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JANUARY NEWS Wine Recruiting Hints at Booming 2014 Wine Fraud Conviction Brings Faux to the Fore November Winejobs.com Index 2007-13 150 Winejobs.com Index Sonoma, Calif.—Those familiar with the Index of Winery Job Postings created by Winejobs.com view its monthly data releases as barometers of what is to come for the wine industry. In August 2008 the index correctly predicted when the global economic downturn would hit the sector; in November 2013 the index reached the highest seasonal numbers in five years. The index, tallied from job postings at winejobs.com, in November was up 52% over the same month in 2012, especially notable because wine industry hiring tends to fall off after harvest and the tourist season end. "I think the industry in general is pretty healthy, because we are seeing (at least in off-premise sales) 7% growth, and it's been going up like that for a while," said Eric Jorgensen, president and publisher of Winejobs.com and Wine Business Monthly. "Most people are optimistic and continuing to hire." Jorgensen specified that wineries seem to be recruiting for more direct-to-consumer (DtC) positions, with wine club managers, tasting room staff and e-commerce experts in most demand. According to the Index of Winery Job Postings, positions in the DtC, tasting room and retail segment are up 84% over the past year. Cypress Group partner Courtney Andrain has seen the uptick in demand for DtC staffers firsthand. The Napa, Calif.-based wine industry recruiter said winer- 120 n DtC, tasting room and retail n Total 90 60 30 0 20072008200920102011 20122013 Source: Winejobs.com ies of all sizes are investing in this lucrative area, with the DtC channel growing 8% in the previous 12 months, according to Wines Vines Analytics. "I think everybody is really up and optimistic about the future in what continues to be a super-competitive space," Andrain said. Hank Teahen, owner of wine industry recruiting firm the Teahen Group, predicted 2014 was going to be a very strong year for personnel management. "If the premise is that hiring falls off after harvest, I see just the opposite. Our dance card is pretty full already for January and February," Teahen told Wines & Vines. —KATE LAVIN but the Kurniawan trial and Bill Koch's successful lawsuit against wine collector Eric Greenberg provide further evidence that counterfeits are circulating in the United States. "We need to feel the responsibility to provide crediSan Rafael, Calif.—The Dec. 18 fraud conviction of ble and reliable bottles that can be authenticated," Rudy Kurniawan for selling counterfeit wines centered said David Pearson, CEO of Opus One in Oakville, Calif. around old and rare bottles of French wine including Opus One now uses NFC chips and tamper-proof capDomaine de la Romanée-Conti and Chateau Latour. Yet sules to authenticate its $190 wine bottles. the trial in New York, N.Y., and a potential sentence of Pearson told Wines & Vines that the ramifications of up to 40 years in prison for the 37-year-old Indonesian counterfeiting now affect the entire industry. He credwine collector, may serve as a wake-up call for the makited wine appraiser Maureen Downey with the observaers and sellers of collectible U.S. wine, too. tion that the Kurniawan case is not just a curiosity. "He Prosecutors presented evidence collected at Kurniraised the high end of pricing in the wine industry, and awan's residence that included corks, labels and botthat pulls up the lower end, too," Pearson said. tles that he allegedly used to concoct counterfeit rare Wine auctioneer and former estate manager of Screamwines and sell them, Wine Spectator and others ing Eagle winery in Napa Valley, Ursula Hermacinski said, reported. In 2006 an auction of Kurniawan's wines "We know there's a small handful of California labels that sold for $24.7 million. In 2008 several bottles of rare are under fire. I have personal experience of seeing a Burgundy from him were withdrawn from an aucScreaming Eagle counterfeit from the Asian market." tion on suspicion that they were fakes, and Jack Daniels, co-founder of Wilson-Daniels, civil and criminal cases were subsewhich imports Domaine de la Romanéequently brought against him. Conti, predicted that anti-counterfeit Counterfeit wines are a growing conmeasures by winery producers would cern worldwide. Much of the attenhave an effect: "As more and more tion centers on fraudulent sales in wineries take protective measures, China and other parts of Asia (see the counterfeiters will go to the Wines & Vines cover story "Brands ones that haven't." Opus One uses tamper-proof capsules. at Risk" in the August 2013 issue), —JIM GORDON other top stories Courts stalled two vineyard planting projects in Sonoma County, Calif. A judge withheld approval on Artesa Vineyards & Winery's environmental review to plant vines on 154 acres it owns on the Sonoma Coast. Another lawsuit aims to stop vintner Paul Hobbs' vineyard conversion involving 48 acres. A Farm Bill was still pending at press time after Congress failed to pass a new five-year bill in 2013. Wrangling over the cost of federal food stamps means growers will have to wait and hope crop insurance and specialty crop funding is passed in 2014. DNA analysis could identify terroir, according to an intriguing study at the University of California, Davis. Using advanced DNA analysis, a team of researchers found significant variation and patterns in the microbial populations of must collected throughout California over two years. An early winter freeze worried growers after temperatures plunged to record lows across much of the western United States and Canada (see page 18). The California Association of Winegrape Growers and the Wine Institute argued to the Food and Drug Administration that wine grapes should be exempt from certain provisions of a 2011 federal food safety law. Red blotch disease continued to worry grape growers across the United States and Canada. Dr. Marc Fuchs of Cornell University said the disease "can dramatically affect quality" (see page 24). Latest NEWs More detail on the news at: winesandvines.com Win es & Vin e s JA N UA RY 20 14 17