WiVi Central Coast 2018 Features Industry Leaders

Nearly 200 wine symposium exhibits expected on March 21

WiVi Central Coast Conference & Tradeshow returns this month to the Paso Robles Event Center on Wednesday, March 21. Considered the premier wine and viticulture symposium and largest south of San Francisco, the event will offer attendees nearly 200 exhibits, educational seminars and networking opportunities for winemakers, grape growers, winery owners and managers.
Sponsored by Wine Business Monthly and Rhone Rangers, the one-day seminar will take place at the Paso Robles Event Center at 2198 Riverside Drive in Paso Robles. Among the sessions available in the 45,000 square-foot-space will be presentations by industry leaders that will cover enology, regional viticulture and direct-to-consumer information, plus insight on the latest trends and technology within the business.

The event will open with registration and breakfast, starting at 7:30 a.m. Afterward, keynote speaker Leslie Sbrocco will educate and engage the audience with round-the-world adventures and an upbeat delivery that will focus on Central Coast wines. Sbrocco authored the award-winning book, Wine for Women: A Guide to Buying, Pairing and Sharing Wine. She has also appeared on numerous television shows as an expert and panel judge, won three Emmys for her PBS restaurant review show, “Check Please!” and lends wine expertise to major corporations and wine competitions worldwide.
Keynote speakers Adam Firestone and David Walker of Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Paso Robles will explain how their brand has flourished amid California’s burgeoning wine country. Familiar to many as a force in the Central Coast craft beer industry, Firestone is both an employer and philanthropic sponsor to area nonprofits.
Keynote speaker Robert Trone, CEO of Total Wine & More, will bring his from-the-roots up expertise that has yielded a $3-billion-dollar enterprise of 174 wine superstores and 5,000 employees that sustain the largest independently-owned alcoholic beverage chain in America. In two decades, $50 million of in-kind and monetary donations has helped support local, regional and national charitable organizations.

Attendees can enjoy meet-and-greet opportunities with top winemakers at the Trial Tastings in the WiVi Café and Wine & Beer Garden. This segment offers a sneak peek of what winemakers are doing in the vineyard and cellar to elevate quality in ways that will be discovered in the bottle, and everyone can get look at the newest products to finesse their wine pairings. A tasting fee of $5 will apply at the Trial Tastings.
In DTC Session 1, prolific wine entrepreneur and CEO Lesley Berglund of WISE Academy will discuss how to sell in a competitive environment and address how technology, staff training and retention, and compensation and incentives have affected the sales channel. DTC Session 2 that will evaluate sales channels used to most effectively promote branding. Speakers include Liz Mercer (WISE Academy), Maeve Pesquera (DAOU Vineyards & Winery) and Tim Snider (Fess Parker Winery). In DTC Session 3, Steve Gross of Wine Institute will discuss Direct-to-Consumer Shipping: The Dos and Don’ts and the effect of state government policies nationwide. An interactive question-and-answer opportunity will help guide the discussion.

In Winemaking Session 2, Phenolics 2.0 will provide practical, user-friendly data and examine how the measurement and manipulation of these compounds — from vineyard to glass – all lend to the structure of wines in mouthfeel, color and taste.
Winemaking Session 3 will offer a Varietal Focus Tasting, which will bring together nine Central Coast red and white Rhone-style wines, which are exploding in popularity in Paso Robles. Bonny Doon Vineyard, Caliza Winery, Epoch Estate Winery, Foxen Winery, Grey Wolf Cellars, Kukkula Winery, Lone Madrone Winery and Tobin James Cellars wines will be presented by Lance Cutler of Wine Business Monthly.
Wrapping up the informative seminar will be a relaxed Firestone Beer Garden Reception in the Event Center’s Mission Plaza, beginning at 3:30 p.m.
Registrations are available at the door, but online registrations are strongly encouraged and available through Friday, March 14. Early Bird Session Passes, which include a Trade Show Pass, are available for $295 or $345/Regular Price. Trade Show Only passes are available for $40/Early Bird or $50/Regular Price. For refunds, a $25 processing fee will apply for each Session cancellation. No refunds allowed for Trade Show Only cancellations.

For more information, visit wivicentralcoast.com