More than 99,000 new wine labels were approved by the Alcohol

PACKAGING
For wineries of all sizes, the bottleordering process has changed. “In the
past, wineries purchased their bottles in
re-shipper cases. The bottles would be
removed from the case, cleaned, filled,
corked, labeled and then repacked into
the reshippers”, said Bryan Sinicrope, vice
president of sales and marketing at A-B-C
Packaging Machine Corp. of Tarpon
Springs, Fla.
“Wineries started purchasing bottles in
bulk. It’s a more economical solution and
eliminates production issues caused by
reusing the corrugated cases,” Sinicrope
said. “Small wineries can benefit from buying bottles in bulk, but there are capital
equipment costs to this—bulk depalletizer,
case erector, partition inserter—that may
make it financially unfeasible.”
Larger wineries led the way by moving
to bulk bottle shipments; however, “If the
numbers work out, smaller wineries can
also benefit from this technology. Typically larger wineries running between 200
and 300 bottles per minute use a bulkbottle depalletizer.
Bottle suppliers using reshipper cases
can also benefit from this technology
since they work with reverse-tapered bottles, according to Sinicrope.
A-B-C’s model 108RT depalletizers
can run different sizes of reverse-taper
and straight-sided bottles from 750ml
to 1.5 liters with no change parts. The
reverse-taper depalletizer cost is “typically only 15% higher than standard
mode depalletizers, depending on
speed, conveyors and accessories
required, and requires no special equipment or training.
More than 99,000
new wine labels
were approved
by the Alcohol
and Tobacco Tax
and Trade Bureau
in 2013.
Filling the bottles without adding
oxygen can be an overlooked concern.
Bottlers with deep pockets may want to
consider the new GAI electro-pneumatic filler, which handles runs of
3,000 to 15,000 bottles per hour,
offered by AWS Prospero.
It brings more precise fill levels and
lower levels of dissolved oxygen
(D.O.), according to Prospero’s Matt
DiDonato. With between 12 and 48
filler spouts, it can handle bottle sizes
from 375ml to 1.5 liters with no added
maintenance.
The precision comes from electronically operated filler valves that “really
nail down the fill height,” DiDonato
said. “You can raise the temp up the
product up to 40°F, which greatly
reduces D.O. levels. Four electro-pneumatic valves are used to separately
control the following circuits: 1. vacuum 2. tank gas 3. auto-leveling 4.
de-gassing.”
With prices up to $340,000 for 600 to
3,000 bottle-per-hour machines, this filler
is aimed at large wineries and mobile
bottlers.
Now go shopping
This is just a sample of all the packaging
goodies previewed in our new listings.
Take a look at all of them on pages 35 to
78 to find products to improve your
packages and your business.
WIN ES & V I N ES N OV EM B ER 20 14 83
TECHNICAL REVIEW
G
WRI NA EP M
E GARKOI NWGI N G
Raising
the Bar
in Sonoma
Valley
By Andrew Adams
W
hat started with a weekend home and an acre of
Cabernet vines has
grown into one of the
most modern and wellequipped wineries in
Sonoma Valley, supplied by more than 90
acres of vineyards.
Highlights
•T
he Hamel family will make the 2014
vintage in their new and modern
Sonoma Valley winery.
• In the cellar, the focus is on wholeberry fermentations in steel, concrete
or barrel—often followed by extended
maceration.
•T
he estate features a spacious cave,
multiple tasting areas, catering kitchen
and other amenities.
84 W I NE S & V I NE S NOV E MBE R 20 14
KATE NAGLE
Hamel Family Wines
opens a modern winery
with world-class ambitions
Red grape clusters arrive at Hamel Family Wines in 40-pound lugs
and are destemmed before hand sorting and whole-berry fermentations.
Hamel Family Wines owner and
founder George F. Hamel Jr. says in 2006
he and his wife were looking for a place
to escape to from their fogbound home in
San Francisco, for a little sun in the summer. The couple eventually found a home
in Kenwood, Calif., that also had a 1-acre
vineyard planted to Cabernet Sauvignon.
The Hamels bought the place in September of that year and had just enough time
to harvest the grapes and make wine.
