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Posts Tagged: winery
Kate Frey: Gardening for Bees, Beauty and Diversity
Many mothers will receive a stunning bouquet of flowers on Sunday, Mother's Day. Others will learn how to design and plant a stunning pollinator...
The Frey Gardens at the home of Ben and Kate Frey in Hopland, are inviting.
Kate Frey designed the gardens at the Lynmar Estate Winery, located in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Green winery begins making wine
Grape crush has begun at a new UC Davis winery that is intended to become self-sustaining in terms of energy and water, according to a UC Davis news release that ran in the Daily Democrat. The facility's environmentally friendly features include onsite solar power generation and a system for capturing rainwater and conserving processing water. The stored rainwater will be used for landscaping and toilets. "We want to demonstrate a self-sufficiency model that is applicable to any business with limited water," the article quoted Roger Boulton, a UC Davis winery-engineering expert. Plans call for eventually operating the facility independent of the main campus water line. The winery was also designed to capture carbon dioxide, a byproduct of fermentation, from a port in each of the new fermentors. "The goal is for the facility to be not just carbon neutral, but carbon zero, in terms of its carbon emissions," Boulton said. The 34,000-square-foot teaching-and-research complex is expected to be the first winery, brewery or food-processing facility to earn LEED Platinum certification, the highest environmental rating awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.) The facility will be only the third in the UC system to receive the LEED Platinum certification. The $20 million complex was funded entirely by private donations; no state or federal funds were used in its design or construction, the news release said.
Students work on the fall crush in the new winery.
Research helps determine fantasy winery costs
A story in the Sacramento Business Journal about a common fantasy in the workaday world - quitting one's job and starting a winery - was informed by UC Cooperative Extension research. And the bottom line is sobering.
The story says it will cost $4.5 million to get the winery going and keep the business running through the first three years. If you want to make your own wine, "plan on spending another several hundred thousand dollars to start a small winery," the story said.
Writer Celia Lamb spoke to UC Davis viticulturalist Jim Wolpert about the cost of building the winery.
“Some people have pole buildings with blown-in insulation,” Wolpert was quoted. “They don’t have any great attempt of having a first-class facility that’s going to be on the cover of some magazine.”
Others spend $300 per square foot on a tasting room, he added.
The majority of numbers presented in the story came from a UC cost-of-production study on vineyard establishment, which put the price tag at about $13,402 per acre for the first three years.
The hypothetical grower used in the study already owns property with surface water rights for irrigation and has a building, equipment, tools, a drip irrigation system and a drainage system worth a total of $689,000.
Winery founder John Giguiere warns in the story, “If you’re not at least 25 years old or don’t have a vast amount of experience in the industry, don’t get involved, because it’s a good way to lose a lot of money."
