The Wine Foundry

The Wine Foundry. With the struggles of one company comes opportunity for others. Founder and visionary of The Wine Foundry Philip Von Burg has made a career of “rescuing” and working with under-performing, distressed or bankrupt companies. In 2012 his own company, Castlegate Capital Advisers acquired the assets of Crushpad (a one-time prominent winery that made wine for numerous clients) including 900 barrels full of clients’ wine.

For several years their operations were based in a winery in the town of Sonoma in neighboring Sonoma County. In 2014 an opportunity arose to purchase the custom crush operations and facility of Juice Box located in business/corporate part south of the city of Napa.

Today they are a unique custom crush facility – providing the wine-making equipment and expertise for both commercial and private clients. They maintain a one barrel minimum for private clients and a two-barrel minimum for those wanting to make wine commercially. Their services are in demand; by early 2017 they expanded significantly by building out more space for the winery operations as well as utilizing additional nearby space for barrel storage. The number of different labels they make here is rather remarkable.

The Wine Foundry has built upon what Crushpad used to do (full-service shop for wine making for clients) but has improved on a number of other things (including the use of state-of-the-art winery equipment and technology) as well as providing invaluable marketing and social media services to their clients making wine commercially. They can handle the headaches of paperwork needed to sell wine in a variety of states, can setup a website with an online store and help with marketing strategy.

For someone who has an interest in wine, but limited time and has the financial means, the Wine Foundry is a sensible option.

With the scope and diversity of clients that make their wines here, efficiency and maintaining quality are very important factors on the wine making side of the business. They have embraced technology to save time and money which at the same time contributes to the quality of their wine making. Many of their tanks are outfitted with their own pumps (pump-overs can be scheduled remotely and whenever they want), they have tanks fully capable of being cooled or heated, they use an optical sorter during harvest, they have their own bottling line and a piece of equipment that makes a number of manual lab tests irrelevant (place a sample wine in the device and it will output a number of critical pieces of information about the sample (pH, sulpher readings, alcohol level and other data).

This is a full service shop; from helping you select vineyard sources, through the wine making, the packaging, labeling to the selling. You can be as active in the entire process as you feel comfortable with – from helping process the fruit once it arrives at the winery, to blending to the design work. Or simply take a more hands off approach and let the team do all the work.

The selection and quality of vineyard sources is extremely impressive across Livermore, Mendocino, Napa Valley, Santa Barbara and Sonoma County. During a visit you will see a list of vineyard names written on a map adhered to one of the walls of the tasting room – prominent Napa vineyard sources at the time of this review include the Beatty Ranch, Georges III and Stagecoach.

With extensive vineyard sources and a wine making team it made sense to make their own wines. They produce wines under two labels: Foundry and Anarchist. Each wine is typically made in quantities of 50-60 cases. The wines are very selectively distributed – at Bacchus & Venus in Sausalito (an art gallery and wine bar) and the Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa among other venues.

Like the vineyard sources for their own clients, The Wine Foundry uses vineyards from select locations around the state. We have focused on their Napa Valley wines here.

Select Wines
Wine Foundry
The 2021 Foundry Viognier Clone 1, Catie’s Corner Vineyard, Russian River Valley was fermented and aged in both French oak (30% new) and stainless steel barrels for 12 months prior to bottling. The attractive and aromatic bouquet offers scents of mango, ripe papaya, honeycomb, honeysuckle, and vanilla, with orchard fruits also at play here including peach and yellow nectarine. The palate reveals flavors of dried apricot, peach, nectarine and tangerine. Rounded, with a light oily viscosity, the palate finishes bright and with a subtle but persistent herbal/bitter character, which reflects the typicity of this variety. Would love to pair this bottling with an ‘oily’ fish such as salmon from the BBQ.

