Harvest 2018 - Sonoma West Publishers

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HARVEST A special publication of The Healdsburg Tribune, The Cloverdale Reveille, The Windsor Times and Sonoma West Times & News

October 25, 2018

A dance with Mother Nature Heavy winegrape crop already sparkling with flavors By ROLLIE ATKINSON SONOMA WEST PUBLISHERS STAFF Just like everything else that has to do with farming, being too good to be true, also comes with its downsides. Just about the only thing that might have made Sonoma County’s 2018 winegrape harvest more perfect in most places is if the grapes had picked themselves. But the other part of having a nearperfect harvest is having more fruit than can be stored or possibly sold.

It’s not the worst problem to have but growers and wineries may soon be sharing a consumer market that will be softening in prices and succumbing to the age-old dictums of supply and demand.

Although recent vintages have been very challenging with wildfires, five years of drought, labor supply worries and more, Sonoma County growers have managed to adequately satisfy winery demands and consumer palettes.

The 2018 harvest is a story of a dream scenario growing season, a well-paced and long harvest with adequate labor forces and smiling winemakers and a fruit crush that is over-spilling many winery tanks and inducing some premature finagling in the bulk wine market.

“I’ve heard some of the yields have been 10 to 20 percent above last year,” said Tony Linegar, the county’s agricultural commissioner.

“And I’m also hearing that lots of winery tanks are still full from last year.” Almost all of the county’s estimated 220,000 tons of winegrapes are sold under annual or longer term contracts or harvested by wineryowners. But this year’s extra-heavy crop is leaving some very excellent fruit still looking for an extra buyer or a home.

Photo Sarah Bradbury

TOPPING OFF — Moshin Vineyards interns Megan Heyne, Georgi Pochkhidze and Kat Sheehy were part of this season's harvest crush that some are calling a fast-paced tango.

A tango with Mother Nature Karissa Kruse, president/CEO of Sonoma County Winegrowers, called the 2018 harvest a combination of a “quick tango” and “slow dance” both with Mother Nature as early October rains got harvest crews upping their tempo only to slow down to a lilting pace of waiting for their valuable grapes to reach their optimal brix and pH levels.

“Overall Mother Nature delivered

Photo Sarah Bradbury

JUICY CLUSTERS — The 2018 winegrape crush was 10-20 percent above last years totals. Pictured is Rodney Johnson, of Moshin Vineyards.

WHAT’S INSIDE

a long, but beautiful, growing season,” said Kruse. “Grape quality was excellent. Crop size appears to be up across the different varieties with a little push to get tank space at the wineries.” She said she continues to hear consistent reports from her grower-members of full ripeness with heavy clusters and mature flavors.

Evidence that the 2018 winegrape harvest was going to be very promising came early when late February rains replenished the soils and spring skies during the bloom season stayed sunny. The growing season stretched out over warming days with no shattering heat spikes like those in recent years. The October rain definitely got growers’ attentions but impacts on the ripening fruit were reported as very minimal.

“I can’t remember a harvest year where we didn’t have a single 100degree day after veraison,” said Clay Mauritson, winemaker for his family’s Dry Creek winery. “We are really, really excited about some of the fruit we are seeing.” The Mauritson crews began picking their final cabernet sauvignon crops on Oct. 17 and expected to wrap up all their picking before November.

Several growers interviewed during the current harvest season remarked about the length and lateness of the season, with others reminding that recent years had all been much earlier than usual.

“I’d say this has been a more normal season like we had 25 years ago and up to recent years,” said Bob Hopkins, owner of Hopkins Ranch in the middle reach of the Russian

CIDER TO THE RESCUE? Can the rising popularity of hard cider rescue the county’s ailing apple industry? Page 5

especially necessary in the hundreds of acres of orchards that are dryRiver Valley. “I remember always farmed. Apple trees also need “chill picking fruit in mid-October and nights” with average temperatures sometimes in early November.” below 45 degrees to promote a good Hopkins farms 70 acres of early spring bloom. Hence, this chardonnay, pinot noir and year’s apple crop looked much better sauvignon blanc. than a very light 2017 crop, said The long growing season and commissioner Linegar. “With all the desired cool nights with clement new plantings of cider-type apples, summer temperatures equals what our commercial growers and industry is winemakers call beginning to look “long hang time” better even though where the some removal of clusters grow orchards to heavy with full vineyards is still and firm berries occurring,” and uniform Linegar said. skins. “I can’t While new believe the markets are being complexities of developed for some of the Sonoma County flavors I’ve been apple ciders, tasting,” Linegar also winemaker praised Manzana Mauritson said.

Products in Graton “It’s just been, for purchasing quote, unquote, a Clay Mauritson more than 90 perfect growing percent of the local season.” apple crop, while emphasizing The lengthy harvest also saw organic fruit production. some growers still picking Sonoma County’s total annual chardonnay as late as some of their agricultural production approaches reds. another promising sign of $1 billion. Linegar’s official 2017 crop excellent fruits with the desired report listed $894 million in balances of sugars and acids.

The same weather that nurtures a winegrape, dairy, apple, poultry, livestock, vegetable and field crops. sterling winegrape vintage is also The 2016 total was slightly higher at beneficial to most of the county’s $898 million and the 2018 totals will other commercial crops and ag not be available until early 2019. enterprises.

Winegrapes equal two-thirds of A good soaking for apple the county’s total ag production but orchards there is a sizeable dairy and cattle For instance, the February rains See Harvest Page 2 soaked the roots of apple trees,

“I can’t believe the complexities of some of the flavors I’ve been tasting.

It’s just been, quote, unquote, a perfect growing season.”

FORMING CONNECTIONS THROUGH WOMEN AND WINE Women winemakers aim to bridge gap between graduating and starting a career Page 15

THE ROOTS OF WINEMAKING................P3 CREATING CANNABIS POLICY THAT YIELDS SUCCESS....................................P9 A HOMEGROWN WALNUT HARVEST.....P11 GREEN AND LEAN AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN...............................................P13

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and can’t grow on their own property.”

Continued from Page 1

To market, to market Growing a successful crop is one thing. Next a farmer has to find a market. Fortunately, Sonoma County has many markets, some more challenging than others. This year’s 2017 Crop Report was dedicated by Linegar to Sonoma County Farm Trails, a voluntary membership, nonprofit organization founded in 1973 to promote farmdirect sales and promotions. Farm Trails presents the very popular Gravenstein Fair every August.

