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Fall/Winter 2002
General Winery News Wine Industry Profile Uncorked! From our Winemaker New Releases Special Report Personnel Corner |
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General Winery News: Napa’s first
by Tom Shelton
Uncharacteristically foreboding skies greeted a restless crowd gathered at the Calistoga Farm Worker Camp in August of 2000 to hear about a new plan designed to relieve over-crowding at the three county-authorized migrant worker camps. Lured to Napa Valley by the promise of high wages and plentiful work, as many as a hundred men were crammed into a facility designed for forty, and with scores of daily, new arrivals demanding a bed for the night, the fatigued camp director was threatening a very public resignation. During the preceding days television crews from San Francisco and Los Angeles scoured the Napa Valley documenting the human misery of farm workers living in cardboard domiciles under bridges, along the banks of the Napa River, and on the porch of the Catholic Church. Amidst this backdrop of demand for immediate action, a collection of mostly Latino farm workers, public officials, and news crews assembled for what many presumed to be the latest in a string of unfulfilled promises. For each of the preceding three years, the Napa Valley Vintners Association had covered the increasing operating shortfalls of the three migrant labor camps. Nothing, however, had prepared their Board of Directors for the urgency of a housing shortage stimulated by the post-phylloxera demand for hand vine care, which accompanied increased vineyard acreage, high density plantings and the specialized rigors attendant to the new vineyard architecture. The demand for increasingly skilled labor was great and, surprisingly, year-round. Simply covering annual operating losses would not begin to solve the problem, so the vintners turned their attention to a long term approach. The plan delivered before that distrustful gathering was ambitious, but workable. The Napa Valley Vintners Associa-tion stepped away from their accustomed marketing role and became a lead agency of sorts in a campaign that included volunteerism, legislative action, coalition building, and plain old cajoling. Among the numerous promises delivered that day was a call for a donation of land for the purpose of constructing a new farm worker housing facility. Several months later, vintner Joe Phelps heeded the call and announced the donation of eight acres of vineyard land known as River Ranch north of Zinfandel Lane along the west side of the Silverado Trail. Implicit in his gift was the expectation that other vintners would also come forward. Indeed, the River Ranch location was suitable for a facility that will accommodate 60 workers in dormitory style housing, but the need, county-wide, is placed in excess of 300 beds. Unanticipated when the gift was announced, was the requirement for a referendum of the people to approve the subdivision of agricultural land in an agricultural preserve, even for the purpose of farm worker housing. Upon learning of this surprising development, the Napa Valley Vintners Association, in conjunction with a broad based coalition of interested partners, developed and promoted an initiative that would grant an exemption for Phelps and up to four additional new facilities. Measure L was summed up nicely by Father John Brenkle in his now infamous slogan, ‘Vote for L or go to hell.’ Needless to say, the measure passed with the overwhelming approval of 73% of Napa County voters. With construction funding by the State of California, the County of Napa and the Napa Valley Vintners Association, the River Ranch Farm Worker Facility is expected to be operational by the summer of 2003. Architects Don Brandenburger and David Easton have designed a model facility whose rammed-earth construction and thoughtful space planning respects the cultural and social fabric of the unheralded workers upon whom Napa Valley depends. In large measure the promises made by the Napa Valley Vintners Association in August of 1999 are being kept. For the purpose of farmworker housing, a vineyard acreage tax has been approved, and vintner John Shafer recently announced plans for a second donation of land. There remain many promises to keep, but the framework for doing just that is plainly in place. |
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