Vineyard & Winery Management Magazine
Cover Story
Cakebread CellarsEmphasis on Quality, Consistency, Cuisine
Story by Ted Rieger, Senior Feature Editor
CAKEBEAD CELLARS has come a long way from the mom and pop operation that began planting vines in 1973 along Highway 29 in Napa Valley. Now with 420 acres of vineyards and annual production of 150,000 cases of ultra-premium wines, Cakebread is consistently one of the nation's top-selling restaurant wine brands.
The family-owned business is still led by founder, chairman, CEO, and jack-of-all-trades Jack Cakebread, whose professional experience reflects a varied blend of technical, creative, and business skills. "I'm an auto mechanic by trade," Cakebread says, who owned and ran Cakebread's Garage in Oakland, founded by his father in 1925. He gained agricultural experience at the family ranch in Contra Costa County. In the 1950s, he took up photography, studying with Ansel Adams, and Cakebread Photography became its own successful business. An assignment took him to Napa Valley in 1973 to take photographs for Crown Publishing's coffee table book, The Treasury of American Wines. While visiting family friends for lunch in Rutherford, he mentioned in passing that if they ever wanted to sell their ranch to let him know. Upon arriving home, the owner had already called and offered to sell. From a whim and Jack's $2,500 book advance as a down payment, Cakebread Cellars grew from humble -beginnings.
Jack and wife Dolores Cakebread continued to operate Cakebread's Garage, while developing the 22-acre ranch, planting and managing the vineyard on evenings and weekends. For many years, the couple ran four businesses, with Jack opening the garage each morning and organizing the day's workload, then commuting to Napa Valley in the afternoon to work the vineyard, and later the winery, while also continuing the photography business.
The Cakebreads' three sons initially helped work the ranch part-time. Bruce Cakebread was the first to join the business full-time, after studying pomology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, then completing his degree in enology at UC Davis. Bruce served as winemaker from 1979 to 2002, when he was named president and COO, and now oversees all aspects of daily operations. Son Dennis Cakebread, senior VP of sales and marketing, joined the business in 1986 after working in public accounting and banking. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting and finance from UC Berkeley and an MBA from California State University Hayward.
The Cakebreads have gained reputations as both purveyors and promoters of a well-rounded life. Dolores started and continues to oversee the winery's hospitality and education programs, now with the title of senior VP of facility ambience. With an onsite kitchen and in-house chefs, Cakebread maintains a regular program of wine and food education. "For us, wine and food is one word," Jack says. Even the family name has culinary roots, with ancestry from bakers in England of a dense round loaf called a "cakebrede."
Vineyard Acquisition and Management
Cakebread has gradually acquired and developed new vineyards, but continues to purchase about 70 percent of its grapes from 30 other properties. Cakebread owns 420 acres of planted vineyards among 13 sites located in six AVAs in Napa and Mendocino counties. The old adage that quality begins in the vineyard is a given, but the Cakebreads realize that quality begins earlier, in vineyard site evaluation and development. According to Jack, "We bought new vineyard properties based on determining what flavors, varieties, and wine characteristics the winery needed, then determining whether we can grow what we need on a particular property and get the quality we want."
Toby Halkovich has been Cakebread's viticulturist since 2004, overseeing management and development of the estate vineyards and managing relations with contract growers. Recent vineyard developments include the planting of 115 acres in 2007 at new properties in southern Napa County, with 85 acres at the Suscol Ridge Ranch. "Before planting, we gather data, put in a weather station to monitor temperatures and calculate degree-days. We do soil testing, and do a sunlight analysis to determine row orientation, to decide where to plant varietials," Halkovich explains. Irrigation systems are designed with flexibility to vary treatments as needed. Trellis systems vary by site, although VSP is most common, and sometimes divided canopies are used.
The winery's original Rutherford Ranch includes 22 acres at the boundary of the Oakville and Rutherford AVAs, planted with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec, sauvignon blanc, and semillon. Nearly 160 acres have been acquired in the Los Carneros AVA since the 1980s, on four separate properties that grow chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, merlot,and syrah. Two Napa County properties that produce some the winery's best, and highest priced, cabernet sauvignon are the 7-acre Hill Ranch on the Rutherford Bench and the 28-acre Dancing Bear Ranch on Howell Mountain, which ranges in elevation from 1,450 feet to 1,600 feet. Cakebread has three other Napa Valley properties, from south of Napa to Calistoga in the north, with a total of 130 acres planted with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, malbec, petit verdot, sauvignon blanc, and chardonnay. A 46-acre property was developed in 2001 in Mendocino County's Anderson Valley with nine clones of chardonnay and six clones of pinot noir.
