By Virginie Boone

Though there’s tumult in the air, hope is never hard to find when a slew of Sonoma County wineries are opening long-awaited tasting spaces to enjoy their wines. None of these are newcomers, either. They’re all well-established Sonoma County-rooted brands and families taking their businesses to the next level, with hospitality that’s welcoming and rooted in a distinct sense of this place, all set within vineyards.

Auteur Wines

Operating what they call the Sonoma Bungalow for many years off the main square in the town of Sonoma, Auteur founders Kenneth and Laura Juhasz are just about to open their Russian River Estate on Wohler Road in Healdsburg. Auteur has been around for 22 years, but this is the first time it’s been able to showcase its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines in the midst of where they grow best.

Auteur sources grapes from across Sonoma County, from such well-known sites as Bacigalupi, Gap’s Crown, Durell and Green Acres, and other exceptional vineyards like Labyrinth, Balinard, Starkey, Nunnery (for Moon Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon) and Attune. Auteur also produces a Russian River Valley Pinot Noir from the Middle Reach and Laguna Hills, and a Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and Sonoma Coast Chardonnay made by blending several single vineyard sites into one. With doors opening this Friday, April 11, tasting options include an Appellation Series flight ($40) and Single-Vineyard Series flight ($60), with plans to add tastings of rare past vintages, wines by clone and a blind tasting option down the road.

Black Kite Cellars

The family-owned boutique producer of site-specific Chardonnay and Pinot Noir opened the Jasper House last year in the Freestone Historic District, seven miles from the Pacific Ocean. It is its first permanent tasting room despite being founded in 2003. Tastings of six wines are by appointment and take place in the cozy interior tasting salons, designed to reflect the different terroirs Black Kite loves, from West Sonoma Coast to Sonoma Mountain, Sonoma Coast and the Petaluma Gap. The producer also conducts tastings at Grand Cru in Windsor.

Bob Cabral Wines

A Sonoma County winemaking icon since his early days at DeLoach, Alderbrook and Hartford Family, and later Williams Selyem and Three Sticks, Bob Cabral quietly launched Bob Cabral Wines a few years back, focusing on Sonoma County Pinot Noir (Cuvée Troubadour and Cuvée Electric Hippy), Rosé of Pinot Noir (Cuvée American Girl) and Chardonnay (Cuvée Anne Rose). His Wildflower Riesling, in most years, is made from Sonoma Coast grapes.

A fourth-generation grapegrower, Cabral has long been devoted to Sonoma County and will also be launching a 2024-vintage tribute to his dad called Farmer Tinto, blending Tempranillo (aka Tinto Ruiz) from Marimar Estate and Petite Sirah from Bacigalupi. All the wines have a charitable component, especially to charities involving children, like Healdsburg Future Farmers Country Fair, The Guardsmen, Café Hope and others.

Cabral is making his wines in a brand-new production facility at Paradise Ridge in Santa Rosa and invites one and all to come taste at his Backstage Lounge at LOVE Meadow (where the LOVE Sculpture lives) within walking distance of the winery. A huge music devotee, Cabral’s lounge reflects his deep connection to music and musicians and is meant to be a relaxing place to enjoy wine and music together – he correlates every label to an important song in his life and also pairs every bottle with a playlist of hand-picked songs.

Kanzler Vineyards

Overlooking Kanzler’s 20 acres of estate vineyards in the Sebastopol Hills, eight miles from the Pacific Ocean, the family unveiled a new tasting space opened July of last year after more than seven years of permitting and planning. Established as a vineyard in 1996, Kanzler sold grapes in the early days, to such notable producers as Kosta Browne, Landmark, Flowers, Gary Farrell and Rhys. They slowly built their own Pinot Noir brand, naming son Alex winemaker in 2011. A Chardonnay was added not long afterwards, produced from Walker Station Vineyard in Green Valley of Russian River Valley. A Rosé of Pinot Noir is also made. Intimate, the classic tasting experience includes a walk in the vineyards. By appointment Thursday-Monday.

Kutch Wines

Celebrating 25 years of making wine this year, Jamie Kutch and Kristen Green of Kutch Wines have finally been granted approval for a winery and tasting room on their estate vineyard in Sebastopol. Plans are now able to go forward and build a 12,000-case winemaking facility and tasting room that will be open by appointment.

Kutch and Green bought a 12-acre apple farm in Sebastopol in 2021 and soon set about planting, starting with 15,000 plants from a local nursery. The vineyard was planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in 2022 and is expecting its first real crop this fall. In addition to wine, the facility also holds a 500-gallon distillation permit; Kutch will make brandy from both Pinot Noir and two acres of apple trees they kept in the ground. They also planted native fruit trees and native plants, in addition to a pollinator garden for bees. Kutch sources from across Sonoma County for several vineyard-designated Sonoma Coast wines, including McDougall Ranch, Falstaff, Salt Point and Bohan vineyards.

