Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 08/25/2014 11:30 AM
Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 08/25/2014 11:47 AM
Expires: 01/01/2019 12:00 AM
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Local Winery Feels Impact After Napa’s Earthquake Four Winds Cellars Takes Stock
Murphys, CA....On Sunday, August 24th at 7am, local winery owner David Webster received a frantic call from his business partner and winemaker John Gibson. “Napa was hit with an earthquake this morning,” John exclaimed. “I’m at our warehouse. Everything is on the floor. It’s a complete mess.”...
For many Sierra Foothill wineries, the news coming out of Napa was difficult to watch but fortunately didn’t touch them personally. Four Winds Cellars is unique in that their wines are 100% Calaveras fruit and their winemaking facility and storage is located at Hendry Ranch in The Napa Valley.
“Night harvesting and sending our fruit down to a Napa facility allows us to keep John Gibson as our winemaker.” explains Helen Webster, Marketing Manager and co-owner of Four Winds Cellars. “We incur some extra trucking costs, but it is well worth it!” Gibson is a veteran Napa winemaker whose experience includes twelve years as winemaker for the renowned Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and another three years at Vine Cliff Winery.
Still, making their wines in The Napa Valley has certainly impacted Four Winds in a way that no other local winery has felt.
When David received the news from his distressed partner, he packed a quick overnight bag and rushed to Napa to see the damage. He describes the scene as totally chaotic. Broken barrels and bottles of wine had painted the floor crimson red. Barrels had crushed pallets of wine, pallets of wine had crushed winemaking equipment. It took many hours before the damage could even be assessed and clean-up procedures begun.
“The bad news is that we don’t have earthquake insurance – no one down here does,” explains David as he surveyed the damage in the warehouse. “The good news is that so far it looks like we have only lost 3 barrels (75 cases of wine). If this is the only damage we are looking at then we are in a lot better shape than many of the wineries down here – for some it has been devastating.”
David and his partner John have many days ahead of them trying to get their warehouse back to some normality and sort through all of the implications to their business. “The irony is that this earthquake came just at the beginning of harvest,” explains Helen. “Winemakers are stretched so thin during this time -- almost no sleep, constant work and stress -- and now this has been thrown into the mix. Our hearts go out to all of the wineries & other businesses in Napa who have suffered such devastating losses.”
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About Four Winds Cellars:
Four Winds produces just 2000 cases of small lot bottlings each year, aimed at reflecting the underlying terroir of the fruit, and enhancing the food and wine experience. Located in the Sierra Foothills in the heart of California’s Gold Country, Four Winds Cellars originally began as Laraine Winery, a small, family-owned vineyard established in 1998. The winery, which was as distinctive as it was celebrated, earned the reputation for being uncompromisingly unique in its endeavor to produce some of the finest, hand-crafted wines in the region. Unique not only in the quality of the estate vineyards, but in securing the winemaking services of John Gibson, a veteran Napa Valley winemaker whose credentials included 12 years with the renowned Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Over the years, John’s skillful combination of Calaveras fruit with his own Napa style produced wines which consistently earned widespread acclaim throughout the industry. In 2010 John, his wife Ann, the General Manager David Webster, and his wife Helen purchased the winery, and thus began a new chapter for the winery; Four Winds Cellars was launched.
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