Until recently,GAN EDEN was a winery in every sense of the word. While many "wineries" are simply brand names, the customized output of winery facilities which produce many different brands for many different brand owners, GAN EDEN owned and operated its own facility, located in Sonoma County's Green Valley, between the cities of Sebastopol and Forestville, within walking distance of Iron Horse, Dehlinger and Kistler, and a short hop away from Martini & Prati, Taft Street, Topolos, Miramar Torres, and many others. We sold the winery property, and now it is owned by different owners, and produces different brands of wine, none of which are kosher. GAN EDEN Wines is now a retailer and distributor of GAN EDEN branded wines, owned by Craig Winchell rather than the family-owned Yayin Corp., which was dissolved after the facility was sold and some remaining wine, along with the brand name and web site, was given to Criag Winchell, the former winemaker and president of Yayin Corp.,and as such it is a totally different entity which has relocated with to Los Angeles.
Our winery, in the days of Yayin Corp., was a 40,000
case facility. Because our wines are kosher certified, we could
not allow access to the facility, so we did no custom production
for others. At our height of production, we produced 25,000 cases
per year, but we settled into a more moderate production of
between 5,000 and 15,000 cases of distinctive, award winning
varietal wines.
For those who are interested, we had 13 stainless steel tanks: 2- 20,000 gal, 1- 15,000 gal, 3- 10,000 gal, 4- 6000 gal and 3-3500 gal. We had 500 oak barrels and 1- 4000 gal oak tank. We had a 5000 liter press and a 15 ton per hour crusher/stemmer. We could crush and press 45 tons of white grapes per day (although 30 meant we could get some sleep at night), and our bottling line could bottle up to 900 cases in an 8 hour day. We had all of the requisite pumps, filters and other equipment needed to be a fully functioning winery. Our facility was housed in 2-90'x120' buildings, with outside tanks on a 45'x60' pad, adjacent to a wooden storage shed. We had a 5 ton hoist for dumping gondolas. We could accept grapes in anything a grower could throw at us, with the exceptions of picking bins and lug boxes.
So how many winery employees were there? For the majority of the time, only 1, myself (Craig Winchell)!! All of the equipment was sized larger than it would be in a non- kosher facility of the same production volume, so that winery operations could be performed in a short enough amount of time to run relatively efficiently. Since I was the only employee, and since I was involved not only in production, but also in sales, marketing and administration, I needed to make enough time for everything. Needless to say, this meant that I could rarely accept visitors. Otherwise, I'd spend more time entertaining than running the winery.
Of course, there were times when I had help. In 1990, I underwent open heart surgery to replace a defect in my aortic valve. A fellow named Avrohom Logvin signed on to help me out, and stayed for 4 years. For the crush of 1990, he was a "godsend", and remained a most helpful and intimate part of the staff through his tenure. A friend named Ari Goldberg also spent a significant, though much shorter, time working with the wine. And of course, for bottling, I had kosher supervisors and nonJewish temporary employees.
Now, GAN EDEN Wines is the name of a wholesale and retail operation owned by me,Craig Winchell to market the last of the GAN EDEN branded wines. I certainly hope that I can eventually establish a winery near Los Angeles where I can continue to produce GAN EDEN brand wines in the future. For now, however, I must content myself with selling the remainder of my inventory.
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12725 Hatteras Street
Valley Village, CA 91607