Blog

European Union’s New Wine Labeling Requirements

Until 2024, exporting wines to Europe has including ensuring your labels are in line with that country’s laws. Now, as of January 1, the EU is also imposing a laundry list of items to put on your labels. First, you must write on your labels the list of allergens – eggs, milks, sulfites. Second, you […]

Read More

California Recycles!

Starting January 1, 2024, wineries that ship wine to California must follow its new recycling rules. Read further! First, if you send wines to California residents (for which you must have a direct shipper permit), you must register an account with the state’s recycling unit. Start setting aside $0.10452 (ten cents and four hundredth and […]

Read More

Beneficial Ownership Registration

States require businesses to register with them before operating in their states. Some states, like Delaware, offer significant protection of identities to the members or shareholders; others, like Oregon, favor ‘blue-sky’ theories of open disclosure. Congress now wants to open the doors of those shaded states’ entities but our PNW entities must join as well. […]

Read More

Silicon Valley Bank – I’m not worried (yet)

DISCLAIMER: My partner works in the banking industry. I’m not speaking on his behalf nor on behalf of the bank he works for. A recent blog article by an executive at Silicon Valley Bank gives the wine industry many reasons to smile. As many of you know, SVB is one of the first names we […]

Read More

Musings on Greater Idaho

Ever since the very close results in Wallola County on the Greater Idaho – Ballot Measure 32-007 is around a difference of 8 votes, as of May 31 – I have been thinking about the effect of Greater Idaho on those Oregon wineries and wine-drinkers in the proposed new territory. For those who aren’t aware, […]

Read More

OLCC Aligns with TTB on Tax Class

Finally…after years of begging, the Oregon legislature has aligned the tax class designations of wine to 16%, which is the current standard. For years, the TTB and OLCC mirrored each other with the percentage threshold of 14% for tax class (but the feds also classify artificially carbonated and naturally sparkling as different classes). As a […]

Read More

Oregon wines totally rock

You know this. You know I know this. But the statistics prove it out! The most recent Shanken database and forecast tell us that over the last year, Oregon wines grew nearly 13%, almost to 5.3 million cases. Keep in mind that the analysis is for 2021 sales, and thus wines likely produced in 2020 […]

Read More