If one were to equate the maturation of a new business with the stages of human development, 2001 might be considered the "toddlerhood" of Cantiga Wineworks. It has been a year of acquiring necessary knowledge, of learning to walk, of gaining self-confidence and autonomy. While facing many challenges, we have also seen some victories and have experienced the satisfaction of seeing the first pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

Since the first issue of the Cantiga Crier last February, our offices have moved to El Dorado County, in the Sierra Foothills. Our current location is Fair Play, a budding appellation boasting several boutique wineries and numerous picturesque vineyards that grace the region's rolling hills and pastoral vistas. Cantiga headquarters are situated in the house that Rich and Christine Rorden are renting from vineyard manager Alfonso Elena, and are surrounded by one such vineyard.

Our search for the perfect property for our winery has been less than successful. Although a fair amount of agricultural land can be found in the Foothills, very seldom will you find a piece that has access, location, and zoning suitable for a winery that intends to be open to the public. In the spring, we entered escrow on a beautiful piece of land that we thought would become home to Cantiga Wineworks, but some road access issues required us to give up the property. The search continues.

In Y2K, all of Cantiga's winery operations took place at Kirigin Cellars, an historical winery located in Gilroy. Although this situation was ideal for our first harvest, it was necessary for us to now look forward and find a slightly more permanent and convenient arrangement for the coming years. The answer presented itself at a momentous meeting in April between the Rordens and Don & Karyn Litchfield, founders and owners of the Vino Piazza.

When we first arrived for our meeting with the Litchfields, we took one look at the Vino Piazza grounds-then an enormous, muddy construction site-and wondered if we should turn around and go home. But we didn't, and by the time Don and Karyn had shown us their blueprints and shared with us their vision, we were ready to sign up!

The Vino Piazza, which translates as "Wine Plaza," is a new multi-winery complex that the Litchfields have been raising from the impressive ruins of the long-defunct Lockeford Winery, located near Lodi. It is a new and exciting concept-a first of its kind. Although the facility houses a few larger tenants, it primarily functions as a small winery incubator. The majority of its 15-or-so tenants are boutique wineries in the start-up phase. The facility allows dreams of starting a winery to be realized without the enormous up-front capital that is usually required. It allows for the pooling of resources and the exchange of ideas on winemaking and other issues. By the time the facility is fully up and running, it will be a place where wine lovers from all over can spend a day, dine, talk to winemakers, sample the wares of the many resident wineries, and stock their wine cellars all in one shot.

By late May, we had signed a contract with the Vino Piazza and had picked out the unit that would become Cantiga Wineworks' bonded winery space. Since then, the place has transformed. The giant, concrete wine tanks that sat unused for decades were cut open to become unique barrel storage and production areas, as well as quaint tasting rooms. A visitor's center was built. Tenants moved in, and the place gradually came to life.

The summer brought a whirlwind of legal and administrative tasks. Our business, as well as our finances and personal lives, were open to careful scrutiny as we went through the process of applying for our BATF Basic Permit and our state Winegrower's License. Overjoyed that we successfully completed those processes, we then set about registering and applying for permits with the remaining lengthy list of government agencies that required things of us.

Harvest arrived early, and in early September we began our second "crush." The Vino Piazza was abuzz with activity, day and night, as trucks bearing grapes pulled in and left their loads. The crusher and press ran almost continuously, and dozens of resident winemakers and seasonal hands worked tirelessly. It was an exciting time of year, and we enjoyed getting to know our winery neighbors in the spare moments between harvest tasks.

As for our 2001 vintage, in addition to contracting with our long-time grape source in Monterey, we tried out a number of new vineyards from Amador and El Dorado counties and were very pleased with the results. It was a year of well-ripened fruit and smaller-than-usual yields from the vineyards-most likely due in part to the summer's drought.

In addition to crafting our newest wines, we gradually transported tanks bearing our 2000 vintage from Gilroy to Lockeford for blending and bottling. Our first large-scale bottling was an exciting experience involving Calaveras Mobile Bottler, a complete bottling and labeling line housed in a large trailer that can be trucked from site to site. The rapid, assembly line pace of the bottling line was a world apart from the small-scale, hand bottling we were used to in the home winery setting-but much more practical on our new scale.

After a lot of feedback from family and friends, our label designs were finalized, submitted for government approval, printed, and applied to our bottles. The overall package is both unusual and pleasing, with a distinctly "Old World" feel. We have gotten a great deal of very positive feedback on the look of our wines over the last few months.

Perhaps the biggest highlight of 2001 was the release of Cantiga Wineworks' very first wines in the second weekend of December. This release coincided with our first major Vino Piazza-wide event-our holiday open house, at which all resident wineries poured, offered barrel tasting, and served food. The wines that we released for the event were our two 2000 Monterey Chardonnays-our "Oakless" lot and our Barrel-Aged lot. Both were received very well. Annabel Rorden, sister to Rich and founder of Epiphany Foods, worked some culinary miracles on dips and holiday wraps that proved the perfect complement to each wine. It was a wonderful weekend, filled with old friends and new, and it represented, to us, a major landmark in our development as a young winery.