Pictured: Black Kite Cellars’ Jasper House – Will Bucquoy/Black Kite Cellars

By Virginie Boone

All of April California celebrates the wine industry’s commitment to sustainability with Down to Earth month, highlighting the state’s leadership in sustainable viticulture and winemaking.

The Certified California Sustainable Vineyards and Wineries program is about growing quality winegrapes and making quality wines while protecting the environment, being a good neighbor and employer, and maintaining thriving family farms and businesses. Certification is done by a third-party auditor.

The amount of vineyards certified under the California Sustainable Winegrowing program has grown 86% since 2018, representing about 65% of total vineyard acreage in the state; the amount of certified wineries has grown 50% in that same time period. Another 22% are certified under other programs, which can include organic, biodynamic and regenerative farming practices.

Sonoma County remains far and away a leader in holding these certifications for both wineries and vineyards with 1,108 listed within the California Certified Sustainable database. The next highest is Napa County with 303.

The key areas of sustainable certification for vineyards center around water efficiency, pest management, healthy soils and energy efficiency, as well as the categories of stewardship, neighbors, employees and contributions.

Wineries also focus on water efficiency and energy efficiency but also waste management and supply chain. A comprehensive Workbook exists to help winegrowers evaluate their level of sustainability and learn more about improving practices.

But the best way to learn is to visit.

Here are 10 Certified Sonoma County wineries with tasting rooms:

Balletto – The Russian River Valley-based grower and winery has an extensive section on its website detailing the work it does in the vineyards with cover crops, its responsible water use, natural pest control, soil moisture monitoring, composting, making of solar-powered wine and a whole lot more, and has long been an active proponent in Sonoma County’s commitment to becoming the first 100% sustainable wine region in the United States.

Benziger – In the folds of Sonoma Mountain, Benziger has farmed in Glen Ellen for some 30 years, putting down roots in 1980 after buying the old Wegener Ranch. Over time they adopted Biodynamic farming practices, getting Demeter-certified in 2000. On April 13 VP/Brand Ambassador Chris Benziger will lead a Casual Biodynamic Vineyard Tour on the ranch.

Crossbarn – Started in 2000 by Paul Hobbs to honor his family’s family heritage and values of farming sustainably, this Sebastopol-based winery is in a former apple processing facility, where the wines are made from grapes grown across Sonoma County.

Hartford Family – Set just outside of Forestville, the first Hartford Court wines were released in 1996, and the winery remains committed to working with older-vined vineyards across the county, like Fanucchi-Wood Road and Arrendell. It farms sustainable organic.

Jordan – One of the grand Alexander Valley estates, Jordan is a certified sustainable winery and vineyard and farms other agricultural products as well across its 1,200 acres, from cattle to vegetables. It maintains considerable natural habitat around its 18 estate vineyard blocks. It is also the largest winery pollinator sanctuary after having turned 10 acres of non-native grassland into preserved habitat for pollinators like native bees and Monarch butterflies.

Pedroncelli – An historic family-owned property in the Dry Creek Valley that dates back to 1927, Pedroncelli’s vineyards are certified sustainable, and they take a comprehensive approach to all they do, from human resources to soil management.

Rodney Strong – Family-owned and operated, the winery based just outside of Healdsburg is 100% certified-sustainable in its 12 estate vineyards, which span across the Alexander Valley, Russian River Valley and Chalk Hill. The winery has long been committed to sustainable practices, earning the Sustainable Winegrowing Green Medal Leadership Award in 2004.

Seghesio – Based in Healdsburg, the Seghesio family first planted grapes at its Home Ranch Vineyard in 1895. It now farms more than 300 acres of sustainable vineyards in the Alexander, Dry Creek and Russian River valleys, some of them still planted to head-trained old vines and has some of the oldest Sangiovese in America.

St. Francis – Based in the heart of Sonoma Valley, the winery operates on three sustainability pillars: environment, equity and economics. It considers each one each time it makes a business decision. In addition to overseeing the winery’s 400 acres of certified-sustainable estate vineyards, Director of Vineyards Jake Terrell assisted in revising the Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices and its ongoing standards for sustainable practices in the wine industry.

Three Sticks – The winery based in the town of Sonoma is 100% estate, owning and farming such heritage vineyards as Durell, Gap’s Crown and Walala, all on the Sonoma Coast, while also selling these grapes to other producers. Its monopole sites include Alana, One Sky and William James, located in the Russian River Valley and on Sonoma Mountain. Certified sustainable, it looks at the three e’s in all decision-making, ecological stewardship, social equity and economic validity.

Image by: California Wine Institute

By Virginie Boone

The first farmers’ market in America on record took place in 1730 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Locals there have said, “Meet me at the Market,” ever since. The Lancaster Central Market in fact was built in the center of town as a focal point for the community. In 1995 it was designated one of our country’s “Great Public Places.”

