Three Italian immigrants to Napa Valley are rapidly building a modern twist on a long local history of blending food and wine know-how from the Apennine Peninsula.
Two of their businesses — Ca’ Momi winery and restaurant — have been adding to its strategic resources in the past year. Last December, two vineyard properties on the Napa County side of Los Carneros appellation were acquired, and a tasting room and winery are planned there. In September, leases were secured for the 50,000-square-foot new south Napa headquarters and product-development facility and a 4,000-square-foot second location for restaurant Ca’ Momi Enoteca in downtown Napa.
“We want to have a center for Ca’ Momi,” said Dario De Conti, co-owner and CEO, about the new facility.
The former Tulocay & Company food products plant at 388 Devlin Rd. near Napa County Airport will be in addition to the current 36,000-square-foot winery at 2515 Napa Valley Corporate Dr. a few miles north, according to Mr. De Conti. That’s where the owners’ custom-winemaking business La Quaterna, formerly Fior di Sole, is based and the 80,000-case-a-year Ca’ Momi brand is produced. It’s also the base of operations for the owners’ Winetech mobile filtration services company.
The existing Ca’ Momi Enoteca restaurant will remain where it opened at Oxbow Public Market in Napa in 2010. But that location will be reconfigured for take-out orders when the new 90- to 100-seat restaurant opens, set for next spring, in the former Naked Wines tasting room at 1141 First St. Ca’ Momi is one of the few Italian restaurants in the country that is certified by the Verace Pizza Napoletana association for making authentic Neopolitan pizza.
“We’ve seen this as an opportunity for us to develop an experience with wine and food, more than we’ve done in the past with the winery and restaurant,” Mr. De Conti said.
Details on the new south Napa venue will be worked out in coming months, he said. It won’t have a restaurant, but it is set to have a product-development kitchen.
The 23-acre Carneros property has 10.5-acres of pinot noir vines on one site and 9 adjoining acres of chardonnay, pinot noir and merlot. Ca’ Momi is securing building permits for a tasting room to be constructed there next year and expanding the small existing winery to the permitted production of 100,000 gallons a year. Currently, Ca’ Momi reserve wines are made there and bottled at La Quaterna.
Ca’ Momi wines retail mostly for $12 to $20 a bottle, with a reserve tier priced at $36-$75. Winery revenues are $6 million to $7 million a year. The restaurant brings in another $3 million annually. About 100 are employed altogether. Including the new Carneros vineyards and a leased property, Ca’ Momi farms 50 acres of vines and buys grapes for the rest of the brand’s needs.
“Experiencing Italian food and wine is what we’re about,” Mr. De Conti said.
The Italian name Ca’ Momi is short for Casa Momi, or “House of Momi.” It’s named after Momi dea Bionda, former owner of a family home in the Veneto region of Italy. That’s where co-owner and “Chief Evolution Officer” Valentina Guolo-Migotto grew up.
Co-owner and winemaker Stefano Migotto came to Napa Valley in 1997 after a stint at his Italian family winery.
Ms. Guolo-Migotto, also chef for Ca’ Momi Enoteca, and he started Winetech in 1998. Mr. De Conti joined the company in 2000.
Fior di Sole started in 2006 as an outgrowth of the network of about 600 North Coast and Central Coast winery customers Winetech had at the time. It was an early provider of mobile cross-flow wine filtration, a now commonplace wine-quality practice.
Chris Neeb, Glen Dowling and Matt Bracco of Cushman & Wakefield represented Da Ve Winery, Inc., in the lease of 388 Devlin and building owner Devlin Gateway, LLC.
