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Wine Industry Business Journal

WINE INDUSTRY EXECUTIVE PROFILE: CLAY SHANNON

CLEARLAKE OAKS – Clay Shannon’s love of the outdoors has made him a big believer in Lake County. Now he’s helping to lead a growing effort by county growers and vintners to make the lake a sought-after fine-wine experience.

He first became enamored with the rust-red dirt, rattlesnakes, brush and coyotes of the area about two decades ago while establishing the vineyard program for the Napa-based Sutter Home brand on 4,000 acres in the Central Valley and Lake County.

From 70 acres of vines on an 80-acre Lake County ranch in the High Valley appellation a decade ago, Mr. Shannon, his wife, Margarita, 45, and partners gradually amassed 1,300 acres of property in the county and have planted just more than 700 acres of vineyards. He met his wife, a St. Helena native, when both worked at Sutter Home, now called Trinchero Family Estates.

They have about 8 percent of the 8,300 planted winegrape acreage in Lake County, according to the 2007 state Grape Crop Acreage Report. Comparatively, Napa County has 46,000 acres of vines, Sonoma County 58,000 and Mendocino County 17,000.

Many of the Shannon Ridge vineyards started with preplant contracts from other early believers in Lake County: Jackson Family Wines, which started in the county and now is based in Santa Rosa; Beringer in St. Helena; Kenwood Vineyards in Sonoma Valley; and Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville.

However, most of the large preplant contracts expired in 2005 and 2006 amidst a global surplus of wine and the two largest California winegrape harvests ever, including large North Coast tonnage increases for cabernet sauvignon and sauvignon blanc – Lake County’s primary varieties.

On top of that, three-quarters of the grapes grown in the county have been going to Napa and Sonoma wineries for brands that only until recently have been increasingly noting Lake County sourcing.

“We were not going to see this perceived value in grapes go to hell, so we started a wine brand,” he said.

The first grapes went into the Shannon Ridge Winery & Vineyards brand in 2002, and 1,500 cases were released in 2004. After fits and starts, the brand started picking up sales momentum the following year following accolades from reviewers, but annual production was still just 2,000 cases. That grew to 14,000 cases in 2006, 43,000 cases last year and an estimated 60,000 cases this year. Retail prices range from $16 a bottle for sauvignon blanc to $24 for chardonnay to $30 for the rare Rhone variety roussanne.

Mr. Shannon plans to eventually produce 250,000 cases a year. He plans to continue selling grapes to a select number among his 40 winery customers.

It’s getting to the point where Shannon Ridge will require a winery facility. At the moment, senior winemaking consultant Marco DiGiulio and Director of Production Mike Wood make the smaller-lot labels at Bin to Bottle in Napa, larger lots at Francis Ford Coppola Presents Rosso & Bianco in Geyserville and in-between labels across Clear Lake at Wildhurst Vineyards.

As chairman of the Lake County Winegrape Commission and a member of the boards of the newly formed Lake County Winery Association and the Clear Lake Community Foundation, Mr. Shannon has been working toward creating more demand and value for local winegrapes and wine by increasing public awareness of Lake County as a name for quality wine.

Projects include advertising campaigns, roadway signage to the dozen and a half wineries in the county so far and improving the lake itself as well as the towns ringing it.

“People need to get up to this lake and look around,” he said, noting the need for more hotels and restaurants.

Last year, Shannon Ridge set up a small tasting room in Clearlake Oaks on the eastern shore of the lake and this year added picnic facilities and a demonstration vineyard.

Earlier this month, Shannon Ridge acquired the 240-acre Rolling Knolls vineyard in Lower Lake. The grapes will go into select wines, and the property is being enhanced with picnic tables overlooking wetlands, hiking trails and rock walls instead of deer fences. Cottages on the property will be used for entertaining the trade and special customers, and the old walnut dehydrator building will be remodeled for a tasting room.

Mr. Shannon wants visitors to have an Old World wine region experience in Lake County. Yet, a new wine experience is the draw of Lake County wines, be they cabs from the Red Hills appellation on the southwest shore or exceptional warm-climate sauvignon blanc.

In fact, he loves the rustic American life of ranching, farming, watching wildlife, boating and confirming deals with a handshake rather than multiple draft documents.

He lives on a working ranch with 80 head of sheep that control weeds in the vineyards and surrounding land, plus horses, a registered bull and plans for raising grass-fed lamb.

Mr. Shannon’s other business is Shannon Ranches Inc., a labor contractor and machine harvester for vineyards mostly in the northern half of the Central Valley. He started that company in 1994 a year after leaving Sutter Home as director of vineyard operations and a short-lived stint in almond growing. The company reached 1,200 employees at one point but now has about 250.

Born in Santa Rosa, Mr. Shannon came to farming from homebuilding in 1981. He was working for Fairfield Homes on the Oakmont community in east Santa Rosa when high interest rates brought work to a standstill.

He started Shannon Bros. Custom Farming and built the business to a couple hundred acres under management, but the margins were so thin he had to take the job at Sutter Home in 1985.