Last week’s Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento, following a Covid-induced hiatus the past couple years, felt almost like a rebirth of our industry, and the excitement was palpable. Sponsored and organized by the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) and the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV), this year’s 29th edition of … Read more

This week I attended the annual meeting of the National Grape Research Alliance (NGRA), a great organization which WineAmerica supports, in Sacramento.  Last week I judged hundreds of wines in Cloverdale, CA at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the nation’s largest with over 5,500 entries. In December, I delivered an opening keynote address titled, … Read more

Arkansas wine? Yes indeed. Wine is produced and consumed in all 50 states, and we will highlight the economic impact in each one over the course of this year. Remember: The total impact in each state combines the Direct, Supplier, and Induced levels reaching from vineyards to local communities, so even a small wine-producing state … Read more

Welcome Back, Congress! We’re now officially into a new Congressional year, and with a new balance of power. The Senate returned to Washington to be sworn in on January 3, then immediately recessed until next Monday the 23rd. The House actually spent two weeks in DC, mostly consumed with electing a Speaker (Kevin McCarthy, R-CA), … Read more