A New Home For Quady North

This week, bulldozers and excavators began carving out the building site for our new winery building, thus marks the beginning of the end of an effort spanning over 14 years.

We first began imagining a winery on our Applegate Valley property in 2006, envisioning a simple barn-style building capable of producing about 2500 cases. That concept morphed into a cave system tunneled into the hillside, a vision which was nearly achieved in 2009, before the Great Recession came and spooked our lender, causing the bank to run swiftly away from such risky propositions as loans to upstart wineries. (In retrospect, probably a good idea). Since 2013, we had been working anew on concepts, and over the last several years, seeing the rapid growth of the winery, I began working on a master plan for a winery and tasting room complex that would allow for phased growth up to about 65,000 cases. This complex would allow us to grow flexibly, building as we went along, depending on what was needed. In 2019, I began the process of gaining permitting for the complex with the idea of first constructing a tasting room on top of the hill, and later building a production facility. However, as crush began in 2019, events conspired in such a way that it became necessary to build our very own winery, a place that would be safe, efficient, easy to clean, and would allow us to comfortably produce wines of quality.

The new building, expected to be completed by late fall of 2021, will have 16,000 ft2 of production and storage space, a 4,000 ft2 covered crush pad, and at the corner of the building, a tasting room which will overlook Eevee’s and Mae’s vineyards, with a view to the West. Just South of the tasting room is an heirloom oak tree, easily over 100 years old, which will anchor an outdoor area that can be used for picnicking and events.

Using durable metal construction, the winery will be about 25% larger than our current facility, but the roof line will also be much taller, allowing us to stack barrels and case goods higher, plus add larger tanks. This will be a tremendous help for our beleaguered production team. Limited by both height and space in our current facility, our 2020 GSM Rosé is spread over 10 different tanks, which makes blending a long, complicated process. The higher roof means we can bring in a new 8,000 gallon tank, which will allow us to combine all the lots into one tank before bottling.

The master plan incorporates possible future expansion to the building, a tasting room on top of the hill, plus additional buildings for case goods storage, sparkling wine production, as well as a cave system for barrel storage. Whether or not we ultimately build all these will depend on the future success of the winery and our appetite for growth.