Enological enzymes have proven their value in wineries around the world to produce wine with enhanced varietal aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, and color. Selective release of these flavor, color, and aromatic compounds from the epidermic and hypodermic cell layers of the grape skin serves to increase varietal intensity without introducing undesirable components. The right blend of enzymes can be used to enhance and support the winemaking process to achieve desired and reliable results. MACERATION & EXTRACTION   BioSelect ®  Noir           • Increase color extraction and improve color stability in premium red wines        • Release anthocyanins, tannins, and polysaccharides early in maceration “We did notice an increase in color. Stability of the color is done really well considering that’s kind of a fight here in Texas since we are dealing with higher pH wines. We’ve noticed even with those higher pHs, the color stability

March 13, 2026 (Novato, CA) — Following the release of the Preliminary 2025 California Grape Crush Report, Turrentine Brokerage, the largest California grape and bulk wine brokerage company, has issued a market assessment characterizing the 2025 vintage as one of the most challenging for the wine industry since Prohibition. According to the new state data, the total tons crushed came in at 2.62 million tons, a figure that is above initial projections and well above what was felt by the industry. This statewide volume is 8% below 2024 and 23% below the 5-year average. Total red wine production declined by 9% and white wine production declined by 6%. “The decrease in tons is still very positive news for the industry overall,” said Steve Fredricks, President at Turrentine Brokerage. “The 2025 vintage highlights the industry’s directional shift of declining production and an overall restructure of the industry. 2025 represented continued challenges for grower

Maintaining wine balance in a changing climate Climate change is reshaping the wine industry. In many wine regions, each year seems to set new records for the hottest or driest growing season, followed by the earliest harvest dates yet. Such accelerated ripening is disrupting grape physiology; phenolic and aromatic development fall out of sync, sugar levels soar, and acidity drops away (1). So how can we adapt and build a more resilient wine sector? The answer to this question is multifaceted. In the vineyards, grape growers are rethinking their management practices, adjusting canopy architecture, introducing shading or optimising irrigation (1,2). Some are reaching for higher altitudes or moving further from the equator in search of cooler conditions (1). Others are trialling alternative heat- and drought-tolerant varieties, from long-forgotten cultivars to newly bred plant material. In the cellars, winemakers may turn to pragmatic solutions such as dilution or blending strategi

The Post-Harvest Drop-Off Fall brings a flurry of activity to wine country. Tasting rooms fill with eager visitors, social media buzzes with harvest photos, and the energy is palpable. Then November arrives, and for many wineries, engagement plummets. According to Silicon Valley Bank's 2024 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey, the average winery converts less than 15% of harvest event attendees into repeat customers by year-end. This represents an enormous missed opportunity. The wineries that thrive year-round don't view harvest as a seasonal peak but as the starting point of a strategic customer journey.  Harvest Is Your Customer Acquisition Funnel Stop thinking of harvest events as isolated experiences and start viewing them as the top of your sales funnel. Smart consumer brands recognize that seasonal events provide a prime opportunity to collect valuable customer data while creating memorable brand experiences. These touchpoints become the first step in an ongoing relat

For decades, wine and spirits inventory at wholesalers followed a model of large first orders. Makers shipped big quantities to distributors, who stocked them in massive warehouses and waited for orders to roll in. Today, that model is mostly gone—unless you’re part of the top ~20% of Makers doing tens of millions in annual sales under contract. Few Makers reach that level, and contracts of that size are rare. So why aren’t large inventory purchases common any more? What’s Changed Here are a few of the major reasons: The Cost of Money - Wholesalers typically carry inventory financed via lines of credit or similar instruments, and are paid back when accounts pay. Interest rates now are much higher than a few years ago, so carrying inventory (i.e. borrowing money to finance it) is more expensive. Excess Inventory Already in the System - There is a large glut of wine and spirits sitting in warehouses across the country. Distributors and wholesalers are

