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WINEMAKING Highlights • Warehouse facilities and shared spaces are becoming the norm in California's winery expansion. • Ampelos Cellars and Dragonette Cellars put similar winemaking philosophies to work in a rented section they share at a decorative stone warehouse. • With reined-in expenses, the two labels are able to sell through 8,000 cases of $30-plus wines each year. A Biodynamic vineyard is at the heart of the Ampelos winemaking operation. Brothers John and Steve Dragonette and close friend Brandon Sparks-Gillis plotted an entry into winemaking for several years, learned parts of the trade from local winer- ies, tested the concept with garage-style production in 2003-04, got bonded in 2004 and made their first commercial vintage in 2005. Their initial production site was within the Central Coast Wine Services facility in Santa Maria, Calif.; from there they moved to space at Demetria Estate in Los Olivos, Calif., and onto their current cohabitation with Ampelos in 2008. Roughly two-thirds of the space belongs to Ampelos and one-third to Dragonette, with the common crush and press area hav- ing alternating proprietor status. Both labels focus on Pinot Noir and Rhone reds, with Dragonette featuring Sauvignon Blanc as its white entry and Ampelos bottling Viognier. Both also do some amount of custom-crush work; among other projects, Ampelos is the home to Hollywood actor Kurt Russell's line of GoGi Wines (about 150 cases in total), while Dragonette produces nearly 1,000 cases of Liquid Farm Chardonnay. no-frills winery in Lompoc, Calif. Two years later, Ken Brown decided he had cleaned enough barrels during his three decades of winemaking. Peter remembers him saying one day, "I've never been this old before,"and Brown moved his operation to the new Terravant custom-crush facility in Buellton, Calif. Work bought Brown's share of the equip- ment and went looking for a co-tenant, and around the same time Dragonette was searching for a new home. WINES & VINES OCTOBER 2012 43