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UNIFIED PREVIEW red blotch grapes will agree to join the panel as well. Crowe said she also hopes to give Unified attendees a "take home tool box" on how to identify red blotch and deal with it when the grapes arrive on the crush pad. As researchers learn more about the disease including what causes it and what spreads it, people in winemaking and grapegrowing need good information on dealing with the sickness. "I don't think it's a panic situation," she said. "This is a longer term play, I think it's going to be identifying it, targeted replacement and vineyard rehabilitation." This year's schedule also includes a variety of sessions on marketing, making more informed financial and business decisions and seeking out innovative ways to overcome challenges. "Essentially anybody from a company that attends should have something relevant for their day-to-day operations," Frey said. Michael Veseth is an economics professor at the University of Puget Sound and the author of "The Wine Economist" blog. Veseth participated in some of the sessions at Unified 2013 and will be moderating a session and sitting on the panel for the State of the Industry session Jan. 29. He told Wines & Vines that he'll be taking a look at how recent vintage variation in the world's winegrowing regions (good in California, bad in France) may affect bulk shipments, and he also may touch on U.S. opportunities in the export sector. "We keep waiting for the dollar to fall, which would give us a better chance for exports, but it just hasn't done it," he said. On Jan. 28 Veseth will moderate a session in which a panel of experts will offer tips about how winemakers, vineyard managers and winery owners could use data and financial analysis to make better business decisions. He said winemakers and growers can typically offer a wealth of data on things like degree-days, grape maturity and wine analysis but can struggle in other areas of the wine business. "I think there are parts of the wine business where there is a great attention to detail and benchmarking," he said. "But there are other areas where it's not as vigorous." The Spanish sessions will include an overview of wine and winemaking in Spanishspeaking cultures as well as a practical look at the growth and ripening stages of grapes. Laura Diaz Munoz, the winemaker for Jackson Family Wines' Galerie, Cardinale, Lokoya and La Jota will discuss the wines and winemaking practices of Spain while other speakers, yet to be confirmed, will delve into the wines of Chile and Argentina. The growing session will cover the basics of grape ripening including physiological and chemical changes that occur during ripening and how the weather and vineyard practices can affect grape maturity. Unified wraps up on the afternoon of Jan. 30, with sessions about packaging and innovation. The packaging session will cover how packaging can make a product more attractive to consumers and what are some of the legal issues with packaging design and what the future may hold for how wine is packaged and marketed. At the same time Thursday, another session will explore how innovation and technology can spur explosive growth for a company. The panel includes Patrick DeLong, the COO and CFO of the Crimson Wine Group in Napa, John Denzel, the CEO of FlowVision, a firm specializing in lean manufacturing and flow manufacturing, Kurt Gollnick, COO of Scheid Vineyards Inc. in Salinas, Calif., and Kevin Zollinger, the executive vice president of wine growing operations at Wente Family Estates in Livermore, Calif. Win es & Vin es D EC EM b er 20 13 45