Sonoma County is also home to 23 certified farmers’ markets which are operated seasonally in outdoor spaces with farmers selling their vegetables, fruit, herbs, eggs, wool, cheese, meat, honey and flowers from their pickup truck tailgates.

The biggest and most multifaceted market is for wine and grapes. The Winegrowers of Sonoma County has 1,800 grower-members who make their own wine or sell their fruit under individual crop contracts. Over the past few decades almost everyone — buyers and sellers — have been happy. Varietal grape prices such as chardonnay and pinot noir have been steadily improving to record levels. Annual yields have been reliable across the nearly 60,000 acres of county vineyards. An average of 600 new vineyard acres has been added during the recent decade, according to Linegar.

That upward line on the price chart may about to be changing, partly accelerated by this year’s bumper crop. Before any of the 2018 fruit was picked there already was 300,000 gallons of unsold Sonoma County cabernet sauvignon and 150,000 gallons of pinot noir in tank storage. (These totals are only a fraction of the total gallonage that includes Oregon and other California appelations.)

One wine broker, Robert Selby of Ciatti Global Wines, called the bulk wine market “sluggish” and “stagnant.”

Another middleman, Mark Cuneo of Turrentine Brokerage, said he’s

sector here that, more and more, features organic production and high-end cheeses and other specialities.

Sonoma County also is home to 17 percent of all of California’s laying hens which produced $40 million in egg sales in 2017.

Cannabis and other developments Although absent from any crop totals so far, the emergent commercial cannabis industry already has tripled Linegar’s workload, he confesses. The Ag Commissioner’s office has new staff and continues to process cannabis cultivation permits, permitting hundreds of acres of seasonal plantings that started this year.

“Our staff had to perform lots and lots of cannabis crop monitoring to record activity and assess crop yields and losses for tax purposes,” said Linegar. Outdoor gardens were heavily impacted by the early October rains that caused mold and rot to the maturing flowers.

Farming in Sonoma County these days also has come to mean confronting animal rights activists, complaints from urban neighbors who don’t like tractor dust, manure smells or nighttime vineyard activity, plus all the usual political rankering and lingering opposition from some environmental groups.

“There’s just a lot of people and groups with different interests,” said Linegar, now in his seventh year at his post. “I really like my job and we have some amazing and dedicated people leading our farming industry,” he said, also mentioning the support from the county’s board of supervisors.

Linegar’s year included a lifealtering incident when he had to undergo open heart surgery seven months ago. “It changes your perspective about everything,” he said. “Mostly it makes you more appreciative of others, like I hope we never get to the point where we try to dictate to farmers what they can,

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Photo Sarah Bradbury

DELIGHTED — Winemaker Rick Moshin (left) pictured with assistant winemaker Matt Kellermann said his 2018 harvest reminded him of several later season harvests from the 1980s. already seeing “softening prices.” At the same time, he urged anyone with unsold grapes or juice to look closer at the market. “There’s still plenty of activity,” he said in his October monthly report on his website.

Not like the ‘Gallo Days’ Uncertain wine markets and contract limits evoke stories of older days when buying and selling grapes was very different. A half century ago, the Gallo brothers, Ernest and Julio, came to Sonoma County and bought the large Frei Brothers operation. It was said a grower contract with the Gallos was “as rare as frost in July.” Cousin Bob Gallo said at the time, “we don’t pay the highest, but we sure as hell don’t pay the lowest.” A Healdsburg grower at the time, countered, “Gallo will never let you go broke, but you’ll never get rich.”

Times have changed. And they

made a big change in 1984 when Alexander Valley grower Steve Sommer challenged the Gallo’s market dominance. At the time Gallo had grower agreements with 300 local growers. None of the text actually included a final price, but only listed a possible range, depending on fruit quality.

Sommer challenged the Gallo’s ratings system when his zinfandel was downgraded to a mid-level grade, costing him a potential of $7,000. Instead of the $400 per ton Sommers expected based on his past harvests, he was offered $275 per ton. A few more growers, including Dick Hathcock, joined Sommers’ complaint with the Bureau of Market Enforcement in Sacramento.

In those days, just 1 1/2 generations ago, Gallo bought about one-third of all premium wine grapes grown on the North Coast (Sonoma, Mendocino and Napa

counties). The three-county crop was estimated at 180,000 tons a year.

Gallo also bought bulk wine from other large wineries, including Souverain, now the location of Coppola. It was said at the time, “without Gallo, there would be no North Coast.”' It was also said."there would be no wine industry in California " The Gallo’s market dominance continued for many more years, but grape contracts began to include more binding language and pricing.

Today, Sonoma County’s winegrape market has international influences and all sizes of buyers and negotiants. The current generation of Gallos grow most of their own grapes on their own land and are rivaled in size by the Jackson Family, Silverado Premium, Ferrari-Carano and Sonoma Cutrer, among others.

Going back to the roots of winemaking Fewer additives lead to a more individualized yearly harvest By ZOË STRICKLAND SONOMA WEST PUBLISHERS STAFF Natural and organic wines have a similar goal in mind — to present the most natural, unaltered product as possible. For a small handful of wineries across Sonoma County, the label of natural or organic can mean different things.

A shared sentiment between three Sonoma County wineries — Old World Winery in Fulton, Preston Farm and Winery in Healdsburg and Littorai Wines in Sebastopol — is the goal of embracing an older style of winemaking, a style that doesn’t use additives like acid or yeast to change or regulate wines.

While each winery has a devotion to embracing an organic way of making wine, they differ in how they interact with the idea of natural and organic wine. “Natural wine is more about what you don’t do, than what you do,” said Grayson Hartley, winemaker at Preston.

“I don’t think that we’re trying to say that we’re making natural wine.

The biodynamic certification (that Preston has) has stipulations regarding what you are and are not allowed to do. Anything that says biodynamic means that we haven’t done anything besides add a little bit of sulfur to it.”

For wineries like Littorai, the lines surrounding identifying as a natural or organic wine are not so clear. The winery self-identifies as being biodynamic and organic, but you won’t find that on its labels.

Rather than being officially certified as such, proprietor Ted Lemon said that the company’s practices follow

BIODYNAMIC — Littorai Wines is rooted in a biodynamic farming philosophy that comes out of France. more of a philosophical system which doesn’t focus on pushing specific labels on to products.

“We don’t use cultured yeasts … we do use (sulfur). We try to reduce anything else — we don’t add any nutrients,” said Lemon. “If you think of additions as being like filters on the lens of a camera, the more filters you add, the less you can see the original picture.”

