A long row of metal machines buzzes as the printing press churns to life, a roll of paper 5,000 feet long turning and gliding through the presses as it's painted and embossed.
At the end of the 63-foot-long printing press, the finished product emerges: a series of carefully cut labels for a 2012 Napa Valley merlot from Martin Ray Vineyard.
Vintage 99, a wine label printing company, recently expanded its operations from Livermore to Santa Rosa, to better serve clients in the North Bay.
Its labels run the gamut from Martin Ray's subtle, traditional embossed look to a blaring orange and purple sunset scene adorning the label for Agajanian Vineyards' cabernet sauvignon.
"Every label is unique in itself," said Mark Gonzales, owner of Vintage 99. "Some are easy, but then you have more difficult labels. By the time you get it up and running, you love the label."
The Livermore-based company brought the skilled art of label printing and the tradition of family business when it expanded to Sonoma County in late 2013.
Gonzales joined a printing shop when he was 18, and learned the trade on the job.
"In the old days, they had apprenticeship programs, where you could start at the bottom and work your way up and learn the machines," Gonzales said.
Gary Cane, who runs the Santa Rosa office as director of operations for Vintage 99, learned printing skills in a four-year apprenticeship in the United Kingdom, where printing is classified as a trade. While he was a pressman before, he no longer has the eyes to do it, he said.
"It takes skilled people to do it, craftsmen," Cane said. "You're creating something different every day ... Some days you don't get that perfect label and it's a struggle, but we overcome it."
The company employs six people in Sonoma County and about two dozen total, including the Livermore facility.
Now, Cane and Gonzales are training their own children to learn the business.
"When we decide to step aside and let the younger ones take over, they can continue the path," Cane said.
Cane's son Daniel has learned to operate the company's digital printer, which can handle smaller batches of labels.
"My dad's been in printing for pretty much as long as I can remember," said Daniel Cane, press operator. Growing up, he used to tag along to work with his father.
"Even when he was a little kid, I would take him to the supermarket wine aisle, and he would be picking at the labels," to see how they were attached to the bottle, Gary Cane said. "Once you're picking at labels, you know you're in."
The abundance of wineries in Sonoma County is what drew Vintage 99 to expand to Santa Rosa. Although it already had clients in Sonoma County, printing the labels nearby enables the company to expand its client base. Vintage 99 has been wanting to expand to the North Coast for a while, Gonzales said.
"There are a lot of potential customers up here that don't want to go to Livermore for press checks, or even Napa," he said.
They've been kept busy with orders ever since.
"It's been a ride," said Gary Cane, director of operations for Northern California.
The company plans to hire press operators to work in Santa Rosa, but has found it hard to identify employees with the right mix of skills. The work requires technical skills, troubleshooting and an eye for detail, Gonzales said.
"It would be nice if I could hire someone and throw them on the press and run it, but they don't exist," Gonzales said. "Most manufacturing in the U.S., it's gone."
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