Calplans:
Calplans, (as we once were known,) built “from the dirt up” 740 acres of the total 800+ acres in Sonoma and Napa counties. Due to property sales, as of May 2022, we farm about 600 net acres, split roughly equally between Napa and Sonoma Counties. The Napa vineyards are in an area known as Wooden Valley, east of the City of Napa. For many years, together with our former Chiles Valley Vineyard, these partnerships constituted the largest independent grower for the Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa County. Today the grapes go to some dozen Napa wineries.
Napa County:
The day-to-day farming of our Napa (Wooden Valley) vineyards has been under the direction of Jesus Rios since 2003. Jesus along with Michelle Riddle and Lincoln Strong form the Napa vineyard management team.
At harvest time, we employ up to 100 people to bring the grapes to the dozen wineries during the critical period in which they are at the optimum sugar and acid levels. (The use of grape harvesting machines has decreased our labor needs at harvest over 50%.)
Sonoma County:
The day-to-day farming of our Sonoma vineyards has been under the direction of Daniel Vega since 2007. Daniel has been with the company since the late 1980s. Daniel along with Michelle Riddle and Lincoln Strong form the Sonoma vineyard management team.
Our Sonoma vineyards are planted primarily to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, with one small block of Sauvignon Blanc. These are the varieties that the Russian River Valley is famed for. Wine made from our grapes can be found in the bottles of many excellent wineries, including Buehler, Constellation, Dearden Wines, Ferrari-Carano, Shibumi Knoll, Sonoma-Cutrer, Woodenhead, and more.
Silkbush Mountain Vineyards/ South Africa Winelands:
A two-week holiday trip to South Africa in 1994 by Dave Jefferson, and a reunion with a Stanford Business School classmate, led to an intense involvement with the local winery industry. In 2000, Dave, Anton Roos, a local farming consultant, and several US investing families acquired a large mountain vineyard property in South Africa that needed redevelopment and expansion. Presently, we grow 215 acres of superb wine grapes, sell 90% of them to independent wineries, and have 10% made into wine under our own Silkbush label. The Silkbush wine is sold domestically in South Africa, in three adjoining countries, and is exported in modest but growing quantities to Germany and the US. We hope to have representation in Hong Kong, Korea, and mainland China by 2022. Go to www.silkbush.com to see the property.
Marin & Sonoma Counties:
While Calplans Vineyards, a division of Burdell Properties, has operated winegrape vineyards in Sonoma and Napa Counties since 1972, its corporate headquarters are now located in Sonoma County, in the heart of Wine Country, about an hour from San Francisco. Up to 2025, the headquarters were in Novato, CA. Our main office is a bit farther north now in Santa Rosa, CA.
In 1980, a former Calplans vineyard limited partnership exchanged its appreciated equity into a 50% undivided interest into the former 1,200-acre Burdell Ranch, just north of Novato, California. Approximately 40% of the ranch was sold for development in 1989 to the Buck Center for Research in Aging for its campus headquarters, and 50% was sold in 1993 to the state of California for eventual wetlands reclamation. The last 24 acres were approved as a wetland’s mitigation bank (adjacent to the Gnoss Field Airport) in 2000.
South/Central Texas:
While a majority of our efforts have been in agriculture, we have a long history and extensive investments in commercial real estate. We have joint ventured the acquisition and management of shopping centers and industrial land in Texas since 1982. Our San Antonio partner is Richard L. Wade, owner of a large general contracting business, Wade Construction, and Wade Interests, property management and leasing services.
At present, we and our investors own four retail centers and one development land parcel in San Antonio and Austin. (See the Central Texas Property Map.) In 2017, we acquired a leased warehouse in Tacoma, WA, and a mixed use retail property in Sonoma, CA.