At Old World Winery, proprietor and winemaker Darek Trowbridge runs a winemaking operation that’s represented by the name of the winery. “I called it ‘Old World’ because it’s the only way I could understand what I was doing,” he said.

Trowbridge’s interest in natural wine was inspired by his desire to harken back to the way his family

members (the Martinellis) traditionally produced wine, “It was a method that came through my great grandfather to my grandfather to me.”

When creating organic wine, the lack of additions like acid can create more variability in the final product. “For it to work well, you have to embrace that every year and every wine is unique,” said Hartley.

“If you’re trying to make the same wine every year, you probably don’t want to make organic wine or natural wine.”

The variability can serve as a reflection of variety of different factors that change from year to year — from ripeness, to vine yields, to the people working during harvest, organic and natural wines are more

likely to change from year to year.

Though this type of winemaking does open itself up to more variability from year to year, the market for organically made wines is growing.

When asked if he’s experienced an increase in interest in his wine, Trowbridge answered a resounding yes. “Ten years ago when I opened the tasting room, it was very difficult. Now we get people who seek us out,” he said. “What I’m doing is providing a choice, and the people that are making that choice are usually millennials. The way I understand it, this generation is seeking more authenticity … that’s the only way I can explain the voracious appetite for wine that is natural.”

For Lemon, the most enjoyable part about working to produce a

Photo provided

more natural type of wine is the experience of telling people about the lack of additions to the physical vineyard. “I love being able to take someone out in our vineyards — they stand there and they’re told that no fertilizers of any kind were ever added to the vineyard, no synthetic materials.”

Depending on the winery, the way a wine is made can vary.

However with organic wineries, a holistic view of harvest is fostered.

“You’re getting grapes in and tasting them, touching them,” Hartley said. “You’re immersed sensorily with them from day one, and you’re listening to them and working with them, instead of working against them. We see it as growing wine, not just growing grapes.”

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a special publication of the healdsburg tribune, the Cloverdale reveille, the Windsor times and Sonoma West times & news

Cider to the rescue?

Can the rising popularity of hard cider save the county’s ailing apple industry?

By LAURA HAGAR RUSH Sonoma WeSt PubliSherS Staff lot of folks in Sonoma County like to wax nostalgic about the days when apples reigned supreme, before the Gravenstein was listed as an endangered apple by the international slow food movement.

Despite the ubiquity of vineyards, there are still apple orchards in Sonoma County, most of them concentrated in the cooler region of west county. Tony Linegar, the county’s ag commissioner, estimates that there about 139 apple growers in the county.

Numbers alone tell the story: in 1940, there were over 14,000 acres planted to apples countywide; now, according to the 2017 crop report, there are just 2,090 acres.

“It’s purely a matter of economics,” said apple grower Stan DeVoto, who started growing apples outside of Sebastopol in the 1970s. “It has nothing to do with growers not wanting to grow apples,” he said. “If apples paid, they’d be happy to grow them.”

“Agriculture changes just like society changes,” DeVoto said, noting that grapes pay 310 times what apples bring in.

“The bottom line is most growers who’ve switched to other crops have held onto their farms, and a lot of growers who didn’t have lost or sold them.”

Why then did DeVoto begin to plant a new apple orchard in 2013? One word: cider.

The apples Stan DeVoto planted between 2013 and 2015 weren’t the big five typically found in west county — Gravenstein, Yellow Delicious, Jonathon, Rome and Newtown Pippin. Instead they were cider apples with unfamiliar monikers like Kingston Black, Wickson, Yarlington Mill, Egremont Russet, Chisel Jersey and

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Muscat de Bernay.

A cider empire is born Jolie DeVoto grew up working in her parents’ apple orchards, pruning the young trees and learning to love apples. In 2012, she and her husband Hunter Wade started their first cider label, DeVoto Cider, and in 2014, they launched Golden State Cider, which is about to open a new production facility in Healdsburg and a new tasting room in The Barlow in Sebastopol.

Though it has only 20 employees, Golden State produces 650,000 gallons of cider a year. For its core line of ciders, it buys less expensive apples and juice from other places in California, as well as Oregon and Washington, but it still buys Sonoma County fruit for its high-end line known as the Harvest Series.

“Part of our mission is to help save small heirloom apple farms, in part by paying top dollar for fruit,” she said, noting that she pays growers for her Harvest series, including her dad, around $800 a ton for apples.

“At $800 a ton, it makes economic sense to grow apples,” Stan DeVoto said.

Unfortunately, the going rate for processing apples like Gravensteins and other local non-cider apples is around $400 a ton, according to the 2017 Crop Report.

And there’s the rub.

According to Darlene Hayes, a cider specialist who runs the cider tent at Sebastopol’s Gravenstein Apple Fair, there are cider apple varieties that go for $700-$1,200 a ton on the open market, but they have only recently begun to be planted in west county.

An orchard for the future Tilted Shed is located in Artisan Alley off Bell Road in Windsor. It was founded by Ellen Cavalli and Scott Heath, two former Bay Area residents who found their way into cider making when they

Photo provided

APPLE FARMER — Stan DeVoto came to Sonoma County as a part of the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s. to keep his farm, he’s diversified, growing grapes and flowers, as well as apples. moved onto a property in northern New Mexico that had an apple orchard.

“You can only make so much apple sauce,” Cavalli said. So as not to waste the apples, the couple experimented with making cider. They were surprised to discover how interesting it was.

“That was it,” Cavalli said.

“We started reading up on cider; we started drinking them; and we just went down the rabbit hole — it just became this obsession.”

They purchased a 5.4 acre property just off Gravenstein Highway near Forestville in 2010, and in 2011 they started planting an orchard of cider apples.

“We planted 130 differ cider apple varieties,” Cavalli said.

Tilted Shed’s own cider apples trees have just begun to produce in commercial quantities — they made their first estate-grown cider last year. They also use apples from other organic producers in the area, including Chad Frick of Vulture Hill Farm and Laura Cheever.

“We pay our farmers as much as we possibly can because we want to keep our

Photo provided

CIDER APPLES — Stan DeVoto, planted a range of cider apples from 2013-2015, including this variety, black twig, which his daughter Jolie said is “one of our favorite cider apples.” growers in apples,” Cavalli said. “There are cheaper options available, but we won’t do that. We don’t use apples from outside of the county, and we don’t use juice or concentrate. Every drop of cider we make is pressed here, which costs a lot in terms of

equipment, overhead and labor, but it’s worth it to ensure the highest quality and control over our fermentations.”