Later, what became known as “curb markets” sprang up all over the burgeoning United States, a way for local farmers and merchants to set up their wagons on the curbs of streets to sell their goods to people in cities.

Farmers’ markets have continued to grow ever since, as both gathering places and sustainable market places. The USDA National Farmers Market Directory today counts more than 6,800 such markets operating across the United States. To be included, a farmers’ market must “feature two or more farm vendors selling agricultural products directly to customers at a common, recurrent physical location.”

The directory also lists farms, CSAs, agritourism destinations, on-farm markets and food hubs, places that aggregate and distribute local food products.

The Original Farmers’ Market in Los Angeles first opened in 1934 and is now a historic landmark, at the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Third Street. When it opened, the property was a 265-acre dairy farm. Local farmers started parking their trucks on a field selling their wares, paying fifty cents a day to rent a space. Part of the market’s lore is that James Dean had breakfast there on the morning of his deadly car accident in 1955.

The Alemany Farmers’ Market in San Francisco, founded in 1943, calls itself the first farmers’ market in California, started during World War II to support farms that were near the city, and is particularly known for carrying Latin and Southeast Asian ingredients.

During the war, another reason markets sprung up was due to a shortage of aluminum, which caused canneries to stop canning fruits and vegetables, which needed to be sold in other ways. Also, larger grocery markets preferred to buy in bulk, which made it harder for small-scale farmers to compete. There were also rations on gasoline at the time, so consumers couldn’t easily travel directly to farms on a regular basis, prompting farmers to come to them.

At the time though, the success of the farmers’ market was almost its undoing, as larger grocery stores complained that it affected sales. But in the end, voters voted to keep the farmers’ market and it, and many others, became a permanent fixture of city and suburban life.

California now has more than 650 certified farmers’ markets, 60% are year-round.

The Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers’ Market was established in 1967, making it the oldest in Sonoma County. In its early days it was held on Petaluma Hill Road near the Crane Melon farm. It then moved to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds and later the Veterans Building (it has since moved again to a lot near the intersection of Highway 12 and Farmers Lane).

In the 1980s Hilda Swartz was an important figure in Sonoma County farmers markets. Swartz grew up on a 10-acre family farm in Southern California after the Great Depression years, growing peaches, cherries and table grapes.

She moved to Oakmont in 1979 and soon met Sara Lee Kunde and began working at the Harvest Fair. Later with Kozlowski Farms, Swartz started selling their wares at the Sonoma Farmers’ Market in 1985 and two years later was hired to run it, starting with just 10 vendors.

Soon, the growth of more farmers markets across the region helped Sonoma County become a famous place for not only wine grapes but all the other things it was growing so well on local farms.

In a December 1989 Los Angeles Times story called, “Stalking the Perfect Asparagus,” the area was described as a place where, “it is now possible to achieve some level of fame by growing vegetables… The demand for the most succulent zucchini and the crunchiest endive has reached such heights that vegetable growers get mentioned in the same breath with the Chardonnay vintners. One now ‘has vegetables’ the way one used to ‘have grapes.’”

The Healdsburg Farmers Market is one of California’s original 22 Certified Farmers’ Markets. There are now many more, including in Bodega Bay, Cloverdale, Cotati, Forestville, Oakmont, Occidental, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Russian River, several in Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma, Windsor and Roseland.

The Certified part exempts farmers from packing, sizing and labeling requirements that had been in place until 1977 that required farmers to pack size and label their fruits, vegetables and nuts in standard containers to transport and sell anywhere other than their farm site, including farmers’ markets.

The Certified Farmers’ Market system gained them more flexibility, allowing farmers to interact directly with consumers, an increasingly important way for consumers to learn more about their local food supply.

California winegrowers holding a Type 02 license are able to sell wine at farmers’ markets with a special Certified Farmers’ Market Sales Permit so long as the wine is produced entirely from grapes or other agricultural products grown by the winegrower and bottled by the winegrower.

Here are just a handful of our local farmers’ markets:

Healdsburg Farmers Market –  April 12 to December 20, Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.; May 13 – September 30, Tuesday 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Rohnert Park Farmers’ Market – June to August, 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Roseland Mercadito Farmers’ Market – Year-round Sunday 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Santa Rosa Certified Farmers Market – March to December, 8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Santa Rosa Community Farmers Market – Year-round, Wednesday 9 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Sonoma’s Tuesday Night Market – May through September

The Springs Community Farmers’ Market – September to November

Image by: Sonoma County Tourism

By Virginie Boone

When winemaker Joel Peterson was inducted into the Culinary Institute of America’s Vintners Hall of Fame in 2011, he noted how wine was just beginning to rival beer as the American beverage.

“I don’t think anybody when I started came close to thinking that was a possibility, it was a small, esoteric little business, boy has that changed,” he said at the time, adding, “You take stock and gather breath and move forward. I plan to die with my boots on, hoping that won’t be for a very long time.”

