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Wine aficionados doubted anything could be finer than the vines in Burgundy and Bordeaux. However, during a historic blind wine tasting in 1976, Californian wines bested France’s finest and changed the world of wine forever. The judgment transformed the way new world wineries perceived themselves and heralded the rise of Californian wines in the global market. Today, from Napa to Sonoma all the way through to Lake and Solano, California has a celebrated wine industry of its own, boasting not just global wine brands but also a slew of mom and pop wineries. We sure can raise our glasses to that.
Behind the scenes of these palate-pleasing wines lie numerous winemaking solution providers—the unsung heroes—who are passionately innovating new-age winemaking techniques and streamlining blend development processes to help the local wineries mature the highest quality wines. And among them, a name that often emerges as a symbol of trust, reliability, innovation, integrity, and collaboration for wineries in the Central Coast area is Monterey Wine Company (MWC). Founded as a juicing facility in 2002 in King City, CA, MWC is the home to world-class winemaking, with state-of-the-art humidified and temperature-controlled barrel rooms, case goods storage, bottling hall, and a well-equipped quality assurance laboratory.
“We got you covered from grape to bottle.”
One of the biggest strengths of MWC is its strategically located medium-sized custom crush facility. Currently, MWC’s facility can cooperage wine in the range of 900 to 56,000 gallons, develop programs for up to 20,000 tons of crush, and complete 250,000 cases of bottling. By the end of 2021, MWC’s bottling capacity is expected to triple in numbers and inch closer to a million cases, which will further benefit the company and its clients.
While local wineries leverage this facility to expand their production and explore new markets without an upfront capital investment, bigger wine companies seek MWC’s expertise to meet their excess market demands at a lesser cost. In addition to that, for budding winemakers with no winery, MWC helps in sourcing the grapes, processing the wine according to their formula and recipe, and bottling the final product at its facility.
Clients Always Come First
Today, a number of wine traditionalists, inventors, and entrepreneurs have come to appreciate MWC’s commitment to superior service delivery, which is apparent in its growing clientele. Notably, MWC’s dedication to establishing and maintaining long-running relationships—with clients and employees alike—stems from its ‘people-centric’ mentality. “We become the eyes and ears of our clients who might be hundreds of miles away,” says Shannon Valladarez, director of finance and personnel/general manager at MWC. So, whether it is updating on daily progress, discussing new ideas, or getting their buy-in for every activity, MWC never shies away from communicating with their clients.
Such a client-centric business strategy has enabled the company to carry on the usual volume of wine production for its clients even in a trying year like 2020, not getting bogged down by crises like the COVID-19 pandemic or California wildfires.
At the Cutting Edge of Winemaking
From the beginning, the company has always embraced new and innovative technologies and offered them to clients as a tool to help craft high-quality wines. “All of our winemaking techniques are developed and perfected in collaboration with wine and food companies from Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Australia,” explains Corneliu Dane, director of winemaking at MWC.
In addition to the innovative Flash Détente process, MWC is now exploring ways to enhance grape color and extract tannins without using thermal technologies. To that end, MWC is conducting trials for two technologies at an industrial level: pulsemaster PEF technology from France and the Netherlands, and ultrasound technology from Spain.
As much as the red wines, MWC is equally invested in producing high-quality white wines. For the latter, MWC uses an ultra-filtration technique that removes the colors and high phenolics from the heavy pressed white and rosé juice fractions—to match the same composition as the free-run juice. This not only improves the outcome (reduces the bitterness of the wine and mends its color) but, from the production side, also cuts the cost of the entire process.
MWC, in collaboration with a research firm from Spain, has also developed a special activation process of a selective resin for white and rosé wines to remove a considerable concentration of polyphenols and ensure the reduction of color without adversely altering its organoleptic qualities. This process can also be applied to rosé wines that are too colored and need an adjustment or to the old wines that are oxidized and require some help with its freshness.
“We also use a similar process with another type of selective resin to remove the potassium from wine, lowering the pH without affecting the acidity while stabilizing the wine. This improves the fermentation process without using costly tartaric acid additions,” explains the winemaking maven.
Blossoming at Heart and Soul of the Wine Country
Today, these proven capabilities have made MWC a real catalyst for innovation in the U.S. winemaking space. Apart from the leading winemaking services, MWC is also known for its flagship wine brand called Poppy (named after the Californian flower), which is handcrafted exclusively by Dane and distributed across the U.S. and abroad.
In the years ahead, as much as MWC desires to keep making strides in its own winemaking journey, it also wants to be a guide for more budding and established winemakers, helping them embrace technology on a commercial level to maneuver the art of modern wine crafting.
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Company
Monterey Wine Company
Management
Shannon Valladarez, Director of Finance and Personnel/General Manager
Description
Founded as a juicing facility in 2002 in King City, CA, MWC is the home to world-class winemaking, with state-of-the-art humidified and temperature-controlled barrel rooms, case goods storage, bottling hall, and a well-equipped quality assurance laboratory. One of the biggest strengths of MWC is its strategically located medium-sized custom crush facility. Currently, MWC’s facility can cooperage wine in the range of 900 to 56,000 gallons, develop programs for up to 20,000 tons of crush, and complete 250,000 cases of bottling. By the end of 2021, MWC’s bottling capacity is expected to triple in numbers and inch closer to a million cases, which will further benefit the company and its clients
Monterey Wine Company (MWC), a Californian establishment specializing in custom wine production, has entered into an agreement with Frugalpac, a British sustainable packaging firm. This partnership marks MWC as the initial US entity to acquire a Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine. This development constitutes the second export sale of a paper bottle machine by Frugalpac, with Canada's KinsBrae Packaging purchasing the inaugural machine in June 2022. As a result, paper bottle production in North America is set to double to five million per year.