Tilted Shed is a small batch, low production operation. “Last year we made 2,500 gallons,” Cavalli said.

Photo ellen Cavalli

Photo provided

ALL IN THE FAMILY — Jolie DeVoto and hunter Wade, a husband and wife team, started Golden State Cider in 2012.

UPTICK — Grower laura Cheever says she’s seen an increase in the price paid for her apples, in part because of the demand for hard cider.

“This year we’ll be making 5,000 gallons. And that’s probably where we'll end up topping out.”

Cider nudges the needle upward Laura Cheever, one of Tilted Shed’s growers, owns five acres of older trees that produce around 30,000 pounds of apples per year, most of them Gravensteins. She has grafted some of the trees over to cider varieties, and they are just starting to produce.

Cheever is excited about the potential of cider apples.

She’s noticed an uptick in the prices that people are willing to pay for her apples.

“Personally, I am seeing increased demand for local apples, and a corresponding increase in apple prices, especially the Gravenstein. I’d say it’s driven in part by the popularity of hard cider,” she said. “I’d guess that other factors include changing values towards supporting local food systems, Slow Food’s promotion of the Gravenstein through the Ark of Taste and Presidia programs, and the creation of other apple products.”

Despite her optimism, Cheever says the economics of growing apples here are still tough.

“I don’t know anyone who is making a living selling processing apples, including

See Cider Page 7

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THANK YOU, SONOMA COUNTY, FOR ANOTHER OUTSTANDING HARVEST.

P R E S E R V I N G LO CA L AG R I C U LT U R E

It’s a busy and exciting time here in Sonoma County. The late nights. The early mornings.

The extra trucks and tractors on the road. But we also recognize that harvest season can be a little extra hectic for everyone here. Which is why, as the season winds down, the Sonoma County Winegrowers would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the entire community for your patience and support. Thank you for making Sonoma County such a welcoming, beautiful and bountiful place to live. And, as we enter the holiday season, we hope you toast family and friends with a local Sonoma County wine. Cheers!

Relive the excitement and energy of this year’s season with our harvest tracker at SonomaWineGrape.org/harvest

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Harvest edition

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Photo provided

A DIFFERENT KIND OF WINE — Chris Condos and Suzanne hagins, owners of horse & Plow in Sebastopol, take a winemaking approach to cider.

Photo Karen Pavone Photography

TILTED — ellen Cavalli and Scott heath of tilted Shed Cider want to put Sonoma County on the map as a source of high-end hard cider.

Continued from page 5 cider apples. Everyone I can think of is also growing fresh market apples or other crops, like grapes, or doing their own ‘vertical integration’ to create cider or other apple products.

Or using apple sales as supplemental income.”

Building awareness of the cider continuum Paying more for apples sounds like a simple way to increase the number of apple growers, but there’s another side to this proposition: if cider makers pay more for apples, they have to charge the consumer more for the product.

The problem is, until recently, cider wasn’t seen as a premium product. Instead,

cider has been marketed to millennials as an easydrinking beer alternative.

“The cider-drinking public hasn’t really caught on to the fact that there are high-end ciders,” Darlene Hayes said.

“It’s a matter of consumer education.”

The wine industry could provide a model: consumers expect to pay more for hand-picked, hand-sorted, small lot wines than for mass produced wines. It should be the same way with cider, Hayes said, noting that “many high-end, small-scale cider makers, like Tilted Shed and Horse & Plow in Sebastopol, bottle their ciders in 750 bottles, like wine bottles, in part to differentiate themselves from the low-end

of the market,” Hayes said.

Organic wine making pioneer Chris Condos, who owns Horse & Plow, is a winemaker who ended up making cider almost by accident, but says he has always looked at cider from a winemaker’s perspective.

“Basically, cider is wine,” he said. “It’s just apple wine.”

“We’ve been making wine for 25 years,” Condos said, speaking of himself and his wife Suzanne Hagins. “Then we bought a property in Sebastopol that had a bunch of apples on it. At first, I just thought of it as a fun side project, but then I really got into it.”

“But we come to it as winemakers: we pick the apples when they’re ready; we

choose the highest quality fruit; we do small lots; we ferment it dry in French Oak barrels.”

Condos said that he plans to make 1,200 cases of cider this year and sell it in his tasting room right next to the 4,000 cases of the Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Rose of Carignan he makes in the same facility.

“We pay for quality fruit in apples, just as we do for wine,” he said. “I really want to support crop diversity. We live on Gravenstein Highway, after all. I love the idea of having an orchard and supporting other orchards in the area. I understand that in order to make it, apple growers need to get a good price.

“I pay for quality.

Everything is hand-picked and from Sebastopol. I don’t want windfall or bruised apples. I want to get the best apples we can get, just like we

would with grapes.”

But getting consumers to pay more for cider can be a hard sell.

“I’ve definitely had some push back about the price of our ciders,” said Cavalli of Tilted Shed, whose ciders sell from $15 to $20 for a 750 ml. bottle. “Most people who come in here are used to drinking ciders where there were a lot of shortcuts taken in the process of making them. We don’t take short cuts, we take long cuts,” she said with a laugh, “and that’s expensive.

But you taste it in the bottle.”

Making west county famous for apples again For now, high-end cider makers are on their own when it comes to educating consumers about cider and local apples. Darlene Hayes feels that local restaurants could help.

“I can’t quite figure out why every restaurant in the county that proclaims itself a

champion of local agriculture doesn’t have one or more ciders made with local apples on offer … cider can be quite brilliant with food. In Europe, there are pairing traditions for cider, just like there are for wine.”

Meanwhile, as they wait for local restaurants to get with the program, cider makers and apple growers are continuing to invest in cider apples, in hopes of rehabilitating the region’s reputation in the apple world.

“We want our ciders to represent our west Sonoma County apple terroir in the best light possible,” said Cavalli. “Sonoma County is wine country for good reason, but it has the potential to also be world class cider country because of the beautiful and unique qualities of our apples.

Securing that status would hopefully be a win-win for all of us.”

We salute another incredible Sonoma County Harvest We are proud to provide a sampling of Harvest Fair gold medal wines, olive oils, breads and desserts.

We support the many fruits of labor provided by our local farmers, winemakers and workers.