All vineyards are farmed sustainably, using integrated pest management (IPM), owl nest boxes and hawk perches for rodent control, and songbird nest boxes for insect control. Halkovich says one-third of current bearing acreage is farmed organically, without synthetic chemicals, and organic certification is being considered. The Anderson Valley vineyards and the Rutherford Ranch vineyard are certified under the Fish Friendly Farming program, and acreage is also certified under the Napa Green program.
Cakebread employs technology to manage quality in the vineyard. Weather stations are located in estate vineyards with components from Automata of Grass Valley, CA, and wireless data monitoring and management provided by Picovale Services Inc. of Auburn. "These stations fill in the gaps where the state CIMIS stations don't provide coverage, so we can get more site-specific climate data and ET calculations, and the entire data management system is web-based so we can check any property from a hand-held device wherever we are," Halkovich says. VineView Imaging of Napa flies over the vineyards and provides aerial imagery using a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) that measures plant leaf area to show relative vigor throughout a vineyard. Aerial imagery is done a mimimum of once per year at veraison and used to determine differential harvesting within a vineyard, and to extrapolate likely harvest dates, when used in conjunction with historical data for bloom to harvest dates for particular blocks. Halkovich says, "The NDVI image enables us to flag different rows, or in some cases, sections with just five vines, that we don't want the pickers to harvest, in order to have uniformity of grape maturity going into the winery."
Halkovich works closely with two vineyard management companies to coordinate day-to-day operations: Michael Wolf Vineyard Services in Napa Valley and Ardzrooni Vineyard Management in Anderson Valley.
Since the mid-1990s, Cakebread has employed Dana Zaccone of GeoVit Vineyard Services to take weekly soil moisture readings using a neutron probe during the growing season. In combination with measurements of leaf water potential and plant stress using a PMS Instrument Co. pressure chamber, or "pressure bomb," along with weather data, these tools are used to determine irrigation needs during the season. Some 200 sites on estate and contract vineyards are regularly monitored. Halkovich says, "Our focus is on vine balance to the smallest level possible, and we use whatever technology we can apply in the vineyard to improve vine and wine quality."
Winery Facility Grows With Business
Cakebread's winemaking, office, and hospitality facilities on Highway 29, in Rutherford, were built and expanded in several phases as production increased and the winery grew as a visitor destination. Cakebread's signature design, with natural wood exteriors and gables, was created for the first major winery building in 1980 by the late architect William Turnbull, also a former vineyard/winery owner next door to Cakebread. Later building expansions, including the recent 10,000-sqare-foot East Addition with barrel room, wine lab, and hospitality suites completed in 2007, were designed by Brandenburger Associates. Facility space totals 65,000 sq. ft., with separate white wine and red wine processing buildings. The red wine facility was built in 2001 about 200 yards from the main facility, providing operational and quality control benefits related to different processing requirements.
In April, Cakebread became a Napa Green Certified Winery, one of five wineries in a pilot program launched by the Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) as a complement to the Napa Green Certified Land program. NVV's program partners are the Napa County Department of Environmental Management and the Association of Bay Area Governments, which acts as a third party certifier. Wineries are certified for their sustainable and green business practices that include conserving water and energy, waste reduction and recycling, and preventing pollution. Bruce Cakebread noted that certification also requires establishing baselines for practices, then showing improvements over a three-year period. "This is a bottom-up program that sets targets for our employees, and it's something our employees wanted to do," Bruce said.
Cellar master/operations manager Brian Lee says, "Much of our recent focus has been on energy conservation." The winery is implementing recommendations from a PG&E energy audit and an audit by San Francisco State University. These include overhead lighting efficiency upgrades and the conversion of required exit signs over doors to LED lighting. Future upgrades are planned for control systems and converting equipment motors to variable frequency drives (VFD) to improve efficiency. "We're not just doing this for the energy cost savings payback, it's also to reduce our overall carbon footprint," Lee says.
Winery buildings are well insulated, and all tanks are indoors. Tank and barrel rooms have fans and louvers for CO2 venting during fermentation. They also provide night air cooling when outside temperatures drop below indoor temperatures. The white wine building has a 200-ton capacity refrigeration system using natural gas driven FES TecoFrost compressors. The red wine building has a 140-ton capacity refrigeration system. Lee says, "The white wine facility runs on demand throughout the year, but at our red winery, we're able to put the refrigeration system to sleep for up to four months of the year when the building never gets more than 59 F inside."
