From the wine library

Bo Simons
The Sonoma County Wine Library annual meeting will premiere
Arturo Robledo’s Oral History, the first Oral History to feature a
Latino member of the industry. There will a presentation, wine,
hors d’ouvres and a silent auction. It all happens at Paradise
Ridge Winery on Friday, Feb. 26 beginning at 7 p.m., 4545 Thomas
Lake Harris Dr., Santa Rosa, and the prices are $45 public, and $35
for Wine Library members, and call 431-7663 for reservations. For
Latino workers there are some free tickets set aside. Contact Bo
Simons 707-433-3772 x5.
Latinos in this area: Historical Background
We will honor the role of Latinos in Sonoma County wine history
by publishing an oral history of Arturo Robledo. But first let’s go
back in time and see some background on the Latino contribution to
the area. In the Healdsburg area, the interaction between a Latino
and Northern European did not end well for the Latino. Jose German
Piña (later misspelled as Pena) walked up to this area from Sonoma
in 1840, and settled on some land. His father, Lazaro Piña, had
served for Mariano Vallejo, and Vallejo rewarded his son with a
land grant. Cyrus Alexander was settling and claiming the land in
the valley that would bear his name. Cyrus was claiming the land
his boss, Henry Fitch, a Yankee trader in San Diego, had acquired
the grant, in part, through his marriage to Josefa Carrillo. He
told German he was on already claimed land. Piña said OK, and moved
out of Alexander Valley and into Dry Creek Valley and called his
claim Rancho Tzabaco. Alexander’s land was called Rancho Sotoyome.
After the United States got California following the Bear Flag
Revolt and the Mexican War, the Piña family lost his rancho to
squatters. There were lots of Gold Rush people and they mostly
squatted on land not theirs. A few honest ones paid the Piñas for
their land. The Piñas fade from history without much trace. For
full details see Hannah Clayborn’s article: http://www.ourhealdsburg.com/history/pina.htm
Healdsburg grew and prospered. Grapes were always part of the
agriculture scene. Following the wine boom of 1970’s they became
pervasive. Various sources of farm labor have been used locally, as
in all of California. But for the past 60 years, a lot of that
labor has been Latino, specifically Mexican. In honoring Arturo
Robledo, we honor not only the half century career of a man who
worked his way from picking plums in Calistoga to crafting some of
the best grapes in the most coveted terroir on the planet, we are
also paying homage to the Latino contribution to the wine industry.
This Latino grape heritage extends back to before Jose German Piña
to the Mission period of California history, but in modern times
includes the Bracero program in World War II, the UFW struggles and
efforts of Cesar Chavez in the ’60s and brings us to the present,
where Latinos are not only moving into the ranks of vineyard and
winery ownership, they are being sought as consumers by the wine
industry.
The Evening of February 26
The Wine Library Associates of Sonoma County will begin before
the program proper with their annual business meeting from 6:30 to
7 p.m. Then at 7 p.m. the program proper begins, consisting of an
hour of presentation followed by an hour of fellowship. food and
wine. A multimedia show starts the presentation followed by live
testimonials by friends and family continue. Join author,
journalist and editor Vivienne Sosnowski, Arturo’s interviewer for
the oral history, as she presents and interviews Arturo and his
family. Also Arturo’s colleagues including Greta Mesics, Hector
Bedolla and Fred Scherrer, will be present to offer reminiscences
and memories of Arturo’s long and varied career.
Arturo’s Story
Arturo Robledo has labored for nearly a half century in the
vineyards of Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties, earning a
reputation for his meticulous care of vines, his deep understanding
of how to husband the grapes to reflect the terroir of each
particular vineyard, and also gaining renown for the field-budding
techniques of his own and his brothers. He journeyed in 1968, from
his native town of Atacheco in Michoacán, Mexico to Calistoga,
California, where he got his first job picking plums. He soon moved
on to grapes, and worked for Beringer and Sterling in the Napa
Valley, and in the next few years, had crossed Knight’s Valley and
was working for Robert Young in Alexander Valley, and shortly
thereafter for pioneer Dry Creek vineyardist Paul LeBaron, who at
that time was selling grapes to Rodney Strong, who was running
Windsor Vineyards.
Arturo and his brothers over the next several years, worked also
for Robert Mondavi, Dale Goode, the Murphy Family and Murphy Goode,
Dry Creek Vineyards, Rochioli, Fetzer and Parducci. He and his
brothers specialized in field budding, and a number of vineyard
managers hired them to graft in new vines or field bud over
existing vineyards to a different varietal, His brother Reynaldo
and he parted their business relationship in the late 1970’s when
Arturo went to work for Sonoma Cutrer. Reynaldo now owns the
Robledo Family Winery in the Carneros and enjoys a little more fame
than Arturo. In 1978 Brice Jones at Sonoma Cutrer hired Arturo, and
over the course of the next 24 years Arturo worked for Sonoma
Cutrer, helping bud over many vineyards to the great Chardonnay for
which Sonoma Cutrer is famous. He rose to be vineyard manager,
working closely with Brice, and with winemakers Bill Bonetti, Grady
Wann, Rob Tommerlin and Terry Adams.
In 2002, Arturo Robledo blazed new trails founding his own
vineyard management company and working and living in Sebastopol.
He gained some great clients, concentrating on Pinot Noir in one of
its finest viticultural areas for Pinot in the world, The Russian
River Valley. His clients include Radio Coteau, Porter Creek, Merry
Edwards, Pellegrini Vineyards, Paul and Vicky Michalczyk at Hawk
Hill Vineyard, and Joe Mesics at Timbervine Ranch,
As an employer, and as a contractor, Arturo Robledo, even with
imperfect English, has always made communication and truth the
foremost civic virtue. He tirelessly mentors his new employees, and
listens to them. He provides year-round work to provide continuity
in his employees lives. He gives his employees turkeys and hams at
Thanksgiving and Christmas. Arturo has practiced environmentally
aware, unobtrusive sustainable low input agricultural methods. In
his work with winemakers and vineyard owners, Arturo listens to
them about how they want their grapes, and communicates what he
thinks is best. He insists his winemaker and landowner clients come
out to the fields to discuss the grapes and gives them his best
advice and work.
Come join us at Paradise Ridge Winery for this great celebration
of our area’s history and heritage and one man’s place in it.
Bo Simons is the Wine Librarian. He can be reached at [email protected] or
433-3772.