microbes for soil health to designing a vineyard for sheep grazing, and from barrier sprays for smoke taint to using satellites to detect diseases. New technical interviews are released the first and third Thursday of the month. In 2022, Vineyard Team added Marketing Tip Mondays to the lineup of monthly releases. Searches for sustainable goods have increased globally by 71% since 2016. As consumer demand for sustainable wines grows, brands want to know how to communicate their good work in the marketplace. These under-five-minute micro podcasts released on the second and fourth Monday of the month give quic