VINO LAS VEGAS checks in with Ampelos Cellars and the end of harvest 2008

Ampelos is a Greek word meaning “vine”. And in our opinion wine is about family and friends. For hundreds if not thousands of years families have made wine and passed that knowledge down generation after generation.

There are other families that may not have been in the business for hundreds of years but they have the same passion as those who have. We could not think of a better example of this than

ampelos Cellars. We met Peter , Rebecca , Don , Lindsey and of course their wonderful dogs almost 5 years ago. We have seen their vineyard mature and produce some award winning wines
over the years.

When ever we are in the Sta Rita Hills
we always stop at the ampelos winery . Harvest is great time to stop in. The vineyard and winery are abuzz with activity as the grapes are picked and trucks arrive at the
winery to be sorted , crushed and
punched down. When you visit a family winery everyone gets into the act and may even ask a near by guest to help if they would like. This is the best way in our opinion to learn about the wine making process and to see how the "team" works together and the passion they have to get the job done.

Ampleos wines have already won numerous awards and will continue to become more recognized by national and international publications.




For those who want to make sure they
get the newest releases, ampelos offers
their "filos" wine club. You get ameplos
shipments throughout the year and wines according to the season.







A new word that is used often in today's world is " sustainable". Ampelos was recently selected to be one the vineyards in the Certified Sustainable Wine growing pilot program, which will grant certification to those meeting the rigorous guidelines of the program.

Ampelos also practices and promotes bio dynamic farming in the vineyard and is on the way to becoming organic. When we talk about passion and believing in making a healthy good wine there are few better examples than what Peter and Rebecca are doing in the ampleos vineyard.

As harvest came to a close we stopped in and spoke with Peter Work at the winery located in Lompoc. We heard all over the valley was that the yields were down but the grape
quality was very high.




Join VINO LAS VEGAS and Peter Work of ampelos as we tour the winery in the midst of punchdowns and crush. Watch and listen to Peter's passion as he explains the winery operations For more information on ampelos please visit http://www.ampeloscellars.com