Shifting tides in the US wine industry are compelling grape growers, wineries, and winemakers to consider dramatic changes. Established practices are under pressure from economic, demographic, and climate changes, including softening consumer demand, rising prices, and the effects of climate change.
Vineyard and winery owners must translate high-level challenges into practical, everyday decisions, such as closing a facility, reducing water usage, or embracing new environmental and safety certifications.
Viña Concha y Toro USA’s Mendocino-based Bonterra Organic Estates pioneered this philosophy of a sustainability-minded winery, evidenced by its long history of producing organic and responsibly crafted wines. Several years ago, it opened its facilities to the wine community in Northern California and beyond, believing this would help wineries adapt to the changing economic environment by giving them an alternative to maintaining their own winemaking and storage facilities. Bonterra can also help wineries on the path to producing organic wines.
“Our winery, and production facility are certified organic,” says Kris Black, Senior Director of Supply Chain for the custom crush business at Viña Concha y Toro USA’s Hopland facility in Mendocino County. “Our custom crush uses the same equipment we use for our wine, so there’s no separation between what we do for our custom clients and what we do for ourselves. When the Fetzer family owned the business, they built a very large winery, so we have extra capacity and want to maximize its use. We also invested in a new filler for one production line, which puts us on the cutting edge of bottling lines and allows us to continue growing.”
“Winemaking is creative, but it’s also science,” says Winemaker Natalie Dale of her craft. “You use both sides of your brain. You touch every part of the process from vineyard to bottle while creating something people love.”
Dale is the main point of contact for custom crush clients and can make red and white wines for wineries. The team can bottle clients’ wine in 750ml and 1.5L formats using its three high-speed production lines. These lines can easily handle 10,000 cases a day, but wineries ask them to deliver everything from 2,500 cases to a couple hundred thousand cases. In addition, Bonterra’s custom crush can provide storage facilities and source grapes from throughout the US, bulk wine from California or Latin America, cased and bulk glass, and other packaging materials.
“We use our economies of scale to benefit our customers in ways that may not be obvious to them because we have a strong procurement team and relationships with everybody in the industry,” Black explains. “We know who’s best for meeting our customers’ requirements. For example, because lightweighting our glass is super important to us, we can offer that same glass to a customer looking to make the transition. Some clients don’t realize they can lightweight their line while maintaining the same look as with heavyweight bottles.”
One of the unique benefits of working with Bonterra is that they consider clients part of their family. That means the dedicated custom crush team treats their clients’ wine and bottling like their own, which includes providing access to Bonterra’s food quality, organic and other certifications, and making the team ― from Black to Dale to the head of winemaking ― available whenever clients need them. They can also draw on parent company Viña Concha y Toro’s cutting-edge research and global access to wine and other materials.
“Viña Concha y Toro headquarters are in Chile, and the Chilean culture is very warm,” says Nicole Iversen, Strategic Partnerships Manager. “They go over the top to make people feel welcome, and we do the same to make our customers feel welcome. It’s also part of living up to our B Corporation certification standards. When we ask our employees, ‘What are you most proud of about working here?’ Ninety percent say, ‘When I look at what we accomplish, I feel a sense of pride.’ They always talk about things like environmental stewardship, social impact and responsible business practices.”
Bonterra feels a responsibility to fold the broader wine community into its family. Through its custom crush service, it can offer other wineries the knowledge and facilities it has built over the decades.
Contact us via our custom services website: https://vct-usa.com/custom-wine-services/.
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