THIS MONTH'S EDITION of Wines & Vines truly offers insights from the vineyard all the way to the wine glass. 

Glasses in particular are well covered with a package of stories on how to ensure your tasting room staff present the best pour possible with crystal-clean glasses. Glasswashers may not seem like a pivotal piece of winery equipment, but a practical piece of commentary on page 36 by John Stallcup makes the case that a glasswasher may in fact be the most important piece of equipment at your winery.

The Product Focus report on page 38 details new glasswashers as well as other equipment for cleaning and buffing glassware. This month's report was by the newest member of Wines & Vines' editorial team, Stacy Briscoe, who joined the magazine in April. Briscoe has previously written for several other publications including The San Francisco Chronicle and was selected as a fellow for the 2018 Symposium of Professional Wine Writers.

This being our annual technology issue we took a look at what tech helps drive wine sales, and Briscoe wrote this month's cover story about technology in the tasting room. Winery owners have plenty of options for picking a system to handle point-of-sale, wine club management, direct-to-consumer and other sales and marketing operations but they likely will need to do a fair amount of due diligence to find just the right system that fits their business and tasting room.

On the vineyard side, our Practical Winery & Vineyard section features an interesting book excerpt about how heavy-input farming has harmed soils around the world. As scientists have gained a better understanding of soil microbes and the dynamic relationship between plants and the organisms living in the soil, it's become clear that even depleted soils can be brought back to better health.

For anyone interested in using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for vineyard monitoring, the second half of Brock University professor Andrew Reynolds's series on UAVs and vineyard mapping on page 60 is a must read. Reynolds focuses on an Ontario study of UAVs used for vineyard mapping that resulted in a wealth of information and maps that growers can leverage for a variety of uses. It actually appears that one challenge could be too much data and maps.

This month's magazine also contains a new feature we're calling Unpacking Packaging on page 56 in which we focus on a new brand, redesign or signature bottling and highlight the packaging suppliers, designers and bottling technology that went into getting the wine ready for market. This feature continues Wines & Vines longstanding commitment to covering the packaging segment of the wine industry.

And speaking of packaging, I'd be remiss if I didn't invite everyone in the industry to join the Wines & Vines team for our fifth annual packaging conference on Aug. 9 at the Lincoln Theater in Napa Valley. We have another great line up of speakers this year including winemaker Randall Grahm, packaging experts from Nielsen and several other sessions all designed to help you not only make your wine look its best but also sell.

The conference has proved to be one of the highlights of our year, and I sincerely hope you'll join us for an opportunity to network with your peers and raise a glass to the coming harvest. We'll make sure it's a clean one!

-Andrew Adams