January 2002 WineVision Forum

Dear WineVisionary:

WineVision: American Wine in the 21st Century continues to move forward and gather momentum in 2002 and is working diligently toward its key goals of aiding the U.S. wine community in its quests to enhance sustainable farming practices, become more competitive in global marketplaces and a more integral part of the domestic cultural fabric.

More than 40 key industry representatives and wine trade organizations are meeting at a luncheon gathering of the WineVision Forum on January 30 during the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento. It will be the largest gathering to date. WineVision Forum was created in response to the frequent call for the wine community to represent itself with a unified voice. The Forum consists of leaders of state and regional wine organizations, who review and advise the WineVision effort. In addition to the core WineVision topics, Forum participants have found it useful to include informal discussions on legislative, regulatory and related wine issues and annual priorities, as well.

Specifically, the agenda for this year's Forum includes:

--Updates on strategic plan priorities for discussion by state and regional wine organizations. Participants will address and agree on unified expressions of the plan's "messages"; to disseminate the messages through their association membership; and, feed matters of interest and concern back to WineVision leaders.

--A review of issues, concerns and challenges to the wine industry at county, state, national and international levels will be discussed, as will possible solutions and joint actions

Also at the forum, WineVision's newly revamped Web site will be unveiled and officially launched.

Winevision.org, developed by a sub-committee with technical work done by Napa's Freerun Technologies, is to be a central part of the communication and outreach programs initiated by various task forces organized around WineVision's key objectives. The revamping of the WineVision.org Website into a comprehensive communications tool gives WineVision task forces the capacity to share progress and information resources online. The site, among other things, will feature:

--A fully interactive bulletin board that allows messages to be posted and discussions to be conducted online by each of the task forces and WineVision's organizing committees --the wine industry's most extensive calendar of events --a complete history of the WineVision strategic planning process, with organizational chart and goals, objectives and strategies adopted to date --Access to current and past newsletters -- an inventory and online database of easily accessible data and information --listings of sponsors, founding members and financial supporters of WineVision --membership information and sign-up forms.

The WineVision steering committee also meets the morning of January 30 to assess current progress and provide additional direction to the coming year's strategic activities.

Planning also has begun on organizing WineVision Foresight, modeled after Food Foresight, a trends forecasting group created by Nuffer Smith Tucker, a San Diego-based strategic planning consulting firm whose Cynthia Carson and Kerry Tucker will head up the wine industry effort.

The purpose of the trends forecasting group will be to pull together sociologists and other experts to advise the wine industry of various trends in society and culture that would be expected to impact the general business climate of the wine industry as well as the marketing and positioning endeavors by both individual wine brands and trade groups, including those of WineVision itself. The date is yet to be determined, but organizers plan to hold the meeting in the first quarter of this year.

WineVision's progress also will be updated at Central Coast Insights, put on by Wine Industry Financial Symposium, on March 20 in San Luis Obispo.

The annual meeting of WineVision will by held July 10-11 at the Napa Valley Marriott. Keynote speakers are being lined up to assess the U.S. wine industry's position in world markets and domestic culture and to provide strategic commentary on how to make the industry more competitive.

Besides these efforts, WineVision's Communications Task Force will make extensive efforts to extend the WineVision message to broader audiences through media relations and trade presentations. Presentations are planned, for example, at some of the major international wine trade shows (e.g., Vinexpo, VinItaly) as well as similar shows in the states (e.g., San Francisco's World Wine Market 2002 and the Boston Wine Expo) so journalists and opinion leaders become aware of WineVision and the goals of the American wine community.

Membership dues have been coming in at a steady pace and we are greatly encouraged by the show of financial support despite the distractions and disruptions of both the events of Sept. 11 and the recessionary economy. If you haven't contributed your dues yet, please consider getting them to us before the Jan. 30 meeting so we can make an accurate assessment of continued industry support to the steering committee and to participants in the Forum.

In closing, we would like to remind you of a few WineVision's key and most recent accomplishments:

--WineVision's Annual Meeting is providing a tremendous communications platform. Task Force leaders report in detail on recent progress and future plans. Guest speakers from outside the wine community provide stimulating larger perspectives to WineVision goals. Attendees gain clarification through open discussion. These meetings have been, naturally, the most comprehensive examples of the purpose and potential of WineVision.

--WineVision champions have presented WineVision's purpose, process and the importance of being engaged at wine community meetings throughout the country.

--WineVision's four task forces have quickly moved to the forefront in the industry to become the focal points around four key areas of concerns: sustainability, global positioning, American culture and communications.

--The WineVision Forum is providing a direct connection for winery and grower organizations with the task forces.

--A quarterly newsletter was launched following last July's annual meeting.

--The revamping of the WineVision.org Website into a comprehensive communications tool gives WineVision task forces and the industry in general the capacity to share progress and information resources online as never before.

Many more challenges and accomplishments lay ahead of us. To participate in this venture, please visit our web site ( http://www.winevision.org ).