Trione Winery
Geyserville Winery

NEW GEYSERVILLE WINERY FOR TRIONE FAMILY

This article has been reprinted from The Press Democrat.

TRIONES RETURN TO WINE
SR family who raised Geyser Peak to prominence plans new winery near Geyserville
May 18, 2006
By KEVIN McCALLUM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

The Trione family just can't seem to stay away from the wine business.

Eight years after selling Geyser Peak Winery for $101 million, the prominent Santa Rosa family is planning a new winery in the historic Geyserville building that once housed Nervo Winery.

"We missed it very much," Mark Trione said of owning a winery. "It's a really fun business."

Financier Henry Trione, one of the county's wealthiest residents, and sons Victor and Mark sold Geyser Peak Winery to Fortune Brands Inc. in 1998. The sale included the award-winning winery's inexpensive sister brand, Canyon Road, but not the property just south of Geyserville where Canyon Road had its tasting room.

The family kept the stone winery building Frank Nervo built in 1908, as well as a second building housing Canyon Road's tasting room, a cinderblock production building, and two bocce courts. They also retained almost 200 acres of vineyards adjoining the winery.

Fortune's wine division, Beam Wine Estates, had been leasing the complex just east of Highway 101 since 1998, but closed the Canyon Road tasting room at the end of April after the Triones outlined their own plans for the site, according to Beam Wine Estates spokeswoman Mary Burnham.

The handful of Canyon Road tasting room employees were offered positions at nearby Geyser Peak, Burnham said. The company has no immediate plans to open another tasting room for the brand, which sells for about $7 a bottle, Burnham said.

Even though they got out of the winemaking business in 1998, the Triones remained one of the largest grape growers in the county.

Mark Trione, 57, and his brother Victor Trione, 59, are partners in Vimark, the family's vineyard management and real estate development firm. Victor is also chairman of the board of Luther Burbank Savings Bank, while Mark manages the family's 750 acres of vineyards. Henry Trione, 86, is retired.

The family continues to sell the majority of its grapes to Geyser Peak, Mark Trione said.

The new venture with be a far cry from their previous foray in the wine business.

When the Triones purchased Geyser Peak in 1982 from the Schlitz Brewing Co. for $20 million, it was a lackluster bulk wine producer. Over the next 16 years, the family invested millions into the operation and turned it into one of the most successful wineries in the country.

The family is now in the process of submitting plans for a 10,000-case winery, minuscule compared to the 500,000 cases of premium wine Geyser Peak was producing when it was sold.

"We want this to be an extremely small, high-end winery," Mark Trione said. "It's going to have our names on it."

The brothers began to seriously consider opening another winery two years ago, hiring winemaker Scot Covington and tinkering with small batches of wine. Last year, they produced about 1,200 cases of pinot noir, chardonnay and cabernet at Moshin Vineyards in Healdsburg.

They also began retrofitting the two-story Nervo building, with its steep roof and distinctive hop tower. The first story of the building contains eight 10,000-gallon redwood wine storage tanks, while the second story is empty. The structure is framed with massive old-growth redwood timbers that will remain.

"This building has so much potential, so much history," Mark Trione said Wednesday during a tour.

The Fifth Resource, Inc team of Ed Sohl, architect and Jim Ford have developed plans that call for a complete renovation of the stone building, with barrel storage and open-top fermenters on the first floor and a private event room on the second, Trione said.

The tasting room and cinderblock buildings will both be torn down, and replaced with a new tasting room and production facility in separate buildings just north of the winery. The three buildings will be tied together with large decks that overlook hundreds of acres of Alexander Valley vineyards, as well as the River Rock Casino tent and parking structure on the eastern slope of the valley.

The renovation and construction costs with be in the "several millions" of dollars, and the wines will likely sell for at least $50 per bottle, Trione said.

Vineyard manager John Tankersley is helping the family develop some new vineyard land in the mountainous Rockpile region near the Sonoma-Mendocino county line, with the fruit to be dedicated to new wines.

If all goes well with the county review process, Trione said he hopes to open the winery for the 2007 crush, and the tasting room by 2008.

You can reach The Press Democrat Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kmccallum@pressdemocrat.com.

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