Winery expansion will bring 400 jobs to Lodi

By Reed Fujii

Record Staff Writer

February 06, 2013 12:00 AM

 LODI - The nation's fourth-largest wine seller, Trinchero Family Estates, plans a $300 million expansion of its winery in Lodi over the next three years, roughly doubling its wine production capacity and creating a new central bottling and distribution center.

It will also bring in about 400 new jobs once the bottling lines are installed, said Roger Trinchero, chief executive of the Napa Valley-based vintner, as he addressed about 400 growers and business leaders at Tuesday's Lodi Grape Day luncheon.

The company - whose leading brands include Sutter Home, Mènage à Trois, Trinity Oaks and the Wine Cube sold at Target - looks to grow in the next 10 years from shipments of 19.6 million cases of wine in 2012 to more than 30 million cases. Expansion of its Westside Winery off Woodbridge Road and Interstate 5 in Lodi and creating a new bottling and distribution center there for all its high-volume brands are keys to support that growth, Trinchero said.

"When finished, we believe this will be the type of facility our family and the entire Lodi community will be proud of," he said.

Pat Patrick, chief executive of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce, which co-sponsors the annual Grape Day with the University of California Cooperative Extension, welcomed the news.

"Four hundred jobs just don't come to town every day," he said. "That's a hell of a boost for the local economy."

Mark Chandler, a Lodi wine industry consultant and newly named executive director of the national trade group WineAmerica, agreed.

"Obviously, it spells a great future for the area," he said.

Although its headquarters are in St. Helena, Trinchero has a long history of buying Lodi-grown grapes, especially going back to the company's days of "runaway growth" in the 1980s due to the wild popularity of its Sutter Home White Zinfandel.

Recounting his winery's history, Trinchero noted it began fermenting small amounts of zinfandel grape juice without skins, the opposite of the usual red wine practice, in the early 1970s. Having sold out the first couple of batches, production was boosted to 2,400 gallons in 1975 when what company insiders call "the Miracle" occurred - a stalled fermentation that left the wine slightly sweet and with a soft pink hue.

"It was an instantaneous success," he said. "People loved it and began clamoring for more."

From production of 47,000 cases in 1981, Trinchero Family Estates grew shipments nearly 10-fold to 4.1 million cases in 1991.

The bulk of that growth was in white zinfandel made from Lodi grapes.

That surge also helped saved the old-vine zinfandel vineyards that are today widely renowned for red wine production, Chandler said.

Demand for fruit from those vineyards had been in decline, he said. "Were it not for Sutter Home, (the old vines) would have been plowed under and changed to another crop or another grape variety."

With the bulk of its grapes coming out of Lodi, Trinchero said the company spends millions of dollars moving grapes and wine up to its winery and bottling facilities in St. Helena. After expanding its Lodi winery, it will continue to make wine in Napa but will focus that operation solely on grapes from its coastal sources.

And consolidating all the bottling and distribution operations for its high-volume brands in Lodi will result in cost savings, helping Trinchero compete in an increasingly global wine market.

Contact reporter Reed Fujii at (209) 546-8253 or rfujii@recordnet.com.