Napa Valley Climate Plan Extended

Napa County has extended the trial run for its climate action plan for another two months so planners can resolve problems with how it’s being applied to smaller development proposals.

The plan has separate checklists for commercial and vineyard developers to use to calculate emissions from their projects. Then developers have to identify ways to reduce those emissions by 38 percent.

Read more here.

Brief History of Merlot

Funny video on the history of Merlot by Gundlach Bundschu Winery.

Wines & Vines, in conjunction with Symphony IRI, published a report on the growth of domestic wine sales.

Domestic wine sales continued their steady growth in February, registering 7% higher sales over a 52-week period than in the previous year, as reported by Symphony IRI. The short-term growth rate over the four-weeks ending Feb. 19 hit 6%, according to SIRI’s analysis of check stand scan data from major food and drug stores in the United States.

Read more here.

Nebraska & Specialty Crop Research Initiative

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln viticulture program is part of a multi-state team that received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative. The grant will tackle the obstacles in vineyards, wineries, tasting rooms and tourism to bring cold hardy grapes to a wider market.


The project will partner with grower organizations from across the northern U.S. including the Nebraska Winery and Grape Growers Association.


Read more here.

Green Vineyard Management

Nice video of Parducci Winery (http://www.parducci.com) in Mendocino, California. Known as a green winery, it is reportedly the first carbon neutral winery in America. What did Parducci do to achieve this difference and accomplish such a unique green way of being?

Take a look at the video – it describes their process from the dirt to the bottle. How difficult would it be for you to…

· Switch to solar and wind powered energy;

· Purchase grapes from local vendors;

· Practice organic farming methods and pest management practices;

· Use eco-friendly packaging.

Is this something you are interested in replicating?

FYI – Our friends at the Napa Valley Grapegrowers Association have an upcoming 2-day event called the Organic Winegrowing Conference. Click here for more details: http://www.napagrowers.org/owc.html

VitSmarter Working on linux

We never expect to have users using VitSmarter on linux, but we are glad to have them, because we develop on Linux. Here is a video we made for our first user in Linux. Thank you! View in HD

Google Health Predictor?

Fascinating article from the New York Times...

A new symptom of the flu is a Google search... yes, in addition to coughing, fevers, and sore throats is the Google search. Take a look at the graphic!