State agriculture officials plan to appeal a superior court judge's ruling that halts aerial spraying to eradicate the light brown apple moth in Monterey County until an environmental impact report can be completed.

AS THE WINE INDUSTRY CONTINUES to grow, wine industry salaries are also on the rise. Results of the 2007 Wine Business Monthly Wine Industry Compensation Survey Report reveal that 64.8 percent of wine industry jobs showed an increase in annual base pay versus 2006. The average wine industry raise was 3.8 percent, slightly higher than the national average increase, across all industries, of about 3.5 percent. The survey was conducted by Western Management Group (WMG), a Los Gatos, California-based research firm that has been conducting the survey since 1991. While the compensation increases have certainly been solid, there is a bit of an overall slowdown from recent WMG surveys. The pace is slightly lower in 2007 than 2006, which found that 64.2 percent of the jobs showed an increase in annual base pay, and the average raise was 5.4 percent. There has been a bigger slowdown since the 2005 survey, which found that 77 percent of the jobs showed an increase in annual base pay, and the average raise was 5.8 percent. Regardless, salaries continue to rise across the board for all major salary categories. [read more]

Small wineries, those under 10,000 cases, have to be extremely selective in the kind and amount of equipment they buy. Often hampered by budgets and a lack of physical space, micro-producers need to make sure that what they do buy is versatile, emphasizes quality (small producers tend to have higher retail price points) and doesn't take up too much space. Though many pieces of equipment will be the same among large and small wineries (tanks, hoses, pumps, fittings, barrels, basic lab equipment, for instance), the smaller producer sometimes has special needs and must therefore make strategic equipment purchases that will maximize their dollars spent as well as benefit the overall quality of their operation. The following is my "Top 11" (or to quote Spinal Tap, "Ours go to 11," as opposed to the usual 10) list of equipment, especially suited to small, high-quality wineries. I've purposefully left out the obvious. We all need some way to destem our red berries, press our reds and whites, and move the must or juice around the winery. I'm going to assume we've all got the uber-basics like presses, a pump or two, some fermentations vessels, enough barrels to store our hard-won juice as well as some basic lab equipment like a pH meter, some hydrometers and the international intern or two to keep track of it all. Some pieces mentioned here (imported intern not withstanding) are rather expensive while others cost just hundreds of dollars (like Macro Bins^™). All of them, however, will help smaller wineries make better wine, save money, conserve space, work more efficiently or all of the above. The intern, if he or she is worth their wages, will help you make better barbeque in addition to better wine. [read more]