Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/437909
winemaking Technical spoTlighT 78 Wines&Vines January 2015 to play with some stuff from up in Amador," he said. "It's not like it's estate or nothing." The 7,000 square feet of production space is complemented by more than 5,000 square feet of hospitality room. The tasting room fea- tures a large horseshoe bar and towering, vaulted ceilings. Panella said he wanted the area to be able to accommodate the crush of visitors coming for wine club pickup days and special events like the Wine & Chocolate Week- end organized by the Lodi Winegrape Commis- sion. "We wanted people to be able to feel comfortable and stay awhile, not just: 'Hey here's your wine. OK see you later, bye.'" Panella said the county planning commis- sion approved a commercial kitchen for the site, but his family opted not to install one because they don't want to be a catering com- pany. "We've done the weddings ever since this has been a winery only because it's a really pretty property. It's really nice, and we want to share it with people, but as a general rule it's just not something that we would be want to be known for," he said. Almost all of the winery's production is sold direct to consumer either through the wine club or tasting room; a small amount of wine sold to local restaurants and retail shops. The goal is to keep it DtC, and that makes the scale of the hospitality area sensible. "We definitely wanted to have something that would fit in Napa or Sonoma or Paso but do it here," Panella said. ColloPack Solutions and Burgstahler machine works provided most crush pad equipment. The tankless water system (right) provides instant hot water for cleaning. Albrigi from ColloPack The closer you get, the better it looks • Multiple unique features inside and out provide distinct advantages. Bright annealed finished stainless steel, rolled and polished seams, pickled and passivated surfaces for ease and efficiency of cleaning. • Superior quality in every detail and unmatched aesthetic appearance. • 25 year warranty on material defects and workmanship. Nothing else like it in the industry. 171 Camino Dorado Ave, Napa, California 94558 • 707.258.3940 • www.collopack.com 121405 Collopack_AlbrigiAd_7.625x4.875_final.indd 1 12/16/14 12:09 PM