North Bay Business Journal

Diana Brennan, who has worked in Sonoma Raceway media relations since 1999, was promoted from director to senior director of media and community relations. …

Altus Equity Group in Santa Rosa hired Kristy Brooks as operations manager. …

Kyle Young is the newest agent of commercial real estate brokerage Keegan & Coppin Company, Inc./ONCOR International’s Santa Rosa office….

Novato-based Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, Inc., appointed Eric Yuen, MD, chief medical officer and senior vice president. …

Marla Carroll was named winemaker at Franciscan Estate Winery in St. Helena. …

A number of accounting firms that have recently made efforts to grow in the Napa Valley are moving into the next phase of their expansions, positioning themselves through hiring and training to help bring those moves to fruition in a regional economy spearheaded by the wine industry.

Russian River Brewing Co.’s cult-like Pliny the Younger, a rare triple IPA, has received yet another accolade, this one coming from state Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa. …

The Napa Winery Inn has joined the Ascend Hotel Collection, a portfolio of independent hotels from Choice Hotels International, giving the portfolio its first property in the Napa Valley. …

Passenger volume at the Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport in January was 2.4 percent higher than a year before and up 33.9 percent since the same month in 2008 after airline service returned. …

La Condesa, a farm-to-table restaurant in St. Helena, hired Chris Mortenson as its new executive chef. …

A website has been launched to promote downtown Napa’s riverfront, www.NapasRiverfront.com, including information on everything from retail promotions and product offerings to special events and lodging information. …

Several North Bay restaurants and restaurateurs have been nominated as semifinalists in the James Beard Awards, a prestigious national recognition in the food and beverage industries.

ST. HELENA — Two partners from the former Brown Holder Alfaro & Co. have announced the formation of a new accounting practice in St. Helena, with plans to rename the firm’s former office as Blythe Warner and Associates LLP.

Sonoma-based wine company Don Sebastiani & Sons upgraded its south Napa winery, now called Steelbird Cellars after birds that populate the area, with new bottling capabilities, high-tech treatment of water to reduce chemicals used, energy-efficient lighting and “showcase” offices and client reception area. …

Fresh off the dissolution of the Mendocino Wine & Winegrape Commission this summer, the new marketing organization, Mendocino Winegrowers, has partnered with Amazon.com to sell more than 500 wines from the county’s appellations in the large online retailer’s second attempt at wine-to-consumer sales. …

Nearly three years after expanding from franchisees of two Napa UPS Store locations into owner-operators of a wine order fulfillment business in south Napa, Bill and Patti Myers are expanding Eagle Rock Fulfillment for the fourth time. …

Wine Direct to Trade is St. Helena-based company started by two veterans of wine direct sales, marketing and wholesaling are trying to create an Internet-based platform to simplify the process of selling wine to trade accounts. …

Sonoma County Vintners hired Dana Macaulay as director of events. She will be managing the 200-member trade group’s U.S. and international events such as Sonoma Wine Country Weekend, a joint production with Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers Alliance. …

Seguin Moreau Napa Cooperage hired Marion Ghiringhelli for a new position in North American sales and marketing of the company’s rapidly expanding oak-alternatives business. …

Novato-based wine accessories developer and distributor Cork Pops, which came up with the eponymous product for opening wine corks two decades ago and the vinOair bottle spout-aerator more recently, just released vinOice, a drip-resistant spout designed to chill a bottle of white or sparkling wine to an optimum temperature and keep it that way for up to an hour.

ST. HELENA — Adventist Health’s St. Helena Hospital Napa Valley campus is in the midst of a $20 million upgrade that will both add capacity and bring much-needed enhancements to patient care, hospital officials said.

Eleven North Bay restaurants received the industry’s highest rating– the Michelin star — with two Napa Valley restaurants maintaining a three-star rating and nine others earning the one-star rating.

ST. HELENA — Blicker Pierce Wagner Wine Merchants, an online retailer of fine and rare collectibles that is better known as BP Wine, and the owners’ “flash” online wine sales venture Last Bottle Wines are growing so quickly that they are have secured a much larger south Napa warehouse.

Nearly two dozen North Bay restaurants were named to the “Bib Gourmand” list, a highly sought-after designation among lower-priced gourmet restaurateurs, according to The Michelin Guide, which also awards the more famous Michelin stars.

Homebuilder-turned-vintner Bart Araujo and his wife, Daphne, purchased the acclaimed 39-acre Eisele Vineyard just east of Calistoga in 1990.

Mr. Araujo will be a panelist at the Impact Napa 2012 conference the morning of Aug. 30. He spoke with the Business Journal about the challenges and opportunities facing a high-end, small-production Napa Valley winery.

Since starting his quest for the ultimate Napa Valley expression of a Bordeaux wine blend in the early 1980s, Jayson Pahlmeyer has provided a stage for several rising winemaker stars, such as Randy Dunn and Helen Turley.

Mr. Pahlmeyer will be a panelist at the Impact Napa 2012 conference the morning of Aug. 30. He and winery President Brian Hilliard spoke with the Business Journal about the tough business climate in the past three years and opportunities for increasing demand from the next generation of fine-wine lovers.

ST. HELENA — Two years after completing a major long-term capital project in vineyards and winery, C. Mondavi & Family plans to start construction in August on a $6 million new hospitality and retail center at the Charles Krug property.

For more than six decades, the Trinchero family have been leading development of the wine industry, from attracting more consumers acquire and refine their tastes in wine to providing wine in something other than a glass bottle to reducing the impact of wine production on the environment.

ST. HELENA — Jack Daniels, who co-founded Wilson Daniels four decades ago, has returned to the company as interim chief executive officer, the fine-wine sales and marketing agency announced Thursday.

SANTA ROSA — A 46-year-old custom fabricator and dealer of winery equipment has expanded to Santa Rosa after decades in Napa Valley.

ST. HELENA — Trinchero Family Estates has been harvesting water, energy and cost savings from a more than $2 million new process wastewater treatment system at its main St. Helena winery, where Sutter Home and other wine brands are made.

Local renewable energy proponents are lining up behind state Senate Bill 594, designed to require PG&E to allow customers who have more than one electric meter on their properties to aggregate the loads and install a renewable energy system to offset it.

ST. HELENA – The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone is currently evaluating data gathered during the inaugural cohort of a new six-week, café and bakery capstone course for students in the school’s Baking & Pastry Arts department, the newest development in an expanding associate degree program.

ST. HELENA — St. Helena Hospital today announced that Joseph Phelps, founder of the Napa Valley winery that bears his name, donated $1 million to a hospital capital campaign called Project Transform.