Reminder - Dr. Keith Patterson at Western Colorado Horticultural Society Meeting - Thursday

Dr. Keith Patterson from Cal Poly State Viticulture Department will be speaking on Wine Grape
Canopy Management and Irrigation Practices, and Bob Hammon from the Western Colorado
Research Center will discuss the Grapeleaf Skeletonizer and the Japanese Beetle at the
Western Colorado Horticultural Society Meeting at the Two Rivers Convention Center on Thursday.

From CWIDB, 1/19/03 - Wine Samples
Gaylene Ore has forwarded the following names of wine writers looking for
samples of Colorado wine.  If you are interested, please contact the writers
or send out samples for consideration immediately.  Please note the request
by Jennifer Rozen of the Rocky Mountain News for tasting samples.

Also include on this list Harold Baer of the Colorado Wine News.  He usually
mentions at least one Colorado wine in every issue of his newsletter, as
long as he has new samples to taste.  His contact info is:

Harold Baer Jr.
Colorado Wine News, The
2280 Clermont
Denver, CO  80207
(303) 320-0775 / Fax: (303) 394-3807
E-mail: cowinenews@mindspring.com

Once again, I am starting the second round of purchasing a case of
promotional wine from each winery.  Please contact me to make arrangements.
Thanks!

Doug Caskey, executive director
Colorado Wine Industry Development Board
4550 Sioux Drive
Boulder, CO 80303-3733
Ph: 720.304.3406 / Fax: 720.304.3405
www.coloradowine.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Gaylene Ore [mailto:gaylene@orecommunications.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2003 4:53 PM
To: Doug Caskey
Subject: wine samples

Doug,
I have a couple of exciting opportunities for the wineries. The below
contacts would like to get some samples of wines for upcoming columns.
We realy need to get the wines to Darryl for a possible photo op in an
upcoming issue. Do you want me to send out an email or do you want to.
Gaylene

Darryl Beeson
901 Turner Ave.
Dallas, Texas 75208-3740
"Cowboys and Indians"

Wine X Magazine
Submit two 750 ml bottles (or the equivalent of 1.5L) of each
wine for review, along with stat sheets and suggested retail prices. No
exceptions.
Darryl Roberts
Wine X Magazine
880 Second St.
Santa Rosa, CA  95404

Jennifer Rozen
245 S. Garfield St.
Denver, CO 80209

Comment:  I get no budget from the Rocky for wine, so  if the wineries
around the state want their wines evaluated for possible recommendation,
they've got to send me some samples!  (A few of them do - Canyon Wind,
Grande River,  Plum Creek - but the majority don't.)
 

From CWIDB - 1/8/03 - California Sustainable Winegrape Growing Practices

I saw in the January 2003 Beverage Analyst a notice of the release of a
490-page, self-assessment workbook published jointly by The Wine Institute
and California Assoc. of Winegrape Growers containing questions and
information to assist growers in moving toward sustainable practices.  I
thought this was an exciting development in the quality improvement area.  I
have requested a copy of the workbook in its entirety.

In the meantime you can download the PDF version of the Introduction which I
have attached as well as get more information at
http://www.wineinstitute.org/communications/SustainablePractices/background.htm.
Many of you may already be familiar with this publication, but it is
news to me.  Sorry if I am beating a dead horse here.

Doug Caskey, executive director
Colorado Wine Industry Development Board

From CWIDB - 1/7/03 - more news and events

7.  You have probably heard from the Greeley Gala of Wines about pouring
your wines on January 31 in Greeley.  I will be available to pour wine for
any winery that is not able to send a representative or distributor to that
event.  Please let me know.

8.  I met with representatives of Liquor Enforcement this morning regarding
the fee increases they will be requesting for winery licenses.  They have
issued over 200 winery licenses in the last six months with no revenue
source to cover their time and paperwork.

Their proposal, which will need to go through a rule making hearing, will
charge limited Colorado wineries $70 annually for each additional tasting
room location beyond the initial license for the manufacturing location and
attached tasting room.  A winery would need additional licenses for each of
the tasting locations it operates concurrently.  So if your winery operates
a permanent tasting room on Saturdays while selling at two different Farmers
Markets also on Saturdays, you would need three $70 licenses, one for each
concurrently licensed premise.