Water conservation measures are in place, with low-flow systems and cleaning tools and meters to monitor water use. Winery wastewater is treated on-site and stored in irrigation ponds for reuse in the vineyard or for landscape irrigation. Rainwater at the facility is collected in outside drains that go to a common sump where it can be recovered and used for irrigation, if pond capacity is available.
Winemaking Emphasizes Consistency, Quality, Small Lots, Blending
Consistency and quality are hallmarks of Cakebread wines. The winery has had only three winemakers during its 35-year history, and all three are still at the winery: Jack, Bruce, and now Julianne Laks, who has been with Cakebread for 22 years. The winery has sourced grapes from many of the same growers for years. "I've seen the same vineyards and the fruit they produce year after year, and this has allowed me to know them and the types of wines they produce, so we've developed individual techniques and processing programs for each vineyard, and in many cases, individual blocks," Laks explains.
"With chardonnay alone, we process about 80 different lots, which logistically seems like a lot, but we are tracking everything in great detail using the Winemakers Database software program, and we put together our own spreadsheets," Laks says. As new estate vineyards come online, more input is added on viticultural factors for each vintage, along with details on wine processing to provide year-to-year comparisons. Laks makes the final decision on when to harvest, based on a combination of aerial imagery, field sampling that involves tasting for maturity, and Brix and chemistry measurements. "Our ultimate goal is to achieve full maturity at lower Brix levels, and we feel we are making strides in this direction," Laks says.
All grapes are hand-harvested, and most are night-harvested to arrive at the winery cool. The white wine facility is completely indoors, with access to each of three Diemme pneumatic presses through 20' high doors that enable forklifts to enter and unload bins of whole cluster grapes directly into each press through overhead hoppers. A LeROI Comp Air compressed air system from Air Technology West of Santa Rosa operates the presses and pneumatic pumps. All of the winery's fermentation tanks are from Santa Rosa Stainless Steel, and tank refrigeration and temperature controls are from Moon Valley Circuits. White fermenters range in capacity from about 3,000 gallons to 11,700 gallons.
One change in recent years is an increase in the number of lots using native yeast fermentations, particularly with chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, but also with pinot noir and syrah. "We find that selected vineyards do well with native yeasts, where we like the overall quality and complexity better, and it shows off the site better," Laks says. About 85 percent of the chardonnay is barrel fermented, and Laks has isolated specific vineyards that are better for stainless steel tank fermentation.
Cooperage is 100 percent French oak barrels from several coopers that include Francois Freres, Tonnellerie Rousseau, Vicard, Damy, Billon, Piano, Taransaud, Saint Martin, and Gamba. Experiments are being conducted with Hungarian oak for reds, and barrel fermentation of sauvignon blanc is being tested in Mueller stainless steel barrels. Barrels are stacked up to six high on Western Square 2-barrel racks, and are moved using Toyota/TMH forklifts. Barrels are considered neutral after one year of use and are used no longer than four years.
About 35 percent of the chardonnay goes into new oak, and spends up to eight months in barrel, except for reserve lots that may spend 15 months in barrel. About 10-15 percent of the sauvignon blanc is barrel fermented in neutral French oak, and the rest goes into stainless steel. Sauvignon blanc ages from four to five months in neutral oak. The stylistic goal is to showcase the vineyard and the fruit.
Bins of red grapes are emptied into a Diemme Kappa 25 destemmer/crusher, and the must is transferred to tanks where it may go through a cold soak maceration period of 36-48 hours. Red fermentation tanks range in size from 1,438 gallons to 5,086 gallons for open-top fermenters, and the largest closed top red fermenters are 7,457 gallons.
During the last three vintages, Cakebread has increased tannin analyses and tracking in red fruit and wines, particularly during fermentation, with analyses done by an independent lab using the Adams-Harbertson Tannin Assay. "Tannins directly link to balance, structure, color, and ageability," Laks says. Although sensory analysis is still used extensively, the lab analysis provides predictability for achieving the desired tannin balance and making decisions to better control tannin extraction through maceration time.
By using an initial cold soak maceration and starting fermentations at about 89-90°F, Laks says color and anthocyanins are extracted early to provide long-term color stability. After 48 hours, temperature is dropped to avoid stressing yeast during the mid-fermentation, and different pump-over regimes are used as needed, based on the lot and variety. Red tanks are hard-plumbed with their own dedicated stainless steel line for pump-overs, with pumps moved from tank to tank. Cabernet sauvignon is fermented in larger closed-top tanks to help retain heat and provide better extraction. Smaller, 4-ton open-top fermenters are used for pinot noir and syrah, and a punch-down device built by Burgstahler Machine Works is used with these tanks. Merlot is fermented in larger size open-top tanks that can be covered with lids later in the fermentation process. Laks says a detailed "game plan" is developed for processing each lot for each vintage, and part of this involves designating lots for specific tanks.
