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WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT 28 WINES&VINES July 2018 I t's not uncommon for a winery startup to use a custom- crush facility for a few years while the brand is building a reputation, and Napa Valley's Crocker & Starr is no exception. Winemaker and co-owner Pam Starr made the first wines in 1997 at the Napa Wine Company in Oakville, Calif., six miles down Highway 29 from where the grapes were grown on the 114-acre property in St. Helena that co-owner Charlie Crocker had bought in 1971. In 1997 she began dreaming of building a dedicated winery. But it was not until the 20th vintage in 2016 that Starr's dream was realized. In between those two dates the University of California, Davis, graduate and former wine- maker for Spottswoode Vineyard and Winery had more than enough time to design the winery in her mind. While sharing space and equipment with dozens of other winemakers, she mentally outfitted the dream win- ery with everything she would need to coddle the estate's Caber- net Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and other wine grapes grown on 85 acres of vines. "Oh my God, I dreamt about it every day I was there," Starr said. "I would dream, I would reconfig- ure. I've been designing my whole life, whether it be a wine, a label or in this case a winery." Gesturing around the 10,000- square-foot winery that eventu- ally materialized on Dowdell Lane about a quarter-mile east of High- way 29 at the southeast end of St. Helena, she added, "Really this was all about being able to put as much flexibil- ity in the winemaking program as possible for the physical aspects of it. Now we can run 100 tons through this winery with three people." She and Crocker were cautiously conservative and wanted to wait until the winery's sales generated enough money to pay for its own facility. But they hadn't planned to wait 20 years. By 2006 Crocker & Starr wines had earned accolades from critics and a good following among consum- ers. "Charlie and I realized we were spending as much to use a custom-crush facility as it would be to finance a building," Starr said. "Either to rent one or pay for a new one over time." They commissioned preliminary plans from the San Francisco architectural firm of Taylor Lombardo and ap- plied for a winery permit, but got turned down by the city KEY POINTS Winemaker Pam Starr now vinifies her Bordeaux-varietal wines in an efficient, roomy winery on the Crocker Estate in St. Helena, Calif. After 20 years of custom crush- ing, now the estate grapes don't leave the property, and Starr has a well-outfitted cellar for a small production of 3,200 cases. A gravity-flow approach is enabled by elevators, while custom tanks automate most of the fermentation process. Crocker & Starr New estate winery in Napa Valley is the product of 20 years of dreaming By Jim Gordon TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT After 20 vintages, Crocker & Starr opened its estate winery in St. Helena, Calif. in time for the 2016 vintage. Pam Starr tastes her latest vintage of Cabernet Franc.