Wine Atlas

Signature Wines on Inc. 500 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies; Custom Labels, Wine Clubs and Elvis Fuel Growth of Innovative Wine Firm

HAYWARD, Calif. (BUSINESS WIRE) Oct. 19, 2005 Corks popped today at Signature Wines on news that the firm has been named to Inc. Magazine's 2005 Inc. 500 list of America's fastest growing private companies. The Hayward, California-based wine seller vaulted on to the coveted list through an innovative mix of internet-based custom private label solutions, wine club services and the Graceland Cellars(R) brand of Elvis Presley(R) wines.

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Hunter Martin, a retired former oil executive in Houston, for years was unable to enjoy one of his favorite wines at home - a chardonnay from the Peter Michael Winery in Sonoma County. That's because he lived in Texas, which banned out-of-state wineries from shipping directly to its residents, and he couldn't find the prized chardonnay in local wine shops.

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Southern Oregon's 2005 World Of Wine Festival Takes Place September 10

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While traveling up Highway 12 in Sonoma Valley, your sense of time is lost and you focus on the beauty of the vineyards around you, while figuring out which winery to visit next. Thus was my experience Saturday while visiting the wine country with old friends.

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Long ago, before he rose to prominence in the New York wine world, Daniel Johnnes, traveling through France, was drawn to the camaraderie that he felt among wine-makers and their friends when they sat down to eat and drink. Mr. Johnnes had a dream that some day he would find a way to recreate that social glow back in his hometown of New York.

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A San Luis Obispo winery is helping turn wine novices into connoisseurs with a new educational tool.

If you're an inexperienced wine lover, you aren't alone.

"I would like to know more about the basics about how it's made, how it's grown, things of that nature," says San Luis Obispo resident Nick Musial. "I'm doing a senior project on a feasibility study about growing a vineyard, so I think it might come in handy with some of that stuff."(...)

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Can you turn water into wine? Or woodchips? The United States says yes, Europe says no. For 20 years the row has kept the two sides from deciding what wine is.

Brussels and Washington have been struggling to negotiate a reciprocal wine deal since 1983 but always found it easier to roll over temporary arrangements than to compromise too much.

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IF YOU HAVE ever visited a winery in another state and tried to ship wine back to Massachusetts, you know what it's like: Sorry, we can't ship to Massachusetts. It's illegal." Now, you say, yes, but that is the past. The Supreme Court just ruled in favor of direct shipping, and the grape has been freed." Not so fast.

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When members of the Marco Island Area Chamber of Commerce stepped into the "Glory of the Grape," they were handed a passport that read, "To great wines from around the world."

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Training your sniffer is the most difficult and demanding task for any wine enthusiast. But it also is the most rewarding. Flavor begins and ends here.

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Doug Wagner is baffled. When he opened ClearWeather Winery in Missoula two years ago, he expected his wine-tasting room to attract mostly local residents.

Instead, tourists are the ones who find his place, off North Reserve.

Mike Greener Missoulian - Judy Chapman, owner of the Lolo Peak Winery in Missoula, tastes a glass of Strawberry Wine from a 500-gallon tank. The winery makes more than seven different wines, all from fruit bought from local vendors...

Maybe that makes sense after all. On vacation, we play. We stop to wander through antique shops or take a hike and stop at an out-of-the-way grill on the way home. In short, it is time to enjoy simple pleasures, sometimes even the ones in our own backyards.

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Twenty-eight local charities received checks totaling $268,000 from Cincinnati International Wine Festival treasurer Barry T. Oppelt at a reception at Kenwood Country Club. The funds were raised at this year's wine festival in March.

Some 75 guests, including wine festival board president Connie Wiles and executive director Michelle Egbers, were on hand for the celebration.

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Luscious to drink, intoxicating if you’re not careful, wine can also be intimidating to the uninitiated. Just think of how Paul Giamatti’s unforgettably fussy wine snob, Miles Raymond, opined about Pinot Noir in 2004’s wine-film hit Sideways: “Its flavours, they’re just the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle and…ancient on the planet.”

Now that’s some heavy talk for a bunch of grapes.

Here’s a secret from a real expert, one of Oregon’s learned sommeliers: “The only thing that matters is that you like what you’re drinking.” Tysan Pierce should know: she’s one of the state’s few full-time sommeliers and the wine director of Portland’s largest wine cellar, the 500-bottle cave at the Heathman Hotel.

Maybe Oregon is starting to agree with her. The balloon goblet is threatening to replace the coffee mug as Portland’s unofficial emblem, as new chic-but-casual wine bars continue to pop up and the number of wineries in the state has nearly quadrupled—from 78 to more than 300—in the past decade.

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About a dozen Oregon and Washington grape growers, winemakers and researchers are joining leaders from industry, USDA, extension and research groups throughout the United States in a new initiative launched from California.

They have spent nearly a year developing the National Grape and Wine Initiative at strategic planning conferences held in May and November in 2004, and January 2005.

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