For 20 years, Craig Winchell has been an almost one-man show — the force behind Gan Eden wines, a kosher brand that comes out of Sebastopol.
But shortly after Passover, Winchell will shut down the business that has supported his family for the past two decades.
This leaves Hagafen Cellars as the only full-fledged kosher winery in northern California.
Four factors contributed to his decision, the winemaker said last week.
One is that it was becoming increasingly more difficult for Winchell and his wife, Jennifer, to give their six children an Orthodox education. Their older two are in boarding yeshivot, one in Cleveland, the other in Los Angeles. The Winchells have had difficulty finding tutors for their other children, however, and have spent hours on the road, often driving them as far as Palo Alto to go to school.
The second reason, Winchell said, is his health. At 47, he’s had some chronic heart ailments. He seems to be fine right now, but the physical labor in running a winery is sometimes too much for him.
Then there is his frustration with the wine business — not the kosher wine business per se, but the business as a whole.
“The whole wine industry is in the doldrums,” he said. “There is a worldwide glut of wine, and a lot of countries are subsidizing their wineries for export. It makes it more difficult for American wines to compete in the world market, of which the vast majority of the world market is the United States.”
He continued, “At the same time, in the kosher market, there’s been a tremendous proliferation of the number of brands in the marketplace.” This “makes it more difficult to compete for shelf space.”
So when the fourth factor came along — an unsolicited offer to buy his winemaking facility — with the other factors being what they were, Winchell accepted.
“All those things conspired to make me decide that now was a good time to leave,” he said.
At its peak, Gan Eden put out about four varieties a year, with eight in its portfolio. In 1986 the winery produced about 25,000 cases, but most years the figure was lower, around 5,000 to 10,000 cases. Gan Eden wines have won many awards, including 41 medals in 2002 and 39 in 2003.
Winchell has always prided himself on producing wines that can compete with their non-kosher counterparts. He bemoaned the state of the wine industry, saying people who used to trust their own taste buds to seek out new and exciting wines that they liked are now beholden to marketing hype.
“People need to trust their brains more than the wine writers,” he said.
Winchell became observant as a young man. He was drawn to Orthodoxy though his wife-to-be, a Chinese American woman, who, once she decided to convert, chose to have an Orthodox conversion.
In addition to the sale of Gan Eden, Winchell has several matters to take care of. For one, he needs to figure out where his family will move. His one requirement is that it have a Bais Yaakov, a strictly Orthodox yeshiva high school for girls. And he’d like to stay connected to the wine business, though he’s not sure in what capacity.
He also is selling his entire inventory (12,000 cases) through www.ganeden.com, at half the usual price.
Winchell expressed some regret in leaving the winery, and sadness at closing down a business that he’s been so attached to for so long. But he also expressed a bit of excitement.
“There’s the thrill of adventure, but by the same token, there’s the fear of the unknown,” he said.