In partnership with the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, ETS Laboratories has been building a database of grape samples to help growers and winemakers better understand smoke impacts on winegrapes, work with insurance companies to protect their assets, and create individual baselines for the varieties in their vineyards. Since the program launched in 2021, this effort has helped to inform the global methodology around smoke taint testing. Following the catastrophic wildfires of 2020, the winegrowing community expressed interest in an extended list of analytical markers of smoke exposure, however two challenges were identified. The first challenge was with a class of markers known as “glycosylated” or “bound” compounds. Until the Fall of 2020, reference standards were not available for these types of compounds, and there was not consensus between specialists about which ones to measure.  ETS Laboratories worked with the Wine Institute Technical Committee, the Austr

Afternoon Brief, May 22nd

O’Neill Vintners & Distillers Acquires Ram’s Gate Winery and Creates New Luxury Wine Division: O’Neill Vintners & Distillers Founder and CEO Jeff O’Neill has been a co-owner of the brand since 2011, and now takes complete ownership of the brand and property, creating a new luxury wine division...

"GROUNDWATER . You can't see it, but millions of Californians depend upon it as a vital source of water for their homes and businesses." Those are not my words but the introductory words for the promotional video that appears on the SGMA (Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) website1 . The statement is a rather simply worded way to convey the obvious: that groundwater is vital to our livelihood here in California, and especially important to honoring and sustaining our agricultural heritage. While groundwater provides needed sustenance for numerous rural, as well as urban communities, it is agriculture that demands the lion's share of the resource. Central Valley agriculture turns to groundwater pumping whenever drought or poor rainfall years reduce the availability of surface water deliveries. Cries for construction of more reservoirs to capture and store more stormwater and snowmelt so that canals can be filled with more water are always being heard. Yet, apart f

Afternoon Brief, January 22nd

Bomb Blows Up French Wine War: A dispute between French producers and importers of Spanish wine is getting darker, with violence returning to the south of France...

Afternoon Brief, September 5th

Georgian Wine Producers Lose Up to 100% of Their Vines in Storms Affecting 4,600HA: On the evening of September 2, hailstorms of unprecedented ferocity tore through the Georgia’s largest wine region, Kakheti, where around 80% of the country’s wines are produced...

Afternoon Brief, March 6th

Couple Jailed in Spain Over 1.6 Million Euros Wine Heist: A Spanish court on Monday jailed a couple for stealing 45 bottles of wine worth over 1.6 million euros from a hotel restaurant in what police called a "meticulously planned" theft...

Afternoon Brief, January 31st

The Passing of Entrepreneur, Vintner, and Art Collector, Donald M. Hess, (1936-2023): Donald M. Hess, entrepreneur, vintner, and art collector, passed away peacefully in Bern, Switzerland, on January 30, 2023, at 86...

Afternoon Brief, January 25th

LivEx Recap: California Emerges as an Investment Powerhouse: There has been a boon in wine investment companies in the United States, with California leading the way...