St. Helena, Calif.—Just a few days after Hall Wines had hosted about 2,000 people for the barrel auction of Auction Napa Valley, I visited the winery in St. Helena, Calif., to taste through a flight of Hall Cabernet Sauvignons with the director of winemaking Steve Leveque.

 

Merced, Calif.—Maxwell Norton, the University of California Cooperative Extension director and advisor in Merced and Mariposa counties, plans to retire on July 1. Norton, who specializes in tree fruit, grapes and farmland preservation, has served Merced County growers for 36 years.

Raised on a farm near Salida, north of Modesto, Norton studied pomology at Fresno State University, earning a B.S. and an M.S. in plant science before joining UC Cooperative Extension.

Silver Oak Cellars made news recently by announcing it had purchased the remaining half of A&K Cooperage in Missouri. Silver Oak is now the first winery in North America to own its own cooperage since Treasury Wine Estates sold Winemakers Cooperage to Groupe Charlois in 2011. You can read more on the announcement here. 

For an extensive report on the North American oak industry we published in the February 2014 edition, I traveled back to Missouri to visit A&K as well as the behemoth Independent Stave Company, which produces wine barrels under the World Cooperages brand and others. A&K is located in the small town of Higbee, Mo.

At the time, the cooperage was still owned and operated by founder Dale Kirby and his son Matt Kirby. The Kirbys hospitably took the time to show me around the workshop as well as tour some of the oak forest that supplied the white oak timber used to produce wine and whiskey barrels. Dale and I even stopped by his hunting cabin where we had a quick snort of whiskey while taking in the view from its second-floor balcony.

 

About a year ago I spent an eye-opening week in the Texas High Plains AVA on a press tour of that flat and wind-swept part of Texan wine country. I was impressed with the grit of the region’s growers who are committed to putting more vines in the ground despite punishing freezes and other challenges.

I don't know if it's time to declare optical sorters to be the hot new trend on the crush pad, but it does seem that more wineries are getting interested in the machines by the prospects of improving grape quality and reducing labor costs.  

About five years ago, Phillip Corallo-Titus’ first impression of optical sorters hitting the market for the wine industry was that it was a trend that would never take off.