That first harvest produced about 300
cases but also sparked an interest in Hamel
to solve the riddle of the wine business.
“We did love wine, and what intrigued me
at the time was why, in a crowded market,
do some people consistently succeed and
others not? How do you differentiate
yourself? The kind of challenge on finding
a business model that could be replicated
was interesting,” he says.
As co-founder of ValueAct Capital
Management, a San Francisco-based
hedge fund currently managing around
$14 billion in investments, Hamel had the
resources to start a wine business, but it
was the prospect of a family endeavor
that created momentum for a winery.
After the Hamels made their own wine,
their second-youngest son, John B. Hamel
II, discovered home brewing while attending the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
John Hamel had planned to pursue a
master’s degree in writing but decided to
take a year to gain work experience and
joined the World Wide Organization of
Organic Farms, a work-study program
that offers assignments throughout the
world. John Hamel’s first post was in the
Napa Valley, where he discovered an
interest in winemaking and grapegrowing.
“For John, the combination of science, art
and not working at a desk, all of those
things got his interest,” says his father,
George Hamel.
With property in Sonoma and experience making wine, the Hamels began to
seriously consider a wine business. George
Hamel, however, wanted John to learn as
much as possible about winemaking to
ensure his son was really committed to it.
“We said if we’re going to do something
you need to get as much knowledge as you
can as quickly as you can.”
That education included a winemaking
certificate from the University of California, Davis, as well as an internship at a
winery in Australia and then helping to
produce Hamel Family Wines at a custom-crush facility in Sonoma.
G R AWPI EN GE RMOAW
KING
Family business takes shape
by featuring expansive views and seamlessly incorporating outside space. “One
of the aspects was really to have the
building reflect the land, like really make
this project feel like it’s in Sonoma and
nowhere else,” he says. “The rammed
earth walls capture that in the sense it’s
the actual dirt from the site that gives it
its color and a sense of permanence. It’s
not like it’s a trendy solution, it’s really a
solution that will hold up over time.”
One memorable moment for Thornley
and the Hamels was when the architect
brought a scale model of his proposed
winery to the building site. “One of my
favorite moments was throwing a model
on top of an ATV and coming up here
and starting to understand how the sun
was going to react, and the model actually emulated how shade and shadow was
going to work, and it was really helpful
for everyone to understand what we were
thinking for our clients,” Thornley says.
The rammed earth walls are complemented with solar panels, a living roof
and recycled wood. While it’s a relatively
large structure, the winery blends into the
hillsides surrounding it and is invisible
from the nearby and busy Highway 12.
That’s part of the Hamels’ strategy. “The
whole idea is when you actually turn into
the tasting room, that’s the big ah-ha
moment that you see these beautiful, spectacular views of Sonoma Valley, and until
then things are more guarded,” says
George Hamel III. The landscaping architect on the project was Jonathan Plant &
Associates, which also worked on Colgin
Winery and Trinchero Napa Valley.
Tastings are booked by appointment,
and the winery has about 5,000 square
feet of hospitality space to offer a variety
of options for guests ranging from tables
on the patio to a private room in the cave.
“We have a lot of different experiences
depending on what our guests want from
their time and when they come back,
which we hope would be time and time
again,” George Hamel III says. “It’s not the
same exact experience they have six times,
but we could create six different experiences that are all different, so it just keeps
OR for more.”
them wanting to come back
The winery is permitted to hold 20 special events per year and has a full catering
kitchen and garden. The main hospitality
CALIFORNIA
CALIFORNIA
Mendocino
Pacific
Ocean
Hamel
Family
Wines
Sonoma
NV
Napa
San Francisco
area and staff offices are housed in central
building located in front of the crush pad,
fermentation cellar and cave entrances.
Trucks and tractors delivering fruit access
the crush pad via a horseshoe-shaped
driveway that runs between the two main
buildings. Construction began in 2012,
and the Hamels will are processing grapes
for the first time at the winery this year.
Wright Contracting Inc. of Santa Rosa,
Calif., acted as the general contractor, and
Cotati, Calif.-based Westside Mechanical
Inc. handled winery refrigeration, plumbing and drains.
