Industry Webinar on Organic and Biodynamic Wines with Top Experts Monty Waldin and Paul Dolan: Oct. 18

I'm happy to announce that Women of the Vine & Spirits will be offering a webinar Oct. 18 on the organic and Biodynamic sectors of the wine industry.

The webinar is entitled "Double Digit Growth: What are Organic and Biodynamic Wines? And What's Driving the Sector's Expanding Sales?"

Though the organic sector is small in the U.S. - between one and two percent of sales and revenue - it's growing rapidly, while the rest of the industry is flat.

In the last year, Nielsen data shows U.S. off premise sales have grown 5% in revenue and 10% in volume from June 2017 to 2018.

Tim Widnes, beer and wine buyer for the Whole Foods Market in Mill Valley, and a longtime WOTVS contributor, and I are the co-organizers of the event. I'll also be the moderator.

This event is aimed at wine industry professionals and will cover very basic topics as well as the latest data, marketing and sales trends.

This event is open to all. It's free for members and $10 for non-members. Register online here.

This is a great opportunity to learn more about this growing sector of the wine industry for people who are new to the sector as well as for people who want to get in the know about the latest and greatest. Tell your friends, wine professors, wine lovers, sommeliers, wine store owners...

CATEGORY EXPERTS

Our stellar lineup includes experts on the organic and Biodynamic sectors as a whole:

• Paul Dolan, industry veteran and a pioneer in the fields of organic, sustainable and Biodynamic wine; in 1987, Dolan founded Bonterra (the industry leader, which has a 25% share of all off premise sales in the organic and Biodynamic sector)

• Monty Waldin, international organic and Biodynamic wine expert, Decanter leader for judging for Tuscan wines, and author of numerous books (Biodynamic Wine is the latest)

LEADING PRODUCERS

Panelists representing the winery perspective include:

• Anne Bousquet, President of Domaine Bousquet (the leading organic import from Argentina)

• Kristin Marchesi, President of Montinore Estate (the largest Biodynamic producer in the U.S., located in Oregon's Willamette Valley)

RETAILER PILOT

The webinar will also feature a cutting edge retailer's pilot project:

• Jeff Cameron, Wine and Beer Category manager, Natural Grocers

Natural Grocers is launching in-store wine shops featuring 100% certified organically or Biodynamically grown wines; its Denver store features 500 selections.