Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/816747
8 WINES&VINES May 2017 A member of Wine Communications Group Inc. President & Publisher Chet Klingensmith Chairman Hugh Tietjen Publishing Consultant Ken Koppel Associate Publisher Tina Vierra Publishing Assistant Tiffany Maxwell Special Projects & Events Coordinator Johanna Rupp EDITORIAL Editor Jim Gordon Managing Editor Kate Lavin Senior Editor Andrew Adams Senior Correspondent Paul Franson Contributing Editor Jane Firstenfeld Northwest Correspondent Peter Mitham Columnists Grapegrowing: Cliff Ohmart and Glenn T. McGourty Contributing Writers Laurie Daniel, Richard Smart, Richard Carey, Chris Stamp, Andrew Reynolds, Craig Root, Ray Pompilio, Andy Starr, Fritz Westover Practical Winery & Vineyard (PWV) Editor Don Neel Wine East Editor Linda Jones McKee DESIGN & PRODUCTION Graphic Designer Rebecca Arnn DATABASE DEVELOPMENT – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Vice President — Data Management Lynne Skinner Project Manager Liesl Stevenson Database & Web Development James Rust, Peter Scarborough EDITOR'S LETTER APRIL SHOWERS ARE SUPPOSED TO BRING MAY FLOWERS, but around here April showers bring the annual May Packaging Issue. This year the issue is easily as colorful as a bunch of roses, starting with the cover story by contributing editor Jane Firstenfeld (page 42) that shows how wineries are using packaging to enhance the look, quality and sales of their rosé wines. Three other articles also address packaging in one form or another. Winemaking columnist Andy Starr (page 34) writes about several entrepreneurial companies in California that help winemakers do small-lot custom packaging and try out alternative packaging methods without a big capital expenditure by the winery. Companies as small as The Can Van in San Francisco and as large as G-3 in Modesto have specialty services to get wines into cans, boxes, single-serve Zipz and one-way kegs, in addition to doing mobile bottling of lots as small as two barrels. The winemaker Q&A this month features Fetzer Vineyards' director of production, James Sobbizadeh, who in a long career has faced practically every packag- ing challenge that exists. Writer Laurie Daniel got him to share his insights (page 52) on using corks and screw- caps, bags-in-box, kegs, innovative labels and 187 ml PET bottles. Bottling equipment brings wine packaging together for the finished product, but what does it take to bring the bottling equipment together? The answer is financing, the subject of Jeff Clark's article (page 58) that weighs the benefits of owning your own bottling line versus using mobile bottling, then explains how lenders work with wineries to purchase the equipment, if they decide to go all in. The Top Stories section of the magazine (page 14) covers a flurry of acquisitions by wine companies in the first three months of 2017, looking especially at the purchase of Napa Valley's large and coveted Stagecoach Vineyard by E. & J. Gallo Winery. That deal was worth $180 million for the real estate and tops a list of vineyard and winery assets up and down the West Coast that Gallo has added in recent years. Rain is in the forecast (again) for tonight as I write this letter in mid-April, and any doubts about the end of California's years-long statewide drought are now in the rearview mirror. So the first thing on the minds of vineyard owners and managers is basically: Hooray! The next thing is: How am I going to clean up and dry out my vineyards for the growing season? California extension advisor Glenn McGourty deals with that challenge in his Grounded Grapegrowing column on page 38, providing a checklist of to-do items for growers. A pair of articles by senior editor Andrew Adams (page 66) make the case that machines will be handling vineyard challenges more and more in the near future and that the "no-touch" vineyard is not as far-fetched as it sounds. The transition appears to be accelerating due to a shortage of low-cost labor and substantial improve- ments in machine harvesting, sorting, pruning and tilling equipment. In contrast, the importance of people in the winery is emphasized by Pennsylvania extension enology associate Denise Gardner, who on page 76 writes about a program created to teach new winemakers about wine flaws that ended up aiding their careers in many other ways, too. That wraps up our package for the month. All of us at Wines & Vines wish you a warm, moderately dry growing season that will lead to a great harvest in the fall. —Jim Gordon Wineries are using packaging to enhance the look, quality and sales of their rosé wines. CONTACT US SUBSCRIPTIONS Email: subs@winesandvines.com Online: winesandvines.com/subscribe Phone: (866) 453-9701 EDITORIAL Email: edit@winesandvines.com MAIL 65 Mitchell Blvd., Suite A San Rafael, CA 94903 CONNECT WITH US facebook.com/WinesandVines twitter.com/WinesandVines youtube.com/WinesandVines1919 The Packaging Issue, Big Deals and Vineyard Mechanization