Houston, Texas--The owner of a Sonoma County boutique winery was tapped to serve as master winemaker for a new custom crush in Texas' largest city. Squire Fridell, owner/winemaker at tiny GlenLyon in Glen Ellen, will supervise winemaking activities at Vintners Own in Houston starting with the 2009 crush.

Vintners Own is the brainchild of CEO Silvano Payne, a longtime friend of Fridell. Payne, who grows grapes and makes wine at his Sonoma Valley home, publishes satnews.com, devoted to the satellite communications business--much of which is based in the Houston area. Although he hankered to start a custom crush, he told Wines & Vines, he felt the Northern California market was already saturated.

Familiar with Houston through his frequent travel there, Payne decided the city was ripe for the new venture. Since his start-up last November, he's already signed 20-30 clients. At least two, he said, are interested in producing wines commercially at Vintners Own. Although Texas is ranked No. 5 among wine-producing states, Payne said that to his knowledge, there is no operating custom crush in Houston; a Google search located several in San Antonio and less than a handful in other Texas cities.

Fridell is enthusiastic about the possibilities for Vintners Own and his new position there. He acknowledged that, "Because of my own crush, I can't leave GlenLyon to go down to Houston for the crushes, so we have a three-person assistant winemaking staff down there, following my very explicit syllabus for each of the three varietals."

To begin with, Vintners Own will concentrate on red and rosé Cabernet, Pinot Noir and Syrah wines sourced from Napa and Sonoma vineyards including GlenLyon. Vintners Own has contracted for 16 tons for the first year; grapes will be harvested at night, chilled to 40ºF, and shipped to Houston in refrigerated trucks.

Payne's son Simon, who's been making wine with his father for the past eight years, will be on-site fulltime during the crush. He told Wines & Vines he probably will drive one of the first truckloads of grapes to Houston himself.

The senior Payne said that unless demand increases substantially, Vintners Own will produce about 40 barrels of its first vintage, although the 5,000-square-foot facility in The Heights neighborhood of western Houston can easily accommodate 500 barrels.

"We're in the process of having some of the barrels recooped," he said, referring to Sebastopol, Calif.'s ReCoop, which refurbishes used barrels. He explained that he plans to have about one-third new barrels and two-thirds used, recooped barrels, depending on clients' specifications.

Unlike many California custom crushes where clients can choose to be as hands-on as they like during the winemaking process, Texas law precludes anyone but the licensee's employees from handling the fruit after yeast has been added and fermentation begun. "They can sort grapes and be involved in bottling and labeling in the non-bonded area," Payne said. "They can decide on yeast, sulfur, and other factors, but we'll have to do the actual manipulation."

Since the 2009 vintage won't be ready for bottling until next year at the earliest, there is no bottling line yet, "But there will be," Payne said. Vintners Own will provide package design, registration, state and local compliance and shipping services.

With its urban location, ambitious plans and multi-tasking master winemaker, "We're sort of inventing the wheel here," Fridell commented. "I think Silvano's most impressed with the fact that I'm--aside from being a pretty good winemaker--very thorough, very organized, keep very accurate records, and I think I can handle this winemaking project from afar."