Chris Condos (left) and Richard Bruno of Vinum Cellars
Vinum Cellars
In 1990s-era California, two UC Davis students bonded over an untrendy wine obsession: chenin blanc. While classmates chased cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay, the varietals that built Napa’s reputation and price points, Richard Bruno and Chris Condos saw opportunity in overlooked grapes.
Three decades later, that contrarian instinct has become Vinum Cellars, a winery that sources from multiple AVAs without owning vineyards, maintains handshake agreements with growers and commits to vegan winemaking practices that few competitors bother advertising.
In an industry where mid-sized producers are struggling between budget brands and luxury labels, and where “sustainable” has become marketing shorthand often disconnected from actual practice, Vinum Cellars represents a test case: Can ethical winemaking actually drive business value?
“Doing what is right without fully allowing costs to dictate business decisions is how to remain ethical,” Bruno says. It’s a statement that could sound naive, except Vinum Cellars has structured its business to make ethics financially viable.
A Capital-Light Model
The key is asset ownership, or rather, the lack of it. While many California wineries tie up capital in land purchases, Vinum Cellars operates a partnership model with growers across Sonoma, Monterey, Clarksburg and Paso Robles. It’s capital-efficient in a capital-intensive industry, allowing the winery to focus resources on winemaking and relationships rather than real estate.
“With all of our growers, the relationship started with a conversation and continues through a handshake,” Bruno says. “All of our relationships are with family-owned operations, several of them multi-generational.”
Handshake deals offer flexibility but lack the security of contracts or ownership. Bruno has mitigated this risk through longevity, as some partnerships span decades. Wilson Farms, now managed by fourth-generation grower David Ogilvie, has been farming since 1921. Ogilvie is certifying one of Vinum’s vineyards as organic for the 2026 vintage. In El Dorado, second-generation grower Chuck Mansfield has brought a similar commitment to sustainable practices.
“We have carefully built these relationships over 30 years of winemaking,” Bruno says. The result is supply chain stability without the debt load of land ownership—a significant advantage as interest rates have climbed and vineyard values have softened in some regions.
The Vegan Wine Advantage
Bruno suspects many California wineries already produce vegan wines without knowing it or bothering to say so. “Making wine that is vegan is easy, really: don’t use animal products,” he says. The winery doesn’t use animal fining agents such as egg whites or isinglass (a substance derived from fish). “The practice is unnecessary, and the former benefits of their use have been resolved by filtration technology.”
It’s a straightforward technical point that reveals a marketing gap. While plant-based eating has moved from niche to mainstream, many wineries haven’t bothered to formalize or communicate vegan practices they may already be following. “I think part of our job as an industry is to create awareness,” Bruno says.
“Wineries should invest in educating their employees about what makes a wine vegan, so they have the knowledge to effectively interact with their customers.” He draws a parallel to restaurant allergen protocols. “This is really important because it’s a safety concern for some,” Bruno notes.
For Vinum Cellars, early adoption wasn’t trend-chasing but positioning ahead of market demand. And the market is growing: research firm MetricWave Insights estimates the global vegan wine category, worth $3.15 billion in 2024, will reach $4.93 billion by 2034, a climb driven by steady 5.1% annual growth.
The Wine Marketing Vinum Cellars Is Not Doing
When pressed on how Vinum Cellars communicates its sustainability practices to cut through industry greenwashing, Bruno’s answer is blunt: “Simply put, we don’t—perhaps that is something we should be working on.”
It’s either a strategic understatement or a genuine marketing blind spot. The winery uses domestic lightweight glass bottles, water-based inks, refillable stainless steel kegs for restaurants and sporting venues, and operates a net-zero energy dry-farmed estate vineyard at Longhorn Ridge’s Hoffman Block in Napa Valley.
These are precisely the practices other wineries trumpet in press releases and tasting room signage. “We don’t talk the talk, but we walk the walk,” Bruno says. “I believe authenticity is in the bottle, and I think most consumers recognize it.” It’s a calculated bet that product quality will drive discovery rather than marketing spend.
Some might see this as a risky position in a crowded market where even small producers now compete with direct-to-consumer giants and influencer-driven brands. But Bruno points to his own behavior as validation. When he purchased the estate vineyard in 2018, his first priority was eliminating glyphosate from the soil. “I wanted to because I have children and I want to leave them a clean and safe future.”
Betting On Wine Premiumization
Bruno sees the wine industry navigating a structural shift. He references the past U.S. Surgeon General’s statement that “no amount of alcohol consumption is good for you,” recognizing it as the kind of public health messaging that historically precedes consumption declines. “Perhaps we as a society have been over-served; I’m sure most people did during the pandemic,” he says.
“That said, I believe in the mantra, ‘everything in moderation.’ I also believe that wine has been produced and enjoyed for ten thousand years; it enhances food, makes people happy and has an important social role.” Bruno frames the trend as a natural extension of premiumization. If consumers are cutting back, he says, they’re more inclined to trade up—choosing fewer pours, but better ones.
However, Bruno acknowledges that, for many consumers, price remains the primary factor guiding their choices, outweighing considerations like quality or sustainability. “I don’t think the current supply-demand curve will change much in the wine business, favoring volume brands over independent wineries, but that suits me fine, because I don’t make my wines for this audience.”
Lineup from Vinum Cellars
Vinum CellarsWhere Wine Technology Meets Dirt
Bruno says he has watched technology transform California winemaking over 30-plus years. “Technology in the wine space has vastly improved winemaking through mechanization in the vineyard and winery, through clarification by not relying on unnecessary fining agents,” he says. The quality floor has risen dramatically, and bad wine is harder to make than it was a generation ago.
But the next quality leap, Bruno argues, happens in the vineyard. “Now it’s time to take the next step in the vineyard to radically push our growing practices toward encouraging sustainability, and if we accomplish this as an industry, we will once again raise the bar of overall quality while improving the environment in which we live.”
It’s a thesis that sustainable farming produces better fruit, not just better optics. Vinum Cellars’ approach combines conventional wisdom—working with established growers, picking at optimal ripeness, gentle processing—with targeted innovation in yeast strains and barrel programs.
Ethical Wine In A Noisy Market
Vinum Cellars operates in a specific niche: small enough to maintain handshake relationships, established enough that growers trust 30-year partnerships, focused enough to avoid the scale pressures facing mid-market producers. “As an entrepreneur, I believe I can produce a product better than most by being transparent, sustainable and ethical,” Bruno says. “To me, this is exciting because I view it as striving toward excellence.”
It’s not clear how this model would translate to larger producers or simply highlight what’s working well for smaller, boutique operations. The capital-light model requires decades of relationship building that most new entrants can’t replicate. The sustainability commitments require grower partners willing to absorb transition costs. The marketing restraint assumes product quality will drive discovery in an increasingly noisy market.
But 30 years after two UC Davis students bonded over an unfashionable grape, Vinum Cellars has demonstrated that ethical winemaking can be financially sustainable. At least for those patient enough to build businesses on relationships and priorities, and selective enough about which wine customers they’re trying to reach.
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