Well, he’s not dead yet. And neither is Ravenswood, the winery Peterson founded in 1976 after working for Joseph Swan. When Ravenswood was sold to Constellation in 2001, for $148 million, it was one of the biggest wine acquisitions of all time – with Peterson the only no vote against the sale. Constellation then took it from 400,000 cases/year to 1 million.

Peterson’s footprints loomed large for a little longer. In 2009 the National Museum of American History included Ravenswood memorabilia like a “No Wimpy Wines” T-shirt (a diss on White Zin) and famous three-raven label logo, designed by Berkeley artist David Lance Goines, as well as a punch down tool in the Evolution of Food and Wine exhibit.

The raven logo was so popular for a time that it inspired a fair few tattoos. People with such a tattoo would be invited to taste free at the winery back in the day.

But alas, not all tales are fairy tales, and by 2019, Ravenswood was being sold again, this time to E&J Gallo, as part of a 30-plus wine and spirits brands and six-winery package deal valued at $1.7 billion.

While that deal was tied up in a back and forth with the FTC, both Ravenswood’s production facility and Sonoma-based tasting room were closed and contracts with many of its old-vine vineyards allowed to expire.

In between, Ravenswood started to slowly disappear.

“It’s disturbing to see a once-proud wine brand stuck in limbo,” Wine Spectator’s Tim Fish lamented in a 2020 story. “It’s not even clear whether the winery made wine in 2019, and harvest 2020 is fast approaching. That’s not something that is going unnoticed by California Zinfandel’s small but dedicated cadre of fans.”

Fast-forward five years and the good news is that Ravenswood is poised to return after a five-year hiatus, with Peterson onboard for the relaunch. And according to Wine Spectator, “E&J Gallo recently released the first new wines, beginning on a modest scale, with just 3,400 cases of four Sonoma County Zins from the 2023 vintage.”

The wines will include a Dry Creek Valley appellation wine, and single-vineyard offerings from MacMurray Ranch (Gallo owned), Monte Rosso (Gallo owned) and Teldeschi vineyards, the wines priced between $27 and $70.

It’s good to see Ravenswood embrace old vines again. During its heyday of the late 1990s and early 2000s, Peterson was one of the most important champions of old-vine vineyards, deliberately trying to highlight sites with plantings dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s, when there wasn’t much interest in such a thing.

He once told me that the price when he started sniffing around was under $300/ton back then and the vines not particularly revered, with everyone moving more into Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

The white Zinfandel phenomenon helped keep some of the vines in the ground, but many others were pulled and replanted. But he and others, like Joe Swan and Paul Draper of Ridge started looking at the sites as both an important emblem of California history and as right for the environment in which they were grown.

Peterson and Swan found Old Hill Vineyard in Sonoma Valley, first planted in 1852 to mixed blacks, with a majority of Zinfandel. Bedrock Vineyard was another treasure trove of field-blended grapes, a 152-acre property originally planted in the 1850s and again in the 1880s by Senator George Hearst near Old Hill that Peterson bought with his son, Morgan, who makes wine under Bedrock Wine Co.

Barricia Vineyard was another important source, with Zinfandel dating back to 1892. Big River in Alexander Valley also figured into the original Ravenswood lineup, a 100% Zinfandel vineyard planted first in 1893. Russian River Valley’s Belloni Vineyard was another single-vineyard, as was Teldeschi Ranch, with vines planted in the 1880s.

Moon Mountain District’s Monte Rosso is in keeping with Ravenswood’s love of old vines, first planted in the 1886 to Zinfandel and Semillon at 1,300-feet elevation. MacMurray Ranch in the Russian River Valley was first established as a farmstead in the 1840s, became a beef ranch in the 1950s under actor Fred MacMurray, and transformed into a Pinot Noir growing site by Gallo in 1996.

It is welcome news to see a brand like Ravenswood return especially with its founder Joel Peterson on board, a true icon of Sonoma County wine.

By Virginie Boone

Consider this: George Martinelli of Martinelli Family Winery is a fifth-generation Sonoma County farmer on his mother’s side (Carolyn Charles Martinelli) and fourth-generation on his father’s side (Lee Martinelli Sr.). That’s a lot of generations to get to this point. His kids (two daughters) are sixth and fifth generation on either side and their kids will be seventh and sixth, and so on and so on.

Therein lies the tale of the Sonoma County Winegrowers’ Century Club, with the Martinelli family representing one of the oldest family farming legacies in our region.

In 2018, the family made a point to cement that legacy by purchasing 465 acres of the Charles Ranch, including two vineyards, the Charles Ranch Vineyard and Three Sisters Vineyard, with 27 acres planted to wine grapes.

