Grapevine scourge returned to Temecula Valley's wine country →
The glassy-winged sharpshooter, an insect that carries deadly-to-grapevines Pierce’s disease, has returned. In the late 1990s, the region’s growers had around 3,500 planted acres of vineyards, and that number dipped to 1,000 acres following the sharpshooter’s invasion. The leader of the monitoring efforts for Temecula Valley, UC Riverside scientist Matt Daugherty, said this week that his team captured more than 1,500 of the half-inch shooters last month in the groves—a record high since 2003.
New price-comparison tool from Liv-ex hopes to make things smoother for merchants →
Price comparison website Wine Matcher is designed to help merchants quickly and easily work through wine lists to determine prices, find trading opportunities, and move stock through the supply chain. It works by taking a list, and as explained by Wine Matcher’s developer, business analyst Nick Palmer, “takes a few words [from each name] and matches them against every instance of that word it has ever seen before.” Wine Matcher offers the ability to find the appropriate LWIN code for a wine, a vintage of a specific wine, or a particular bottle size of a particular vintage of a particular wine and all that again but with a specific case size.
Wormtown Brewery co-founder sells remaining stake →
Tom Oliveri sold his remaining stake in the Worcester, Massachusetts brewery, Wormtown. Previous owners of Clarke Distributors Inc, of Keene, New Hampshire, Richard Clarke, Jay Clarke, and Kary Shumway, now own the majority of the brewery. Oliveri said his decision to sell the remaining interest in Wormtown was driven in part by a desire to maximize the value of those shares, because he feels that craft beer has peaked and will level out.
Jägermeister faces lawsuit from U.S. outdoor wear brand →
Outdoor brand Kühl filed the lawsuit against Jägermeister with US District Court for the District of Utah Central Division, alleging trademark infringement and dilution. The outdoor wear manufacturer claimed that Jägermeister’s ad campaign prominently features the Kühl trademark. The campaign includes slogans such as “Find a kühl spot” and “Drink it ice kühl.” Kevin Boyle, the founder and president of Kühl, says using “kühl” in their advertisements is tarnishing his company’s reputation.