Harvest Fair medalists: Sonoma Cutrer Saini Vineyards Laurier Ferrari-Carano Davis Bynum B.R. Cohn Olive Oil Dry Creek Olive Co. Costeaux French Bakery

1345 Healdsburg Avenue (at Dry Creek Road) Healdsburg, CA 95448 • Phone: 707-433-7151 Monday through Saturday 7am-9pm, Sunday 7am-8pm • www.bigjohnsmarket.com

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Harvest edition

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October 25, 2018t

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October 25, 2018

Harvest edition

Page 9

a special publication of the healdsburg tribune, the Cloverdale reveille, the Windsor times and Sonoma West times & news

Creating cannabis policy that yields success Charting a course for cannabis By E.I. HILLIN Sonoma WeSt PubliSherS Staff Less than a year after legalizing recreational cannabis use and cultivation residents, business owners and authorities of Sonoma County are looking for a policy that yields the best results for everyone.

“We need to create a policy that works,” said 5th District Supervisor Lynda Hopkins.

On Aug. 6 the county board of supervisors set out to continue amending the county’s cannabis land use ordinance. The supervisors’ chamber was crowded with neighborhood organizations and cannabis cultivators, watching anxiously to see what they could expect next from county regulations.

During the meeting, the board of supervisors took straw votes to provide direction to the planning commission and cannabis ad hoc committee. The supervisors voted to reject exclusion districts and require a minimum lot size of 10 acres for all commercial cannabis operations in agricultural and resource zones.

Hopkins said the 10-acre minimum is meant to promote cannabis grows in more agricultural areas, but admits the current ordinance is a work-inprogress.

“It’s not a perfect system,” Hopkins said. “It sets a floor, giving an indication about where cultivation sites should be.”

Where to grow Determining what areas are best suited for a cannabis farm will not be an overnight achievement for the county. According to Hopkins, the task of placing regulations on cannabis for the first time ever will involve a series of drafts to get it

Photo loren hansen

CANNABIS CULTIVATION — bringing an unregulated million-dollar crop into regulation is a lengthy process. Sonoma County Supervisors are looking to “weed out” the bad applications. right.

“In the process of long-term ordinance revisions, it would probably be one year or more,” she said. “There will be stumbling blocks along the way.”

One big obstacle for the cannabis cultivation ordinance is neighborhood compatibility. What cultivators deem as a good site for cannabis, may be out of the question to long-time rural community residents.

Implementing exclusion zones was an idea recommended by the county’s planning commission to designate sites that would be unsuitable for cultivation. The criteria for an exclusion district included: “Areas where there is

inadequate road access or other conflicts, areas where the prevalence or concentration of cannabis operations is detrimental to the residential character of area, areas where the commercial or industrial uses are to be protected from conversion to cannabis uses, areas where, because of topography, access, water availability or vegetation, there is a significant fire hazard, areas with sensitive biotic resources or where significant environmental sensitivity exists, or other areas where the board determines that it is within the public interest to prohibit cannabis uses.”

Hopkins said she voted against the predetermined zones. “Exclusion

zones tend to favor the people who have time and money to create them,” she said. The board opted instead to make all commercial cannabis activities subject to land use permits.

Hopkins said when looking at specific sites, each should be addressed in a thorough and robust process. “Through the use permit process we can weed out inappropriate applications,” Hopkins said.

According to the county summary report, the ordinance amendment process is split into two parts.

Part 1, which is currently underway, has a limited scope and is focused on amendments to immediately require use permits for cultivation on smaller parcels.

Part 2 is scheduled to begin in 2019 and will include a more thorough review of neighborhood compatibility and other implementation efforts that require robust outreach and staff analysis.

Photo provided

Photo e.i. hillin

PALMER CREEK COMMUNITY — from left, Steve imbimbo, laura anderson, leslie orlando and Peter Pistochini share memories about their Palmer Creek community located near armstrong redwoods. many neighborhood residents are concerned about impending cannabis cultivation sites in the water-scarce lands they call home.

SUPERVISOR HOPKINS — 5th District Supervisor lynda hopkins said it will take more than a year to work out issues in the cannabis land use ordinance and to find a policy that works.

Part 2 is expected to take 12-18 months to complete.

The board of supervisors had the opportunity to again revise the county’s cannabis ordinance on Oct. 16. The only certainty is that the next draft will not be the last for the most debated cash crop of the 2018.

We aren’t anti-cannabis Some residents who live in unincorporated Sonoma County feel like cannabis cultivation in their neck of the woods just doesn’t make sense. Residents of Palmer Creek, a rural area west of Healdsburg, have experienced a learning curve when it comes to county cannabis regulations.

Steve Imbimbo, said it’s not about cannabis, it’s about water. “We aren’t anti-cannabis,” he said.

“There are activities in a place like this that aren’t appropriate.”

Palmer Creek is located in the Mill Creek Watershed. In 2015 the state water resource board adopted an emergency regulation to help protect federal and state listed anadromous fish (Coho salmon) in four priority Russian River tributary watersheds; one was Mill Creek. The regulation has been suspended, but the area remains a point of concern for the state board.

Imbimbo said the folks in Palmer Creek are stewards of the land and feel privileged to live in the natural beauty that sits just outside their front door.

“Everybody is here because they love the environment,” Imbimbo said. “Most people built the house they’re in now.”

Although many Palmer Creek residents are forthcoming about their disapproval of commercial cannabis in their mountainside community, they don’t blame the growers. Imbimbo said it was a gamble for the growers who bought land just down the road from his house to invest in legal cultivation.

Imbimbo blames that risk on the county, who permitted the growers a chance to start a cultivation site on a property with no running water, electricity or a septic system in place. “Why would you even think of putting something here?” he said.

In January, Imbimbo began work to identify Palmer Creek as an exclusion zone for cannabis cultivation. He started the work with faith that the board of supervisors would allow for exclusion zones in the cannabis ordinance amendment.

After speaking with county officials, Imbimbo said it seemed clear that it would be a perfect place for exclusion because of the watershed, fire road safety and protective criteria for wildlife. He along with many of his neighbors were shocked to hear the board of supervisors rejected the proposed amendment during their Aug. 7 meeting.

“They just kind of blew the exclusion zone thing out, which does not make sense,” he said.

Hearing the supervisors equating the exclusion zones to a social injustice, didn’t sit well with Palmer Creek residents who do not identify as rich. “We’re not rich, you come out here, this isn’t the wealthy,” Imbimbo said. “It’s just common sense to just say, hey you know what, this area just ain’t going to work.”

County to conclude Part 1 of cannabis update Part 1 of the county’s cannabis land use ordinance update is coming to a close.

Spanning from April to September, Part 1 involved a series of public hearings and study sessions.

On Oct. 16 the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors chose to follow the suggestions of the planning commission and cannabis ad hoc committee by adopting all proposed amendments.