Set two ridges in from the Pacific Ocean near Fort Ross, first homesteaded in the 1860s by her great-grandparents and later worked as a sheep and bison ranch by her father George Charles, who planted it to Chardonnay grapes in 1981, Carolyn had previously owned the vineyard with her two sisters. The Martinelli family felt it was important to keep the ranch viable for winemaking and grape farming for future generations, the Charles Ranch an important symbolic and practical piece of that vision.

In addition to Charles Ranch and Three Sisters, which grow Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, the Martinellis own 19 vineyard sites across Sonoma County, amounting to about 475 acres. And while they make their own Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Syrah and Muscat of Alexandria wines at Martinelli Winery, they remain first and foremost grape growers, selling about 90% of their 100% certified-sustainable grapes to other wineries.

Today, three generations of Martinelli family members work together on all aspects of the business: Lee Sr., his children George, Lee Jr. and Julianna, and granddaughter Tessa, Julianna’s daughter.

The most famous of the family’s sites is the 60-65-degree sloped Jackass Hill, planted primarily to Zinfandel, the steepest non-terraced vineyard in California.

This was the original site of the Martinelli Winery established in the 1880s by Lee Sr.’s Tuscan grandparents Giuseppe and Luisa Martinelli on Martinelli Road. Nearly a century later, the current Martinelli Winery & Vineyards opened in an historic hop barn on River Road by Lee Sr. and Carolyn, hiring Helen Turley as their first winemaker.

Of course beyond the steepness, the difficult thing to imagine about Jackass is that someone had to plant it before mechanical tractors, meaning, by hand. The dry-farmed vines began to be designated as Jackass Hill in the 1980s, comprised of only three acres, including a small amount of Muscat Alexandria. Lee Sr.’s father Leno farmed it until around 1968, well into his 80s, reluctant to hand over the reins to his son.

Leno’s second wife Helen was the one to say only a “jackass” would be foolish enough to farm it. First wife Alma was a Bondi, who were potato and apple farmers. Her brother Tony’s early death in 1971 is what prompted Lee Sr. (a high school teacher at the time) to become a full-time farmer, taking over the Bondi apple farm on Watertrough Road to keep it alive, leaving apples behind to plant Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah at what is now known as Zio Tony Ranch.

Zio Tony is just one ranch within the 400 total acres farmed by the Martinellis in Russian River Valley alone, joining Jackass Hill, Jackass Vineyard, Giuseppe & Luisa, Moonshine Ranch, Lolita Ranch, Vellutini Ranch, Chico’s Hill, Hop Barn Hill and Martinelli Road. In Fort Ross-Seaview is Charles and Three Sisters, but also Blue Slide Ridge, Sky Ridge and Wild Thyme Vineyard, while the 17-acre Bondi Home Ranch sits in Green Valley.

To hear more about the Martinelli family’s long legacy as Sonoma County grape growers, tune into this Saturday’s episode of “The Good Stuff” on KSRO 103.5 & 96.9 FM/1350 AM from 1 pm to 2 pm, with guests George Martinelli and Tessa Martinelli Gorsuch.

By Virginie Boone

This Saturday, March 8, TEDxSonomaCounty returns to the Jackson Theater at Sonoma Country Day School for a day of inspiring speakers, including one member of the Sonoma County wine community, Ross Halleck of Halleck Vineyard, with a talk called “Time Traveling with Wine.”

A non-profit that “believes powerful ideas, powerfully presented, move us,” TED started in 1984 as a conference on technology, entertainment and design where speakers deliver talks on a range of subjects, from science, engineering and economics to humor, farming and dance.

From that first year on, the talks went viral and a movement sparked. Subsequent events have led with the mantra, “Where Curiosity Meets Community.”

The similarly named TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission of “ideas worth spreading,” to support independent organizers who wish to create TED-like events in their own communities.

In Sonoma County the event is organized by local wonder women, executive producer Marilyn Nagel and Emcee Anisya Fritz. Fritz is also the proprietor and director of customer experience at Lynmar Estate.

It was in fact a March 24, 2022 TEDxSonomaCounty talk given by Sonoma County Winegrowers President and CEO Karissa Kruse called “Drink the Good Stuff,” that inspired this very column, as well as a weekly radio show on KSRO by the same name.

Over the years, TEDx Talks have often touched on the subject of wine. Taking place all over the world, many have had wonderful speakers tackling interesting facets of wine culture.

It’s hard not to love first Asian Master of Wine Jeannie Cho Lee’s “How Wine Keeps You Slim, Healthy and Humble,” a TEDx talk she gave in Hong Kong where she traces her journey of learning about wine the way she learned to speak English.

Dr. Gregory Jones, Ph.D. tackled “Climate, Grapes and Wine,” at TEDxRoseburg in Oregon. The discussion of wine made it to Fargo, North Dakota in Sam Wai’s 2023 TEDx talk about “Wine in Culture and Agriculture.” Farther afield, Kailash Gurnani detailed “What Winemaking Taught Me About Life,” about being one of the top winemakers in India.

