Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/131907
TECHNICAL REVIEW winemaking Seeing Red at Trinchero Sutter Home owners use new facility for high-end red wines By Paul Franson Plumbing is hidden in the uncluttered Trinchero T Highlights • rinchero Family Estates built and T outfitted a new winery at the former Folie à Deux site to perfect its highend red wines. Napa Valley tank room. Trinchero buys Folie à Deux The winery complex once served as the rinchero Napa Valley is the Folie à Deux winery. Trinchero bought prestige brand of the Trinchero that winery and its brands—including Family Estates portfolio, and Ménage à Trois, the wine they developed its new winery reflects that po• he article details the design, equipT into one of the biggest brands in America. sition—as well as the financial ment and production flow chosen by They relocated its production and tasting resources contributed by its family member Bob Torres and wineroom to build the Trinchero winery. more popular wines, like the famous Sutmaker Mario Monticelli. The facility produces only red wines; ter Home white Zinfandel. the brand's whites (Sauvignon Blanc, The challenge for Trinchero was to • riple-sorting and double-chilling T Semillon and Vin Santo) are made at make world-class Bordeaux-style red abilities—and a wide assortment of another Trinchero facility. wines that display another dimension to tanks—are among the showplace the company whose vast success was built winery's assets. making and selling inexpensive wines. The modest-sized winery built on a knoll north of St. Helena, Calif., includes the best of everything needed to make superb wines, and there's a good reason for that: Its layout and design were optimized by family scion and architect Bob Torres, senior vice president of operations of Trinchero Family Estates, then tweaked by winemaker Mario Monticelli. Monticelli comes from a winemaking family. His father is famed Gallo winemaker Marcello; his wife Anna is the winemaker for Piña Vineyards, and brother Massimo is winemaker at Burly Vineyards, B Wise and the brothers' brand, Monticelli Brothers. Mario Monticelli formerly worked with Philippe Melka, one of Napa Valley's best-known consulting winemakers. For the Trinchero Napa Valley wines, Monticelli sources Though new, the winery is reminiscent of the antiquated stone buildings grapes from seven premium estate vineyards totaling 200 acres of Napa Valley's past. in diverse locations throughout Napa Valley. 34 W in es & V i ne s J U NE 2 0 13