Warehouse wineries take root

<p>When apple-processor Vacu-Dry abandoned the corner of Gravenstein Highway and Occidental Road in Sebastopol in 1999, it was a long-in-coming sign of Sonoma County's changing agricultural landscape.</p><p>The switch from apples to grapes is nothing new. But the old Vacu-Dry's transformation into a burgeoning artisan wine community is -- a coming together of small wineries focused particularly on small-lot pinot noir.</p><p>With the eagerly anticipated addition of superstar pinot producer Kosta Browne this summer, things are starting to really rock at 2064 Gravenstein Highway.</p><p>"We've always needed our own home," said Kosta Browne's Dan Kosta, who along with partner Michael Browne is renovating 20,000 square feet of open space in Building 3.</p><p>"There are so many good wines coming out of there," he added. "And locationwise, if you're making wine from Russian River or Sonoma Coast fruit, it doesn't get any better than there."</p><p>A collection of six warehouse buildings spread across 66 acres with lots of loading space, its own wastewater system and agricultural zoning, the old Vacu-Dry is a dream site for winemaking.</p><p>"It's the creme de la creme of folks," said Ross Halleck of Halleck Vineyard, a small pinot noir producer that's been making its wines here since 2002.</p><p>"We rub shoulders in the lab and share experiences and customers and distributors. It's really a collaborative environment."</p><p>A sentiment echoed by Kosta, who said, "There's that whole kind of borrowing a cup of sugar from your neighbor sort of thing."</p><p>Halleck began making wine at the facility when it was known as Greg &amp; Greg, a custom crush site run by winemaker Greg La Follette and viticulturist Greg Bjornstad, who had worked together at Newton and Flowers and later formed their own label called Tandem, which they made at Greg &amp; Greg.</p><p>Top-shelf pinot producer WesMar was a neighbor. Ed Selyem's follow-up to Williams Selyem, with daughter Denise Mary and son-in-law Kirk Wesley Hubbard, set up shop in another one of the empty buildings in 2000.</p><p>Halleck first sold grapes to the Gregs for Tandem in 2001. The accolades that followed the release of the 2001 Tandem Halleck Vineyard Pinot Noir helped put Halleck's grapes on the map and inspired him to start his own wine project the following year.</p><p>The Gregs sold their facility in 2004 to John Tracy of Owl Ridge Wines. Inheriting such a rich base of winemaking clients -- not to mention a fair amount of capital equipment and space -- Tracy, a retired high-tech entrepreneur and newly minted vintner, decided he'd make his own wines there and continue the custom crush side of the business as well.</p><p>"I wasn't interested in building a winery from scratch and the Gregs were needing to focus on their label," Tracy explained. "We have a lot of embryonic producers here. We're taking the chocolate mess away from people wanting to make wine."</p><p>The offshoot of Tracy's own label, Owl Ridge Wine Services now serves about 34 winery clients, including such local pinot specialists as MacPhail Family Wines and DuNah, in addition to Halleck.</p><p>"The upside of having so many winemakers here is it's kind of like a symposium where everyone shares their thoughts on what's new," said Joe Otos, the winemaker for Owl Ridge and its sister label, Willowbrook Cellars.</p><p>It's also a small world after all, with Otos having already been acquainted with many of his neighbors -- he's known Stewart Dorman over at Adrian Fog Winery, for example, since the days when Dorman drove the tram at Benziger, which coincidentally stores barrels at the old Vacu-Dry.</p><p>Otos also knew Doug Peters of Peters Family Winery through some shared vineyard sources, while Dan Kosta of Kosta Browne used to buy Otos' chardonnay when he was the wine buyer over at Willi's Wine Bar and John Ash.</p><p>"It's been quite helpful as a place to learn, to keep you on that forefront, to see what other people are doing," Otos added. "Each year the wines are getting better and better."</p><p>All the winemaking is nicely accented by fellow Vacu-Dry denizens such as Redwood Hill Farm, which converted 30,000 square feet into a big-time creamery. Its nearby goat farm supplies the milk to keep up with increasing demand for Redwood Hill's celebrated cheese, yogurt and other goat milk products.</p><p>The creamery is also one of the few places open to the public for tours, with the next one scheduled for Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.</p><p>There's talk of putting in a cooperative tasting room for the wineries, which can't officially be visited, but it remains for now just talk.</p><p>Apples also live on in the form of SnackSalad's Apple Crisps; the food company also puts out Snapea Crisps, found readily among the aisles at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Apple processor Manzana Products is here too, a throwback to the old Vacu-Dry days, turning out apple juice, applesauce, apple cider and apple cider vinegar.</p><p>But wine dominates, especially pinot, accounting for about 60 percent of what's made under Owl Ridge's roof. Another 25 percent is cabernet sauvignon, with barrels here and there of chardonnay, riesling, gewurztraminer, ros&amp;#xE9;, viognier and syrah.</p><p>The preponderance of pinot noir, a grape prickly by nature, makes this community of wine people particularly tight.</p><p>"There's this holy grail myth and pinot maps pretty closely to that," Halleck said. "Since we're all pursuing that it adds to the camaraderie. It's that elusiveness of pinot and we're all hitting it. It's hard to find a bad glass of wine in this place."</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Virginie Boone at 521-5440 or virginie.boone@pressdemocrat.com.</p>