In 2018, Madelyn Meyer, a Swiss wine expert whose mission is to simplify wine communication, confronted the subject in a TEDxZurich talk called “The New Wine Language: A Simpler Concept.” In it, she discusses wine’s unique ability to intimidate and her contrarian desire to create a more lighthearted wine world.

That same year closer to home, fifth-generation winemaker Karl Wente of Wente Family Estates talked about “Wine and the Senses,” at TEDxEmeraldGlenPark, California, where he asked himself questions like, “what is wine?” and “what’s quality?”

Ten years before that was popular wine influencer/Wine Library TV founder Gary Vaynerchuk’s rousing talk titled “Do What You Love (No Excuses!).” That same year, The Billionaire’s Vinegar author Benjamin Wallace’s “The Price of Happiness,” recounted how he sampled some of the best food, wine and experiences to determine their true worth.

Leo Johnson (former English Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s brother) in Brixton, England comically described how he found happiness by making wine as a way to get to know his neighbors in “Make Unthinkable Drinkable Wine with your Neighbors.” The talk was so successful, Johnson started a community initiative called “Unthinkable, Drinkable Brent,” to encourage people to make homegrown wine together everywhere to avoid the loneliness epidemic.

Sometimes a speaker gets more technical. Australian mechanical engineer and entrepreneur Brian Murphy’s 2021 “Making White Wine Crystal Clear,” explored the inefficiencies of wine production and some specific ideas for overcoming instability in white wines.

In addition to wine-specific talks, there are moving conversations about agriculture. Mark Jackson of Jackson Farms is a fifth-generation Iowa farmer and head of the American Soybean Association. His moving “Personal Story about Farming and the Future of Agriculture,” is a riveting tale of remaining sustainable over generations.

Or there’s “Without Farmers, You’d Be Hungry, Naked and Sober,” by Eric Sannerud in St. Cloud, Minnesota, about the impact of farming in local communities around the world and how farmers in the U.S. are retiring faster than they’re being replaced.

Thus there’s a long list of meaningful content and things worth contemplating within the TED and TEDx library, even around the subjects of farming and wine. Consider attending in person to truly be inspired within the folds of a focused audience or dig deep into the treasure trove of ideas out there waiting to be explored.

By Virginie Boone

Through this Sunday, March 2, there’s no better time to support our local restaurant community than by enjoying one of the many meals and deals during Sonoma County Restaurant Week. Participating restaurants will have both a la carte and special tasting menus on offer showcasing the wide array of world-class cuisine we have here in our own backyard – and don’t forget to have a glass of wine.

Here’s a selection of where to go, especially if you love wine:

Arandas, Healdsburg: in the Hotel Les Mars, this Mexican hotspot is offering a $35 three-course lunch and $65 three-course dinner special and features a full bar, while the outstanding wine list has local wines from A. Rafanelli, Quivira, Dumol, Dry Creek Vineyard and many more.

Ca’Bianca Ristorante Italiano, Santa Rosa: a landmark in local Italian cuisine, Ca’Bianca is offering several three-course dinner menus for $60. The wine list is outstanding, with local selections from J Vineyards, Kokomo, Dutton-Goldfield, MacRostie, Balletto, Jordan, Hartford Court, Kistler and many more.

Catelli’s, Geyserville: A two-course lunch of salad with either pasta or The Ultimate Rex burger for $25 is an excellent way to go at this beloved fifth-generation Italian family-run destination, with many local wine choices, from Comstock, Bricoleur, Rochioli and more.

Dry Creek Kitchen, Healdsburg: Chef Charlie Palmer needs no introduction, a longtime supporter of all things Sonoma County, including with his wine list. This week enjoy a three-course dinner for $60. The wines are an endless series of temptations, from Rochioli Blanc de Noirs to multiple vintages from Aperture, Bucher, Trombetta, Nalle, Saini, Morlet, Williams Selyem and many, many more.

Farmstand, Forestville: Take in a two-course hyper-seasonal, locally grown lunch on the patio (or poolside) of the Farmhouse Inn for $35 and be surrounded by the beauty of the Russian River Valley vineyards all around.

Glen Ellen Star, Glen Ellen: The bastion of delicious Italian-inspired wood-fired food has a three-course restaurant week menu for $60/. Local wines by the glass and bottle change often, but recently included wines from Guthrie Family, Smith Story and others.

Goldfinch, Sebastopol: This week have a $35 two-course lunch or $60 three-course dinner at this wonderfully creative space, where wines by the glass include such stars as Dehlinger Chardonnay, Kanzler Pinot Noir, County Line Zinfandel and Bedrock Cabernet Sauvignon.

Hazel Hill at Montage, Healdsburg: Convince yourself you’re on a resort vacation overlooking the Montage grounds from its on-site restaurant, where this week’s deals include a $25 two-course lunch and $60 three-course dinner. There’s an impressive wine list but the property also has its own estate wine, Surveyor, made in partnership with Aperture winemaker Jesse Katz.

