North Bay Business Journal

Legislature approves Sonoma County conjunctive labeling law

SONOMA COUNTY — The California Legislature today unanimously approved a conjunctive-labeling bill that would require wines bearing the names of any of Sonoma County’s 13 designated winegrowing regions to also carry the county name as prominently on the bottle.

On Monday the state Senate voted 36-0 in favor of Assembly Bill 1798, penned by Assemblymembers Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, and state Senators Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and Patricia Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa. The Assembly passed it today with a 74-0 vote. Now, the bill goes to the governor’s desk for signature.

Sonoma County wine labeling effort advances

SONOMA COUNTY — A bid to make the Sonoma County name a standard descriptive feature on all wines made from grapes grown in its winegrowing regions, called conjunctive labeling, reached a significant stage today as grower and winery trade groups reached consensus to back state legislation this year to make it happen.

Leaders of Sonoma County Vintners,

Report says ‘flight to value’ to continue for wine consumers

NORTH COAST — This year is shaping up to be another challenging one for the wine industry on the North Coast as signs of recovery in the U.S. economy and consumer spending slowly take hold, according to an economic report released today.

Wine: TastingRoom fills startup tiny-bottle portfolio with 50-plus wineries

Just months after launch, Santa Rosa-based TastingRoom already has nearly 50 wineries lined up to repackage their wines in 50-milliliter bottles that allow remote sampling of their wines. … Tonnelerie Saury, which produces the Leroi and Erable brands, merged with French barrel stave maker Groupe Charlois. All 6,700 cubic meters of staves Charlois produces will go to Saury brands, instead of the 70 percent usage currently. … Presidents of the various American Viticultural Areas in Sonoma County plan to meet April 27 to decide whether to support Sonoma County vintners’ proposal for conjunctive labeling, which would require wines made in nested or subappellations to also carry the name of Sonoma County as the origin of most of the grapes in the wine, according to Nick Frey, president of the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission. … Napa-based direct-to-consumer wine sales training program WISE Academy (www.wineindustry
saleseducation.com) is launching two new courses. … Twenty years after buying 4,000 acres of land on Mt. George in Napa Valley and planting 75 acres of it, Kenzo Tsujimoto, chairman of the Japanese gaming giant Capcom Group, plans to open his Kenzo Estate winery on Monticello Road on May 1.

Winery group seeks ‘Sonoma Co.’ label law

SANTA ROSA – The Sonoma County Vintners trade group on Jan. 20 started a campaign to get state legislation that would require labels mentioning any viticultural area within the county to also include “Sonoma County.”