One of the ordinance amendments directly impacts potential small farmers by requiring a minimum lot size of 10 acres for all commercial cannabis cultivation operations in agricultural and resource zones.

The move eliminated 5,100 eligible parcels of land as potential cultivation sites.

James Gore, 4th District Supervisor led the charge on deciding where cannabis cultivation is appropriate.

“Zoning with this issue is not perfect,” he said. “Sometimes you use the mallet and sometimes you use the scalpel.”

Identifying a clear path for cannabis businesses to move forward is something Gore said he is devoted to doing. He voted in favor of the 10-acre minimum saying it protects the community.

“It infringes on communities and neighborhoods to have commercial operation in small lots imbedded in communities,” he said.

Another change gaining public feedback is the reduction to the setback from public parks. The existing separation criteria requires a 1,000-foot setback from parks for outdoor and mixed light (greenhouse) cannabis cultivation sites. To qualify for the reduction, the applicant must offer a significant barrier in place of the setback.

Additionally, the cannabis operation cannot be accessible or visible from the park and must have no off-site impacts.

Other amendments deal with centralized processing in agricultural zones and 24-hour notifications. Tim Ricard, county cannabis program manager, said the two issues were brought up in the last public hearing on Sept. 6. Under current regulations, a person who obtains a cultivation permit can also apply for on-site processing (trimming, drying, storing cannabis). Ricard said the amendment allows cultivators with processing permits to also process other people’s cannabis.

As for eliminating the 24-hour notifications, Ricard said members of the public brought up that the notification could allow for someone not following requirements to make quick changes to become compliant.

Further approved changes include extending the term of new cannabis permits from 2 to 5 years with a use permit and adding a new setback of 600 feet from schools for indoor cultivation in agricultural and resource zones. Supervisors also approved allowing dispensaries to sell recreational use cannabis instead of only medical marijuana.

Sonoma County is one of seven counties in California that currently allows outdoor commercial cultivation. There are only 26 approved commercial cannabis businesses operating in unincorporated areas of the county. In addition there are 77 businesses acting under the county’s temporary penalty relief program.

The ordinance amendments will go into effect in mid-November. Part 2 of the updating process will begin in 2019.

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A homegrown walnut harvest in the Valley By MARY KELLEY SPeCial to Sonoma WeSt PubliSherS

I

n the six to eight weeks after the Autumn Equinox, teacher Connie Petereit brings her second grade students to our walnut grove for the annual walnut harvest. Connie, who teaches at the Healdsburg Charter School, is coordinating her eighth field trip to Valley Oak Farm this year. She arrives early in the morning with her students and those of other teachers, along with the gleaners from Farm to Pantry.

All are welcomed to the acre and a half grove off Highway 128 in Alexander Valley by retired teacher and guardian of the trees, Susan Rose. Before the children begin to collect walnuts, Susan likes to remind them that this land was once an oak woodland savannah where valley oak (Quercus lobata) trees dropped acorns every fall for Pomo or Wappo children to harvest. We point out a few places among the evenly spaced trees where walnut trees have died, but young valley oaks are taking their places — probably where birds planted acorns at the base of the long gone walnut trees.

In other spaces where the walnut trees have died, the native black walnut rootstock has remained and continues to grow. Native black walnuts were planted as root stock because they have evolved over time to survive seasons of drought as well as occasional flooding. Among the living and producing walnut trees, Susan shows the students where the dark bark of the black walnut has grown from the root crown to about three

Photos mary Kelley

LITTLE HARVESTERS — Second graders from healdsburg Charter School get a hands-on lesson in the importance of local agriculture and small farms. feet high. Above the graft union, the bark is light gray where an English walnut has grown.

Replanting walnut trees is something we have debated for years. On the one hand, an orchard or grove with a missing tree is, as Nancy

Skall of Middleton Farm once said, “Like a smile with a missing tooth.” However, the value of commercially harvesting walnuts or planting wine grapes does not make economic sense, so we look for other benefits of the grove and allow a little bit of nature to take her course where the valley oaks are regenerating.

We are happy to offer what Wes Jackson of the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, calls the importance of

improving the “Acre to Eye” ratio in our country. In other words, the more rural acres that can be viewed by urban people, the greater the appreciation will be for agriculture and the people who grow food.

Connie is asking her students to notice the differences and similarities between city and suburb and country. This is also a major theme in the work of farmer and philosopher, Wendell Berry, who writes about the

Photos mary Kelley

COUNTRY VISIT — Students had fun collecting and cracking hundreds of pounds of walnuts while learning about the crop’s health and community benefits.

need for the Center (the urban population) to understand its reliance on the Periphery (the rural people.)

At one time, Alexander Valley had many more walnut groves, as well as orchards of prune plums, pears and apples. Today, the little walnut grove is an island of diversity in a sea of wine grapes. A 1988 fruit acreage parcel record shows the variety of English walnut is the Franquette, and the trees were planted in 1907.

A call to Mary O’Meara, whose father Alex Suchan of Suchan Nursery in Upper Lake is considered an expert on California walnuts, confirmed that the Franquette was a common variety planted in the early 1900s.

“The Franquette variety is planted because it leafs out late,” Mary explained, “so it is less likely to be damaged by spring frosts. The nut is an old fashioned one but it has a very good shell and very light nut meat. Franquettes live a very long life and don’t seem to have any particular disease to cut it short.”

Mary also explained that a pound of Franquette walnuts, “might only bring 45 to 55 cents in current prices, while shelled walnuts will sell for around $10 per pound in a store. We harvest our walnuts mechanically and hull and dry them.”

Unlike the commercial operations, the children harvest walnuts later in the season, after the green hull on the tree has split open and most of the walnuts have fallen to the ground. On the way back to the classroom, many hundreds of pounds of walnuts are delivered to the Food Pantry by the students and the Farm to Pantry gleaners, and the children learn about the value of the

Healdsburg Shared Ministries’ Food Pantry.

Connie says the children can hardly contain their excitement for nut cracking.

She shows the students how to remove the nutmeat from the shell, and when halved, she points out two hemispheres and many wrinkles and folds — The walnut resembles a human brain.

In fact, walnuts are called “brain food” because they are very high in omega-3 fatty acids, which have been proven to help support brain function. Another similarity: the nut-meat is protected by a hard shell, just as our brain is protected by our skull.

