NEWS FETCH

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• Capitol Alert: The latest on California politics and governmentCheck in here for the Sacramento Bee’s latest pathetic news on the legislative clowns who’ve turned California into a banana republic.

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• Chalk Hill For Sale, Foley Leading Suitor | Wine Industry Insight: [...] Neither Chalk Hill’s owner, famed attorney Fred Furth nor a spokesman denied that the winery was for sale unlike
• tom merle: Lew, You've got get beneath these press releases and FAQs and do some investigative reporting. The new company is benefiting
• GAME OVER: RACKE KAPUTT.
• Steve Winston, The Spanish Table: It will be interesting to see if Eric Kingsley will be able to argue that Matt Gallo who has grown

ABOUT WINE INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Wine Industry Insight doesn't hold news for a set publication date. You get the news immediately because we publish articles to our web site (http://wineindustryinsight) as soon as we write them.

In addition, our broad-based, opt-in email subscribers get the most important stories directly. On average, we send major stories about twice a week.

At Wine Industry Insight, we strive to be a tool for you to manage your business. New custom-crush facilities, innovative financing, market data, mergers, acquisitions, sales and other news that helps you understand the environment you're working in.

WII gives you all the news -- good and bad -- to help keep you from being blind-sided.

Wine is not recession-proof. No matter how much you'd like to believe that, the data simply prove it incorrect. What's more, the current economic environment is battering finances, credit lines, vineyard and winery sales and a lot more.

How are banks changing financial ratios and underwriting criteria? How far are vineyard sale prices dropping? Which wine categories are selling and which ones are in the tank (and likely to stay there as bulk market orphans)?

Bankruptcy filings are on the increase and attorneys who practice in that field tell Wine Industry Insider that the rate will accelerate this year. Industry veterans will remember a similar period beginning in the milder economic downturn in 1989.

In 1991, Wine Business Insider (founded by WII's editor and publisher Lewis Perdue) found that nearly 20 percent of North Coast wineries at that time were in Chapter 11, or seeking partners, mergers or outright sales in order to avoid bankruptcy.

WII's bankruptcy reporting offers its readers quick, complete reporting on debtors and their creditors.

Wine Industry Insight's agreement with Information Resources Inc. and our policy of publishing guarantees the most current wine sales data available. In addition, WII's custom analysis filters through IRI's abundance of numbers to locate the most relevant data and useful context.

Wine Industry Insight's editor and publisher, Lewis Perdue, founded Wine Business Monthly and Wine Business Insider in 1991. After their sale in 1997, he concentrated on writing books and serving as founder or co-founder of two technology corporations and as a start-up consultant to several others.

But during this time, Perdue maintained his contacts within the industry and continued to follow it. Among other topics, Perdue's 1999 book on the wine industry, The Wrath of Grapes, accurately predicted the timing and extent of the millennial winegrape oversupply.

Perdue has been an award-winning journalist, and Washington correspondent covering the White House and Capitol Hill. He has also served as a columnist for The Wall Street Journal Online, The Street.Com, Marketwatch and other business and financial media.

In addition to his journalism experience, Lew founded and managed a Los Angeles-based wine import/wholesale firm, has been a negociant and has hands-on business start-up and management experience.

That experience allows Lew to examine news, data and trends with insight shaped by experience.

Wine Industry Insight founder Lewis Perdue is proud that Wine Business Monthly and the Insider remain the dominant trade publications for the North American wine business.

So, rather than competing with those, Perdue sees WII as a complementary information source which relies on his particular skill-set and experience.

In order to supplement -- rather than duplicate -- coverage, Lew continues to listen to his readers, to examine the information published by WBM, WBI and their sister magazine, Wines & Vines.

As a result Perdue’s goal is to supplement available information with additional useful and in-context information.