BRUCE DAMONTE
John could manage production, but as the
family’s plans had grown to include an
estate winery, they knew they needed someone to help run sales and day-to-day management of the business. That’s when the
Hamels’ oldest son, George F. Hamel III,
received an invitation to attend the Telluride
Wine Festival, the first public tasting where
the family would be pouring their wines.
George Hamel III, a graduate of Bard
College who was working in banking in
New York at the time, says he figured he’d
come out to the event in Colorado to enjoy
some wine and support the family. Instead,
he received a pitch about helping to build
an estate, and he bought into the idea.
Both Hamel sons agree that each has
different yet complementary skills. The
goal, however, is not just to have fun
working together as a family but produce
world-class wines at a premier winery. And
while it may be a family effort, the Hamels
do have some serious industry experience
helping them with their effort. Phil Coturri
is the vineyard manager, and Martha
McClellan is the winemaking consultant.
“Instead of just doing a family project
and having fun together, our aspirations
became: We can be a world-class family
business. And let’s not just say this is the
best we can do with these resources, let’s
do what it takes to be world-class,” says
the elder George Hamel.
If the goal is world-class prestige, the
Hamels did well in choosing a Sonoma
Valley estate with some heritage. The winery sits on land that was planted with
wine grapes by the Civil War general
Joseph Hooker and then later owned by
George and Phoebe Hearst in the late
1800s. The property eventually came to
be owned by the Parducci family, which
sold it to the Hamels.
The objective during the design phase
was to incorporate the estate’s natural
beauty into the building while still providing an exceptional experience for the
visitor. Hamel admits he first had visions
of a French chateau, but he credits architects Doug Thornley and Amber Evans
for creating something that is more of a
natural fit for the property and the family’s hospitality goals. “Instead of building
what we told him to build, he listened to
what we said we wanted and created all
of those things,” says George Hamel. “It
was a great experience.”
Thornley, who happened to be touring
the winery with a client when Wines &
Vines visited, says he wanted the building
to enhance “the perfect Sonoma setting”
Concrete and stainless tanks as well as barrels are used for red wine primary fermentations.
WIN ES & V I N ES N OV EM B ER 20 14 85
TECHNICAL REVIEW
G
WRI NA EP M
E GARKOI NWGI N G
Everything from the light fixtures in the
tasting room to the floor of the tank room
is of the highest quality. The Hamels
would not disclose the amount of their
total investment in the winery but say it
was in line with what they were budgeting.
Gentle processing for whole berries
BRUCE DAMONTE
John Hamel says all of the crush pad
equipment was sourced through P&L
Specialties with a primary goal of gentle
processing to preserve whole berries for
fermentation.
Grapes are handpicked and delivered in
small, 40-pound bins so that none of the
grapes at the bottom of the bins are
crushed. The bins are dumped onto a sorting table that leads to an elevator, which
takes the grapes to a Delta E1 Destemmer.
After they are destemmed, the grapes run
through a Le Trieur sorter before hitting
another shaker table for further sorting.
Sorted berries fall into stainless steel
sumps, which a forklift operator then lifts
and dumps into the tanks. “I mean you
can make arguments all day about what
actually will break up the fruit more—
dropping it from a certain height probably damages it to a certain extent, but
we try to be as gentle as possible,” John
Hamel says. “Everything is (moved by)
gravity, and generally our wines will only
see a pump during fermentation.”
Most of the tanks at the winery were
custom made by Santa Rosa Stainless
Steel and feature dual jackets, built-in
pump-over tubes and irrigators. When
everything is filled and fermenting, John
Hamel says running pump overs will be
as simple as moving a Yamada air pump
A Nomblot concrete egg is framed in the winery cave by an alcove that features an exposed rock
wall. The eggs are used for white wine fermentation.
from tank to tank. In addition to the
stainless steel tanks, Hamel Family Wines
also uses concrete fermentation tanks and
eggs by Nomblot.
With a brand new winery, John Hamel
says he’d like to ferment with the ambient
or “native” yeasts, but he has the
resources should that prove ineffective.
