Long Term Partnership provides a new opportunity in Sebastopol
Sebastopol, CA, Spring of 2019: For the First time ever, and after 10 years of working together, Small Vines Custom Crush and Byron Kosuge Consulting are accepting a new client for turn-key, artisan winemaking and custom crush services in a unique setting. In the early nineteen-twenties, Leland Barlow built a state of the Art (for its time) apple cold storage building on the historic Barlow Family Homestead in Sebastopol, CA. This beautiful poured concrete structure has now been transformed into a modern, high-end, small-lot winemaking facility. In 2015, after five vintages together, Small Vines and Kosuge started to plan and design a facility specifically for small-lot, high-touch, hands-on winemaking, utilizing the great bones of the historic building. Combining an appreciation of the agricultural legacy of the Barlow Family with the amenities required for a modern winery, the facility was completed just prior to the 2017 Harvest. The Kosuge/Small Vines winery has attracted some of the finest and most thoughtful winegrowers in California, and now, a little more than a year later and with two harvests under their belt, they have determined that they are now able to take on one more client for hand-crafted wine
making.
Byron Kosuge, a native Californian born and raised in Davis, CA has been making wine for over 30 years. Armed with a degree in Fermentation Science from UC Davis and a strong work ethic, he spent the first 15 years of his career making wine at Saintsbury in Carneros, where he built a reputation as a Chardonnay and Pinot Noir winemaker. In 2001 he began making wine for several small projects and in 2004 launched his own brand B Kosuge Wines https://www.bkosugewines.com/. His winemaking style is wide ranging, from restrained to opulent, depending upon the fruit and the needs of the client, and his
methods lean towards the natural, but stop short of being “natural,” in the current sense of the term. Currently he is working with several other artisan California brands: Miura, McIntyre Vineyards, Alder Springs Vineyard and McEvoy Ranch, all made in the Small Vines facility. He has been consulting for Small Vines Wines since 2010. It’s not a coincidence that most of his clients are winegrowers— as Byron states “I like to be close to the source, so to speak. The old cliché is true—great wine is made in the vineyard.”
Few custom crush operations in West Sonoma County offer the combination of bucolic setting and top-notch winemaking facilities. Emmanuel Kemiji, Master Sommelier, Miura Vineyards & Clos Pissarra (client of both Kosuge and Small Vines) says of the move to Small Vines Custom Crush, “I have been producing wine for 25 years and Byron Kosuge has been my winemaker for the last 21 of those years. In all that time we have never found a home as comfortable and so geared to the making of great wine as Small Vines. Kathryn and Paul Sloan along with Byron have put together a first-class winemaking facility in an idyllic setting perfect for showcasing our wines to our customers.”
Samantha Dorsey, President, McEvoy Ranch writes “Moving our winemaking operations to Small Vines was a very good business decision for McEvoy Ranch. We decreased our overhead expenses significantly and have greater production flexibility in their custom crush facility. Plus, Byron makes wonderful wine and the result has been a delicious product!”
The Small Vines winery is an uncrowded and modern facility in a beautiful, pastoral setting. and unlike many larger custom crush facilities, it is set up with the focus on quality and flexibility, rather than maximum throughput. It’s a “winemakers winery “. This limited opportunity is for (+ or -) 3,500 cases of turn-key, artisan winemaking and custom crush. Crush services start at $2500/ton and full-service winemaking is negotiated separately with a per case charge for winemaking. If you would like to learn more about this limited winemaking opportunity Contact Paul Sloan paul@smallvines.com or (707) 217-0307. Space is available for this vintage.
