North Bay Business Journal

The record-sized winegrape harvest of 2012 hasn’t crushed demand building over the past year for wine producers to lock in fruit supplies and places to turn it into higher-end wines that have been enjoying a resurgence in sales.

Giancarlo Bianchetti is chief executive officer of Fetzer Vineyards and a director of Chile-based Viña Concha y Toro, which purchased Fetzer in 2011 for $263 million.

He will be the keynote speaker at the April 18 Wine Industry Conference presented by the Business Journal. He spoke to the Journal about the company’s interest in Fetzer and his role in the deal.

Wine companies largely are caught between escalating costs of production and mixed perceptions of how much of the rising costs the market for finished wine will bear. Those are among the topics five of the Bay Area’s innovative wine entrepreneurs are set to tackle at the Business Journal’s Wine Industry Conference on April 18.

They talked to the Business Journal about key drivers of cost and retail pricing, how they and markets are responding, and pricing impacts for exports and alternative sales channels.

2012 was a big year for wine-related property and brand transactions, and expectations are that 2013 also will be busy.

At the Business Journal’s Wine Industry Conference on April 18, five of the most active players are set to be part of a panel discussion on what’s happening and the potential for more: Peter Byck of Winery Exchange, Dennis Carroll of Sonoma Wine Co. and Purple Wine Co., Bill Foley of Foley Family Wines, Pat Roney of Vintage Wine Estates and Jeff Wesselkamper of Jackson Family Wines.

The Business Journal will present its 2013 Wine Conference “Mergers and Acquisitions, and Pricing Strategies” on Thursday, April 18, at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel in Santa Rosa.

The keynote speaker will be Giancarlo Bianchetti, CEO of Fetzer Vineyards.

The mergers-and-acquisitions panel will be composed of Rick Tigner of Jackson Family Enterprises, William Foley of Foley Family Wines, Dennis Carroll of Purple Wine Company and Pat Roney of Vintage Wine Estates.

The pricing strategies panel will include Tom Klein of Rodney Strong Wine Estates, Chris Silva of St. Francis Winery & Vineyards, Cameron Hughes of Cameron Hughes Wine and Hugh Thacher of San Francisco Winery Exchange.

Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. The program is from 8–11:30 a.m.

The Business Journal’s 2013 Wine Industry Conference in April will feature the general manager of Fetzer Vineyards and the architect of its acquisition by a large Chilean wine company as well as insights on North Coast wine-related mergers and acquisitions from two of the largest players in the market recently.