John Ash at Vintners Resort, Santa Rosa: One of the legacy restaurant names and important Sonoma County chefs, John Ash remains a landmark of great local food and wine. This week, have a $60 three-course dinner and bask in the award-winning wine list, chock-a-block with regional wines.

Seared, Petaluma: The three-course dinner menu for $60 looks outstanding at this steak and seafood palace, known also for its barrel-aged cocktails, while wines by the glass include selections from Cline, Rodney Strong and Sonoma-Cutrer.

Spinster Sisters, Santa Rosa: Three-courses for $60 from this chef-driven favorite will pair well with many of the local wines on the list or add a $40 wine pairing to dinner.

Valette, Healdsburg: Another great three-course dinner option for $60, Valette is a winemaker hangout in addition to an important supporter of our local wine industry through its award-winning list. From March 10-16 it will also be celebrating 10 years of Valette with a $95/person four-course celebratory meal or $175/person six-course “Best of the Best” with every day of the week featuring a special wine from area winemakers, from Jackson Family Wines to Silver Oak.

There’s more – see the whole list of participating restaurants here and go out and enjoy a meal.

Image by: Catelli’s

By Virginie Boone

The students of Sebastopol Future Farmers of America (FFA) have been named state champions of the 2025 California FFA Grapevine Pruning Competition held February 1 of this year at Fresno State University.

The team was coached by Analy High School Agriculture Instructor/FFA Advisor Emily Lokka, with help from her husband Riggs, the vineyard manager at Emeritus Vineyards who once competed in this very same competition.

“I am very excited and proud of my students for having an undefeated season and capping it off with a state champion win,” Lokka said. “Every single student on the team had at least one award to contribute, a great accomplishment for the program.”

The four students who represented Sebastopol FFA at the 2025 FFA State Finals were Lauren Brady (3rd overall in the state), Jesus Martinez Diaz (6th overall), Shellie Hance (8th overall) and Iyla Kjaer (17th overall) and they brought home the State Champion title by winning 1st High Team Overall, 1st High Team in Cordon Table Pruning, 1st High Team in Cordon Wine Pruning, 3rd High Team in the Exam and 3rd High Team in Cane Raisin Pruning.

Lokka said she got the team together last fall with the express goal of winning the state championship. She guides the team all year, teaching them hands-on skills in the El Molino High School vineyard planted by the Russian River Valley Winegrowers and farmed by the Dutton family.

That vineyard is cordon pruned, however, and the competitions are held in the Central Valley, where the vines are often larger in size and machine-pruned. As a result she works with local Sonoma County growers, including her husband Riggs, to have the team additionally gain experience with cane pruning, as they ultimately have to know how to do both.

The contest in fact is broken into four parts: there’s a written exam based on A.J. Winkler’s writings on general viticulture and pruning vinifera grapevines; and three pruning classes, one of wine grapes, another of table grapes and lastly a class of raisin grapes.

Lokka hosted a local chapter contest and gathering in early January with her students and their families, as the majority of the team members had never done the competition before. They

then traveled every weekend to contests in Lodi and elsewhere leading up to February’s championship event.

In all, nine students (five girls, four boys) practiced twice a week, three seniors, two juniors and the rest freshman, with someone winning a championship at every contest, contributing to an undefeated season. The students come from all different backgrounds, with a few having parents who work in vineyards, but the majority with absolutely no background whatsoever in agriculture, let alone viticulture.

“This provides them these opportunities to learn hands-on skills,” Lokka said.

The only bummer was that Lokka could only take one team of four students to the championship, so she brought three seniors and 1 junior, three out of four of whom had competed before. Together they reached the top five in different categories, a gigantic achievement.

Lokka wants to acknowledge the generosity of the Russian River Valley Winegrowers Foundation for sponsoring the team. Their help allowed the students to practice, travel and compete at no cost of their own.

**Pictured from left to right: Riggs Lokka, Bailey Cassady, Lauren Brady, Sebastian Alvarez Figueroa, Jesus Martinez Diaz, Shellie Hance, Iyla Kjaer, John Justus, Ryan Saldana Sweeley, Harlyn Menendez, and Emily Lokka.

By Virginie Boone

Sonoma County is in peak mustard season right now and that makes it a gorgeous time to take in the bright yellow bloom of mustard flowers in vineyards and fields, from the cool climes of Carneros to warmer Alexander Valley and out toward the Sonoma Coast.

The benefits of mustard are many – biofumigants within the plant suppress microscopic worms that can damage vines; provide nutrients; fight erosion; recycle and redistribute nitrogen; and break up clayey soils. Mustard can contribute to a sustainable vineyard system.

