Sonoma Valley’s Annadel Estate Winery sells for nearly $6M; SoCal winery moves to Mendocino; more North Bay business news

Dan Whalen and Katie Honey have purchased the 33-acre Annadel Estate Winery from Dean and Abi Bordigioni for $5.95 million.

The space at 6687 Sonoma Highway includes an event venue, a residence, a barn and a tasting room. Tastings continue to be available by appointment.

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Weatherborne Wine Corp., started in Santa Barbara in 2012, has opened a new tasting room (707-684-5299) in the Mendocino County community of Philo, located at the last operating lumber mill in the valley.

Weatherborne makes limited production, handcrafted pinot noir and grenache from coastal vineyards, first in the Santa Rita Hills and now Mendocino.

The tasting room is located at the I&E Lath Mill in “downtown” Philo, at 8750 Philo School House Road. Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, all tastings are currently on the weather-protected patio only.

Reservations are recommended as outside seating is limited.

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Easy Breezy Wash Barn in Santa Rosa has received SBA’s 504 program financing allowing the car wash operators to create four new, local jobs and to purchase a 3,993-square-foot facility located at 1240 Mendocino Ave. in Santa Rosa, the Bay Area Development Company stated.

The Santa Rosa location is the fourth for car wash owners Matthew Riveras and Daniel Brown. The company stated they joined forces in 1997 and opened their first car wash, Roseland Car Wash, in Santa Rosa. Riveras had worked in banking/lending for seven years and Brown previously ran a chiropractic practice for nearly 20 years.

In 2008 they opened College Car Wash in Cotati, followed by a third car wash in 2009. All three locations are self-serve so customers pay for soap and water and use the facility’s equipment to clean their vehicles. Car washes like this have increased in popularity over the years because the water is recycled, which reduces runoff and minimizes negative environmental impacts.

The company stated it completed the financing through the SBA in concert with Redwood Credit Union in Santa Rosa.

Bay Area Development Company, headquartered in Walnut Creek, is an SBA licensed lender that works with banks and the SBA’s 504 program to provide small and mid-sized companies with long term commercial real estate financing. The loans have fixed, below-market interest rates and low down payments which allow businesses to purchase land and buildings, renovate existing facilities and acquire equipment.

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Career Technical Education (CTE) Foundation, founded in 2013, has provided nearly $40,000 in grants to date to 18 local teachers benefiting 1,500 high school students to help address the need for engagement and hands-on learning during a time when students cannot be in the classroom.

In April, CTE Foundation launched a distance learning grant program designed to get materials to students to support such programs as maker, engineering, construction and design curriculum. The program was further expanded this fall to include all CTE programs aligned with key local economic sectors and workforce development needs (agriculture, advanced manufacturing/STEM, construction/green services, health care and hospitality/tourism).

The grants of up to $2,000 per course are designed to supply students with maker kits, tools, materials or other support needed to enhance distance learning curriculum and increase student engagement. Grant requests are still being accepted and will be offered until the full budget of $54,000 is expended.

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Approximately 9,500 rural well owners in Sonoma County will soon be receiving a survey designed to elicit their concerns and ideas about local ground water conditions. This joint project of the county’s three groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) is the first step in an engagement project designed to educate and receive feedback from well owners in the Petaluma Valley, Santa Rosa Plain and Sonoma Valley groundwater basins.

Rural well owners will receive a survey in the mail asking for their opinions on groundwater and groundwater management. Well owners can complete the survey in either English or Spanish, and return by mail or online.

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SolarCraft recently completed the design and installation of a 177.5-kilowatt DC solar electric system addition at St. Supéry Estate Vineyards & Winery in Rutherford in the Napa Valley.

The Marin–Sonoma company installer stated that the solar addition combined with the existing system brings St. Supéry’s solar production to 506.1 kilowatts, offsetting nearly 100% of the winery’s energy bills.

The company added that more than 156 metric tons of carbon dioxide will be eliminated during the life of the solar power system addition. This impact is equivalent to removing air pollution produced by over 387,000 miles of driving annually or the pollutants removed by 204 acres of trees in one year.

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Wine grape growers who battled smoke taint during the harvest should rely on a state agency document that spells out how to report their sales for the 2020 Grape Crush Report, according to a trade group.

California Association of Winegrape Growers has issued an alert to growers in areas affected by wildfire smoke who may have questions over how grape prices and tonnage will be reported for the annual survey that shows the value of the crop. In Sonoma County, some local growers renegotiated prices with wineries after the fires, while others went ahead to crush grapes on a contingency that the fruit would not later emit foul odors during fermentation.

“The grape crush report is extraordinarily important to growers and wineries, and it’s essential that information from the 2020 crush is reported timely and accurately,” said John Aguirre, president of the association.

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Kaiser Permanente Northern California and Southern California achieved the highest possible rating for overall quality of medical care in the annual Health Care Quality Report Card from California’s Office of the Patient Advocate.

For the 13th consecutive year, Kaiser Permanente’s two California plans have been the only plans to obtain the office’s highest rating. This year, Kaiser Permanente Northern California and Kaiser Permanente Southern California are the only two health plans in the state to receive a five-star rating for overall quality of clinical care.

The 2020-21 report card provides California consumers with side-by-side comparisons of the 16 largest HMOs and PPOs in the state. It rates them on national standard-of-care measures that involve treatment and prevention of a range of conditions that have significant implications for personal health.

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Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport recently received the Airport Health Accreditation from the Airports Council International.

Airport officials stated it is one of the first 12 airports in the U.S. and one of just three in the Western United States to earn this recognition. The council is the only global trade representative of the world’s airports.

It represents airports’ interests with governments and international organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization, develops standards, policies and recommended practices for airports, and provides information and training opportunities to raise standards around the world.

The council’s airport health accreditation process included completion of a survey with over 100 questions which required the submission of photographs and policies and procedures in categories such as cleaning and disinfection, physical distancing, staff protection, physical layout, passenger communications, and passenger facilities.