After a cold soak of a few days, John
Hamel says he can warm the tanks up to
see if that starts fermentation or just add
yeast. “We’re going to try and do everything native, but basically if it’s not going
we’ll inoculate. We’re not dogmatic about
it,” he says. “When you’re not inoculating, your best bet for getting things going
is to have good temperature control, and
each one of these tanks is made for that.”
George F. Hamel III, center, helps sort Sauvignon Blanc grapes during the 2014 harvest.
The whole clusters are pressed with a Puleo SF-22 press.
86 W I NE S & V I NE S NOV E MBE R 20 14
The concrete tanks by Nomblot couldn’t
be bolted to the floor to meet seismic standards, so the Hamels had custom concrete
cradles built for the tanks so that they
could shake in place and not topple over.
The concrete tanks are a new direction that
John Hamel feels will fit the winemaking
program quite well.
“We do a lot of barrel fermentations as
well, and concrete was something in
between wood and stainless steel,” he says.
“We’re pretty excited about it. We’ve put a
big investment into it, but from our
research and people we talk to, people have
been pretty happy with the results. It gives
us another tool in the winery to get where
we need to go.”
For barrel fermentations, John Hamel
says he removes the barrelhead, fills each
barrel with grapes and uses OxO racks
for rolling the barrels to break up the cap
during fermentation.
Once red lots are done fermenting, the
free run drains directly to barrels for
aging or into smaller portable tanks that
can be lifted with a forklift for gravitypowered barrel filling. John Hamel says
that before pressing he will leave the Cabernet on its skins for up to two months to
give the wine more structure and to balance the fruity flavors of whole-berry fermentation. “You’re getting bright, really
fresh fruit flavors, so we use extended
maceration to add a little backbone and
structure so that you’re getting that freshness but you’re also getting the depth and
structure of the tannins you want.”
The Hamels have a JLB 5 press by
Bucher Vaslin for reds. John Hamel admits
it is a bit small, but he keeps nearly every
G R AWPI EN GE RMOAW
KING
vineyard lot, barrel and press lot separate,
so he’s frequently working with small
amounts of wine. This also means the cave
houses a variety of wines in kegs, carboys
and 30-gallon and smaller barrels that are
all awaiting blending trials.
John Hamel says he’s done some trials
with American and Hungarian oak, but
he’s sticking with French oak for the
Hamel wines. He uses about half neutral
and half new oak, and he says some of his
preferred barrel suppliers are Taransaud,
Baron and Vincent Darnajou. Barrels are
stored in the 12,000-square-foot cave that
has entrances on both sides of the
7,000-square-foot production building.
Magorian Mine Services designed and
dug the wine cave, and excavation proved
relatively simple with the contractor removing about 10 to 15 feet of material per day.
At three spots in the cave, the Hamels opted
to leave the natural rock exposed, providing
a cross view of their estate soil. The layers
of different colored soils makes for a
striking, natural aesthetic to the cave interior. The effect is heightened by concrete
egg fermentors that have been placed in
front of the exposed rock walls. The eggs
are used for the winery’s Sauvignon Blanc
wines. Grapes are pressed with a Puelo
SF-22 press from Carlsen & Associates,
and the juice is settled in a portable tank
and then racked to the eggs.
The Hamels’ winery is permitted to
produce up to 30,000 cases, but George
Hamel says they’ll likely never reach that
point. He says he didn’t particularly want
to repeat the permit process, so he sought
far more capacity than the business really
needed. The existing production facility
could handle 10,000 cases, but the
Hamels plan to only make around 4,000
cases this year and eventually grow to
about 6,000 cases. John Hamel says the
winemaking program also doesn’t involve
quick tank turnaround, so he’ll likely be
using almost all of that 10,000-case
capacity to produce half as much wine.
Finished wines receive little fining, and
the Hamels don’t plan to filter. They have
used a mobile bottling line in the past and
plan to continue to do so in the future.
The wines are packaged in Bruni Glass
with M.A. Silva Corks and Ramondin
USA capsules.
Noted label artist Tom Rodrigues created original artwork depicting a stuffed
badger for the Hamel Family Wines label.
The badger is not directly related to the
multiple generations of Hamels who
attended the University of Wisconsin, but
rather a family legend about a well-intentioned anniversary present that almost
caused cardiac arrest and later provided
inspiration for the label. The whole story
is explained in detail on the winery website, hamelfamilywines.com.
