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w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m S e p t - O c t 2 014 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 1 3 With California coming off two record har- vests in 2012 and 2013 and cluster counts this year indicating another large crop, many busi- nesses are feeling the squeeze – stainless steel tank producers in particular. "We've been asked to fabricate three times our normal capacity each of the last three years, and we've been maxed out on orders earlier and earlier each year," said Scott Dapelo of Quality Stainless Tanks in Windsor, Calif. Dapelo said that it has been impossible to keep up with demand. "For the last six months, I've spent at least an hour each morning dealing with requests for quotes saying, 'I'm sorry. I don't think we're going to be able to help you,'" he said. Dapelo noted the company has been looking for a larger facility to help meet the increased demand. Nathan Williams at Santa Rosa Stainless Steel in Santa Rosa, Calif., said it's the same all over the industry. "Everybody has pretty much had the same kind of year," he said. "We've turned away a bunch of work just because of how fast we booked up. Usually we can book up to harvest, maybe even into October, but this year we were pretty much booked through the end of the year by March." W i l l i a m s s a i d h e e x p e c t s t h e demand to continue at least into 2015. "I know there are a couple big jobs out there that didn't get fulfilled, and they are already looking at next year because they didn't get them this year," he said. Though the large harvests have also increased demand for oak bar- rels, it has not created the same types of pressures. "There's defi- nitely more demand but the wood is there, at least in terms of French," said Martin McCarthy, national sales director at Tonnellerie Radoux. "There is some really, really seri- ous pressure for American." Capacity Crush in California BY SEAN P. SULLIVAN NEWS FLASH Door Opens to DTC Shipping in Massachusetts Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has signed a budget bill that includes provisions allowing for limited winery-to-consumer shipments. As of January 2015, adult residents can purchase wines directly from wineries licensed by the state to ship. The law recon- ciles the state's shipping statutes with the 2008 court ruling in Family Winemakers of California vs. Jenkins, which declared the production capacity cap provision of the law to be discriminatory and unconsti- tutional. California to Allow Underage Students to Taste Wine California's state senate has voted to allow enology students under the age of 21 to sample wine, provided they spit it out afterward. The ruling was prompted by a campaign led by UC Davis enology profes- sor Andrew Waterhouse. Under the new legislation, students must be over 18 and must taste the wine in an educational institution. Wine Tasting OK'd at Farmers Markets California Governor Jerry Brown has signed an urgency measure allowing winegrowers who bottle their own wines to conduct instruc- tional tastings at the state's farmers markets. Assembly Bill 2488 expands a provision of state law allowing the sale of estate-grown wine at farmers markets. Wine industry groups said the inability to offer samples hurt sales in an industry in which customers are accus- tomed to a taste. Wine Spectator Foundation Donates $3 Million to SSU The Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation has pledged a $3 million gift to Sonoma State University (SSU). The gift will support the con- struction of the new home for SSU's Wine Business Institute, which will be named the Wine Spectator Learning Center. For more industry news briefs, visit the News Flash page on V&WM's website: http://www.vwmmedia.com/magazine/web-exclusive1.asp.