A newly completed cooling facility at Columbine Vineyards in Delano, CA, “measures in at 204,200 square feet, roughly 3.5 times the size of an American football field, and can store 750,000 boxes of produce when full,” according to a company press release.

“We are very proud of the dedicated team of professionals who have diligently constructed a facility that combines traditional agriculture with advanced technologies making the preservation of our grapes more efficient,” said Martin Caratan, president of M. Caratan Inc., in the release. Columbine Vineyards is a d.b.a. of M. Caratan Inc.

“Adding this facility into our organization will provide us with the capacity to receive and ship more than 200,000 boxes a day and the design expands Columbine Vineyards ability to preserve the superb taste, freshness and nutritional value of our high-quality grapes,” he said.

The facility will double grape storage capacity for the company and will improve turn-around time for precooling of grapes from the field, Anthony Stetson, sales manager, told The Produce News as construction was nearing completion in late May.

Loraine Caratan, Luke Caratan, Martin Caratan and Claire Caratan of Columbine Vineyards at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the company's new cold storage facility. (Photo courtesy of Columbine Vineyards)The facility is a little over 200,000 square feet in size and will have eight loading docks with the capability of increasing that to 12 if needed, in addition to the five docks on the current facility, he said. An innovative new precooling system is designed into the facility “with smaller precoolers, so we are going to be able to turn the fruit faster.” Instead of taking from eight hours to as much as 10 hours to precool a room full of fruit, “we should be able to turn fruit in four to six hours.” In part, that is because it takes less time to fill up the room and then to unload it.

On July 2, Stetson told The Produce News that the new facility was completed and occupied, but “we haven’t started shipping out of there yet. We are still shipping out of the old facility.” However, “we will start shipping out of here” the week of July 7. With the company’s 2014 fresh grape harvest underway, “we are picking Sugraones and Flames down in Arvin and we just started Flames here in Delano today,” he said.

“Overall, the crop looks good,” he said. “Size is good,” and the colored grapes have good color.

Going forward, “we will have Thompsons and Majestics,” and then about mid-August start with Crimsons, Scarlet Royals and Black Globes, a proprietary seeded variety with very large berries, he said. “Going into September, we will have Autumn Royals, Scarlet Royals and Red Globes.”

Milano, a proprietary green seedless variety, will also start around the first of September. “This late summer grape grows in large bunches with sweet and crunchy berries,” according to the company website.

Columbine expects increases in Black Globes and in Milanos this year, Stetson said. “Everything else is normal” with regard to volume. “Overall, our total numbers are similar to last year,” but the company is projecting an increase over the next two or three years as new plantings of all varieties come into production.

According to Loren Olcott, marketing representative at Columbine, the company’s new website will look “completely different” from the previous one, even though it was already “pretty up-to-date.” The new site will feature “great photography” and will offer “easy access for consumers and retail buyers to access information about our grapes,” she said.