Renovated Valley of the Moon Winery Opens

David Marchesi, director of winemaking, stands in the new, small-lot wine production area of Madrone Vineyards Estate winery in Sonoma Valley, Calif.

Glen Ellen, Calif.—The historic Valley of the Moon Winery in Sonoma Valley has been renovated and re-opened by its Canadian owners as Madrone Vineyards Estate.

The property is one of the oldest wine estates in California, having been home to a winery and vineyards since 1863. Sparkling wine producer Korbel Champagne Cellars of Guerneville, Calif., owned Valley of the Moon until the Stewart family of British Columbia purchased the estate in 2012 through the West Coast Wine Partners LLC that it formed with Dan Zepponi.

In 2014 the Stewart family became majority owners in West Coast Wine Partners and integrated the company into their Bacas Family Estates portfolio, which includes Quails Gate Winery in Okanagan, B.C., and Plume, a Napa Valley project that is sold almost entirely as an import brand in Canada. The 2012 deal for the Madrone estate included the Valley of the Moon and Lake Sonoma brands that the Stewarts plan to continue producing at the estate winery. Zepponi remains a minority shareholder and advisor. Property brought ‘full circle’ The plan for the Madrone property is to turn it into a premium brand sold almost exclusively direct to consumer (DtC). The Stewarts say they were eager to acquire the site and revitalize one of California’s historic estates. “We’re really delighted to bring this property full circle,” says Tony Stewart. Total production for Madrone is expected to be 2,500 cases per year, while Valley of the Moon currently produces 20,000 cases and Lake Sonoma 15,000 cases.

On the other end of Sonoma Valley, another historic estate, Buena Vista, also has been revitalized thanks to foreign investment. This past weekend, the French company Boisset Collection celebrated the grand opening of a historic wine tool museum at the winery, which was founded in 1857.

The first vines were planted on the Madrone property in 1863, but the estate wasn’t given that name until 1883 by Eli Sheppard, who also built the stone cellar that still stands on the property. The Hearst family owned the vineyard and winery around the turn of the century, and it was subsequently owned and operated by co-ops prior to Prohibition. In 1941, Enrico Parducci and Peter Domenici, who owned a sausage company in San Francisco, Calif., bought the estate and named it Valley of the Moon. The Parducci family owned the winery from 1956 until its sale to Korbel in 1997.

As part of their overhaul of the winery and brand, the Stewarts brought in veteran winemaker David Marchesi, who had worked at Bartholomew Park Winery and Gundlach Bundschu Winery in Sonoma Valley before becoming the winemaker at Paraduxx Winery in Napa Valley.

Overhaul in the vineyard, cellar Marchesi says during the next five years he plans to overhaul the 40 acres of vines that are certified through the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance. He’s planning to remove most of the Sangiovese and Barbera on the property and replace it with grafted Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

He adds that he’s definitely keeping a block of Zinfandel vines that range from 70 to 100 years in age and already are used to produce a small-lot estate Zinfandel for the Madrone label. The towering, sprawling vines are located just outside the tasting room, and Marchesi says he considered cutting them back but the size allows him to limit the vines to just one to two clusters per shoot for balanced ripeness but still yield about 2 tons per acre.

For the new small-lot winery for the Madrone program, the Stewarts purchased a new Pellenc Selectiv’ Process Winery destemmer and more than a dozen new stainless steel fermentation tanks from Silver State Stainless. Marchesi says the tanks enable him to divide vineyard blocks and be more selective with his pick dates. “What we really needed to do to improve quality was reduce quantity,” he says.

The harvested grapes will undergo a round of cluster sorting by hand before being processed by the Pellenc, which Marchesi describes as a “pretty amazing” piece of equipment.

To overhaul the tasting room, the Stewarts hired designer Richard Von Saal, who also worked with Plumpjack’s CADE Winery in Napa Valley and other winery projects. The new tasting room incorporates modern reclaimed materials with the stone walls of the historic winery cellar in a bright, spacious area that features inside and outside areas for public and private tasting sessions. A variety of tours, tasting sessions as well as food and wine pairing options are all intended to support and drive DtC sales.