Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/990824
16 / the tasting panel / june 2018 INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT Sold to the Highest Bidder T he second installment of Willamette: The Pinot Noir Barrel Auction, a trade-only showcase of rare wines hosted by the Willamette Valley Wineries Association (WVWA), is a wrap. Sixty-nine Oregon producers contributed one-off Pinot Noirs from the lauded 2015 vintage for auction, drawing more than 400 attendees and raising close to half a million dollars for the regional association. El Tesoro Tequila Unveils New Look E l Tesoro de Don Felipe Tequila in May introduced a new bottle and label for its core expressions, including its El Tesoro Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo tequilas. The new packaging celebrates the brand's heritage and captures Founder Don Felipe Camarena's time-honored production methods. While the tequila remains the same, the new artisanal bottle and label visually communicate the traditional processes involved in making El Tesoro, including a tahona-stone closure to represent the traditional method of crushing piñas, agave flourishes to celebrate Camarena's estate-grown plants, and a batch number to acknowledge that each distillation of El Tesoro owes its unique flavor to the influence of Jalisco's climate and soil conditions. Scheid Family Wines Promotes Dave Nagengast To Vice President of Winemaking S cheid Family Wines (SFW) has announced the promotion of Dave Nagengast to Vice President of Winemaking. Nagengast has served as the company's Director of Winemaking since 2006 and will now direct the winemaking for all of SFW's individual wineries and brands, including Scheid Vineyards, Metz Road, District 7, Stokes' Ghost, VDR, Ranch 32, Ryder Estate, and GIFFT. Nagengast, who joined SFW in 2002 as a consulting winemaker, was an early adopter of sustainable farming and winemaking prac- tices. He previously held winemaking positions at Storrs Winery, Mirassou Vineyards, and San Martin Winery. Knife Pleat to Open at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California C osta Mesa, California's South Coast Plaza—the largest shopping mall on West Coast—has announced that Knife Pleat, a new French restaurant by chef Tony Esnault and restaurateur Yassmin Sarmadi, will open in early 2019. A power couple in Southern California's culinary scene, Esnault and Sarmadi are highly regarded for Spring and Church & State, two sought-after Downtown Los Angeles restau- rants that have earned stellar reviews from top critics. Both French restaurants have consistently placed in Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Jonathan Gold's annual "101 Best Restaurants" list for the Los Angeles Times. Knife Pleat, which will be located in the exclusive penthouse on the mall's third level, measures 5,000 square feet and will accommodate 90 guests. The name, meant to be a play on food and fashion, is bor- rowed from a term referring to a precise pleat with folds pressed in one direction.