Wineries Unlimited 

Wineries Unlimited is offering free Trade Show passes for VWA members.

For your free Trade Show passes, follow this link and scroll to the bottom of the page. Select the registration type "Trade Show Only" and enter EXPO2012 in the code box on the agenda page.

This code will expire March 23, 2012.   Please feel free to send this free trade show pass to any of your associates. Trade Show passes are normally $30.  

This will only a take a couple minutes and will assure your badge is printed in advance and waiting for you at registration.

Trade Show Passes, Registration Contact:
Yvonne Lopez
Wineries Unlimited Registration
1-866-483-0172
ylopez@executivevents.com  

Virginia Food and Beverage Expo   

If you are planning to attend  

Wineries Unlimited in Richmond on March 27-29, you also have the opportunity to attend the Virginia Food and Beverage Expo. This event will also be taking place at the Greater Richmond Convention Center and on  Wednesday, March 28th from 9am - 4pm. They are running a special in which your VA Food and Beverage Expo name badge allows you to attend Wineries Unlimited Trade Show for free on the same day. Click here for more details.  

 Preferred Partner Spotlight 

 Whether the need is as "simple" as a label update or as "complex" as the launch of a new wine brand, The Trellis Group works with clients to examine their goals and then develop market strategies (in house, earned and paid media) to achieve their defined objectives.

Gold and Silver Members of the Virginia Wineries Association may receive a free initial consultation with The Trellis Group.  

For more information, contact Neil Williamson at 434.962.0847 or trellisgroup@earthlink.net

TTB Announces Label Approval Streamlining Efforts  

February 29, 2012

Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) Streamlining Efforts

We are excited to share with you some news about our COLA review process streamlining efforts and some of the changes we have planned for the coming months and years.

We received over 146,000 alcohol beverage label applications in 2011, which was up from over 134,000 applications in 2010. While the demand for alcohol beverage label approvals has increased significantly over the past several years, we continue to evaluate COLA applications as quickly and as accurately as possible. Our goal is to ensure all alcohol beverage products in the U.S. marketplace comply with our labeling regulations (mandated under the Federal Alcohol Administration Act) in Title 27 Code of Federal Regulations.

To date we have taken several actions toward streamlining our COLA review process.  These include making processing improvements designed to speed up review turnaround times; updating labeling FAQs at TTB.gov to help industry members comply with our labeling requirements; and researching industry needs and studying other Federal agencies' best practices for label review processes so we can continue to improve our process in the future.

By streamlining our COLA review process, we hope to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes us to review labels and, in turn, the time needed to get compliantly labeled products into the marketplace. Visit our COLA Streamlining Efforts page at TTB.gov to learn more about our specific streamlining accomplishments and future initiatives:

http://www.ttb.gov/labeling/streamlining-accomplishments.shtml#accomplishments

To submit your comments or suggestions regarding our COLA streamlining efforts, please send us an email: streamlineefforts@ttb.gov.   

WINE GRAPE INFORMATION FOR  

From Penn State Cooperative Extension

Meetings Galore!

Even in a time of tight budgets and layoffs, it amazes me how robust the winter meeting schedule is around the region.  Look at the February and March calendar, it is packed with great events for grape growers and wine makers!  For example, this week is the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable meeting (I'm a speaker here-"Garagistes in America") in Niagara Falls (Canadian side - for those of you looking for some romance to accompany your equipment purchases), followed on the weekend by the Maryland Wine Industry annual meeting (I'm a speaker here, too - vine density and building a wine industry), and Grape Expectations in New Jersey (easily accessible to SE PA wine growers), where author George Taber of Judgment in Paris fame is a speaker!  The following week from March 1-3 is the joint Finger Lakes Grape Growers Convention AND New York Wine Industry Workshop, where Cornell viticulture and enology extension and research gets to shine.  The next week is super busy in Lancaster, PA with the Pennsylvania Winery Associations annual meeting on Tuesday, 6 March, followed by the new Eastern Winery Exposition from March 6-8, and the New Grape Grower workshop that I will present with Dr. Joe Fiola (Univ of Md) on Friday, 9 March.  If you can catch your breath, there are pruning workshops scattered around the region, and then the biggie in the East, Wineries Unlimited, in Richmond Virginia is March 27-29. 

I will call out the annual Wine Grape Integrated Pest Management Workshop on Wednesday, 21 March, being held this year at the Penn State Berks Campus in Reading.  We have a terrific program that includes Dr. Wendy McFadden-Smith from Ontario addressing the problem of sour rot in grapes (I heard this talk at Ag Forum on Long Island and you won't want to miss it!), Tim Weigle, NY state grape IPM specialist at Cornell in W NY will discuss organic grape growing practices developed in the Erie region, and Tremain Hatch, extension viticulture associate from Virginia Tech will provide valuable background information on the chronic trunk disease called Grapevine Yellows, a problem that has been identified in Pennsylvania vineyards.  The Penn State grape pathology team includes Bryan Hed, Dr. Noemi Halbrendt and Dr. John Halbrendt will cover the BIG 5 grape diseases and viruses of grape.  The meeting will be delivered by video to extension offices in Westmoreland (SW PA), Erie, and Susquehanna (NE PA) counties.  Click HERE for program, registration and information.  

You could kill yourself trying to attend all of these excellent meetings.  Pick the ones that best serve your interests and needs.  Growers and wine makers in Pennsylvania should attend the PWA meeting to show solidarity for the organization that represents your industry and needs. 

See the regional viticulture and enology events calendar on the PWGN website for a full schedule and information about specific events.  Also look for photos from the recent pruning workshops at Blair Vineyards and Naylor Wine Cellars (you'll want to see Rich's Burgundian brush burn barrel), and check out featured articles (Long Island and Finger Lakes) and websites (Virginia Vineyards Association), and lots more! 

You may have noticed that it has been oddly warm outside.  Pruning always goes faster when the weather is nice.  Bud hardiness data from Ohio indicates that vines are deacclimating in this unseasonably warm weather.  If you are north of the Mason-Dixon Line you may wish to take this into consideration as pruning progresses, perhaps leaving an extra cane or renewal spurs, just in case we get hit with a winter injury event.  I always recommend pruning in ascending order of varietal value. 

Mark L. Chien

Viticulture Educator

Penn State Cooperative Extension

College of Agricultural Sciences

1383 Arcadia Road

Lancaster, PA  17601

Tel: 717.394.6851

E: mlc12@psu.edu 

Web: http://pawinegrape.com/