Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/573907
24 WINES&VINES October 2015 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS In addition, Paumanok Vineyards from Long Is- land's North Fork won the Winery of the Year award. SUPPLIER NEWS Tapp expands executive team, plans Paso facility Tapp Label expanded its executive leadership team and broke ground on a new facility in Paso Ro- bles, Calif. The company hired Vinod Sharma as its vice president of sales and Dawn Moreci as vice presi- dent of human relations. Tapp expects to open a new label-printing facility in Paso Robles, Calif., this winter. WECO donates optical sorter to WSU WECO Sorting and Au- tomation of Woodland, Calif., donated a new, optical wine grape sorting machine worth $71,500 to the new Ste. Michelle Wine Estates Wine Science Cen- ter at the Washington State University Tri-Cities cam- pus in Richland, Wash. The sorter uses advanced cam- eras and software technol- ogy to identify remaining stems, insects, unripe and damaged fruit as well as raisins. Unwanted items are removed with precise blasts of air. WSU staff and students will use the sort- ing table in trials of how crush pad processes affect wine quality. Zepponi hires senior vice president Kevin O'Brien joined mergers and acquisi- tions firm Zepponi & Co. in Santa Rosa, Calif., as senior vice president in charge of project manage- ment and market analysis. Prior to joining Zepponi & Co., O'Brien was the direc- tor of business advisory at Irvine & Co., a beverage al- cohol accounting and con- sulting firm in the Pacific Northwest. O'Brien worked with numerous winery, brewery and distillery clients on corporate advi- sory matters. Savos purchases WineDirect Compliance Savos Compliance, the Boston-based parent company of ShipCompli- ant, has acquired WineDi- rect's compliance division. ShipCompliant has taken over the operation of the WineDirect Compliance platform, and clients that are currently using it either directly or through a subscription to Vin65 Plus can continue to use the tool without interrup- tion. Wineries using Win- eDirect Compliance now have the option of creating an account on the Ship- Compliant platform. M.A. Silva hires Northwest rep Barbara Robertson is Santa Rosa, Calif.-based M.A. Silva's new account manager for the Pacific Northwest region. Robert- son lives in Washington state and has worked as a marketing consultant, par- ticipates as a judge in the North Central Washington Wine Awards competi- tion and is a regular guest on local radio as the "ag alchemist." CORRECTIONS On page 40 of the August issue, an article about cork closures was incorrect in conveying winemaker Dave Ramey's observation about the relative prices of natural cork and DIAM agglomer- ated cork closures. The article should have stated that Ramey said his cost for a relatively large quantity of DIAM closures was about 50% less than what he pre- viously paid for the natural corks he was using. The photo caption for an image that accompanied a Regional News item on page 26 in the September issue identified the wrong person as Nick Compton who was recently pro- moted to the post of assis- tant winemaker at Eberle Winery in Paso Robles, Calif. Compton (on the right) is seen here with winemaker Chris Eberle, no relation to winery founders Gary and Marcy Eberle. C O M E T O G E T H E R One place. One time. All the answers! January 26–28, 2016 exhibits: January 27 & 28 Sacramento Convention Center Sacramento, California Registration and Housing open in October. Check our website for details as they become available. unifedsymposium.org b y t h e i n d u s t r y f o r t h e i n d u s t r y