Walnut trees are beautiful, and arborist Timo Ali made us aware of the wonderfully cooling effect of the wide leaves. At the end of June, I noticed a distinctive fragrance of rip-ening walnuts in the air, and I was reminded that the Feast of Saint John the Baptist oc-curs around the time of the Summer Solstice — the day when people traditionally collect green walnuts to produce a liqueur called Nocino.

In the long summer days of June, I look forward to a time in winter when I will sit by a small wood fire and crack walnuts, feeding the shells to the fire and listening to them crackle while they release the same fragrance of the walnut grove. Such a cozy winter moment is best with rain falling and a sip of Nocino.

At times like that, it is especially satisfying to know that as many walnuts as possible were harvested by Connie’s students, children from other schools, friends and neighbors, and the Farm to Pantry gleaners before the winter rains arrived.

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a special publication of the healdsburg tribune, the Cloverdale reveille, the Windsor times and Sonoma West times & news

Green and lean and everything in between Fall harvest produces bountiful veggie crop By KATHERINE MINKIEWICZ Sonoma WeSt PubliSherS Staff

W

hether you like pretty pumpkins and gourds for autumn décor, or sinking your teeth into fresh veggies like peppers and squash, this fall’s harvest of summer vegetable crops, both edible and non-edible, are sure to please as farmers across the county say they have seen a generous and successful harvest.

Some say the ample harvest is due to the warm temperatures and milder nights Sonoma County has been experiencing, and certainly weather patterns play a key role in the success or slump of crops.

According to the University of California, warm season crops thrive when the days are long and hot, typically ranging from 65 to 95 degrees. Crops such as winter squash, snap peas, corn and tomatoes are happiest in this sort of weather.

Cloverdale farmer Rebecca Bozzelli says her crops have certainly benefited from the warm weather.

“It has definitely felt like a very hot summer for us up in Cloverdale, but I think the vegetables really responded well to it; they are happy. I got a lot of tomatoes and onions,” Bozzelli said.

On the other hand, fall crops, otherwise known as cool-weather crops, require much cooler weather between 55 and 75 degrees in order to germinate and grow. They are hardier and can even grow during the first frost of the season.

The University of California 2018 Frost Almanac predicts there’s a 50 percent chance the first frost for the Santa Rosa plain will come by Dec. 7.

However, for Bozzelli, this can create a busy fall harvest, since the two seasons often overlap, sometimes yielding leafy green veggies like broccoli and sweet summer corn at the same time.

“There are still a lot of summer items. Fall is a busy time of year because the summer veggies (mature in the fall) and fall veggies start, so you can be getting strawberries and Brussels sprouts,” Bozzelli explained.

In terms of fall crops, Bozzelli has a humongous array of vegetables planned, sure to make any veggielover’s mouth water.

“For the fall we have winter squash, butternut and delicata, my favorite. I also have spinach, arugula, kale and cauliflower. I think about Thanksgiving a lot when I think about the veggies (I want),” Bozzelli said.

As for the non-edible, Bozzelli also raises flowers and sells them at the local farmers’ market. “I do a lot of flowers: chrysanthemums, dahlias and darker colored sunflowers. I think they brighten people’s day,” she said.

Bozzelli has been farming for 15 years. She started her

PARADISE — Local farmers, such as PaPa’s Pumpkins, grow several different varieties of pumpkins for their annual fall pumpkin patches.

Photo Katherine minkiewicz

GOURDS GALORE — One of the larger gourds, left, at Earlybird’s Place is still growing, along with several other varietals. after the gourds at earlybird’s Place farm are picked, they are strung up to dry. own farm, the Lantern Farm, last year and mainly works with restaurants and senior centers in providing healthy food.

The amount of non-edible things, like gourds, harvested, also depends on the season.

The tepid, sunny days have been helpful for Earl and Myrna Fincher’s harvest of decorative hard shell gourds at their Earlybird’s Place farm, in the Chalk Hill Valley outside Healdsburg.

“This crop is going to be a little smaller because we had to depend on somebody else to work the ground for us, and our garden didn’t get put in until June, but all in all, it’s not bad … it is a good abundance, and they just flourish here,” Myrna said.

The Finchers have been growing gourds and decorating them with creative themes for over 50 years.

Their creative license runs wild, and themes range from Christmas gourds with little Santa Clauses to traditional Polynesian instruments and soup ladles.

Myrna says they got started when her husband Earl wanted to build birdhouses but didn’t want to pay what lumber was costing, so instead they grew and dried gourds to create minibird sanctuaries.

Ever since then, they’ve stuck with their love of

P R O T E C T I N G T H A T

gourds and grown a widerange of varieties from apple, zucca (large and pearshaped), kettle, dipper and mini-bottle gourds.

In addition to gourds, the couple also grows edible veggies, such as cucumbers and lima beans.

“We also have lettuce, radish and turnip beds which we rotate around,” Myrna said, pulling a turnip up out of the ground to show of its bright purple color.

In the past, the Finchers have sold their produce from their Chalk Hill Road farm; however, now they focus mainly on selling their dried gourds at craft fairs and hosting decorating sessions and sales.

Tierra Vegetables in Windsor focuses more on edible vegetables, such as peppers, squash and onions, and they experience a little less heat than Healdsburg.

However, Tierra farm founder Wayne James says it has still been a good year for summer crops. “We are still harvesting summer bulk crops. We just picked parsnips, and we do edible squash, which we do every year. We also do corn and a lot of onions,” he said.

In addition to basic summer crops, Tierra grows at least 50 types of chilis, both mild and hot, a specialty of theirs. The chilis harvested

T H E

N O U R I S H

will be used to make tangy chili jam and fresh pico de gallo.

James said this year has been a bit cooler compared to last summer, yet that means fall crops that are just barely starting to sprout will have a better chance.

Business is also better this year. Last year they lost a lot of their usual customers, since 25 percent of them lost their homes in the wildfire and moved out of the area.

“Fall is the peak, we are not really into harvesting the fall crops like winter squash yet … and it is a bit late, but hopefully we’ll make it by late October. We also do a lot of celery, which hopefully we’ll get right before Thanksgiving,” James noted.

“In general it has been a good year.”

James started row crop farming in 1975 in Potter Valley with his grandfather.

In 1980 James opened Tierra Vegetables with his sister Lee and their blue-eyed, Shetland sheepdog in tow.

“I was always interested in growing things,” he says.

The James’ family now sells their products wholesale and also sells at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market each week.

Lastly, PaPa’s Pumpkins in Sebastopol has seen a good amount of decor-use pumpkins in their harvest.

W O R K I N G &

I N S P I R E

S O N O M A O P E N S P A C E . O R G

Photo ray holley

Photo provided

BROCCOLI — these hearty vegetables from lantern farm do well in the fall.

