This time of year, the sponsoring organizations of the Rich Smith Distinguished Service Award meet with Claudia Smith and Jason Smith, wife and son of Rich Smith, to plan the annual award honoring his legacy. It’s always a welcome opportunity for us to recall a remarkable leader and his positive impact on our industry, and […]
Projects Underway
2022 Rich Smith Distinguished Service Award Nominations Open
2022 Nominations Accepted through October 29, 2021 Richard (Rich) Smith, founder of Valley Farm Management, Paraiso Vineyards and Smith Family Wines in California’s Santa Lucia Highlands wine region, was first and foremost a family man, and also a successful grape grower and winery owner, and a respected colleague. Through his significant and selfless contributions of time, energy […]
A Light in the Dark
August 2021 As the start of the grape harvest—typically a time of celebration—August seems to have brought a shroud of darkness. The late summer sunshine has been overshadowed by devastating flooding, deadly wildfires and extreme heat. It can be hard to find any positivity. This month, a report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on […]
Mid-Year Milestones
July 2021 On June 28, 2021, NGRA’s Board of Directors held its Mid-Year Meeting, virtually of course. Even with an abbreviated agenda for Zoom, we manage to cover a lot of ground at our Board meetings, and this one was no exceptions. Here are highlights from our June meeting, focusing on what’s new and what […]
So Close and Yet So Far
June 2021 On June 15, 2021, California reopened. Covid restrictions were lifted and, just like that, life started to return to normal. Six days later, we held our joint Precision Viticulture Symposium with the American Society for Enology and Viticulture…virtually. (More on the symposium here.) When we first announced the event, it was planned to […]
Precision Viticulture: Inputs or Outputs?
At the ASEV-NGRA Precision Viticulture Symposium, held virtually on June 21, 2021, two keynote presentations bookended the day. Rob Bramley, a Senior Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) in Australia, opened the event with remarks on “Precision Viticulture and Beyond – Digital Approaches to Winegrowing.” (He noted that “Winegrowing, to […]
New-Scientist Engagement Series Installment No. 2: HEAT!
NGRA continues our New-Scientist Engagement Series with a lunchtime (Pacific Time) talk on Monday, July 26, 2021, with the timely theme of “HEAT!” These events are designed to introduce NGRA Board and Research Committee members (and any industry stakeholders who are interested in attending) to newer scientists (and/or newer work) supporting grape-related research programs and […]
NGRA, The Movie
May 2021 I’ve always felt that starting a new job is like watching a foreign movie in subtitles. At first, you’re desperately focused on the words on the screen, uncomfortably aware that the action is flying by as you struggle to keep up. Then suddenly, somewhere along the way, it starts to gel. You’re not […]
Schedule of Our 2021 Meetings and Events
Did you know that all NGRA meetings, including Board meetings, are open to the public? If you’re interested in attending, let us know. Annual Meeting of the Members and First-of-Year Board Meeting 2021 Monday, January 25, 2021 | Zoom Preceding the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, January 26-29, 2021 (virtual event) NGRA New-Scientist Engagement Series […]
Time (And a Brood of Cicadas) Flies
April 2021 A news story this month stopped me in my tracks. As reported by The New York Times, tens of billions of cicadas, called Brood X, is set to emerge any day now across the Eastern U.S. Aside from the biblical connotations of swarms of locusts, the thought is mind-boggling: these creatures went underground […]