Field mustard, as it’s called, is a member of the mustard or Brassicaceae family and related to several types of turnip, broccoli raab and Italian kale. Originated in Eurasia, it now exists all over the world and is naturalized in North America, able to grow from sea level to 5,000-feet elevation. It loves cultivated fields, gardens and orchards, but also roadsides and ditches, particularly if there’s well-drained, moist soil to settle in. Most mustard blooms just after hearty rain.

Father Junipero Serra and other Franciscan missionaries are thought to have introduced mustard to California, bringing mustard seeds from Spain to use as landscaping, dropping them along El Camino Real to mark the path from mission to mission like a “ribbon of gold.”

A total of 21 missions were established between 1769 and 1823, starting in San Diego and ending in Sonoma, designed to be spread apart one day’s ride by horse, about 30 miles. Plans for a 22nd mission in Santa Rosa were canceled in 1827.

The further spread of mustard is traced back to the Gold Rush era, when demand for beef increased substantially, and wildlands were converted to pastures. As detailed in a PBS SoCal story, Professor Thomas Gillespie from UCLA traced a link between historic grazing sites and the spread of mustard.

Farmers love mustard as a winter annual cover crop for preventing erosion, suppressing weeds and soil-borne pests as well as for alleviating soil compaction. Many spread plant-based compost throughout their vineyards just after harvest, adding organic matter and nutrients to the soil, with mustard seeds often in the mix.

According to its description by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service’s Plant Guide, “it appears to be a good tool as a biofumigant cover crop for control of nematodes, soil-borne diseases including the fungal pathogen responsible for damping-off, weeds and other pests.”

But it can also displace vegetation if not managed well. When it works, it grows until bud break, when the vines wake up from winter and the mustard plants are turned into mulch for the grapevines.

Beyond grapevines, mustard is considered one of the world’s most important spices, just after salt and pepper, and the making of it traditionally involves wine, which is used to crush and melt mustard seeds into a paste.

Brassica nigra, or Black mustard, is thought to be the first species of mustard to be harvested as a spice, and there are records of its use going as far back as the Bronze Age in Europe, China 5000-4000 BC and to the earliest dynasties of Egypt. It became an important currency to spice traders, and the Romans later introduced the concept of mustard manufacture, combining the seeds with grape juice, vinegar and honey, to France and England.

In addition to black mustard, we also now have seeds that produce brown and yellow mustards.

Get out there and enjoy this beautiful time of year in Sonoma County and consider that this plant has thrived in California for more than 250 years.

By Virginie Boone

J Vineyards and Winery has long been pushing the wine envelope into new worlds, first with its award-winning Shifting the Lens culinary series and now with the release of a limited-edition bottling of LOVE Wine February 13, also known as Galentine’s Day (thanks to Parks and Recreation’s Leslie Knope), and the same day it will hold a Release Party at the winery (for which there is already a waitlist).

The sparkling wine is a collaborative endeavor between J and grantLOVE, an art and design initiative created by Los Angeles-based visual artist/philanthropist Alexandra Grant that supports and promotes the work of artists and arts nonprofits through the gift and sale of LOVE artwork and other goods.

Grant has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for nonprofits in her community that are focused on feeding people as well as youth academic and enrichment programs.

“I was raised by many great people and one of them was [godfather] Warren Ilchman – he ran the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University,” she said in a 2022 Los Angeles Times interview. “My godmother was the president of Sarah Lawrence College, and my mom was someone who cared deeply about international education… So as my art career in Los Angeles grew and grew and grew, I began asking… how do I combine how I was raised, thinking about these issues… to be a civic artist?”

In partnering with J, Grant hopes to continue that ethos by bringing people together to spark conversation and inspire change through wine and art, connecting culture, creativity and community.

The wines will feature unique labels by female artists. The first is by New York-based artist Genevieve Gaignard, a multidisciplinary artist whose work has appeared across the United States, including in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Gaignard and Grant were on hand at an opening reception at J last week, together with J Estate Director and Head Winemaker Nicole Hitchcock, who made the LOVE wine, a Brut Cuvée with a 100% Pinot Meunier dosage that sells for $50.

Gaignard said of the label, which incorporates a multitude of flowers, that she had not worked on a commercial product before and in doing so she wanted the artwork to reach a wide audience and make people feel part of the work; like people, flowers come in many variations and moods.

“Maybe we’re in our wilted stage, maybe it’s not our season,” she noted.

As for Grant, she’s been dreaming of doing something in wine for many years.

“I was drawn by wine’s connection to agriculture and culture,” she said. “I was meeting with vineyards for 10 years at home and abroad looking for someone with shared values.”

J checked all the boxes after an introduction was made by Joe Bartolomei of Farmhouse Inn, a regular getaway destination for Grant. When he found out about Grant’s dreams involving wine, Bartolomei reached out to good friend Caroline Shaw, who runs Marketing and Communications Partnerships for E. & J. Gallo Winery, J’s parent company, and things quickly got rolling.

The wine is available online and at the J tasting room, which will run an interactive pop-up featuring other art and merchandize all of February and March.