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November 2018 WINES&VINES 23 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS early 2019, Fawcett will return to the industry in his new role as "chief wine evangelist" for Black Hills' parent company, Andrew Peller Ltd. (APL). Day-to-day operations of Black Hills will be managed by the team members running the respective vineyard, winemaking, estate and marketing operations of the business, while reporting to and working with the management team of APL. CENTRAL BRIT and FIVS sign agreement The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) signed a cooperative agreement with the Paris-based group FIVS, which is focused on the overall sustainability of the global beverage industry. The two organizations have worked collaboratively for many years to advance the wine industry's sustainability goals, and the agree- ment is intended to enhance the efficacy of these joint activities. Among those activities includes FIVS involvement in enhancing BRIT's International Award of Ex- cellence in Sustainable Winegrow- ing and increasing the visibility of FIVS Principles in this area. EAST Opici Distributing founder dies Hubert Opici, founder of Opici Family Distributing, which rated No. 9 in Wines Vines Analytic's top ten U.S. wine distributors re- port, died Tuesday, Sept. 11. He was 102. He's been recognized as a wine industry icon, named "American Wine Legend" by Wine Enthusiast magazine in 2014. Opici is survived by his daughter Linda Opici, along with two grandchil- dren and four great-grandchildren. SUPPLIER Parramon: 25 million corks sold, no TCA Since launching its Protocol Zero program two years ago, Cata- lonian cork producer Parramon claims to have sold more than 25 million corks without any returns due to TCA. According to a press release by the company, to ensure its corks are TCA free, Parramon controls every step of produc- tion from harvest to finished product. After corks go through the inspection process, they are hermetically sealed in Mylar bags and air freighted directly to the client. Parramon also claims to be the first cork manufacturer to use only LED "digital eye-laser probe" smart sorters to differentiate quali- ties of corks. " Process2Wine acquires Wine Management Systems Wine production and vineyard management software provider Process2Wine acquired San Rafael, Calif.-based Wine Man- agement Systems (WMS), which produces end-to-end software for all winery activities. Process2Wine is based in Penticton, British Co- lumbia and France and had started working with WMS to develop products for the U.S. market in January 2018. The collaboration evolved into an acquisition after positive feedback from WMS cli- ents about the new Process2Wine services, according to a statement by the two companies. Process- 2Wine provides a web-based system that it claims allows smaller wineries to use the same type of production management systems used by much larger companies such as GPS tracking of vineyard operations, smart phone data entry and barcode tracking. Hubert Opici