High-profile veteran of the wine country hospitality industry, Laura Cunningham, is slated to leave her post as director of operations of the French Laundry Group at the end of the month.

Jim Concannon has been in the wine industry his entire life. Literally. His family had been producing wine for 50 years when he was born.

To the delight of local carnivores, Copia has adopted “Steaks, Chops and Cabernet” as its theme and wine-and-food-pairing focus this month.

A number of references were made to the globalization of wine during the 15th annual Wine Industry Financial Symposium last week at the Meritage Resort — indeed, that was the theme of the meeting: “Growth and Profit Strategies in a Maturing Global Industry.” But none were as potentially provocative as one by Donny Sebastiani when he said wine appellations around the world are coming out with wines competitive with Napa’s at lower prices.

The annual “Diamonds in the Rough” dinner gala hosted by Diamond Creek Vineyards last weekend raised more than $200,000 for the Parkinson’s Institute in Sunnyvale.