North Bay Business Journal

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. …

ST. HELENA — Wine industry trade group Napa Valley Vintners today said it donated $1.275 million to community services for Napa County schoolchildren and college-goers.

The California State Association of Counties has elected Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo to serve as second vice president. …

Napa-based Attracta announced the addition of David Koston as chief technology officer. …

Seguin Moreau Napa Cooperage hired Marion Ghiringhelli to join its sales team, in a new position handling oak alternative products. …

After seven years with the Napa Valley Vintners, Terry Hall announced he is leaving to start his own communications, branding and event planning business called TH|ink. …

ST. HELENA — The total economic impact of Napa County’s grape and wine business last year was $13.3 billion inside the county line, $25.9 billion in California and more than $50 billion in the U.S., according to a study released today by a local trade group.

NAPA COUNTY — As planners in Napa County continue development of a strategy to address state-mandated reductions to greenhouse gas emissions, industry groups have expressed concern that a proposed local market for carbon credits will increase costs for developers and suppress new vineyard and agricultural projects in the region.

Novato-based ET Water Systems, Inc., which offers a range of traditional, retrofit and cloud-based irrigation management products for new and existing landscapes, announced the release of a suite of water budget tools that enable customers to monitor and manage water use in real-time, with graphs and analytics to communicate actionable, water saving data to stakeholders and stay within monthly water budget requirements.

Democrasoft, Inc. (OTCBB: DEMO), the Santa Rosa-based developer of the online Collaborize Classroom education software, announced the completion of a $500,000 interim funding private placement; most of the securities were sold to existing investors.

The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley founder and President, Tracy Hayward, announced the launch of a new warehouse program for local residents and businesses.

Shakespeare Napa Valley will present Twelfth Night, one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies set in the fantastical world of the “Wild Wild West,” free of charge in beautiful Veterans Memorial Park in Downtown Napa, July 20–29.

The Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center has been designated a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology.

Three outpatient clinical programs in Sutter Medical Network, Sutter Health’s physician network, were recognized for statewide best practices in the California Association of Physician Groups’ annual Standards of Excellence Survey of medical group features and capabilities.

Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s Live Well Be Well workplace-wellness program received platinum certification in the 2012 Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles awards presented by the National Business Group on Health.

HopMonk Tavern owner Dean Biersch has announced that Novato will be the home of his third craft beer-centric tavern with plans to open fall 2012.

Silverado Country Club, located at Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa, announced the availability of a limited number of memberships to individuals outside of the Silverado Community for the first time.

Cogenra Solar, a Mountain View-based provider of distributed solar cogeneration systems, announced its first dairy solar cogeneration system at the Clover Stornetta Farms Dairy Processing Plant in Petaluma.

B.R. Cohn Winery, based in Glen Ellen, received three gold medals at the California State Fair Wine Competition for the 2009 Mendocino County Barbera, the 2010 Carneros Chardonnay and the 2010 Russian River Pinot Noir.

Twenty-six volunteers from the business community and government agencies have been working together to conduct interviews throughout the county in recent weeks as part of Sonoma County BEST’s “100 in 100” effort.

United Way recently honored local businesses with their annual Community Partnership Awards.

For the first time in its six-year history, two organizations tied for Nonprofit Organization of the Year in the Napa Community Awards, presented at the Napa Valley Marriott Hotel & Spa. Community Health Clinic Ole and Community Action of Napa Valley jointly received the prestigious award, selected from among nine nominees submitted by the community.

Fresh Starts Culinary Academy, a project of Homeward Bound of Marin, has received a $30,000 grant to refine and enhance its training program with updated curriculum and a new job coach.

The Sonoma County Harvest Fair judges have announced Santa Rosa Junior College’s Shone Farm olive oil is a double gold winner in the fair’s professional olive oil competition.

Novato-based Circle Bank announced that the Redwood Empire Food Bank, which serves Sonoma County and the North Bay, will be the beneficiary of its quarterly charity day program.

