On Wednesday, WineAmerica held its second Zoom listening session on Nutritional Information and Ingredient labeling, with superb presentations from Bennett Caplan of FIVS and Dale Stratton of the Wine Market Council.
There were more than 80 virtual registrants, and more than 100 others who tried to register but were refused because they are not members of WineAmerica. It is our members who allow us to protect and enhance the business climate for the American wine industry, and this is just one example of the exclusive benefits they receive from their investment. They are now educated about this important issue.
We will be continuing our series of members-only listening sessions, with one on upcoming EU labeling requirements, another on the legalities of direct shipment, and others later on. Our members will receive timely invitations to them all.
The 2023 DC Fly-In: An Unprecedented Success
WineAmerica’s recent two-day lobbying spree in Washington, DC was hugely successful, and will provide benefits for months to come through all the meetings that our members had with their Senators and Representatives. We also had a great meeting with the TTB’s top leadership team, along with some productive networking time. Here’s a link to an article describing it all.
Joining us for these meetings was Donnell Brown, President of the National Grape Research Alliance, which WineAmerica supports. Her assessment of the value:
“The WineAmerica National Policy Conference was an outstanding opportunity to meet with Congressional leaders who were not only receptive to but eager for input from their constituents. WineAmerica not only set up the meetings but also distilled priority issues into meaningful talking points for conference attendees to share. Having these small group meetings organized by a well-known leader representing wine policy concerns nationwide made a tremendous statement.”
WineAmerica members from throughout the country spread our priorities through Congress
Fred Frank Honored with Monteith Trophy
On May 19, Fred Frank was honored with the Perpetual Monteith Trophy Award for Exceptional Contributions to the American Wine Industry.
Bestowed by the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association, the award was presented at Chateau Frank high above Keuka Lake in New York’s Finger Lakes region by Steve Difrancesco, an ASWA Board member and retired winemaker.
Fred is the grandson of Dr. Konstantin Frank, who transformed the Finger Lakes and eastern wine industry by sparking the “vinifera revolution” starting in the late 1950’s. Fred is the family’s third generation committed to making “excellent wines”, with the fourth generation, his daughter Meaghan, now also carrying on the tradition.
Fred worked alongside his grandfather as a child, and pursued formal education and training at Cornell University in the Finger Lakes and Geisenheim Research Institute for Viticulture and Enology in West Germany. Following in the footsteps of Dr. Frank, and his son Willy (Fred’s father), Fred took over the family business in 1993. Dr. Frank was the first recipient of the Monteith Trophy, followed years later by Willy, and now Fred. Greatness runs in the family.
Not content to just continue business as usual, Fred recently purchased 60 acres of land on Seneca Lake for the cultivation of gruner veltliner, blaufrankisch, and other classic European varietals. He has also been very active in the American Wine Society, which Dr. Frank founded decades ago, and many other industry and academic organizations and causes.
Dr. Frank Winery, at the southern end of Keuka Lake, has always been a WineAmerica member, as has been the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association. The Monteith Trophy is one of the most elegant awards in the U.S. wine industry: weighing in at 123 ounces of pure sterling silver, with the bowl created in 1980 by Tiffany & Co.
The ASWA promotes wine produced in seventeen eastern states—all those that touch the ocean plus West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Vermont. It was founded in 1973 as the Vinifera Wine Growers Association, and renamed in 2008 to reflect an expanded regional focus.
