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22 WINES&VINES October 2015 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS CALIFORNIA Winemaking promotions at Quady Fortified wine producer Quady Winery in Madera is celebrating its 40th vintage in the San Joaquin Valley this year and announced Michael Blaylock has been promoted to the post of director of winemak- ing. Blaylock joined the winery as winemaker in 1984. Darin Peterson, who joined Quady in 2005, is now winemaker. Andrew Quady founded the winery in 1975 with 1,600 cases of Zinfandel Port, and an- nual production is now 80,000 cases of Moscato, vermouth, Port and sherry- style wines. Retired prof donates $250,000 to Cal Poly Paul Fountain, a retired viticulture and fruit science professor from California Polytechnic State Univer- sity in San Luis Obispo, has donated $250,000 to the university's Wine & Viti- culture Department to fund the replanting of Trestle Vineyard, its distressed teaching vineyard. Foun- tain earned a bachelor's degree in fruit science from Cal Poly in 1964 and was hired a year later as a pro- fessor in the Crop Science Department. During his tenure, he developed sev- eral vineyards on campus, including Trestle Vineyard, and served as head of the Crop Science Department before retiring in 2001. Management changes at Trefethen Jon Ruel is the new chief executive officer of Tre- fethen Family Vineyards in Napa, and Hailey and Loren Trefethen (members of the third generation of the founding family) are now vice presidents at the winery. Ruel joined the winery in 2004 as viticultur- ist and now assumes re- sponsibility for all aspects of the estate vineyard and winery. According to a winery statement announc- ing the promotions, Hailey Trefethen will continue to manage the winery's sustainability efforts and the restoration of the his- toric winery building that was damaged in the 2014 Napa earthquake. Loren Trefethen is raising aware- ness of the winery through a professional auto-racing career and helping to over- see winery finances. Peter Michael donates to SSU The Peter Michael Win- ery in Calistoga donated $300,000 to Sonoma State University's School of Business and Econom- ics to create The Peter Michael Winery Executive Classroom in the planned building that will house the university's Wine Business Institute on the Rohnert Park campus. Known as the Wine Spectator Learn- ing Center, the new home for the institute is expected to be complete in 2017. Russian River Partners acquire Platt Vineyard Eric Flanagan, owner of Flanagan Vineyards in Windsor and the invest- ment group Russian River Partners, purchased the Platt Vineyard in Sonoma County near Sebastopol. The vineyard is comprised of 17 acres of Pinot Noir, 13 acres of Chardonnay and 1.5 acres of Riesling. The new owners plan to continue to sell grapes to Littorai Wines, Ramey Wine Cellars, Radio-Co- teau, Scherrer Winery and Red Car Wine Co. Bloggers conference coming to Lodi The 2016 Wine Bloggers Conference will take place Aug. 11-14 in Lodi. The conference brings together citizen, industry and wine writing professionals for educational sessions, net- working and social events. Attendees will gather in downtown Lodi's Hutchins Street Square event center to spend four days im- mersed in educational Regional News HAVE FUN WITH COLORS Introducing customizable glass closures. T h e m o s t s t yl i s h c lo s u re i n t h e wo rld a l s o b e c a m e t h e m o s t c re at ive o n e . T h e n ew d e s i g n p o s s i b i l it ie s let you c re ate a c lo s u re t h at i s j u s t a s u n iq ue a s you r p ro duc t . S e e m o re at www.vinoseal.cz O f f i c i a l D i s t r i b uto r fo r N o r t h A m e r i c a UP-Vinoseal-Ad-2.indd 1 30.06.15 14:48 Jon Ruel (center) and Hai- ley and Loren Trefethen