North Bay Business Journal

NAPA — The value of the 2012 winegrape crop in Napa County increased nearly 55 percent to $656.2 million from 2011, according to the final official tally released today for the record-setting season.

HEALDSBURG — Santa Rosa-based land surveying company Cinquini & Passarino has added a wine focus by merging in Howard Brunner’s 16-year-old surveying business in Healdsburg.

The record-sized winegrape harvest of 2012 hasn’t crushed demand building over the past year for wine producers to lock in fruit supplies and places to turn it into higher-end wines that have been enjoying a resurgence in sales.

Giancarlo Bianchetti is chief executive officer of Fetzer Vineyards and a director of Chile-based Viña Concha y Toro, which purchased Fetzer in 2011 for $263 million.

He will be the keynote speaker at the April 18 Wine Industry Conference presented by the Business Journal. He spoke to the Journal about the company’s interest in Fetzer and his role in the deal.

Wine companies largely are caught between escalating costs of production and mixed perceptions of how much of the rising costs the market for finished wine will bear. Those are among the topics five of the Bay Area’s innovative wine entrepreneurs are set to tackle at the Business Journal’s Wine Industry Conference on April 18.

They talked to the Business Journal about key drivers of cost and retail pricing, how they and markets are responding, and pricing impacts for exports and alternative sales channels.

2012 was a big year for wine-related property and brand transactions, and expectations are that 2013 also will be busy.

At the Business Journal’s Wine Industry Conference on April 18, five of the most active players are set to be part of a panel discussion on what’s happening and the potential for more: Peter Byck of Winery Exchange, Dennis Carroll of Sonoma Wine Co. and Purple Wine Co., Bill Foley of Foley Family Wines, Pat Roney of Vintage Wine Estates and Jeff Wesselkamper of Jackson Family Wines.

Assessing the value of a wine investment opportunity is the key to a good purchase.

The due-diligence process provides an opportunity for a buyer to identify an asset’s unseen potential — and possible pitfalls — in order to gain a better understanding of value.

HEALDSBURG — A maker of private-label and “custom-label” wines has filed for an initial public offering of stock to raise up to $43.5 million.

Sonoma County BEST (Building Economic Success Together) kicked off the “100 in 100″ effort on March 18. …

Petaluma Educational Foundation has been seeing increased activity in its TEC initiative, short for “Transforming Education in the Classroom.” …

Riley Flanagan, an eighth-grade student at Sonoma Country Day School, hosted a wine dinner in Healdsburg to benefit the the Community Child Care Council of Sonoma County (4Cs). …

Santa Rosa-based Zap said it is adding compressed natural gas power to its line of alternative-energy vehicles. …

Viña Perez Cruz appointed Sebastopol-based Paul Hobbs Imports as its U.S. importer. …

DAOU Vineyards and Winery of Paso Robles has retained Napa-based Wine Spoken Here. …

Santa Rosa-based Food & Wine Trails announced six new “wine shore adventures” for 2013. …

Growers are anticipating the 2013 Napa Valley winegrape season will begin with substantial emergence of vines from a winter nap in the last week of March, just ahead of the start of last year’s record crop, according to a major local trade group.

Enphase Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENPH) of Petaluma said its microinverters are available in Switzerland, the seventh European country for sales and installations. …

The Sutter Health network of doctors, hospitals and other health care service providers announced its financial performance for 2012. …

Adventist Health, which has a number of North Bay locations, will transition responsibility for its revenue-management services to Cerner Corp. …

Smart Meetings magazine, a Sausalito-based resource for meeting professionals, received five nominations for the 2013 Maggie Awards. …

Systema Software, a Larkspur-based provider of claims administration software and services to the insurance industry, and Instec, a provider of policy administration services and technology to the commercial property and casualty insurance industry, formed a strategic alliance to offer an integrated insurance platform. …

Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards of Windsor has been named the top wine in two categories of the 24th annual restaurant poll in the April issue of Wine & Spirits Magazine. …

GEYSERVILLE — Francis Ford Coppola Winery today confirmed it purchased the Geyser Peak winery facility and surrounding vines in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley winegrowing region to expand wine production.

Commercial real estate broker Burt Polson, who has operated ACRES Real Estate Services in Napa for two decades, is joining Strong & Hayden Commercial Real Estate. …

Stellar Energy, based in Rohnert Park, hired Chris Larsen as director of southeast project development. …

Kurt Hahn was honored for 15 years of service to Healdsburg District Hospital after he announced his retirement and resignation from the board. …

Chris Call recently joined the board of the Santa Rosa-based Climate Protection Campaign as treasurer. …

The California Parenting Institute board of directors welcomed five new board members. …

Sausalito-based Equilibrium named Pal Storehaug as its vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. …

Rack & Riddle, a Hopland winery and custom-crush facility, hired Raphael Brisbois as director of winemaking to lead the production of client and branded wines. …

Signorello Estate appointed Britny Sundin estate chef. …

Soutirage hired Master Sommelier Desmond Echavarrie as senior wine advisor. …

The Hess Collection, which has a winery in American Canyon, appointed Illinois-based Jeanne Jesse as north central regional sales manager. …

Cline Cellars and Jacuzzi Family Vineyards in Sonoma Valley named Robert Hawk as Great Lakes regional manager. …

The board of directors of the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission announced that Karissa Kruse will be its next president, replacing Nick Frey as he retires. …

The two largest wine label printing companies in the North Coast have been expanding through acquisition, organic growth and equipment upgrades in the past year and a half as sales of wine bottles have been accelerating.

