North Bay Business Journal

SONOMA — The Donum Estate, a maker of pinot noir wine based in the Los Carneros winegrowing region of southern Sonoma County, acquired the 20-acre Nugent Vineyard in Russian River Valley.

We cannot forget the most urgent game of all: the race — often a marathon — to profitability. In the end, income must break the tape before expenses, and do so by enough margin to make a decent return on investment.

What makes the Grape Games interesting is that growers must engage in all three of these races at the same time.

RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY — River Road Vineyards & Winery, recently acquired by The Republic of Tea owner Ron Rubin, hired Marcus Seiden of Santa Rosa as general manager.

RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY [updated Jan. 3, 2012] — Ron Rubin, owner of Novato-based The Republic of Tea, has added ultrapremium wine to his premium beverage holdings with the acquisition of River Road Vineyards & Winery near the west Sonoma County community of Forestville.

Brief news about north San Francisco Bay area companies: RPM Mortgage opens San Rafael branch; Speedpro Imaging-Marin starts vinyl banner recycling; Marin General Hospital Foundation raises $340,000 for Spine & Brain Institute; Calix customer Vermont Telephone Company deplys optical network terminals; Russian River Valley wineries form tasting room network Taste Route 116

Walter Eagan, a Russian River Valley appellation grower of zinfandel and chardonnay grapes east of Windsor, was surprised to get a three-year zin purchase grape contract from St. Helena-based Duckhorn Wine Co. earlier this year.

The Sonoma County Tourism Bureau is increasingly benefitting from two sources — trade shows and weddings. … Several winery tasting rooms are opening in Sonoma and Napa counties in coming months. … The Napa Tourism Improvement District and the Napa Downtown Association have launched a new website as part of an effort to promote the downtown region.

Sonoma-based Cecchetti Wine Co. reported that it had its third year of volume sales growth. Roy Cecchetti’s goal of making lower-priced wines has resulted in 200,000 cases sold in 2010, a 39 percent increase from 2009. The winery is projecting sales of 250,000 cases total this year. … Winners from vineyard pruning contests in Mendocino, Sonoma and Napa counties. … A California Department of Industrial Relations Division of Labor Standards Enforcement opinion letter has added new wrinkles to the quandary over whether student interns have to be paid at least minimum wage as employees, according to Jennifer Phillips, an employment and real estate attorney with Dickenson Peatman & Fogarty in Santa Rosa. … Graton-based custom winemaker Sonoma Wine Co., which now produces more than 5 million cases of wine from six facilities in Sonoma and Napa counties, inked a deal with Sebastopol-based Winesecrets to provide services to Sonoma Wine’s 30 clients. … Golden State Overnight and FedEx expand direct-shipping services. … Bill Hambrecht teams with Paul and Heath Dolan and Phil Hurst in the H.D.D. wine group venture. … Dry Creek Vineyard entered a sales and marketing agreement with Sonoma-based V2 Wine Group, which will manage Dry Creek’s distribution nationwide.

A disproportionate number of soured crop sales resolved by the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Market Enforcement Branch last year involved North Coast winegrapes, according to department records.

RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY — John and Kathe Dyson acquired Williams Selyem in 1998 and nearly a decade later embarked upon construction of a facility befitting one of Sonoma County’s most exclusive wine brands.

Construction on one of Sonoma County’s most exclusive wineries started in September 2007 and was completed in phases over the past three years. The new winery provides more-efficient space for aging the wine and more scenic venues for hosting visits or events for mailing-list members, but some functions will continue to be handled off site.

HEALDSBURG — Passion and pragmatism drew Kathryn Lindstrom to apply her lifelong love of mathematics to navigating a number of luxury-tier wineries through their turbulent organizational and economic times over the past two decades.

Huneeus Vintners, which owns the Quintessa winery and Faust brand in Napa Valley, Veramonte in Chile and Illumination in Argentina, acquired The Prisoner and Saldo brands from Rutherford-based Orin Swift Cellars, owned by Dave Phinney. … Meanwhile, Jay Thompson, chief executive officer of The Murano Group, acquired a minority stake in Copain Wine Cellars near Healdsburg and a majority stake in Copain Custom Crush of Santa Rosa, both founded by Kevin McQuown and Wells Guthrie in 1999 and 2000, respectively. … Cosentino Signature Wines, which operates in Napa Valley but is based in London, recently reported a pretax loss of $2.78 million for the first half of 2009 on revenue of $3.56 million, compared with a $350,000 loss on revenue of $4.49 million in the same period of 2008. … Applications for Sonoma State University’s Wine Business MBA program classes this fall are due March 30. … Wine People.

Also: Inman wines hires hospitality chief; trial in Mare Island fire Nov. 17 Most wine industry executives surveyed for a major industry conference last week are expecting sales of California wine to start growing in 2011, with prices rebounding for high-end wines in three to five years. Yet experts at the event said there are [...]

Printing Services Napa Valley at the beginning of April acquired St. Helena commercial printer Albright Printing & Design from Tim Doran, whose family started it as Doran’s Printing, sold it in November 2002 and regained ownership recently. … Several new North Coast wineries and tasting rooms have opened or received a green light recently. … ***

In wine packaging news, 585 Wine Partners of Sonoma launched a 3-liter “Mini-Barrel” format for the Red Truck brand in Wal-Mart Stores’ Sam’s Club chain, with a wider retail rollout planned this year. … Andrews & Thornley Construction of Napa in mid-March started reconstruction on Napa Valley Vintners’ new headquarters in the former Jackse Winery in St. Helena. … The Academy of Wine Communications, a Napa-based trade group for wine marketing and publicity professionals, has new officials as the organization looks to expand membership beyond Napa and Sonoma counties and reach new-generation media such as blogs and social networks. … In wine shipping news, Inertia Beverage Group of Napa launched WineREvolution.com to allow restaurants and retailers in 12 states to purchase 60-plus brands not commonly distributed via traditional wholesalers. … Cork stopper distributor M.A. Silva Corks USA in Santa Rosa was certified by the Green Business Program Sonoma County, coordinated by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board and the Business Environmental Alliance. … Wine People items