Limited production ties into the
Hamels’ goal of managing a premier
estate with a focus on direct-to-consumer
sales. “We’re creating a sustainable family
business that has world-class ambitions in
terms of quality, and quality all the way
through from how we care about the
grapes to how we make our wines to how
we deliver the experience to a select group
of people who appreciate what we’re
doing,” George Hamel says.
Hillside and historic vineyards
The original 1-acre vineyard has grown to
more than 90 bearing acres with 25 acres
in development, and the Hamels now
own a few notable Sonoma vineyards.
The family purchased the 2-acre Stellwagen Vineyard and the 6-acre Chauvet
Vineyard (both in Sonoma Valley). The
Stellwagen Vineyard was planted in the
1880s and is about 90% Zinfandel. The
Hamels have renamed it Armor Plate
Making wine is your expertise
Making sure your facility is up to it is ours
Westside Mechanical, Inc.
PO Box 0367
Cotati CA 94931
P: 707-795-9606
F: 707-796-6761
u Plumbing
u Fire Protection
u Hydronic Heat
u Refrigeration
WIN ES & V I N ES N OV EM B ER 20 14 87
TECHNICAL REVIEW
G
WRI NA EP M
E GARKOI NWGI N G
VINEYARD
ACREAGE
DTC
SALES
90
80%
15401 Sonoma Highway, Sonoma, Calif. 95476
(707) 996-5800 • hamelfamilywines.com
WINEMAKER
John B. Hamel II
VINEYARD MANAGER
Phil Coturri
CONSULTING
WINEMAKER
Martha McClellan
4,000
Hamel Family Wines
Winery Case Production
OWNERS
Pamela
and George Hamel
MANAGING
DIRECTOR
George F. Hamel III
36,000
Sonoma County Average
87,000
California Average
47,000
U.S. Average
0
0 30,000
60,000
90,000
Winery Average Bottle Price
Hamel Family Wines
Source: Wines Vines Analytics
AVA
Sonoma Valley
& Moon Mountain
District
$65.50
Hamel Family Wines
$22
Sonoma County Average
$11.50
California Average
$12
U.S. Average
$0
$10
$20
$30
$40
$50
$60
$70
Source: Wines Vines Analytics
THE CHALLENGE
The Hamel family took advantage of the site of their new winery in Sonoma Valley to create a facility featuring spacious
hospitality areas framed by views of the surrounding hills and vineyards and complemented with modern winemaking equipment.
Building the Winery
Architect
General contractor
Excavation/site work
Interior design
Metal fabrication
Concrete
HVAC
Doug Thornley and Amber Evans,
Gould Evans, gouldevans.com
Project manager Mark Davis and project superintendent
Don Roberts, Wright Contracting, wrightcontracting.com
Able General Engineering, (707) 823-1580
Angela Free Design, angelafreedesign.com
Drains
Flooring
Walls
Landscaping
architect
Wine cave
Sorting table
Crusher/
destemmer
Shaker table
Tanks
F&M Steel Services, fmsteelservices.com
Coleman Concrete Construction, (209) 984-3299
R&R Mechanical, (707) 528-7756
Winery refrigeration Westside Mechanical Inc., (707) 795-9606
Plumbing
Making the Wine
Pump over
pump
P&L Specialties, pnlspecialties.com
Delta E1, Bucher Vaslin North America,
buchervaslin.com
Le Trieur, P&L Specialties, pnlspecialties.com
Twenty closed-top tanks, Santa Rosa
Stainless Steel, srss.com. Nine concrete
tanks: four SE 30 tanks and five HRE 40
tanks, Nomblot, Artisan Barrels & Tanks,
artisanbarrels.com
Yamada air pump, Burgstahler Machine
Works, (707) 967-0553
Westside Mechanical Inc., (707) 795-9606
Tank irrigators
Burgstahler Machine Works, (707) 967-0553
Westside Mechanical Inc., (707) 795-9606
Hoses, clamps
other fittings
Burgstahler Machine Works, (707) 9670553, Matheson Tri-gas, mathesongas.com
Domenichelli Masonry, (707) 433-4124
Stockham Construction, stockhamconstruction.com
Barrels
Jonathan Plant & Associates,
jonathanplant.com
Don Magorian of Magorian Mine Services, magmineserv.com
Winery Services
Laboratory services
ETS Laboratories, etslabs.com
Case goods storage
Valley Wine Warehouse, valleywinewarehouse.com
