The 5 W’s of Pack String Wines
WHO:James and Danielle Frost along with our families make up Pack String Wines. James has a background in vineyard management in both Oregon and California ranging from small boutique vineyards to sprawling estate vineyards and as of this year has brought what he has learned back home to El Dorado County to build Pack String wines and ply his trade in the vineyards. Danielle brings the science from her time working in forensics as well as interning at a high-end Oregon winery and time spent working in grape juice and wine analysis. Our families lend a massive helping hand with logistics, brute force developing our future vineyard site and their own unique sets of skills acquired through their various careers. We still work our day jobs but hope to grow Pack String Wines into a self sufficient business by working closely with our community to produce unique high quality wines at prices that allow our patrons to enjoy them time and again.WHAT: Pack String Wines is a small lot specialty wine brand based outside of Placerville, CA in the heart of “Apple Hill”. We started this brand with the intention to work in the area we grew up in to create high quality wines at reasonable prices while working with small, local vineyards. Our wines are made from family owned and farmed vineyards within El Dorado County and we only produce single varietal wines in 1 ton lots to stay true to the varietal and vineyard where they were grown.WHEN:The idea for Pack String Wines came to be in mid 2019 while we were living in Newberg, OR and discussing the idea of moving to be closer to family and building a business of our own. After starting a podcast to document the process we jumped into hyperdrive. A business plan, and lots of number crunching later we were harvesting grapes for our first vintage in the fall of 2020. Some licensing challenges later and here we are!WHERE: Pack String Wines is based out of Camino, CA in the El Dorado AVA. Danielle and I wanted to be close to family and in a region known for high quality grapes and wine and there was no better place. Having grown up and previously worked in this area gave us a great starting point for building a network within the community and finding great partners to work with in starting our journey.WHY: I had been putting in the hours in the vineyards in Oregon, and Danielle was working up the ladder of forensics, but after a few years we both started feeling like we wanted to build something for ourselves. Working for a paycheck and to build things for others wasn’t enough for us, so we decided to swing for the fences and follow our passions.The forgotten “H”… HOW:Before we could make anything happen we had to figure out what we needed to do and how to do it, despite being in the industry there were many unknowns especially on the licensing side. After much research and lots of helpful advice we liquidated our savings to buy grapes and pay for wine making and all of the associated costs. Once we were that far into it, we decided to go all in. In late 2020, we sold our house in Oregon and took the money from the sale and put it into 10 acres of vacant land in Camino, CA. With the help of family and friends we have been able to clear the land and start the process of building a home on the property, in the future with a lot of sweat equity and through the sale of our wines we plan to plant a small vineyard and develop a tasting room on the property as well to be able to share our wines with you in person! If you're interested in learning more about our journey, follow Voyage to First Vintage and Pack String Wines on Instagram and Facebook!We hope you enjoyed our chat around the campfire. Come back and join us again soon.- James Frost
Pack String Wines
