Gundlach Bundschu hires general manager from Napa

Gundlach Bundschu hires general manager

The parent company of the Gundlach Bundschu Winery in Sonoma has hired Towle Merritt as vice president of operations and general manager for its wine brands.

Towle had worked as general manager of Walsh Vineyards Management in Napa, helping oversee ?600 employees and vineyard services for more than 5,000 acres on 170 properties. He is a graduate of Sonoma State University’s executive wine industry MBA program.

The company’s brands include Gundlach Bundschu, California’s oldest family-owned winery, as well as Abbot’s Passage and Echo Echo.

UC Davis researchers release 5 new grape varieties

UC Davis researchers have released five new varieties of wine grapes designed to be highly resistant to Pierce’s disease. The disease is transmitted by glassy-winged and blue-green sharpshooters, which deposit bacterium into a vine. The disease costs California growers more than $100 million annually.

Researchers crossed grapevine species from the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. It took 20 years to develop the new grape species.

The three new red varieties are camminare noir, paseante noir and errante noir. The two new white grape varieties are ambulo blanc and caminante blanc.

Merryvale Vineyards in ?St. Helena hires winemaker

Merryvale Vineyards has hired Andrew Wright as winemaker for the family-owned St. Helena winery.

Wright has worked for the last seven years at Harlan and Bond Estates, Promontory and The Napa Valley Reserve.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Arizona before studying winemaking at UC Davis.

He will oversee production and winemaking operations for Merryvale wines and work closely with consulting winemaker Philippe Melka, who has been collaborating with Merryvale since 2016.

Compiled by Bill Swindell. Submit items to bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com.