Regulatory compliance
Marketing and public relations
Web sales/POS/
inventory software
DtC/wine shipments
The Compliance Connection,
compliance-connect.com
Glodow Nead Communications, glodownead.com
Vin65, vin65.com
Barrel washer
and racks
Financing/bank First Republic Bank, firstrepublic.com
88 W I NE S & V I NE S NOV E MBE R 20 14
Burgstahler Machine Works, (707) 9670553; OXOline barrel racks, Tonnellerie
Baron – OXOline, tonnellerie.com
Presses Bucher JLB 5, Bucher Vaslin North
America, buchervaslin.com; Puleo SF-22,
Carlsen & Associates, carlsenassociates.com
Packaging
Bottles
Corks
Label design
WineShipping, wineshipping.com
Tonnellerie Taransaud, taransaud.com;
Tonnellerie Baron, tonnellerie.com;
Tonnellerie Vincent Darnajou, The Morlet
Selection, morletselection.com
Label printing
Capsules
Bruni Glass Packaging, bruniglass.com
MA Silva USA, masilva.com
Tom Rodrigues, rodriguesstudio.com
Paragon Label, paragonlabel.com
Ramondin USA, ramondin.com
G R AWPI EN GE RMOAW
KING
Hamels don’t use for their
own wines they sell to other
wineries in Napa and
Sonoma counties. “We’re less
interested in Biodynamics
from a marketing perspective
or from the moon cycle perspective,” George Hamel
says, adding that if the property is going to bear the family’s name, his utmost
concern is that it produces
interesting wines that are
unique to the site.
Despite a relatively quiet
launch over the past sumViews of the Mayacamas Mountains provide the backdrop
to the 5,000-square-foot tasting room at the winery.
mer, the tasting room was
packed on a warm afternoon
in late July. The crowd was putting a bit
$350,000, which helped the auction bring in
of stress on the new staff, which was trya record of more than $4 million.
ing to seat newcomers while still helping
The winery and vineyards by themselves
those folks lingering over their glasses.
are an impressive investment, but the
George Hamel was there in the center of
Hamels also appear to be committing
the maelstrom, setting people up for a tastthemselves to making a successful and
ing and checking to see if they’d like a tour
sustainable family winery a reality.
of the new winery. In September, the Hamels
“We’ve raised the bar on ourselves,”
hosted a $10,000-per-couple dinner at the
George Hamel says. “We’re not trying to
winery as a fundraiser for the Sonoma Harbe Napa in Sonoma or be the best in
vest Wine Auction, and the family chipped
Sonoma, we’re trying to be world class
in an additional $100,000 to raise a total of
regardless of location.”
WIN ES & V I N ES N OV EM B ER 20 14 89
BRUCE DAMONTE
Vineyard. The Chauvet vineyard is also
Zinfandel and has been managed by
Coturri since the 1970s.
Both vineyards will support the Hamels’
Zinfandel program, but the family also
purchased the Nuns Canyon vineyard in
the new Moon Mountain AVA, which is
situated in the hills above the winery. The
Nuns Canyon vineyard is comprised of
about 60 planted acres with 13 more in
development. The Hamels also have
nearly 30 acres of estate vines, which
include a small portion of Grenache. The
original vineyard is now part of 6 acres
planted almost entirely to Sauvignon
Blanc and Semillon used for the Hamel
Family Wines’ white program.
A small demonstration vineyard is
planted near the tasting room and includes
a mix of two Cabernet Sauvignon clones,
Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.
George Hamel III says this vineyard will be
featured on tours, and they plan to make a
field blend with the grapes and sell the
wine as a tasting room special.
All of the Hamels’ vines will soon be certified through California Certified Organic
Farmers. The hillside property is managed
through a partnership with Coturri’s Enterprise Vineyards, and what grapes the