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WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT 80 WINES&VINES November 2017 T he unique name of a new Napa Valley winery is neither from the owners' last name nor dreamed up to resonate with millennial consumers or some other demographic. "Mending Wall" is the title of a Robert Frost poem first published in 1914 and is about two neighbors who regu- larly meet in the spring to repair a stone wall that divides their properties. One neighbor, the narrator, wonders why they maintain such a ritual and the wall when neither owns livestock to corral and their crops don't interfere with each other's. The other landowner, however, is duti- fully committed to the wall and the idiom: "Good fences make good neighbors." Just as Frost's poem explores boundaries—both real and arbitrary—as well as collaboration and adhering to a single vision, so too are those concepts all part of the Mending Wall Winery. The production side of the winery was finished in time for the 2014 vintage; the entire facility, which includes a tasting room for the Mending Wall brand, was complete in March 2015. In many ways, the winery is the culmination of a winemaking partnership that began at Outpost Winery in 2003, when it was purchased by Kathy and Frank Dotzler, who teamed up with winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown. Mark Pulido and Donna Walker also are partners in Mending Wall as well as owners of an eponymous wine brand and three famed vineyards in Napa Valley. The couple also grew to know Rivers Brown while producing wine at Outpost. As Rivers Brown's roster of clients steadily increased over the years, the five partners expanded from Outpost to another winery and then decided to launch a new brand supported by a new custom-crush winery. That decision led to a search for property throughout Napa Valley, and Frank Dotzler said the partners eventually settled on a parcel of about 20 acres between Calistoga and St. Helena with an old but virus-riddled vineyard planted to Syrah and Petit Sirah. Those old vines have since been replaced with about 5 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. From the winery's inception, the partners wanted the best winemaking facility to support Rivers Brown and his clients—as well as produce wines that would be sold under the Mending Wall label. They also did not want to have to rely on the growth of a nascent brand to pay off a new Napa Valley winery. "It never really made a whole lot of financial sense to build this grand winery and just make a couple thousand cases," Dotzler said. "We'd build the best winery we could build and have a brand with it, but then have another component for custom crush." The winery was designed by architect Jessie Whitesides with Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Asquared Studios and built by the Ledcor Group. After acquiring the property, the own- ers met with Whiteside that summer, and construction started soon after in order to get the winery ready by fall. Because the partners were working with the same shared vision—to build something similar to Outpost—the walls of the winery went up quickly to accommodate the first harvest. "We have a state-of-the-art winery here. That needed to be perfect," Dotzler said. The winery has a total capacity of 60,000 gallons (or 400 tons), and while the initial priority was winemaking, the hospitality area was not an afterthought. The interior was designed by Kathy Dotzler, and the winery can accom- modate 60 visitors per day by appointment. Director of hospitality Rachelle Mudaliar said the Mending Wall brand is about highlighting the best of Napa Valley through the estate vineyard as well as a few other vineyards including Tournahu near St. Helena. Current production is around 2,500 cases, and the average bottle price is $75, with nearly all production getting sold direct to consumer. The success of the winery, however, is not dependent on the brand. Mending Wall Winery Custom-crush operations support new Napa Valley brand and estate By Andrew Adams TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT