Crush Empire

Believe it or not, there’s a custom-crush empire being built in our own backyard, owned by the Rippey family based in Acampo.

This week, father and son Dennis and Tyson Rippey begin crushing at their brand-new Carneros Vintners custom crush winery located on Stage Gulch Road near Sonoma.

Their 52,000-square-foot facility is permitted to handle up to a million gallons of wine per year, but they’ll start with about 1,000 tons of 2009 fruit.

In 1991, the Rippeys purchased the old Urgon Winery, which happened to be Lodi’s very first winery to be bonded in 1900, later known as the Turner Winery. Located on the crucial main rail line in Acampo on Woodbridge Road, the Rippeys renamed the winery Lodi Vintners and increased capacity from a million gallons up to six million today.

The empire was christened The Vintners Group and plans to eventually produce three million gallons of wine in Carneros. According to the Press Democrat, they are, “scouting for opportunities to acquire wineries suitable for custom-processing in Napa Valley, the Central Coast and potentially other West Coast states.”

If you see the Rippey name down in Mexico, don’t be surprised, Dennis owns a pub there being fitted with a wine bar by Tyson.