I'm excited to share that VINTAGE², The Weinheimer Group's AI Marketing Readiness Model for the wine industry, has been recognized with a Gold Merit Award in the 2026 Business Merit Awards in the Business Strategy category. The Merit Awards recognize organizations demonstrating excellence in innovation, strategy, and measurable business impact across industries.

What makes this recognition especially meaningful is that VINTAGE² wasn't created to chase AI trends. It was built to solve a practical problem: How do wineries become visible, trusted, and discoverable in an AI-first world?

Over the past six months, VINTAGE² has evolved into an eight-step framework that helps wineries:

• Measure their AI visibility.

• Build authoritative brand narratives.

• Optimize for AI search and generative discovery.

• Create evergreen content that compounds over time.

• Turn AI visibility into business growth.

Thank you to every winery, association, client, partner, and colleague who trusted me, my new model, and showed a new willingness to be curious about AI.