Wine: Napa printer acquires St. Helena firm; 3-liter ‘Mini-Barrel’ offered

Printing Services Napa Valley at the beginning of April acquired St. Helena commercial printer Albright Printing & Design from Tim Doran, whose family started it as Doran’s Printing, sold it in November 2002 and regained ownership recently.

Mark Foxworthy, proprietor of Printing Services Napa Valley, said the acquisition will help his firm serve upvalley winery clients, pick up more wine industry accounts and expand into commercial printing of business communications and forms. His 14-year-old company has been printing stationery for winery clients on a limited basis as an extension of the printer’s focus on the use of specialty papers, inks and other embellishments. Another key account of Doran’s/Albright is the city of St. Helena.

Mr. Foxworthy hired Shelley van Rijn, a key wine account executive at Albright.

Printing Services Napa Valley also is expanding in Napa. In October 2006, Mr. Foxworthy expanded his parents’ small printing business with the transfer of equipment and top staff from Schiek Printing. At press time, he was negotiating to purchase a 6,500-square-foot building. The firm added a Heidelberg computer-to-plate system two months ago and plans to add a large-format digital press in the new location.

Plans to get into printing pressure-sensitive, or sticker-style, labels is “right around the corner,” according to Mr. Foxworthy. Many label printers have moved to such labels in the past several years because of winery demand for easier-to-apply labels versus glue-applied on bottling lines. However, vintners and printers have been grappling with the waste created from discarded plastic backing for the sticker labels, and more printers are offering to take it off the wineries’ hands. There’s also the potential for high labor costs associated with removing sticker labels after an error.

And Mr. Foxworthy isn’t convinced that the wet-glue solutions found for high-speed bottling lines won’t be applied to newer smaller-scale lines.

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Several new North Coast wineries and tasting rooms have opened or received a green light recently.

Jackson Family Wines received Sonoma County approval for a winery and tasting room in Knights Valley. The PlumpJack Group, which operates PlumpJack Winery and has a number of restaurant and hospitality ventures in Napa Valley, San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, opened its 12,500-case Cade Winery on Howell Mountain on the east side of Napa Valley.

The long-anticipated Healdsburg Plaza tasting room for Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery is set to open today. Renovation work started in January for Seasons of the Vineyard Tasting Bar & Boutique, which also features wines from Don and Rhonda Carano’s Anderson Valley brand Lazy Creek Vineyards, acquired last summer.

Reynaldo Robledo, a Sonoma Valley-based vintner and viticulturist, owns about 200 acres in Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties. On April 23 he is set to appear before the Lake County Planning Commission regarding a use permit for a 15,000-case winery, tasting room, commercial kitchen and 12 events annually at 2970 Stone Drive in Lakeport.

Paul Manuel and Jeff Smith, who makes sparkling wine for V. Sattui in St. Helena and consults for other vintners, expanded to their new 15,000-case-a-year custom winery Kelseyville Wine Co. on Gaddy Lane in the Lake County community of Kelseyville.

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In wine packaging news, 585 Wine Partners of Sonoma launched a 3-liter “Mini-Barrel” format for the Red Truck brand in Wal-Mart Stores’ Sam’s Club chain, with a wider retail rollout planned this year. The 3-liter “premium wine cask” is one the fastest-growing wine segments, particularly in grocery stores, according to The Nielsen Co. Other contenders include Trinchero Family Estates, which makes the Wine Cube for Target, and the “mini tank” produced by MAS Wine Co. of Cloverdale.

J Vineyards & Winery in Russian River Valley make a bold move with the signature “J” swoosh on the label by going with a traditional luxury label look, designed by CF Napa.

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Andrews & Thornley Construction of Napa in mid-March started reconstruction on Napa Valley Vintners’ new headquarters in the former Jackse Winery in St. Helena. The historic structure is being remade over the next 12 months, with LEED green-building certification the goal.

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The Academy of Wine Communications, a Napa-based trade group for wine marketing and publicity professionals, has new officials as the organization looks to expand membership beyond Napa and Sonoma counties and reach new-generation media such as blogs and social networks. The group has appointed Michael Wangbickler of Balzac Communications in Napa as executive director and Napa-based Lisa Adams Walter of Adams Walter Communications as assistant director.

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In wine shipping news, Inertia Beverage Group of Napa launched WineREvolution.com to allow restaurants and retailers in 12 states to purchase 60-plus brands not commonly distributed via traditional wholesalers.

Bacchus Fulfillment, an American Canyon-based wine shipping company started by Spencer Kinch and Annette Geisner-Kinch in 2004, now offers shipments to 40 countries.

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Cork stopper distributor M.A. Silva Corks USA in Santa Rosa was certified by the Green Business Program Sonoma County, coordinated by the Sonoma County Economic Development Board and the Business Environmental Alliance. The program, part of a Bay Area-wide effort, allows businesses to gain outside verification of adherence to an 11-page checklist of environmentally friendly practices in water, energy and resource conservation, waste reduction and pollution prevention.

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Monica Rosenthal is the new executive director of the Lake County Winery Association, a two-year-old trade group that now includes 25 members and 13 associate members. She has 17 years of wine industry experience, including managing Beaulieu Vineyard’s club, hospitality and publicity oversight for Buena Vista Winery and directing private events for Carmenet Winery. Ms. Rosenthal served on the Lake County Winegrape Commission board and the county planning commission each for two years.

After 20 years at Chateau Montelena, including an attempted sale of the iconic Calistoga winery last fall, Greg Ralston plans to step down as general manager June 5, writing to colleagues, “the time is right to chart a new course in my career.” He came to the winery as sales and marketing manager in late 1988 and was promoted to director of that function in May 1990 then to managing director in 1998.

Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards in Sonoma Valley promoted Steven Urberg to winemaker. He has been making wine with Bob Iantosca, now director of winemaking, since 2001.

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Submit items for this column to Jeff Quackenbush at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com, 707-521-4256 or fax 707-521-5292.