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48 WINES&VINES September 2015 WINEMAKING F ounded as a custom-crush operation for sparkling wine, Rack & Riddle had been paving a unique path since its inception in 2007. Owners Bruce Lundquist and Rebecca Faust were forced to get creative once again in 2013, when Duck- horn Vineyards purchased the site Rack & Riddle had been leasing to make wine in Hopland, Calif. With the deal announced in August and Duckhorn hoping to move by the end of the same year, Lundquist and Faust got to work strategizing how they could be close to their fruit sources, accommodate increases in case production as well as space for wine aging and do it all before the following year's harvest. The answer came in the form of not one but three separate facilities: First, in January 2014 the group took over operation of a winery in Geyserville, Calif., from the Murphy family of Murphy-Goode winery (now owned by Jackson Family Wines). Set in the Alexan- der Valley of Sonoma County, the location is convenient for clients in California's North Coast—par- ticularly those growing the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay ubiquitous in premium sparkling wines. The winery backs up to vineyards and counts Trentadue, Clos du Bois and Stryker Sonoma among its neighbors. Next, they outfitted a ware- house a few blocks from Healds- burg Plaza with equipment for tirage, riddling, bottling and bottle aging. Rack & Riddle moved its equipment to that location during June and July 2014—just in time for harvest. (Previously the site served as a barrel warehouse for Clos du Bois.) Lundquist calls the Healdsburg wine- making facility a 24-hour-per-day operation. Rack & Riddle Custom-crush winery grows production through split facilities and expertise in sparkling By Kate Lavin TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT KEY POINTS Custom-crush winery Rack & Riddle outfitted two winemak- ing spaces in Sonoma County leading up to the 2014 harvest. The move came with an unex- pected benefit: increased pro- duction capacity. Currently Rack & Riddle makes 1.2 million cases of wine per year—50% of which is spark- ling, and 30% sold as shiners.