North Bay Business Journal

  • Is an excursion train possible for Sonoma County?

    September 19th, 2011

    Could an excursion train start rolling through Sonoma and Marin counties in the near future, bringing wine country tourists from Napa Valley and San Francisco via the Larkspur ferry terminal? … This summer, the footprint of the TastingRoom’s wine bottle transfer facility in Airport Gateway Center near Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport north of Santa Rosa expanded to 25,000 square feet from 16,000 square feet to accommodate the dozens of wineries that now use the service. … The owners of Russian River Vineyards and its Corks restaurant filed for U.S. Bankruptcy Court reorganization, and recently the amount owed was disclosed as nearly $3 million. … Bill Reading, founder of and portmaker for Petaluma-based Sonoma Valley Portworks, purchased the company from American Beverage Group Inc.

  • TastingRoom takes tiny bottles to wine e-tailing

    May 3rd, 2010

    SANTA ROSA — TastingRoom Inc. is rolling out its recently launched sample-sized bottles in a new Internet wine store.

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

    April 12th, 2010

    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.

  • Perfecting the tiny wine bottle

    January 11th, 2010

    The decade-old promise of wine e-commerce still isn’t as easy as point, click and sip, but two local companies are putting millions of dollars toward making direct marketing of wine to consumers and the trade a closer and more cost-effective approximation of the tasting room experience.

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