The 2021 Foundry Chardonnay (clone 4), Rodgers Creek Vineyard, Sonoma Coast was fermented and aged in French oak barrels for 12 months of which 30% was new oak. This wine is medium to deep gold in color; the engaging bouquet offers scents of ripe stone fruits including apricot and yellow peach, honeysuckle, vanilla, butterscotch, caramel, creme Brule, melting butter, baked pineapple and mango. The palate offers flavors of peach, nectarine and dried mango, with a light hazelnut character lingering on the finish. Not overly oaky. Not overly buttery. Texturally, this wine features a supple and extremely velvety feel, complemented by a balanced acidity.

The 2013 Foundry Sauvignon Blanc is 100% varietal sourced from a vineyard in Yountville. This wine shows a lemon-lime zest on the bouquet with additional aromas of wet rock/mineralities. It is a balanced wine, soft on the entry – clean across the palate with a lively finish showing notes of green melon and grapefruit.

The 2012 Foundry The Crucible is a Napa Valley red blend. It shows a dusty note aromatically, brown chocolate, red cherry – more red than dark fruit aromas. Baking spices show on the palate, it is easy drinking balanced wine. A darker component shows on the finish with notes of toasted cedar and very well integrated tannins.

The 2010 Foundry Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was the first vintage under their own label. It initially shows a subtle herb note with aromas of white pepper and dry dusty rock complemented by notes of blackberry. There is a sweetness of fruit that also shows on this bouquet. The wine is soft on entry, with delicate tannins that show more on the front of the palate rather than the finish. Mostly red fruit is offered on the palate with lingering acidity and a cranberry-cherry tartness on the finish.

Anarchist Wine Co
The 2022 The Anarchist Outré Blend, California is a proprietary white wine blend with a composition of: 34.5% Viognier, 22.5% Pinot Gris, 20% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Gewürztraminer and 3% Sémillon. This wine is medium gold in color; the nose is a bit shy upon opening, with its aromatics slowly teased out with time. Its scents include honeycomb, quince, red apple, some sort of melon but were not exactly sure which one, passion fruit, lychee, a hint of pineapple and dried ginger. The palate reveals flavors of mandarin orange, Golden kiwi, white peaches, green apple, and candied ginger. The vivacious and brightly lit finish is supported by a texture that is supple, rounded and lightly creamy. The subtle but catchy label was generated using algorithms to create the layered patterns.

The 2020 The Anarchist Freudian Slip is a Nebbiolo based red blend with 78% Nebbiolo, 12% Pinot Noir, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Viognier, 1% Merlot and 1% Sauvignon Blanc. Color is a very good indicator of Nebbiolo; this wine is pale garnet. The bouquet offers aromas of broken clay pots, a hint of anise, strawberry, cherry cola, red licorice and dried herbs. As the wine evolves, it offers an aroma of baked plum. The palate sports higher-toned red fruits including currant, cranberry along with raspberry. Brightly lit on the finish, it lingers savory and bright with notes of white pepper and a surprisingly light grip of grainy textured tannins. Very much a food wine, we could see pairing this with a tomato based and ground bison filled ravioli.

The 2018 Anarchist Wine Co Rage Against the Machine is a very unique multi-varietal red and white blend including 38% Syrah, 38% Sangiovese, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot, 3% Gewürztraminer, 3% Petite Sirah, 2% Viognier and 2% Zinfandel. immediately offers ripe fruit forward aromatics including blackberry, boysenberry and ripe plum. Also, some sweeter baking spice notes including clove. The bouquet smells like desert. Somewhat linear in its presentation on the palate with its focus being on fruit rather than other complexities. The tannins are barely perceptible with a very soft smooth finish. Goes down very easily.

The 2017 Anarchist Wine The Philosopher Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot and 1% Petite Sirah. Shows hints of brown chocolate, dust with a sweetness of aromatics including black cherry. An extremely drinkable Cabernet Sauvignon in its youth – offers light style slightly chalky tannins with minimal grip. A wine one doesn’t have to think about – just enjoy. Definitely a lighter styled Napa Valley wine of this variety. lingers with a hint of sweetness from the fruit on the finish.

