Winery

We made our first two vintages of wine at Arrowood Winery, where Richard remains as Winemaster.  Naturally, we were anxious to have our own winery so we were ecstatic when Amapola Creek Winery was completed in time for crush in October 2007. Ours is a very small, ultra-premium facility – tiny but sophisticated, simple yet state-of-the-art.  We wanted to keep the design in line with current and historic land use in Sonoma Valley, thus we chose a rustic red, barn-like exterior.

The structure, encompassing 5100 sq. ft indoors, consists of metal panels packed with phenomenal insulation materials.  We have another 2,000 sq. ft. under canopy for our tanks and press.  The winery has everything we need for our minimal intervention approach to winemaking yet nothing extraneous or fancy.  It’s the winery of our dreams!

In addition to our CCOF certified organic vineyards, we made the decision to certify the winery itself as an “organic handling facility” through the CCOF.  We felt it important to continue our commitment to winemaking the most natural way possible.  As our Associate Winemaker Charlie Tolbert puts it, “Why go half way?”  Creating a new winery from the very nuts and bolts gave us the opportunity to incorporate the latest in environmentally-friendly construction materials and building techniques.  This type of construction also facilitates cleanliness.  Cleanliness is essential in any winery in order to avoid contamination and spoilage, but is especially critical for our “prevention not intervention” philosophy of winemaking.