A Europress bladder press has been the standard red wine press used at Cakebread, but in 2006 a Diemme Vintage 23 stainless steel basket press was acquired that is used for more production each year. The basket press is gentler and produces fewer solids. It is used for pinot noir, smaller lots of Howell Mountain cabernet sauvignon, and reserve program lots. Free run is processed separately from press run wine, but quality press wine is blended back later to enhance color, tannins and structure. The higher quality of the press run fraction from the basket press enables greater use of press run.
For red wines, about 40-45 percent goes into new oak. Cabernet sauvignon spends an average of 18 months in barrel, but reserves spend up to 24 months. Merlot ages in oak about 17 months, pinot noir about 14 months, and syrah up to 16 months. Laks is refining her mix and use of oak based on different fruit sources between valley floor, benchlands and mountain fruit, noting that mountain fruit has more tannin and needs tighter-grained oak without a lot of lactones.
A Pacific Ozone system is used for sanitizing, and both facilities are plumbed with ozonated water that is used extensively for barrel cleaning. Inert gases, from Complete Welders Supply of Napa, are used extensively for quality control to prevent oxidation. Barrels are racked using a Bulldog Pup and nitrogen gas to gently move wine and prevent oxygen contact. The winery adheres to a regular, constant schedule for racking and topping barrels. Argon gas is used to blanket the head space in tanks during the final racking to tank before bottling. In addition, hoses are gassed with nitrogen before any wine transfer, which is done with a variety of pumps from Carlsen & Associates. Schenk and Pall plate and frame filters are used on white wines prior to bottling.
The in-house lab has added equipment for automated analyses to save time while also providing consistent results for more samples at a time. Equipment includes a ChemWell Autoanalyzer for juice and wine samples that provides data for volatile acidity, residual sugar, malic acid, and tartaric acid; a Mettler-Toledo Auto Titrater for titratable acidity and pH; and an Anton Paar Alcolyzer for automated alcohol analyses. The winery is constantly doing sensory analysis through tasting and monitoring wine chemistry in the lab for quality control.
Although Cakebread does significant individual lot processing, the winery is not greatly focused on vineyard-designated wines, or even estate-bottled wines. Laks, Bruce Cakebread, and assistant winemaker Stephanie Alstott are regularly tasting and evaluating lots for blending, but Laks is responsible for the final decision. "Even though single lots can be beautiful, blending lots together creates a deeper, more intense, full-bodied wine with components that complement each other. We're always looking for those combinations that work best in each blend," Laks explains. The red wine blending schedule has changed in recent years. "In the past, everything was separate until the end, just before bottling, but now that we can evaluate tannin levels and see what complements each other, we can blend earlier, and create a wine with enhanced ageability," Laks says.
The bottling line includes a Bertolaso multi-head bottle filler and a Rubino & Galandrino capsule dispenser, foiler, and corker. Cakebread remains traditional with its packaging, and the label design has not changed significantly in years. Pressure-sensitive labels are printed on a heavier 70lb. paper by Tapp Technologies for most releases. More recently, the limited production 2005 Dancing Bear Cabernet was bottled with a special design applied ceramic label from Bergin Glass. Cakebread uses high-quality natural corks from Amorim and M.A. Silva. For quality control, in-house lab testing is done for each cork bale purchased by soaking a sample of 16 corks overnight in alcohol then doing sensory analysis for TCA. Bottles are supplied through California Glass Co.
Marketing and Sales
Jack Cakebread started building sales in the restaurant market in the early years through a combination of research, travel, and relationship-building. The research involved looking through newspaper archives to find restaurants that were getting good reviews and the most press. Jack would fly into a city, spend a few days having meals at the better restaurants and meet the owners and chefs to discuss and evaluate wines that would match their cuisine. He'd ask restaurateurs which was the best local wine distributor, then begin building relationships with distributors throughout the country. Since 1987, Cakebread has had an agreement with Kobrand Corporation to provide global marketing services. Dennis Cakebread joined the winery in 1986. As Cakebread's senior VP of sales and marketing, his focus is establishing and expanding relationships with consumers, restaurateurs, retailers, and distributors.
Today, Cakebread's production is on allocation, with 75% sold on-premise, largely in upscale restaurants, and 25% off-premise through specialty wine retailers. Dennis says that restaurant sales will continue to be Cakebread's major market. "We think people enjoy fine wine more in restaurants-it's served at the correct temperature and in the right type of glasses, and it goes with good food," he says. The on-premise/off-premise sales percentages are reversed for some of the more limited, higher-end wines such as the 1,000-case production Dancing Bear Cabernet at $105 per bottle. "We like to go higher in off-premise retail (70-75 percent) with these wines, as they should really be aged after you buy them," Dennis explains.