David Ratzlaff, founder of PaPa’s, holds an annual pumpkin patch each fall.

Ratzlaff says they have regularly been seeing a good variety of pumpkins pop up each year at their Occidental Road farm.

“We have seven varieties: polar bear, a bright, white shiny one; the Atlantic giant, a huge and pink and tan one; knucklehead, which has stripes all over it; and goosebumps and Cinderella, which are great for making pumpkin pies with,” Ratzlaff said.

Their smaller farm, which is dotted with redwood trees, also grows smaller varieties of pumpkins that range from striped minis to orange threeinchers.

Ratzlaff has been growing for eight years and started on the whim of his daughter.

“My daughter talked me into it. She goes up to pumpkin patches in Seattle a lot with her daughter, so we took one on for our granddaughter (to be close to),” he said.

Since then, his collection of pumpkins and his patch business has been going strong. According to Ratzlaff, the patch is popular with local families; however, people even from San Francisco come out to pick pumpkins and spend a day at the farm.

L A N D S U S .

Rewards In addition to an abundance of vegetables, the rewards of farming are bountiful for these four farmers.

For Bozzelli, the Cloverdale farmer, the most rewarding aspects of farming include being able to witness life grow and give back to the community. “(For me), it is growing my own food and seeing a seed go from a tiny thing you can fit in the palm of your hand to a six-foot tomato plant. I think farming brings together community (over healthy food), and I am happy I can make a difference,” Bozzelli said.

For Myrna and Earl Fincher, they simply said what they do makes them happy. “We are so blessed here,” Earl said looking out at his garden beds from his front porch.

Wayne James said the food is his favorite/most rewarding thing about farming. “I like the variety of food (it gives) — 90 percent of my diet comes from this field,” James said.

And for Ratzlaff, seeing the happiness on kids’ faces when they get to choose their very own pumpkin makes his venture rewarding. “(It’s fun) watching the kids go up to it and claim it as their own, big or small,” Ratzlaff mused.

Page 14

Harvest edition

October 25, 2018t

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October 25, 2018

Forming connections through women and wine

Harvest edition

Page 15

CALIFORNIA

Women winemakers trying to bridge gap between graduating and starting a career By ZOË STRICKLAND Sonoma WeSt PubliSherS Staff

COMFORT

W

hile the wine industry has been around for centuries, women winemakers are still trying to make room for themselves at the table. Female winemakers are becoming more and more common, especially in areas like Sonoma and Napa counties, but there’s still a discrepancy between the amount of men and women in high-level positions at wineries.

To try and encourage the growth of female winemakers, organizations have popped up to try and help raise awareness about the gender gap in high-tier winemaking positions. One of these groups is Wine Women, a nonprofit that aims to focus on the advancement of women to high-level positions in the industry.

The group, which began in 2016, has a focus on Sonoma and Napa counties and was created to help women “accelerate their careers and feel like they have champions in the industry to help them,” according to Marcia Macomber, marketing director for Wine Women.

As part of its mission to help accelerate the careers of women, the organization holds sessions for women in the industry that are aimed to help equip them with marketing and networking techniques, amongst other skills.

Another resource for women in the industry is Women-Owned Wineries, a database that lists wineries across the country that are either partly or fully owned by women. The list began last year and initially only included wineries in Sonoma County.

“I had been thinking about how, in publishing, there are lists of women. I didn’t know of a list of women wine entrepreneurs,” said Amy Bess Cook, a former winery operations director and creator of Women-Owned Wineries. She began putting

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RAFT — Petaluma-based winemaker Jennifer reichardt sources wine from throughout California, including the Dry Creek Valley. together the database during the 2017 fires. “It felt to me like the only way to do something useful at the time.”

Now, the list of womenowned wineries covers a worldwide reach. While the database can be used as a way for female winemakers to find each other, Cook often finds herself being contacted by journalists or consumers who are interested in using it.

“They are potentially bringing that winery more exposure,” she said, discussing how she’s been contacted by people who want to try and specifically find female-owned wineries to hold events. “ If I can make the connections right, that can make a difference.”

Some women-owned wineries in the area include LaRue Wine, which is owned and made by Katy Wilson; Raft Wines, which is owned and made by Jennifer

LARUE — Katy Wilson is the owner and winemaker for the Sebastopol-based winery larue.

TESSIER — Kristie tacey, though based in berkeley, makes wine out of moshin Vineyards in healdsburg.

Reichardt; and Tessier Winery, which is owned and made by Kristie Tacey.

While each woman and each winery is different, they are all entirely female-owned.

Two of the winemakers (Wilson and Reichardt) come from farming backgrounds, while Tacey began making wine after a career in microbiology.

The gender landscape in the wine industry is similar to the one she experienced in the sciences, said Tacey. “When people see me, they’re like ‘Oh, where’s the winemaker?’ or ‘You’re going to drive that truck?’ I’m used to it now.”

“I think it’s hard being a woman in any industry, especially industries that are primarily male dominated,” said Wilson. “The one thing to this day that women run up against is people taking you seriously and giving you respect. I did definitely — there were publications that came out and said that men made LaRue.” In addition to making her own wine (LaRue), Wilson also makes wine for Anaba Wines, Claypool Cellars, Reeve Wines and Smith Story Wine Cellars.

When discussing how the industry can support women, both Cook and Reichardt discussed the drop-off between those who graduate with degrees focusing on wine and those who get jobs.

“Women aren’t advancing (as much) — they’re hitting a glass ceiling,” said Cook.

“I think they need support from internships,” said Reinchardt. “Even here (Punchdown Cellars) there are a ton of women who are interns, but by the time they reach the higher levels they start falling off.”

Both Reichardt and Tacey discussed the Batonnage forum that was held in late July in Napa, focused on developing support for everyone in the wine industry who identifies as a woman. “I think the big thing that came out of it was leadership and mentorship, and don’t cut other women down, try to support them” said Tacey. “I definitely feel that movement happening.”

The network of support between women isn’t unique to the wine industry, but it is helping women in the industry form connections that can serve as a base for developing women-owned wineries. This sense of community is present in the drive behind some winemakers, including Reichardt.

“I can’t go into Big John’s in Healdsburg without seeing someone that I know from the industry,” she said. “The act of sitting down and having dinner and sharing wine is such a simple and beautiful pleasure in life … I think that it’s something we cherish growing up. By making wine and continuing the conversation, hopefully people are continuing that tradition.”

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