Judge Rya Zobel of the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts yesterday signed a remedy order that declares a section of the law that discriminates against wineries by size, a capacity cap, as unconstitutional and unenforceable. The order allows wineries of any size to apply for what used to be the "small winery" permit.   [read more]

New brands are flooding the retail market. According to research from The Nielsen Company, there have been over 3,300 new brand introductions into U.S. food stores since 1999. Unsurprisingly, not all new brands have been successful. Of those 3,300 introductions, about 2,800 survive--accounting for 70 percent of the brands available in the food store channel today.   [read more]

Results from Wine Business Monthly's second annual Tasting Room Survey indicate that tasting rooms continue to be the most important profit centers for wineries. As brand competition intensifies, wineries, more than ever, are seeing the importance of attracting and holding onto loyal patrons, and are thus turning a critical eye toward maximizing every opportunity inside their tasting rooms.   [read more]

(Left to Right): Leslie Miller, Bob Subaie and Jim Lara   [read more]

Captûre, a wine estate in Alexander Valley, hired Benjamin Sharp as its founding president and CEO. Captûre is creating a portfolio of Bordeaux-styled wines, with grapes sourced from a vineyard 2,000 feet above the Alexander Valley floor in Sonoma County. Sharp was formerly an executiv...   [read more]

In what is probably the largest round of financing raised by a company focused on Internet wine sales since the dot-com bust of a few years ago, Inertia Beverage Group (IBG), which provides an integrated sales and marketing platform for wineries conducting direct-to-consumer and direct-to-trade wine sales, raised $8 million in new equity capital through a Series B financing led by Allegis Capital ...   [read more]