Arrowood Devotes Time to Own Winery

Dick Arrowood, wine maker at Chateau St. Jean Winery in Sonoma County since its inception in 1974, has resigned to pursue fulltime duties with his own winery.

Arrowood, who was named executive vice president at St. Jean in 1986, said he would devote most of his time to Arrowood Winery in Glen Ellen, which he founded in 1985 with his wife, Alis. He will remain consultant to Chateau St. Jean for a year.

Don Van Staaveren, who has been with Chateau St. Jean since 1976, was elevated to wine maker last year and was named a vice president of the company.

Chateau St. Jean is owned by Suntory of Japan, which acquired the Sonoma Valley property in 1984 in a then-record $40 million deal.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has made no substantive changes in its earlier ruling on the requirement to have a warning label on all packages of alcoholic beverages, the agency announced.

BATF sent its final regulations to the Federal Register in mid-February, changing only minor elements of the warning--requiring that all letters in the phrase “Government Warning” on the label be capitalized and stating that the health warning statement appear in a minimum type size of three millimeters on containers over three liters in size.

There also was a small change in the number of characters per inch.

Meanwhile, the National Wine Coalition has set up a toll-free telephone number explaining the meaning of the new warning label.

The Coalition, based in Washington, said the 90-second message will give information about the warning label to callers to (800) 283-WINE.

The Louis Martini Winery has announced plans to add 300 acres of vineyard to its holdings, bringing to more than 1,000 the number of acres the Napa Valley family-owned winery farms.

Martini harvested grapes from 750 acres of vineyards in Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties last year and will have nearly 1,100 planted after a $7.5 million replanting and conversion program is complete this year. The family plans to add additional acreage in 1991. The Martini family owns 1,500 acres of land that could be planted to wine grapes.

David Ramey, former wine maker at Matanzas Creek Winery, has been named as head wine maker at Chalk Hill Winery, replacing Tom Cottrell.

Ramey formerly worked as assistant to Zelma Long at Simi Winery and has been a consulting wine maker in the Napa Valley.

Cottrell, who worked for four years as a professor of enology at Cornell University, announced he will become wine maker at Sakonnet Winery in Little Compton, R.I.

Cottrell, who earned a doctorate in optics, formerly was the wine maker at Cuvaison and Yverdon before taking the wine making position at Chalk Hill in 1986.

Meridian Vineyards, the Paso Robles winery affiliated with Beringer Vineyards in the Napa Valley, has acquired 100 acres of prime vineyard land in Edna Valley in San Luis Obispo County.

The vineyard will be planted to Chardonnay grapes, and brings to 2,900 the number of acres owned and operated by Meridian.