SailNapaValley.com, a collaboration between the Napa Valley Destination Council, Napa Valley Vintners and the 34th America’s Cup, launches on June 27 to showcase Napa Valley lodging, wine and culinary offerings for fans and friends of the America’s Cup.

NORTH BAY – With high heating oil, propane and electricity prices, more commercial and residential building owners — as well as municipalities and school systems — are considering geothermal ground source heating and cooling as an alternative.

ST. HELENA — The annual Premiere Napa Valley auction of future wine vintages — considered a leading indicator of the health of the luxury wine business — over the weekend brought in $3.1 million, up 30.7 percent from last year’s previous record figure.

ST. HELENA — Sonoma State University’s master of business administration degree program targeted at wine industry executives is coming to Napa Valley this spring under a partnership with a large local trade association announced today.

Solano County’s chambers of commerce recently honored local businesses and community members, such as Meyer Corp. and Travis Credit Union, for their contributions to the community at the Spirit of Solano luncheon. … Fairfield-based MV Transportation, Inc. announced the opening of its new Dallas location in the well-known and centrally located Premier Place Building at 5910 North Central Expressway. … Napa Valley Vintners, a nonprofit trade association representing more than 420 wineries in the appellation, announced that the country of Thailand has recognized Napa Valley with Geographic Indication (GI) Status that will protect the American wine region from misuse of its name in wine labeling in that country.

NAPA — The Napa Valley will play host to the first North American Wine Tourism Conference, which aims to highlight trends and issues that impact stakeholders within two sectors that are often intimately intertwined.

NAPA COUNTY — As a county government plan takes shape to streamline evaluation of development projects in unincorporated areas under state environmental protection law, the draft document has come under fire from both sides for lack of clarity and supporting data.

A regional agency tasked with managing environmental restoration and the built environment along the San Francisco Bay shoreline plans to adopt an updated sea-level-rise forecast this fall, but some agriculture and construction groups are concerned those predictions jeopardize major tourism and commerce thoroughfares as well as their properties.

NAPA — The Napa Valley Destination Council will host the first North American Wine Tourism Conference, an event aimed at highlighting trends and issues affecting stakeholders within the wine tourism industry in established and emerging wine destinations.

Peter Mondavi, Marc Mondavi and Peter Mondavi Jr., proprietors of C. Mondavi & Sons, producer of the 150-year-old Charles Krug brand, hired a management and winemaking team. … The Napa Valley Vintners’ annual Auction Napa Valley fundraiser June 3–5 is going more high-tech this year. … Kevin Alfaro has been named the new managing partner of the CPA firm Brown Holder Alfaro & Co.

The Napa Valley Vintners trade group is set to arrive in mainland China with 40 vintners from the county on a weeklong trade mission, including stops in Shanghai and Beijing to meet wine trade representatives, media, targeted consumers and political leaders.

NAPA — Tourism, hospitality and restaurant industry representatives gathered Thursday at the Silverado Resort to officially kick off Flavor Napa Valley, a four-day festival that will celebrate the region’s affinity for food and wine while luring visitors during the off season.

ST. HELENA — The Napa Valley Vintners’ annual wine futures auction to the trade held Feb. 26 in the Napa Valley, broke records finishing at nearly $2.4 million in sales. Last year’s PNV auction brought nearly 30 percent more than 2009’s take, and this year closed at 6 percent more than 2008’s record-setting $2.2 million.

ST. HELENA — The Napa Valley Vintners board of directors elected Kathleen Heitz Myers of Heitz Wine Cellars as president of the 400-winery trade group for 2011.

NAPA — The Napa County Board of Supervisors tentatively agreed last week that provisions of the Winery Definition Ordinance should be amended to ease marketing restrictions, which would include business meetings, potentially clearing one more hurdle for individual wineries to target visitors more aggressively.