Press Release

23rd February 2001

WineVision is beginning a new stage of implementation with the initiation of regular, quarterly meetings of its four strategic planning task forces. The Globalization Task Force will kick off the first of the series of meeting tomorrow.

The ad hoc strategic planning group, which is creating a blueprint for industry growth and success over the next 20 years, also is proceeding with planning its next annual conference. The event will be held July 12 at the Doubletree Hotel in Rohnert Park (Sonoma County), Calif.

Author Paul Lukacs, chairman of the Department of English at Loyola College in Baltimore, has agreed to be a keynote speaker for the American Culture plank. Lukacs is the author of American Vintage: From Isolation to International Renown -- The Rise of American Wine.

Lukacs' book explores how the United States, with virtually no premium winemaking tradition of its own, suddenly become a world leader in the wine industry during the baby-boomer generation. His book traces the rise of American wine and the quirky heroes and visionaries who altered the course of wine history: from Nicholas Longworth, the founding father of American wine, a diminutive real estate tycoon who transformed Ohio into the "American Rhineland"; Dr. Charles Welch, a Methodist preacher who created nonalcoholic grape juice in the name of temperance; Gustave Niebaum, a Finnish sea captain who made a fortune in the fur trade before establishing one of California's first great vineyards, Inglenook; and the secretive Gallo brothers and Robert Mondavi, who held opposing views about the direction American wine should take. Lukacs' storytelling reveals as much about American culture as it does about the wine community itself.

The Globalization Task Force, meeting Friday at the Napa offices of Delicato Family Vineyards, will be discussing ways of organizing efforts to create a worldwide branded image of American wine by positioning it as the highest value product in premium markets. The group will be trying to assess current efforts of the American wine industry on the global stage, prioritize its objectives and initiatives for 2001 and assigning accountability for various aspects of programs needed to help the industry reach its strategic goals.

The American Culture Task Force, meeting from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, March 12 at the Lodi Wine and Visitor Center, will focus on two issues-establishing and communicating a positive identity for the American Wine Community and establishing and disseminating consistent messages about wine. The trade press as well as the general media is invited to the American Culture group in an effort to explore ways of how the wine community can work with writers on this issue. The task force also will review a specific set of research objectives that have been outlined.

The Sustainability Task Force, meeting, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday March 12 at the Lodi Wine Visitors Center, will review presentations of current and in-the-process sustainable agriculture practices by winegrape growers and their organizations from various California appellations. Presentations will be made by Kari Birdseye, communications director of the Wine Institute Sustainable Practices Committee; Steve Gross, co-chair of the California Environmental Dialogue, a Wine Institute executive and a participant in the Futures Network; Cliff Ohmart, author of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission's Self-Assessment Sustainability Workbook; a representatives of the Central Coast Vineyard Team Three-Year Project (addressing non-point source pollution and the group's 1,000 Point Self-Assessment Tool); Linda Reiff, executive director of the Napa Valley Vintners Association (addressing work on Napa's Watershed Plan and a proposal on farmworker housing); Nick Frey, executive director of the Sonoma County Grape Growers Association (discussing the group's Outreach to Neighbors program); Herbt Schmidt of Robert Mondavi Winery and a member of the American Vintners Association Environmental Issues/Land Use Across the Country committee; and Karen Ross, president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers and a representative of the California Pest Management Alliance and Wildlife Habitat Conservation Project.

The meeting also will feature a special presentation by LoriAnn Thrupp of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region 9 Agricultural Initiative titled, "Working with Stakeholders to Establish Credibility on Environmental Issues."

The Sustainability Task Force also will discuss the status of research and efforts to coordinate approaches to establishing national priorities for viticulture and enology. Additionally, the group will discuss expanding involvement in efforts at moving the wine community towards its sustainability goals.

The Communications/Coordination/Information Task Force will hold a sub-task force meeting Wednesday, Feb. 28 at the Napa offices of Winetasting.com to share updates on efforts to improve communications between the members of each task force and the four separate task forces themselves; to discuss the possibility of scheduling a regular communications program both to the general public and the wine community itself to reveal WineVision program progress; to update progress on improving the WineVision.org Web site; to review responses from trade organizations nationwide on the WineVision process and the WineForum intra-industry roundtable; and to review efforts at creating a database of marketplace information.

For more information on WineVision, please visit the Web site: http://www.winevision.org. For additional information on task force meetings or other information, please contact Waunice Orchid by phone at 707.255.9222; by fax at 707.255.2044; or by email at admin@winevision.org.