Caton Vineyards approved for production facility

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors recently approved permits for a 12,000-case wine production facility at Caton Vineyards up Mountain Road. The 5,000 sq. ft. metal building will not be visible from the road. The facility will not hold events nor have a public tasting room.

“It gives us control over the grapes from the vineyard to the bottle,” said winery owner Ty Caton, who currently produces about 2,000 cases a year at a facility he rents on Eighth Street East.

Caton planted the first vines in the late 1990s and released his first vintage in 2003. The ranch site up Mountain Road consists of 107 acres, 40 of which are planted in cabernet, merlot, syrah, petite sirah and malbec grapes. Caton has a public tasting room located along Highway 12 in Kenwood.

Caton had originally petitioned for a 15,000-case permit, but the supervisors reduced the total capacity, partly in response to neighbors’ concerns about trucks going up the road to deliver grapes from other vineyards. Caton said he will produce only estate wines on-site, as well as carry out all the bottling at the facility. Actual construction, he said, might start in a year or two.

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Court of Master Sommeliers
BY DANA OLAND