Domaine Della 2023 Soberanes Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir Takes Top Prize  November 18, 2025 — Winners have been announced in the 2025 Harvest Challenge Wine Competition. After two spirited days of judging, Domaine Della 2023 Soberanes Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir took the top prize. It was also awarded Best of Show Red Wine and Best of Monterey County AVA. Coming in at 98 points, judges praised the wine as “warm and spicy” with “fig and nutmeg.” Other descriptors included “meaty,” “prosciutto,” and “dried rose petal.”  With entries from across the globe, the Harvest Challenge bases judging on a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions and grapes that combine to give personality to the wine.  In other competitions, this terroir is ignored. At the Harvest Challen

Afternoon Brief: Wine Market Council Tackles Domestic Wine Industry's Current Setbacks

This past April 2 at the 2025 Wine Market Council (WMC) Annual Research Conference and Members Meeting, held in the City of Napa, there were some illuminating discussions on the overall state of the American wine industry...

Afternoon Brief: New Study Shows Pierce’s Disease Investment Saves Winegrape Growers $56 Million Annually

According to a study released today, the California Department of Food and Agricultures Pierces disease (PD) and glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS) prevention, control and research efforts save California winegrape growers $56 million annually by reducing losses from the fatal grapevine disease...

Today's #winebiz news for #wineindustry professionals...  Finally, Some Good News About Smoke Taint Smoke taint is a scourge that can ruin a harvest. But as Jeff Siegel discovers, research has unlocked some answers...

JUNE 28, 2024 – Winners have been announced in the 17th annual Women’s International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWWSC). The competition, which took place June 10-12 in Santa Rosa, Calif., was founded on the premise that the majority of wine purchased for home consumption is bought by women. The IWWSC judging panels consist entirely of professional women in the wine and spirits industries — winemakers, distillers, marketers, buyers, sommeliers, educators and journalists.  “As always, the International Women’s Wine & Spirits Competition shined a spotlight on hundreds of deserving wines,” says Debra Del Fiorentino, owner of Wine Competitions Management & Production, which organizes and presents IWWSC. “And even though entry is open to all winemakers regardless of gender, I found it gratifying that six of this year’s sweepstakes wines were created by women. And our overall wine winner also was named Best Woman Winemaker

Afternoon Brief, March 18th

Founding Winemaker James Hall Buys Back Patz & Hall from Ste. Michelle Wine Estates: James Hall, the founding partner and winemaker, has repurchased Patz & Hall winery from Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, which has owned the winery since 2016...

Afternoon Brief, January 31st

Washington the Winner in Bad Wine Year: Each year, when many of Sonoma County’s 1,800 certified sustainable winegrape growers gather for the Sonoma County Winegrowers’ (SCW) annual meeting, they want to know what is next for one of the world’s most sustainable winegrowing regions. Today, they learned the answer to their question...