Starting a Winery

For those visiting the blog for the first time, I’ve assembled a recap of sorts of where we at Capozzi Winery have come in the past six months.

The Beginning

On November 18, ‘05 pinotblogger was born. Its stated purpose is to “outline the long and painful processes involved in starting and building a family winery in the Russian River Valley�?. While we haven’t been at it very long nor has it been particularly painful yet, I’m 99.9% certain that at least one of these adjectives will correctly describe the project in the very near future (hopefully NOT painful and short though, as that would be sad).

Naming the Winery

Soon after starting the blog we asked readers to help us try and conjure up an appropriate name for the winery. Thanks to Tom Wark we got a nice bump in
traffic as well as some quality suggestions from him and others (Insomnia Winery anyone?). I also got a chance in that post to explain our motivation for starting the winery. In short, it’s all about keeping our family close and connected.

While we mulled over the possibilities I wrote a few posts regarding our choice of pinot noir clones, which are the building blocks of any good pinot, and our neighborhood and local terroir. Those interested in winegrowing and the Russian River Valley in general might find them of interest.

When we finally arrived at a decision on our winery name, it was made by looking back at our family history. Capozzi Winery is named in honor of my great Grandmother Maria Giovanna who was a winemaker during the prohibition era. She would ship in grapes from California to make wine in her basement for sale, and keep her sales tallied in a little ledger. As the first winemaker in the family, we think it’s only fitting to honor her pioneering efforts.

Creating the Logo

Soon after we turned our attention toward creating our label, and we are currently in the middle of that process. We have a logo designed by the wonderful Dayna, AKA The Calligraphy Lady whose exquisite hand lettering has been featured in magazines such as Martha Stewart, Better Homes and Gardens and Cosmo. She created a couple of great logos for us; so good in fact we couldn’t decide between them. So, being a blogger, I placed them both on the blog and asked for feedback. We received lots, as well as other helpful suggestions that made it quite easy for us to make our final decision.

Where We Are Now

We’ve finished getting the proposed winery site surveyed, and we’re still designing our label. A sketch of the winery floorplans can be forund here. Finally, a recent post outlines our plan to name our vineyard rows after people like you who buy a couple bottles of our inagural vintage.

To be continued… Click here to return to the winery blog.

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