If this year is defined by a singular emotion, it’s anxiety. That’s nothing new in farming, however I’m talking about anxiety over the abysmal grape market rather than any natural phenomenon. Many of us were so busy scrambling for buyers, we may have forgotten to notice just how great the weather has been. Why wouldn’t we get handed a great year when most of us can’t sell any grapes? Let’s look at some numbers My gut feeling was that 2025 was similar to 2023 with a few big differences. 2023 saw some record high rainfall in the winter and early spring throughout California. Even the Paso Robles area got around 21” of rain from July 1st 2022 to July 1st 2023, up from a whopping 6.5” the year prior. That amounted to lots of nice canopy development early in the year and some good yield potential, provided you didn’t get shatter during the chilly springtime. This year however, the Central Coast was back to a measly <7” of rain w

“We successfully automated almost every irrigation set last season,” said Andrew Oliver, Vineyard Manager at Antinori. “Lumo’s pump automation is an absolute game changer for our team,” agreed Hunter Emch, Northern Unit Area Manager at Redwood Empire Vineyard Management. REVM and Antinori are two early users of Lumo’s Pump Automation product, a powerful new integration with its smart valve platform that automates irrigation scheduling and execution from end to end. The solution has already been deployed at ranches ranging in size from 60 to 1,300 acres. Real-time, block-level flow and pressure data from Lumo smart valves is used to verify performance, dial in precision, and keep critical infrastructure safe. Over 150 ranches in Napa, Sonoma, the Central Coast, the Okanagan Valley and Washington State are already using Lumo’s precision irrigation system to close their execution gap, increase operational efficiency, and irrigate to plan. In July

A draft Napa County Regional Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (RCAAP) has been released for public comment. The draft and related documents can be found at https://climateactionnapa.konveio.com/  Comments are due by September 30, 2025. This draft has been in development for many years, and covers the County of Napa, the Cities of American Canyon, Calistoga, Napa, and St. Helena, and the Town of Yountville. It includes Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction targets of up to 85 percent by 2045. At the same time, it aims to achieve “carbon neutrality” by 2045, primarily by reforestation of burned areas of the County to promote natural carbon sequestration and removing GHGs from the atmosphere. The draft discusses 21 GHG reduction strategies with 46 GHG reduction measures across seven emissions sectors, (though the draft only quantifies the impact of 17 of those measures). The seven sectors, in declining order of their listed percentage of GHG Emissions, are: On-Road Tr

Are Your Wine Club Members Ghosting You? Here's Why Your wine club members are breaking up with you, but they're not telling you why. They're just... disappearing. The numbers are stark: Silicon Valley Bank's latest research (which we are going to reference a lot in this blog) shows wine clubs are experiencing member attrition rates between 28-36% annually, with luxury segment clubs performing only marginally better at 23-29% (SVB Direct-to-Consumer Wine Report, 2025). That's not a leak, it's a flood. And while many wineries frantically chase new sign-ups to replace the departed, few address why members leave in the first place. Wine club fatigue isn't a mysterious phenomenon. It's a predictable human response to predictable winery behavior. The Warning Signs You're Already Losing Them Before members cancel, they disengage. They're sending signals you might be missing: Email open rates drop below your average Shipment modifications increase (dow

How Wineries Can Use Simple SEO To Get More Tasting Room Traffic You need more people in your tasting room. You don’t have more money to spend on ads, and they’re not working as well as they used to anyway. You would like to get more traffic from searches on Google, but you’ve been told that SEO is all about writing tons of content and posting tons of social, and you don’t have the time and resources to do that.  You’re stuck and you’re frustrated. What can you do? We recently helped a Willamette Valley winery tackle exactly this challenge. With some simple but highly-effective tactics, we brought them from nearly zero visibility on local searches to 100% visibility and top rankings in only 90 days. The approach we used could work for nearly any winery looking to get noticed without generating tons of content or rebuilding their website. This is the EXACT checklist that we used. What You Can Do (With ZERO SEO Skills) 1. Tidy Up the Ba