Congratulations to Riboli Family Wine Estates, Jada Vineyard & Winery, and Highlands 41 — one Silver and three Bronze across three categories. Every year, the Wine Business Monthly Pack Design Awards put wine packaging in front of a panel of industry buyers, marketers, and designers who judge it the way a consumer would: on the shelf, in the hand, in context. This year, four packages built on Encore Glass bottles came home with awards.  We supplied the glass.  The vision, the design, and the courage to go somewhere unexpected belong entirely to our partners — and we couldn't be prouder to have played a part. Package images throughout this article were created by Outshinery, the official imaging partner and sponsor of the WBM Pack Design Awards. Silver: Best Package Design Series OPAQUE Earth Elements | Riboli Family Wine Estates Three Paso Robles Wines, Darkness, Malbec, and Zinfandel, each wrapped in its own black-on-black texture: storm clouds, marbled stone, fract

🍷 8,625 gallons of Dry Creek Valley Cabernet, with room to talk. As harvest activity ramps up, not every winery need has to be solved with another fruit contract. New on the WIN Marketplace is 2025 Dry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon bulk wine from Lytton Manor Vineyard, with 8,625 gallons available. The wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, currently stored at Redwood Valley Cellars, and the seller says samples are available, pricing is negotiable, and they’ll entertain buyers looking for a range of quantities. The vineyard sits between Ridge’s Lytton Springs East and West vineyards, and the seller describes the wine as showing deeply extracted fruit, dark berry character, pronounced tannic structure, and expressive aromatics. Minimal oak was used with the goal of rounding the finish rather than creating a pronounced oak impression. The wine is listed at 13.3% ABV, 3.71 pH, and 5.80 g/L TA. For wineries evaluating Cabernet needs beyond the incoming vintage, this is a sizable Dry Creek Val

Shafer Vineyards put Lumo on Borderline. Expanded to Rustler and Ridgeback. And the system just went in at Schoolbus. 58 blocks across 96 acres. That kind of expansion is driven from the bottom up, by irrigators who enthusiastically embrace the technology. Meet Lolo and Roberto Lolo’s the foreman. Roberto’s the irrigator. Together they cover the complex of four Shafer vineyards, ensuring the vines get the water they need. Maria Silvia, our Customer Support Specialist, interviewed them in Spanish a while back to learn more about their experience with Lumo and how they’ve been able to get such great value out of the system. Initial Hesitations Lolo and Roberto were skeptical when they first heard about Lumo getting installed. Roberto: We felt a lot of confusion, with worries in our minds because we didn’t know what was going to happen. Lolo: Honestly, yes, I was worried at the beginning. We didn't know. We didn't have an idea of how we were going to do it. But that perception chang

Ultra Premium Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Grapes – Available for 2026    Now listed on the WIN Marketplace: up to 7 tons of ultra-premium Cabernet Sauvignon fruit for the 2026 harvest and beyond from a 2-acre hillside vineyard in Calistoga, perched above the acclaimed Switchback Ridge and Hourglass vineyards. This site has produced $200-per-bottle Cabernet for over 25 years, and with the longtime winemaker retiring, this fruit is becoming available for a new winery to carry the legacy forward. 🍇Check Out This Listing🍇 The WIN Marketplace is built to connect buyers and sellers across the wine industry, and listings like this Ultra-Premium Cabernet Sauvignon fruit opportunity for the 2026 harvest highlight how the platform helps wineries secure high-quality vineyard sources directly from growers. By showcasing premium fruit well ahead of harvest, listings like this give winemakers the chance to evaluate vineyard opportunities and build relationships while planning f

More and more farms are standardizing their use of Lumo across their entire operation.  We’ve seen growers expand from a couple ranches to dozens. From 50 acres to over 2,000. That kind of expansion is built on seeing significant returns on investment season after season.  But everyone needs to start somewhere, so it’s only natural to ask: "If I want to see the highest return on my investment in Lumo, which ranches should I start with?" Here’s a couple ways to think about it: 1. Highest Value Crops Many growers start with ranches where their crop values are the highest because that’s where irrigating with precision pays the most.  It’s part of the reason we’ve seen such good success in Napa and Sonoma with many of the best wine growers in the world, and it’s why we’re seeing increasing interest from berry growers on the Central Coast.  If dialing in your irrigation precision can have a modest impac

Declining groundwater levels and increasing pressure under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act are changing how California wine growers think about water. What was once largely an operational concern is now directly tied to long-term viability, regulatory compliance, and sustainability planning. These issues were front and center during a session at the 2025 WIN Expo, where vineyard operators, hydrologists, and county leaders discussed how groundwater management is evolving and what growers can do to stay ahead. Moderated by Val King, Director of Channel Partnerships at Verdi, the session underscored a clear reality. There is no single solution, but there is a shift toward local control, better data, and practical changes in vineyard management. SGMA Was Built to Be Local, Not One-Size-Fits-All Your browser does not support HTML5 video. SGMA is often misunderstood as a rigid, top-down mandate. In reality, it was designed around California’s variability in geology, climate

“We successfully automated almost every irrigation set last season,” said Andrew Oliver, Vineyard Manager at Antinori. “Lumo’s pump automation is an absolute game changer for our team,” agreed Hunter Emch, Northern Unit Area Manager at Redwood Empire Vineyard Management. REVM and Antinori are two early users of Lumo’s Pump Automation product, a powerful new integration with its smart valve platform that automates irrigation scheduling and execution from end to end. The solution has already been deployed at ranches ranging in size from 60 to 1,300 acres. Real-time, block-level flow and pressure data from Lumo smart valves is used to verify performance, dial in precision, and keep critical infrastructure safe. Over 150 ranches in Napa, Sonoma, the Central Coast, the Okanagan Valley and Washington State are already using Lumo’s precision irrigation system to close their execution gap, increase operational efficiency, and irrigate to plan. In July