CALDWELL—Inspired by summer trips spent teaching geology classes in Sardinia, Italy, one of the world’s preeminent wine regions, C.J. Northrup and his wife, Janet, dreamed of owning a small vineyard and winery.
In 2012, the couple bought six acres in Caldwell’s Sunnyslope area and planted grapevines. A decade later, they opened a tasting room called Famici Wine Co. The winery is a labor of love made possible in part by the University of Idaho’s Food Technology Center and Agribusiness Incubator, located at the Caldwell Research and Extension Center. The facility offers specialized processing and packaging equipment and educational assistance to aspiring food entrepreneurs, as well as space and support for agricultural enterprises, including wineries.
Famici is part of a small but accomplished group of southwest Idaho wineries, including Hat Ranch Winery and Veer Wine Project, using the U of I facility’s refrigerated bays to ferment, press, age and bottle vintages. A few other Idaho labels contract with Veer to make some of their wine and one large Idaho winery, Huston Vineyards, relies on the incubator for temperature-controlled storage of finished products, further extending the Caldwell facility’s influence on the industry…