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NOVEMBER NEWS Headlines NEWS BYTES ICONIC Qupé Winery ACQUIRED C harles Banks and Terroir Selections acquired a majority stake in the iconic Qupé winery located in California's Santa Maria Valley. Founder and winemaker Bob Lindquist will assume the role of partner, while Louisa Sawyer Lindquist will continue to assist with sales. Qupé will continue to share a winery with Au Bon Climat on the Bien Nacido vineyard. Banks' Terroir Selections portfolio includes Sandhi, May- The proposed Flynnville Winery site is off Highway 29 at Maple Lane near Calistoga, Calif. Napa Rejects Project County Planning Commission faults scope of 300,000-gallon winery 'incubator' development N apa, Calif.—A proposed winery The county requires that 75% of grapes project of the type springing up used in new winery projects come from in wine regions from Santa BarNapa County. The applicants said they bara, Calif., to Washington state would comply but do not have any tenwas soundly rejected by the Napa County ants signed, so they couldn't demonstrate Planning Commission in October, even compliance. while commissioners acknowledged that it Other nearby residents argued the projwould be welcomed at another site. ect was far too large for the area and inapMembers even chastised the applicants for propriate for an agricultural preserve. wasting the commission's time with winesandvines.com Members of the Planning Coma completely unsuitable project. mission agreed that the project Learn more: Search keywords The proposal was for a single was overblown. They were unan"Flynnville Winery." custom-crush winery subdivided imous in their displeasure with into 14 individual spaces spread between the proposal (one withdrew from voting, four buildings on a 12-acre site on Highas she does business with Piña's box comway 29 between Drew and Maple lanes pany). Planning commissioner Mike Banear Calistoga, Calif. sayne said, "It's way out of proportion. It The project also would have boasted needs to be cut back substantially." an event center and commercial kitchen Commissioner Bob Fiddaman chastised as well as a water-treatment system and the applicants for even asking for so much. holding pond. The site consists of eight "This concept may make sense elsewhere, non-conforming parcels, which would like the airport industrial area, but it's a be merged into one of 11.84 acres, large huge threat to the (Napa County) Winery enough to host a winery. Developers reDefinition Ordinance and the Agricultural quested a maximum of 500 visitors per Preserve. It's real commercial activity in weekend day and 350 visitors per weekthe Ag Preserve." day, plus special events. Developer Piña admitted that he and his The applicant was PD Development, partners didn't communicate well with whose partners include Dan Piña and Igneighbors and others on the project. "We nacio Delgado with consultant winemaker made a lot of mistakes, but we're not proCary Gott. Piña also owns Napa Wooden fessional developers, just local people in Box Co. The Flynnville Winery project, the wine business." He added, "We're willnamed after its former owner, petitioned to ing to make changes to move forward." produce 300,000 gallons of wine per year. —Paul Franson 14 W in es & V i ne s NOV E M B E R 20 13 acamas, Leviathan and Wind Gap as well as international properties. Mettlers open tasting room M ettler Family Vineyards in Lodi, Calif., opened its first tasting room on a 25-acre property that used to be the home of Vino Con Brio Winery and was purchased by the Mettlers in 2007. The Mettlers have farmed in the Lodi area since 1899 and currently manage 1,000 acres of vines and own about 300 of those themselves. The family plans to build a new winery on the site as well. Viansa Winery Vintage buys Viansa S anta Rosa, Calif.-based Vintage Wine Estates added Viansa Winery to its portfolio of North Coast wineries. The deal includes the winery and brand as well as 168 acres of land with 15 acres of vines on the Sonoma County side of the Carneros AVA. Laurus Master Fund, a hedge fund, had owned the property since 2007. Sam and Vicki Sebastiani founded the winery in 1989, but the family later sold it in 2004 to 360 Global Wine Co., which went bankrupt in a few years later.