The utilization of the Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine allows for the creation of Frugal Bottles within wineries, thereby further reducing carbon emissions through decreased shipping of traditional glass bottles from centralized manufacturing facilities. Introducing recycled paperboard and pouches directly into wineries for assembly reduces the reliance on delivery trucks by a factor of four. The investment in the Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine substantially lowers production costs due to diminished shipping expenses and local manufacturing.
Frugal Bottles are crafted from 94% recycled paperboard with a food-grade pouch, weighing a mere 83g before filling and presenting a weight advantage of five times over glass. Consequently, their carbon footprint is six times smaller than that of glass bottles. Additionally, they offer 360° branding for captivating shelf visibility.
Located in King City on the Central Coast of California, MWC is strategically positioned in the heart of US wine production, where over 80% of the country's wines are produced. The introduction of lightweight Frugal Bottles offers an opportunity for beverage producers to significantly reduce the carbon impact of their packaging.
MWC, operating within a 200-mile radius of California's key appellations, had previously established a dedicated service to fill Frugal Bottles for US-based wine and spirits brands. With this recent collaboration, the paper bottles will now be manufactured in California, allowing MWC to provide an end-to-end service encompassing bottle production, filling, and packing for the US beverage industry.
Over 35 different beverage producers worldwide have launched 120 distinct SKUs of wines, spirits, and olive oils in Frugal Bottles. These bottles are available in 25 countries, including Japan, North America, the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, and South Africa. Since 2020, 1.8 million paper bottles have been produced, resulting in a reduction of 832 tonnes of CO2e.
Notably, multiple North American beverage brands have adopted the Frugal Bottle, including Signal 7 Wines from Michigan, Half Shell Vodka from Florida, Melody Lynne from California, and Demon Rum from Las Vegas.
Within North America, Frugalpac is actively pursuing 31 live inquiries out of a pool of 237 for Frugal Bottles. These numbers translate to an anticipated annualized volume of 11 million Frugal Bottles per annum for North America from the live inquiries, with the potential to rise to 48 million from the complete pool.
Recent research by Lux Research has indicated that over 35 million Americans express an interest in more sustainable wine packaging. Furthermore, a survey of approximately 2,500 wine merchants and producers conducted by ProWein revealed that 11% of global traders plan to feature paper wine bottles in their stores within the next two years. This percentage increased to 14% in the US, 29% in the UK, and 33% in Norway.
In February of the current year, the Signal 7 bottle featuring the Frugal Bottle design clinched the "Best in Class for Technical Design in Packaging Innovation" and the "Award of Distinction in the Sustainable Design" category at the PAC Global Packaging Awards in New York, alongside the "SME of the Year" accolade at the UK Green Business Awards.
Shannon Valladarez, Director of Personnel and Finance-General Manager at Monterey Wine Company, remarked, "We are extremely proud to be the inaugural US company to produce the revolutionary paper Frugal Bottle."
“Drinks brands around the world are looking to decarbonise and the bottle accounts for up to 50% of a wine’s carbon footprint. By moving to our Frugal Bottle, they will be able to slash the bottle’s carbon footprint by 84% and that’s a huge game changer.
“We were hugely impressed by the global success of the Frugal Bottle and felt the time was right to invest in Frugalpac’s machine so we can produce the bottles in the US, making it easier for drinks brands to move to a more sustainable packaging.
“We are already taking orders from drinks brands across the US and predict we will see a paper bottle revolution sweep across America.”
Frugalpac CEO Malcolm Waugh added: “This is a big moment not only for Frugalpac but the US drinks industry. Now American wine and spirits brands will be able to buy and fill paper bottles made in America for the first time.
“Our Frugal Bottle and Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine offers a really simple and cost-effective way for wineries and spirits producers to radically cut their bottle’s carbon footprint at a stroke. They will also be able to use 360-degree branding to achieve maximum shelf stand out in stores.
“We’ve already seen several wine and spirits in North America use our paper bottle and MWC’s decision to buy our Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine means even more drinks brands will be able to make the move from glass to paper.”
UK Minister for Exports Lord Offord said:
“This is brilliant news for Frugalpac whose Frugal Bottle is a great British innovation that will help the US drinks industry decarbonise.
“The collaboration with Monterey Wine Company is a fantastic example of how our two countries can work together to increase trade and meet our Net Zero goals.”
In addition to receiving international inquiries aimed at producing 120 million Frugal Bottles annually, Frugalpac has garnered significant interest from over 100 other global brands, contract packing firms, and packaging companies seeking to acquire Frugal Bottle Assembly Machines. Each of these machines possesses the capacity to manufacture 2.5 million Frugal Bottles per year.
In the previous year, Canadian packaging enterprise KinsBrae Packaging achieved the distinction of being the world's first company to acquire a Frugal Bottle Assembly Machine, known as FBAM-1. This machine is currently being installed in Canada and is anticipated to become operational within the next two months.
Frugalpac extends an invitation to wineries, distilleries, contract fillers, and packaging enterprises worldwide to invest in Frugal Bottle Assembly Machines. This move aligns with the goal of meeting the substantial demand for Frugal Bottles across the globe, contributing to carbon reduction and bolstering sales of wines, spirits, and packaging.