Each limited winery is allowed five other licensed premises for tasting
rooms in addition to the winery location.  Currently, Liquor Enforcement
charges $70 for a permanent remote tasting room license, but not charging
for temporary licenses.  Under the new proposal, a winery might be liable
for up to $420 of licensing fees if you operated five remote tasting rooms,
permanent or temporary, at any one time in addition to selling wine out of
your winery.

The big change here is that tasting locations licensed repeatedly although
not continuously on the same premise will only need to pull one license and
submit one application.  For instance, if you license the lobby of a theatre
on a regular basis to sell your wines for each performance, that would be
one $70 licensed premise fee.  The same goes for Farmers Markets-your
license would be good for one location on each Saturday from 9 AM-1 PM
between April 1 and October 31, or whatever.  The catch here is that you
would need to give the local licensing authority 30 days prior notice for
this application.  As long as the local authority will sign off on the
"every Saturday" between certain dates or for "every Friday night when the
theatre has a performance" license application, you will only submit one
application and pay one fee for those tastings.

Each time a winery changes the location of a remote tasting room, however,
for temporary tasting locations in conjunction with liquor stores, art
galleries, charities, etc., Liquor Enforcement will impose a Change of
Location fee.  Dave Reitz is considering whether that Change of Location fee
should be the same as a three-beverage Special Events Permit fee ($25) or
the same as a 3.2 Beer Special Event Fee ($10), which is a single beverage
license, as limited winery tasting rooms are.

Dave, Matt Cook, Laura Harris and Don Pace are working on the details for
the Change of Location fee.  Today they proposed issuing a Tasting Room
license with space for the local authority to sign-off for each new location
if you merely presented the local authority with the letter of permission
you already have to get for a temporary tasting room.  Essentially, this
will make the single-winery temporary tasting location less attractive,
especially to those wineries that license numerous events at various
locations all by themselves.

No changes or fee increases have been proposed for the Wine Festival Permit,
so that will actually become a better option for wineries who want to do
tastings at varying locations.

As I mentioned, this proposal will require a rule-making hearing at some
point in the future.  At this time, Liquor Enforcement is soliciting your
input and response to the idea.  Fees will be increased, as the state is
desperately searching for new revenue sources.  A fee increase is probably
preferable to the excessive excise tax increases that many other states have
resorted to (300% excise tax increase in Alaska!).  Please direct your
comments and questions to me.  I will act as an intermediary with Liquor
Enforcement.

9.  Laura Harris made a brilliant proposal this morning to soften the
barriers between limited and manufacturing wineries.  She suggested altering
the Wine Festival Statute to allow the participation of manufacturing
wineries and the sale of their products instead of restricting wine
festivals to only limited winery participation as the statute currently
does.  Only limited wineries could apply for festival permit, keeping the
control of which wineries participate in the hands of Colorado Farm
wineries.  However, any licensed winery could participate in a festival.  We
would no longer have to rope off the manufacturers from the limited wineries
and force consumers to empty their glasses when passing across the imaginary
line between the separate licenses.

This idea will solve many problems without complicating or altering the
definitions of what a limited winery is.  Please let me know what you think
of this proposal.

10.  In answer to the many questions raised by the letter from Don Pace
about Internet marketing violations, here is what Don, Dave, Matt and Laura
all said this morning:  There is nothing illegal about having a web site or
about selling wine from your web site.  Regulations have been changed to
include the Internet as part of acceptable product advertising.  You do not
need to stop selling wine over the Internet.

Nevertheless, any winery selling over the Internet to consumers in Colorado,
and this includes wineries in Colorado and in California, can only sell to
consumers who have visited that winery's tasting room or licensed premise.
Liquor Enforcement suggested that you add a disclaimer or warning to your
sales area or shopping cart informing Colorado consumers that they must have
visited a location licensed by your winery in order to purchase wine over
the Internet.

Colorado Liquor Enforcement does not have jurisdiction over Internet sales
you make to consumers outside Colorado.  Those sales are under the
jurisdiction of the liquor control agency in the recipient's state.  I will
try to answer any questions you may still have about this, but your best bet
is to talk directly to Don Pace (303.205.2363).

Doug Caskey, executive director
Colorado Wine Industry Development Board

nmj -01/21/2003