Corporate Profile
Cacciatore Fine Wines and Olive Oil Corp. (CWO) is wholly owned and operated by the Cacciatore family and represents just one part of their group of companies, which operates primarily in the agro-food industry.
CWO oversees and directs every detail of grape growing and wine making, a proud continuation of human culture that stretches back to the dawn of civilization.
Vincenzo Cacciatore undertook as primary objective the production of high-quality, “NATURAL CHARACTER” wines at very affordable prices. To achieve this goal, he developed his vineyards entirely with new plantings and built his winery to withstand seismic activity and contain state-of-the-art technology.
Mr. Cacciatore doubted the myth that the southern section of the magnificent San Joaquin Valley could not produce high-quality wines. He invested millions of dollars, began producing fine wine, and proved the myth wrong. At about the same time, California State University Fresno also believed quality wines could be produced in South San Joaquin Valley. Their superb Department of Viticulture and Enology also debunked the myth.
Mr. Cacciatore took no shortcuts while developing the vineyards and building the winery. Nor did he leave anything to chance. The vineyards were planted from 1997 to 2002 and the winery was built from 1998 to 2001. Costs to develop his vineyards were almost double the price of developing a conventional vineyard or grafting premium varieties on existing vines. Building a new winery equipped with the latest technology also demanded a larger investment than updating an existing winery. However, this was the price to pay to achieve CWO’s goal of producing high-quality grapes and premium wine varieties at affordable prices.
Maximizing the natural character of each variety of grape and using the highest percentage of grapes of the same variety and vintage achieves CWO’s primary objective: the variety “NATURAL CHARACTER.”
CWO wines are produced with 100% of the grapes from our vineyards, which yield approximately 4,000 tons of premium variety wine grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Syrah, Petit Verdot and Zinfandel. This has earned CWO the title of GROWER / VINTNER / BOTTLER.
To produce high-quality wines, CWO ferments all grapes in batches no larger than 18 tons. Smaller batches allow CWO to extract the most color, tannins and grape pulp.
The CWO 1.1 million-gallon winery capacity not only accommodates all grapes produced from our vineyards, but also a leaves a 25% vacancy for wine blending and aging.
CWO combines time-honored, classical viticulture traditions and the use of the latest international wine technology and machinery to produce a large assortment of excellent varietal wine at affordable prices.
CWO’s future plans include building a VISITOR CENTER with a tasting room, management offices, observation point and picnic area with a beautiful waterfall, and a LODGING CENTER surrounded by assorted California fruit and nuts trees and table grape vines. Both projects will be located within the ESTATE VINEYARDS. CWO also plans to develop olive orchards and built an olive oil transformation facility.