Agavé Garden (agavegarden.com) is not grape wine, but it is fermented in local wine country and shipped in wine bottles. It’s not distilled like tequila, but it is made from organic syrup of Agavé tequilana weber, or blue agave. This “fine agavé wine” is the work of custom vintner Owl Ridge Wine Services of Sebastopol. …

Large-scale custom winemaking company The Vintners Group, which operates Carneros Vintners, purchased a 600,000-gallon winery it had been renting from the VinREIT division of Entertainment Properties Trust since the middle of last year. …

Karissa Kruse, who has been marketing director for Sonoma County Winegrape Commission since August and instrumental in the rollout of the Sonoma County branding campaign, is set be the 1,800-plus-member organization’s next president on May 1. She replaces Nick Frey. …

The anticipated Kendall-Jackson bistro and tasting lounge is coming to the Healdsburg plaza area around the end of this month. The 55-seat restaurant, called Partake by K-J (partakebykj.com), is set to open March 25 at 241 Healdsburg Ave. …

La Follette Wines (lafollettewines.com), launched in 2010 by Tandem creator Greg La Follette, is set to open a tasting room with private and public tasting events March 15–17 at The Barlow industrial-retail redevelopment in Sebastopol. …

The 17th annual Premiere Napa Valley charity auction by Napa Valley Vintners in late February took in $3.04 million, nearly matching last year’s record. …

A total of $483,500 in proceeds from the 2012 Sonoma Wine Country Weekend charity food and wine events. …

A 9-liter bottle of 2010 Williams Selyem Westside Road Neighbors pinot noir was auctioned for a Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo record $205,000. …

Imagine a year in which the San Francisco Giants don’t look that great, but to everyone’s surprise, they clinch their division, make it to the World Series — and win. Imagine that in the very same year the 49ers look pathetic then somehow get better, win their league and finally make it to the Super Bowl — and almost win. Combine all that baseball and football excitement, and you’d have the runup to the 2012 winegrape harvest Super World Bowl.

Winemakers often associate low yields with higher quality, but it doesn’t always work that way. The bounty of 2012, in contrast to that of 2005, came after two light harvests and when consumer demand was starting to revive. Most wineries were delighted to get the extra volume.

First Community Bank in January hired April Hines as chief financial officer and Jonathan Graves as vice president and commercial loan officer. …

Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors elected Rolf Nelson, senior vice president of Exchange Bank, as 2013 chairman-elect. …

Brent Ainsworth, editor of the Novato Patch community news website and a former Marin Independent Journal reporter and editor, will join the county of Marin as public information officer. …

To Celebrate Life Breast Cancer Foundation, a volunteer-based organization whose goal is to ensure that no one faces breast cancer alone, appointed Jeanne Capurro the new president of its board of directors, and Rebecca Spencer and Gerard Bourguignon, Ph.D., as new board members. …

W Property Management hired Donna Nordby as North Bay director of management and leasing. …

Luann Scally joined 5th Street Financial in July as the sales manager as well as a mortgage loan office. …

Joe Scaramella joined Santa Rosa-based 5th Street Financial and W Real Estate as business development officer. …

Cline Cellars and Jacuzzi Family Vineyards hired Robert Hawk as regional manager for the Great Lakes territory. …

State water-quality regulators this afternoon announced the withdrawal of a proposed conditional waiver program for vineyards in the Napa River and Sonoma Creek watersheds from state-set limits on erosion and plans to regulate vineyard water runoff under more general requirements.

SANTA ROSA — Sonoma County Winegrape Commission found the next leader for the 1,800-plus-member group in its recently hired marketing director, Karissa Kruse.

Spotlight on law firm managing partners, listed alphabetically by law firm name: Patrick Emery of Abbey, Weitzenberg, Warren & Emery, Wendy Whitson of Anderson, Zeigler, Disharoon, Gallagher & Gray, Michael Garcia of Beyers Costin, Arthur Curley of Bradley, Curley, Asiano, Barrabee & Gale, Alan Brayton of Brayton Purcell, John Mackie of Carle, Mackie, Power & Ross, Clay Clement of Clement, Fitzpatrick & Kenworthy, Cynthia Smith of Coombs & Dunlap, Scott Gerien of Dickenson, Peatman & Fogarty, Katherine Ohlandt of Farella Braun + Martel, Peter Kleinbrodt of Freitas, McCarthy, McMahon & Keating, John Friedemann of Friedemann Goldberg, Dave Gaw of Gaw Van Male, Michael Carlson of Geary, Shea, O’Donnell, Grattan & Mitchell, Andrew Giacomini of Hanson Bridgett, Jessica Karner of Keegin Harrison Schoppert Smith & Karner, Bill Arnone of Merrill, Arnone & Jones, Anne Hernandez of Mullen & Filippi, James Parrinello of Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor, Michael Watters of O’Brien Watters & Davis, James Sell of Parton Sell Rhoades, Leslie Perry of Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller & Moskowitz, David Feingold of Ragghianti Freitas, Glenn Smith of Smith Dollar, Gregory Spaulding of Spaulding McCullough & Tansil, and Michael Vasquez of Vasquez, Estrada & Conway.