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36 W i n e s & V i n e s D e C e M b e r 2 0 1 4 B uilding on the popularity of features introduced in 2014, the Program Development Com- mittee for the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium has once again planned a keynote lun- cheon and guided tours of the trade show floor when Unified revisits Sacramento, Calif., in 2015. The event scheduled for Jan. 27-29 is expected to draw at least 14,000 attendees, making it the largest wine and grape trade show in North America and the largest event Sacramento hosts each year. Tom Collins, chair of the Program Develop- ment Committee, told Wines & Vines, "We're trying to focus on making sure that we have great takeaway, take-home messages that you can use when you get back to your winery, vineyard or other operation." Collins has ample experience putting such bits of wisdom to good use. He served in winemaking and research roles for Treasury Wine Estates, Lange Twins Winery & Vineyards, Foster's Wine Estates and Constellation Wines before being named director of research at the Food Safety and Measurement Facility at the University of California, Davis. Keynote speaker and business operations Jackson Family Wines president Rick Tigner was named speaker for the keynote lun- cheon first launched in 2014. (The inaugu- ral speaker was Jerry Baldwin, former owner of Peet's Coffee and co-founder of Starbucks.) Tigner owns an 80-acre vineyard, makes his own wine and worked at Miller Brewing Co., Gallo and Louis M. Martini before joining Kendall-Jackson in 1991. The committees that run the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium wanted to hear from an influential wine industry leader, Collins told Wines & Vines, "to get their take on where the industry is going, talk about innovation and different issues that are coming up." Organizers of Unified, which is sponsored by the American Soci- ety for Enology & Viticulture and the Cali- fornia Association of Winegrape Growers, hope the keynote will draw attendees to Sacramento on Tuesday (Jan. 27), before the trade show opens Wednesday (Jan. 28). Tigner was named president of Jackson Family Wines, which has more than 30 wine brands spanning four continents, in March 2011. (The corporation disclosed a succession plan shortly before the death of founder Jess Jackson in April 2011.) Succession planning will be a key ele- ment in another Jan. 27 presentation likely to attract wine industry stakeholders: a business and operations session called Pre- paring Your Wine Business for a Transition or Sale. One of the speakers, Vino Farms president John Ledbetter, will share his experience drawing up a succession plan for his family's multi-generational business. "Succession planning is just as important as estate planning," Ledbetter told Wines & Vines during an interview about the Unified program. "I don't think it's ever too early to start." For those worried about broaching dif- ficult topics such as death and illness, Led- better has a warning: "The government has a plan for you" if you don't have your own succession plan in place. "You're not going to like it, and your family is not going to like it," he says of estate tax law. "It's just as important to plan for who is going to run the business as who is going to own the business," he added. Pete Seghesio is another speaker on the panel. His grandparents, Italian immigrants Edoardo and Angela Seghesio, crushed the first grapes from their Sonoma County vineyard in 1902, and Seghesio Family Vineyards stayed in the family until 2011, when it was sold to Crimson Wine Group. The large number of family members with a stake in the winery contributed to the sale. At the Wine Industry Financial Symposium in 2011 Seghesio said, "We have 11 owners in this generation and would have 30 in the next. Some family members wanted to cash out, and I didn't want to take on the debt to buy them out." Winemaking and grapegrowing Running concurrently with the transition or sale forum, Garnet Vineyards wine- maker Alison Crowe will be moderating a panel discussion and tasting with an emphasis on producing lower Brix grapes that make balanced, high-quality wines that have lower alcohol levels. The panel will include a tasting of what Crowe called "wines that are making a bid to answer the global demand for moderate New Traditions at Unified 2015 Organizers book Kendall-Jackson president for keynote, bring back tours and Spanish-language sessions By Kate Lavin U N I F I E D P R E V I E W Attendees at the 2014 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium participate in a guided tour of trade show exhibits specific to grapegrowing. Similar tours will be offered on the afternoon of Jan. 29. photos by ken freeze VIEW VIDEO: tom Collins, program chair for the Unified Wine & Grape symposium, reveals what's in store for the annual event in sacramento, Calif. U N I F I E D P R E V I E W