Gus Janeway Of Velocity Cellars Signs On At Pallet Wine Company

Online, April 23, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Celebrated Southern Oregon winemaker Gus Janeway, owner of Ashland's http://VelocityCellars.com, has contracted with custom crush facility Pallet Wine Company in downtown Medford to make his 2010 vintage.
"We're delighted to have another client with Gus's level of experience and sophistication," said Linda Donovan, Pallet winemaker and co-owner. "His Velocity wines are among the most popular produced in this region."
Janeway expects Donovan's team will process 22 tons of fruit for him this fall and make roughly 1,300 cases of wine. Forty-five percent will be reds under the Velocity label, primarily Malbec and Cabernet Franc from Gold Vineyard in Talent, Ore. Janeway plans to launch a new label, the eponymous William Augustus, for his whites, including a Viognier sourced from Gold Vineyard. This year, Pallet will also make a Malbec rose for Janeway and a new Sauvignon blanc with organically farmed grapes from Upper Five Vineyard in Talent.
"Coming to Pallet was the logical next step in the continuing development of Velocity Cellars," said Janeway. "I respect Linda Donovan's winemaking talents and appreciate her collaborative style in working with clients of all types and sizes."
One other factor attracted Janeway to Pallet. He had experimented with native fermentation in small lots of wine for years, but wasn't confident enough to go that way with all his wines until Donovan demonstrated her successful approach. "Native yeasts give much more fruit expression," he said, "and that's exactly what I was looking for."
In 1997, Janeway chose the relatively unknown territory of the Rogue Valley as the place to pursue an elegant, pure style of winemaking. He first learned about the region as vineyard manager at Quail Run/Griffin Creek Vineyards, then increased his understanding by sourcing fruit from a broad range of sites while serving as founding winemaker for Paschal Winery. Janeway began producing wines under the Velocity label in 2002 before he became winemaker at Medford's RoxyAnn Winery in2003. He left RoxyAnn in early 2009 to focus exclusively on Velocity Cellars.
The region's only exclusively custom crush winery, Pallet opened its doors in July 2009 in the 22,000-square-foot Cooley Neff Building, a former lumber and dry goods warehouse on the National Historic Register. Pallet processed more than 180 tons of grapes last fall, well ahead of first-year projections.