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Ideally, an existing tasting room was already on site at the time of their purchase. Some of their clients use this for tasting wine for their own customers and The Wine Foundry also pours their own wines here (all by appointment).

Note the stainless-steel tasting counter – it is one of the most unique tasting bars in all of the Napa Valley. Half of it was created from an old tank with a stainless top welded to it; you can still see the door to the tank in the front of the counter.

We initially breathed a huge sigh of relief when Crushpad moved out of the county a few years back – taking with them many labels that were technically Napa Valley based producers because they were sourcing from at least one vineyard located in Napa Valley plus they were making wine in Napa County. But with approximately 75 commercial clients, a number of which source from The Wine Foundry’s Napa vineyard portfolio, we have our hands full again in reviewing this significant additional collection of mostly tiny Napa brands.

Anarchist Wine Co., & the Foundry, The Tasting Rooms at the Meritage
In summer of 2018 a large parcel of land directly to the south and across the street from the Meritage Resort (southern Napa city limits) opened as Vista Collina Resort and the next door The Village at Vista Collina, featuring a large green space (with environmentally friendly turf) surrounded by four stories containing 145 Tuscan-styled guest rooms, initially 9 stand-alone tasting rooms on the ground floor, a luxurious Vintner’s Room (for special vintner member and other community and private events) and the Village Food & Wine Center where chefs teach a variety of culinary seminars and host other culinary related events. The Village at Vista Collina held its grand opening on August 4, 2018. This resort is now known as the Grand Reserve at the Meritage with the main courtyard now referred to as The Tasting Rooms at the Meritage.

The Fivetown Gourmet Grocery and Deli is an integral part of the The Tasting Rooms at the Meritage experience. Named after the five towns within Napa Valley including Yountville, Rutherford, Oakville, St. Helena and Calistoga – this upscale market features a variety of farm-fresh local ingredients and homemade products. Plenty of seating outside the grocery – one can also picnic on the lawn area.

The ‘lawn’ area is also ideal for hosting a variety of events including seasonal concerts. Umbrellas inserted into the ground can easily be moved and seating arrangements are highly flexible.

The Anarchist space/Foundry (Suite 9, located towards the rear of the ‘village’) was one of the original 9 standalone tasting rooms; their space is intimate, focusing on wines and very personalized hospitality. Seating is both inside, either at the bar or a couple of chairs/tables or outside under umbrellas weather permitting. Anarchist wines are styled to be reasonably priced, very approachable in their youth and are what we call easy-drinking crowd pleaser wines. These wines often have catchy proprietary names and contain unique blends; in terms of creativity, we often associate similarities between Anarchist and Tank Garage in Calistoga and Paso Robles.

Both Anarchist and Foundry wines are available for tasting with separate flights of each offered. Like with some of the wines bottled under Wine Foundry, select Anarchist bottlings are from vineyards outside of Napa Valley. Reservations are preferred but walk-ins are welcome if there is space.

Generally curbside parking is available within a short walk of the tasting room. Or the Meritage has plenty of open air parking in the parking lot wrapping around the resort.

Anarchist donates 1% of their total gross profits to an organization called 1% For The Planet. Funds from businesses who participate in this are distributed to organizations protecting the environment worldwide. For reference, Paradigm Winery in Napa Valley’s Oakville appellation was one of the first ten businesses to participate in this and was the first Napa Valley based winery to join.

The Wine Foundry also offers annual and popular Vineyard and Harvest Crush Camps. These three hour sessions offer a quick behind the scenes visit to one of their source vineyards (the Wine Foundry Vineyard Camp), located near the city of Napa. The visit will coincide with the maturity of a specific vineyard and the class will highlight important components of growing grapes. And the three hour Wine Foundry Harvest Crush Camps take place at The Wine Foundry and highlight key processes during production.

For more information, to schedule a visit, to purchase wine or to join one of several wine clubs, visit: www.thewinefoundry.com or to purchase wines from the Foundry and Anarchist lables, www.anarchistwineco.com

Wine Foundry, hospitality space

Wine Foundry Winery