Part of the beauty of living and working on California’s Central Coast is watching the wine industry grow into a powerful generator of jobs, innovation and wines that can (and do) compete on the world stage. That’s where WiVi Central Coast Wine Industry Conference & Tradeshow comes in. Taking place March 17-18 at the Paso Robles Event Center, WiVi is the only comprehensive wine industry conference and tradeshow on California’s Central Coast – and the largest industry networking opportunity south of San Francisco – and is hosted by the industry’s leading trade publication Wine Business Monthly and Precision Ag Consulting, a regional viticulture consulting group.
“The Central Coast is still a young wine region but growing rapidly. Education and access to resources is important to its continued growth and success,” said WiVi Director, Becky Zelinski.
“As the region grows, so does the importance of a conference like WiVi, which is the only one of its kind here. In just two days, anyone in the wine industry can learn from our panels of experts, network with peers, and connect with suppliers at the WiVi trade show. It really is a one-stop shop for the entire Central Coast industry,” said Zelinski.
The event – which offers educational and networking opportunities for every member of the wine industry, from winemakers and grape growers to winery managers and hospitality staff – is comprised of a two-day conference with educational sessions; and a one-day tradeshow featuring exhibitors showcasing cutting-edge products.
A sampling of topics for this year’s WiVi conference educational sessions, held March 17 and 18, include:
- An “Update on Recent Changes on Ground Water Rights” and “The Effect of Water Availability on Property Values”
- “Tasting: Phenolics in Winemaking,” examining how phenolics measurements can be used as an objective indicator of wine quality, led by Halter Ranch Vineyard & Winery Winemaker, Kevin Sass.
- “Top 10 Success Tips for Tasting Room Sales,” including factual data points from the Wine Business Monthly Tasting Room Survey and Mystery Shopper results, hosted by Lesley Berglund of the Wine Industry Sales Education (WISE) Academy.
At the WiVi Trade Show on March 18, nearly 150 exhibitors will showcase products and solutions for the modern winemaker, grape grower, or member of winery management, including companies whose innovations were voted as the “coolest new products” by Wine Business Monthly. Examples include:
- Toneleria Nacionale: Mistral Fermentation Barrels (www.Toneleria.com/MistralBarrels.php) “The new Fermentation Barrel from Mistral Barrels, Inc. garnered the most votes [for the 2013 People’s Choice” award, as chosen by readers of Wine Business Monthly]. The barrel has a port in the head and has the option to come with wheels that can be attached to the barrel rack so that the barrel can be rolled over on its axis.” (Curtis Phillips, Wine Business Monthly, March, 2013)
- P & L Specialties: Consista-Hopper (www.PnLSpecialties.com) “The Consista-Hopper is a grape receiving hopper designed to evenly deliver grape clusters dumped from half-ton picking bins to a destemmer. What’s Cool: Converting the intrinsically batch process of dumping half-ton bins of grapes into a constant and even delivery of clusters to the destemmer is crucially important if one wants to minimize the amount of “jacks” that are thrown in with the destemmed berries. I like the high degree of adjustments allowed by the P&L Specialties design.” (Curtis Phillips, Wine Business Monthly, March, 2014)
- Bucher Vaslin: Costral Galaxy 3000 Bottling Line (www.BVNorthAmerica.com) “The Costral Galaxy 3000 is made for the European wine industry which requires that bottles be sterilized prior to being filled. The Costral is designed to give the bottles more drying after sanitizing than is typical. What’s Cool: The integrated bottle rinser-santizer is handy even where it isn’t required by law. The rinser-santizer also can be used as an inverted bottle-sparger. The Costral Galaxy 3000 comes with a multihead corker/capper which allows a small winery to use both corks and screw caps without putting an additional screw cap turret on the bottling line.” (Curtis Phillips, Wine Business Monthly, March, 2013)
Furthermore, WiVi is California’s largest industry networking opportunity south of San Francisco, with social events like the WiVi launch party, the evening of March 17, and an exhibitor-sponsored luncheon the afternoon of March 18. Additional networking opportunities will be announced as they are scheduled.
Registration for WiVi is open to the public and tickets can be purchased online at http://www.WiViCentralCoast.com. One- and two-day general registrations tickets and tradeshow-only tickets will be available online beginning January 6th. Early registration discounts and special discounted prices for wine industry association members are available through February 28, 2015, as well as free tradeshow passes for association members. For more information about WiVi, please visit http://www.WiViCentralCoast.com, email info@wivicentralcoast.com or call (888) 974-WIVI (9484).
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