North Bay Business Journal

RB Wine’s Rack & Riddle Wine Services installed a 20,000-square-foot canopy over the crush area.

“If there is a large amount of fruit that comes in at the same time and it’s not all able to get to the press, we’re able to get it under shade before it reaches the presses,” said co-owner Bruce Lindquist.

The 2008 expansion was funded by VinREIT, a subsidiary of publicly traded Entertainment Properties Trust of Kansas City, Mo., which invested $6.9 million in RB Wine’s continued expansion in Hopland. VinREIT acquired the facility in April 2007 for $12.2 million, and RB Wine signed a 10-year lease.

The new crush area also was configured so the juice and skins can more efficiently be moved to the existing red-wine portion of the Rack & Riddle facility. Part of making room for Piper-Sonoma included preparing a 30,000-square-foot white and sparkling wine cellar in the winery.

Such gains in efficiency are important as the client list has grown to about 30 – Longboard, Bogle and Dark Horse are a few – and production increased from about 80,000 cases when the winery opened barely before the 2007 crush to 320,000 this year. Many of the clients produce 2,000 to 5,000 cases annually.

The big addition this year was the Piper-Sonoma sparkling wine brand, which moved from its longtime stint at J Vineyard near Healdsburg. Bottling of bubbly amounted to 180,000 cases this year, with a small part of that being a private-label sparkler RB Wine wants to market to wineries as a tasting-room item.

The smaller-than-expected harvest this year allowed for enough fruit to be assembled to offer a North Coast sparkling wine, but the goal is to bottle appellation- or style-specific sparklers on which vintners or companies can affix their labels, according to Mr. Lindquist.

Additional tanks would be needed to reach the production goal of 400,000 cases for 2009. However, that growth will depend on landing new clients, which hadn’t been successful until the winery was first ready for grapes and the expansion completed.

A question mark for custom wine processors is the impact of the recession and global credit availability on newer high-end vintners, who often make their wines at others’ facilities.

Retail and restaurant wine sales data point to shifting consumption patterns, such as fewer purchases and lower bottle prices for mid-priced wines, according to industry research group Gomberg Fredrikson & Associates.

“We share the concerns about the 2009 economy,” Mr. Lindquist said. “So far we’re meeting the challenge successfully.”

Adam Braunstein, general manager of Bin to Bottle in south Napa, said the economy and crimp on credit hasn’t affected the 45 producers that make wine at his facility. That could change next year.

“With the economy being down, we’ll see that some people getting brands going will be challenging,” he said.

Currently, Bin to Bottle plans to have Andrews & Thornley Construction of Napa break ground in spring on a 20,000-square-foot barrel warehouse, according to Mr. Braunstein.

Set for completion by the 2009 harvest, the warehouse will fulfill the original plan for the facility.

Three other large custom wineries are under construction or about to be.

Carneros View Vineyards on about 180 acres at 4204 Stage Gulch Road near Sonoma is building a 52,000-square-foot winery that would have capacity to bottle 250,000 cases annually and produce 2.4 million gallons for bulk sale. VinREIT invested $8.5 million into the project, according to company filings and public records.

Sonoma Wine Co. in Graton is approaching the end of a $10 million project to increase production while dramatically reducing water and energy use and wastewater production.

The Schutz family, who operates the Barrel Stop Winery custom crush facility at 210 Camino Oruga in south Napa, is seeking permits to build a two-building winery able to produce up to 42,000 cases annually at 622 Trancas St. at the north end of the city, according to public documents.

One building would have a barrel room, administrative offices and a tasting facility. The other would contain the winery.

The Schutz family acquired the property from Johnny and Linda Miller, who had sought to put a like-sized winery there called Casa las Trancas.