Cecchetti Sebastiani Aims for 1 Million Cases at New Napa Facility

Daniel Sogg
Posted: January 31, 2000

Cecchetti Sebastiani Cellar -- producer of Pepperwood Grove, Quatro and Cecchetti Sebastiani Napa Valley -- has begun construction on a new Napa County bottling plant with an annual capacity of 1 million cases.

Cecchetti Sebastiani currently makes and bottles a total of 315,000 cases of their three brands at the Napa Valley Wine Co. but anticipates producing nearly 1 million cases a year by 2005. The vast majority of that growth is projected for the eight varietals of the inexpensive Pepperwood Grove brand, especially the Syrah, Zinfandel and Cabernet Franc.

Most of the Pepperwood Grove wines, which are priced at about $7 per bottle, carry the broad California appellation. The company makes 10,000 to 15,000 cases annually of its Quatro brand from Sonoma County, and the Cecchetti Sebastiani Napa Valley brand currently totals only about 1,000 cases a year.

"We've reached a point where its getting too expensive [to rent a bottling facility] and have an escalating, volume-based cost when we could build our own structure and have fixed costs," said Roy Cecchetti, president and CEO of the company. He founded the winery with his brother-in-law Don Sebastiani, president of Sebastiani Vineyards, in 1985.

Bob Broman, vice president and winemaker for Cecchetti Sebastiani, will oversee the facility, which is scheduled for completion this summer.

Check out recent ratings of Pepperwood Grove, Quatro and Cecchetti Sebastiani Napa Valley.