Dennis, Bruce, and Jack all travel as needed, working with Kobrand reps and distributors to maintain and build relationships. The majority of production (92 percent) is sold and distributed in the United States, with 8 percent exported to Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Korea, India, Philippines, the UK, and Europe. Dennis oversees domestic accounts, while Bruce travels to Asia and Europe to assist with export accounts. The winery's in-house culinary director, Brian Streeter, has also traveled to export markets including Japan, China, India, and England. Jack explains, "By doing that, we reach out to those specific markets and cultures in their own backyards to see how their cooking and cuisine can match with our wines."
Hospitality and Education Programs Build Brand, Direct Sales
All tasting, tours, and events at the winery are by appointment only. The winery has no signage along Napa Valley's busy Highway 29, its entrance marked only by a black mailbox. "We like to make sure our guests get a good quality experience, and we limit the number of people for tastings and special tours, so everyone can ask questions," Jack says. Wine and food pairing sessions, and basic wine education and tasting classes are available to visitors, held in small groups in a variety of indoor and outdoor venues on the winery grounds. The winery has an on-site kitchen and an outdoor grilling area for food preparation and cooking classes.
Dolores, a UC master gardener, started the winery's flower and vegetable garden, which provides fresh seasonal produce for the winery's kitchen and cooking classes. Excess produce is also sold, through a self-serve honor system, from a stand near the tasting room parking lot. Dolores, with Jack and culinary director Brian Streeter, wrote and created The Cakebread Cellars Napa Valley Cookbook: Wine and Recipes to Celebrate Every Season's Harvest. Dolores also co-founded the American Harvest Workshop, hosted by Cakebread annually in September since 1986. The four-day program is a food and wine "boot camp" with five top chefs invited, along with artisan food purveyors, who all interact with Cakebread staff to learn about viticulture, explore wine and food, and prepare menus.
Dennis has expanded the event schedule in recent years with a "Good Life Series," in keeping with Cakebread's well-rounded life philosophy, recognizing that people who enjoy wine also have an active lifestyle. The series includes wine and golf in Florida, wine and fly-fishing in Idaho, a wine and race day at Infineon Raceway, and hiking at Dancing Bear Ranch on Howell Mountain, followed by food and wine. Cakebread has a growing wine club that offers members three different shipment options, and an online store that is helping build direct sales. While acknowledging that direct sales provide economic benefits, Dennis believes they provide even greater marketing value for the Cakebread brand. "Our wine club, direct sales customers, and visitors are our best ambassadors in spreading the word about our wines," he observes.
Building the Future with Business, Education, Employee Satisfaction
After owning and running his diverse businesses, and with a seasoned perspective on building a successful family-owned winery, Jack has taken his experience to another level as a college lecturer. He has lectured at many of the nation's most acclaimed business schools to MBA candidates at Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard, Yale, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Columbia, and Georgetown. He often brings Cakebread wines to serve at receptions following his lectures, but he says, "I'm not there to sell wine, I'm trying to get some of the brilliant MBA candidates we have out there to consider careers in our -industry."
Jack also started his own program for MBA students, Cakebread U, a three-day course held at the winery with industry lecturers covering topics including viticulture, winemaking, finance, wine marketing, distribution, and wholesale and retail sales. But as Jack says, "It's not just about bean crunching, they also have to get in the kitchen and cook, learn about wine and food pairing, and do a project to create and market their own wine blend." The program enables students to make contacts with industry professionals and insiders.
The Cakebreads are actively involved in industry groups. Jack and Dennis have each served as president of the Napa Valley Vintners, and they are active with the Wine Market Council, Free the Grapes, the Coalition for Free Trade, and WineVision.
Cakebread's commitment to education, a well-rounded life, and the wine business is also reflected in its personnel programs for its 70 full-time employees. In addition to job education and training, Cakebread provides on-site health and wellness clinics, financial education on 401 K plans, nutritional cooking classes, and appreciation days for employees with five or more years on the job. "Our most important asset is our people," Jack says, noting that several key employees have been with the winery for 20 years. Bruce says, "We have a great group of people working here, and it's one of our core strengths. They're people with passion for life and their work, and they want to do a better job every year. Our people are always looking for ways to make wines better, and our goal is to make the best of what Napa Valley has to offer."
Ted Rieger, CSW, is a writer and photographer based in Sacramento, CA, and has been a contributing editor for V&WM since 1990.