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24 WINES&VINES September 2016 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS focus on his own brand, Maloney, and consulting. Abacela hires vineyard manager Chris Lake is the new man- ager of Abacela winery's Fault Line Vineyards. Lake earned his bachelor of sci- ence degree in plant sci- ence from California State University, Fresno, in 1993 and has more than 20 years of wine industry experience. Lake joins Abacela in Rose- burg, Ore., from Umpqua Community College, where he oversaw the Southern Oregon Wine Institute for eight years. Lake will work with the winery's owners, Earl and Hilda Jones, as well as head winemaker Andrew Wenzl and assistant winemaker Ryan Dudley. Oregon Wine Board launches web resource The Oregon Wine Board in Portland launched a new "web-based sales and train- ing resource" for members of the state's wine industry. The Oregon Wine Resource Studio is a website con- taining information and materials for wineries to use while educating consum- ers, making sales pitches or training staff about Oregon wine. The materials on the site fall under a Creative Commons license, which means they can be "shared freely and customized" with attribution. CENTRAL New AVA in Michigan The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) established the 2,760-square-mile "Tip of the Mitt" AVA in the northern portion of Michigan's Lower Peninsula in late July. The new AVA includes 41 vine- yards covering 94 acres, eight wineries with an addi- tional 48 acres of vines and four new wineries planned to open. Members of the Straits Area Grape Growers submitted the petition to or- ganize the new appellation, which is bordered by Grand Traverse Bay, Little Traverse Bay and Lake Michigan to the west, the Straits of Mackinac to the north and Lake Huron to the east. St. James wins Governor's Cup St. James Winery in St. James, Mo., won the 2016 Governor's Cup, which is the top honor of the annual Missouri Wine Competi- tion. Judges reviewed 308 wine entries from across the state and named the 2015 Vignoles from St. James the best wine in the state. Noboleis Vineyards in Augusta, Mo., won the CV Riley Award for best Norton wine. 25th Indy International contest The 2013 Charles Wetmore Cabernet Sauvignon by Wente Vineyards in Liver- more, Calif., earned Wine of the Year honors at the 25th annual Indy International Wine Competition held Aug. 3-4 at Purdue Uni- versity in West Lafayette, Ind. The contest drew more than 2,000 wines that were evaluated by a panel of 52 judges. Trinchero Family Estates in St. Helena, Calif., won Winery of the Year, and Gehringer Brothers Estate Winery in Oliver, B.C., (Can- ada) won winemaker of the year for winning the most gold medals in the com- petition. Oliver Winery in Bloomington, Ind., won the Governor's Cup for being the Indiana winery with the most medals, and the Indi- ana Wine of the Year award went to Huber's Orchard and Winery in Borden, Ind., for its 2015 Vignoles. EAST Mountain View plans new winery Linda and Randy Rice, owners of Mountain View Vineyard, Winery & Distillery in Stroudsburg, Pa., an- nounced plans to break ground on a new winery Sept. 1. The couple opened the winery in 2009 and added the distillery a few years later. Annual produc- tion is around 1,000 cases. The new facility will be located on a 90-acre farm and enable the company to book more events and weddings. The winery is a member of the Pocono Wine Trail, which is now comprised of eight winery members. Georgia Winery to expand The owners of Georgia Winery in Ringgold, Ga., announced on the winery's website that they had purchased new tanks to expand production in light of additional distribution in grocery stores in Ten- nessee. The winery has installed 10 3,000-gallon tanks and four 6,500-gal- lon tanks, and more are expected to double pro- duction capacity by the end of the year. A new winery is also planned for 2017. The family-owned winery, founded in 1983 by Maurice Rawlings, produces sweet wines from estate and purchased Muscadine grapes as well as dry wines with vinifera grapes from California and Washington. The winery currently produces around 12,000 cases per year, ac- cording to the Wines Vines Analytics winery database. SUPPLIER Winebow Group acquires Henry Wine Group The Winebow Group, a national importer and dis- tributor of wine and spirits based in Richmond, Va., announced its acquisition of The Henry Wine Group in Benicia, Calif. The two firms plan to merge operations in California and operate there as The Henry Wine Group. The Winebow Group is also acquiring Zephyr Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Henry Wine Group, which operates a statewide logistics network to man- age the storage and de- livery of wine in California. Ed Hogan, who joined The Henry Wine Group in 2012 as president and CEO, will stay on with the company to manage day-to-day operations. Chatterbox appoints new COO Chatterbox Wine Marketing Services in Napa, Calif., appointed Mike DiNapoli to the post of chief operat- ing officer. DiNapoli will oversee all operational and administrative functions for Chatterbox while working closely with founder and CEO Mark Pope. DiNapoli has more than 25 years of experience in the financial sector including nearly a decade in the wine industry. ACME buys VinoVisit ACME Technologies in San Francisco, Calif., acquired wine tasting room reserva- tion service VinoVisit, which is based in Napa, Calif. ACME, which provides ticketing, back office and CRM services for events, will take over operations for VinoVisit and begin offering existing winery clients its enterprise cloud platform for customer engagement through front desk, web, mobile, group sales, call center, membership, edu- cation and retail sales. Dan Lintz is the ACME general manager of winery business and the founder and former CEO of VinoVisit. Smart to consult for Agrothermal Dr. Richard Smart, author of Sunlight into Wine, has joined Walnut Creek, Calif.- based Agrothermal Systems as a consultant to further develop the company's Thermaculture process of treating vines with hot air. Smart is a regular contribu- tor to the Practical Winery& Vineyard section published inside Wines & Vines, the author of hundreds of academic articles and holds two doctorate degrees. "The effect of hot air movement through the canopy appears to have significant effects on both disease control and flowering and fruit develop- ment as the company has seen in numerous trials," Smart said in a statement released by Agrothermal. Correction: Materra | Cunat article The table on page 52 of the Technical Spotlight article in the August issue contained two errors. The firm that pro- vided glycol and tank heat- ing and chilling for the new winery of Materra | Cunat Family Vineyards should have been stated as Re- frigeration Technology Inc. (rti2000.com). Also, the win- ery's humidity is monitored and controlled by Refrigera- tion Technology Inc. Another supplier was listed incor- rectly for this equipment. Dr. Richard Smart Linda & Randy Rice