Reputation Napa Valley Vintners

 

What began as a congenial gathering of a handful of vintners now boasts more than 450 members and a staff of 27, dedicated to promoting, protecting and enhancing the Napa Valley appellation, wines, vintners and community.

 

The organization rocked the playing field when it (along with others) established Napa Valley as the United States’ first agricultural preserve in 1968 and California’s first American Viticultural Area (AVA) in 1981. Auction Napa Valley launched that same year and raised $140,000 to support the local community. Decades later, yearly fund-raising levels from that event have soared: This year’s event, held in late May, raised $16.9 million. Yet with all those accolades, NVV remains a moving train that’s yet to make a stop at the station. The group remains vigilant in its efforts to protect not only Napa Valley land and its community, but the very use of the name, further cementing Napa Valley’s place on the worldwide wine map.

 

A name is not just a name

Despite its lengthy track record, NVV remains committed to the future by building upon tenets of the past. “Protecting our name was very important,” says Executive Director Linda Reiff of the name protection efforts that began in 2000 and will continue indefinitely. “Someone using the word ‘Napa’ on a wine label [when the grapes are not from Napa] is not OK. It’s as basic as that. Truth in labeling is so important to protect the credibility and prestige of the region. Because of outdated regulations, we were at a major disadvantage. Therefore, we had to go out and get legislation passed and defend it, which was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court in 2006.”

 

Offenders such as Napa Ridge and Bronco were benefiting from the Napa name without the region’s juice in the bottle to back it, so NVV defended the legislation in court. “It’s all about the integrity of Napa Valley as a brand and our wines. The Napa name stands for quality, and when someone tries to trade off our good name to sell something of lesser quality, we need to put an end to that for the long-term health of the brand.”

 

In 2007, the organization extended those protective rights overseas when Napa Valley became the first wine region outside the European Union (EU) to gain geographic indication status from the EU, extending truth in labeling to those countries. “We were also the first region in the world to get geographic indication status in China—ahead of Bordeaux and other important regions. Now we’re targeting other emerging markets like Brazil and Russia.”

 

Reiff, whose tenure with NVV dates to 1995, was born with roots planted firmly in agriculture, daughter to a fifth-generation Yolo County farmer. “I grew up with dirt and farming in my blood, we had a lot of different crops, including an 80-acre winegrape vineyard. I have a love of agriculture, even knowing all the grunt work and hard times of being a farmer,” says Reiff. “People look at Napa Valley and see it as glamorous, but really at its core it’s just farming.” Her upbringing made her a prime pick for the NVV post, though she held other positions prior in communications and then politics, as chief of staff for former California Congressman Vic Fazio.

 

Minding the mother ship 

As I speak to key members of the organization, one thing becomes clear: the commitment of its leaders. Reiff has clocked 18 years of service; communications director, Patsy McGaughy, has been with the group since 2000; and current board president, Bruce Cakebread (also president and COO of Cakebread Cellars; burgundy sweater in this pic of the current board), is serving his second term as president (the first was in 2010).

 

When asked about his reasons for returning, his mouth bows into a wide grin and his eyes come dangerously close to twinkling, “Promoting Napa Valley is one of my favorite things. This is pretty exciting stuff; to have this great experience in life where I get to do things I wouldn’t normally be doing at the winery. I felt like the luckiest person to get to do it the first time, and to get to do it again, how cool is that?”

 

Cakebread who, together with Reiff, held a primo seat at the table when NVV sought geographic indication status in China, still seems to be glowing from the experience. “Promoting Napa Valley wines overseas, in places like India and China, is really important to us. It’s about opening that door for our vintners who are then able to promote their own brands into new and developing markets. This goes back to the NVV mission in 1944: You promote Napa first, then your brand’s wine, all boats float to the top.”

 

McGaughy, shares a similar sentiment, “Our charge is the appellation and its wines—the mother ship, so to speak—while the members work on selling their brands.”

 

What the future holds

With such an extensive track record, it could leave one wondering if there’s any room left for growth. According to Reiff, there is: “We have a vision to be the leading wine growing region in the world, in terms of three aspects. One, to produce the highest quality wines in the world and ensure demand through marketing, education and promotion. Two, to preserve and protect the valley. And three, to take care of the community. All of these things are important for our future.” While Reiff makes such grand ambitions sound like a snap, there are challenges.

 

“Marketing and promotion has become much harder as the marketplace becomes more and more competitive and avenues to sell your wines become constricted. Marketing and promoting high-end wine has been a lot harder than it used to be, so building the appreciation, interest and demand for our wines is still our number one mission, domestically and then around the world. We’re now working in a dozen foreign markets.”

 

Preserving the “place” has taken many forms over the years, including the 2000 launch of Napa Green, a third-party certification program focused on best practices for land use, natural resources and wine production. “There are a lot of voluntary, self check-off green programs out there. We felt it was important to have something developed with outside certification that specifically addresses the unique aspects of Napa Valley—our waterways, our hillsides, our natural resources and wildlife,” says Reiff. “So we worked with about 25 community stakeholder groups and outside government agencies at the local, state and federal levels. What’s great about the program is that it’s about how you take care of all your natural resources, not just the grapes, and it’s about meeting and exceeding best practices. The ultimate goal is to have every acre of our land enrolled in Napa Green. It’s probably an impossible dream, but why not set out to take care of our land in the best possible fashion?”

 

Reiff sees this commitment to long-term programs as tantamount to future growth. “So many things these days are just about something quick. Instead, we’re doing things that are very long lasting and meaningful. It’s our quiet leadership and research with programs like Napa Green, Napa Rocks and our research on the health of the community and its needs.”

 

What began as a series of studies on the soils, geology and climate of Napa Valley, ultimately became Napa Rocks. The three-year research project has morphed from a simple power point presentation of the findings into the robust video series of today. The program serves as the nucleus of the NVV trade education program providing vintners with ammunition to compete in today’s global marketplace.

 

McGaughy elaborates, “Robert Mondavi made it his mission to travel the world and tell everyone how fantastic Napa Valley was. He knew it was a special place, but our scientific research explains what makes our soils and land so unique and how that distinguishes our wines. The data gives credence to what Mondavi and other early vintners knew instinctively.” Reiff adds, “We spent three years working with top scientists to pull together all the data and background on why Napa Valley is such an incredible place to grow grapes and make wine, and the findings are the base of what we use in our work every day since.”

 

As talks ebb forward, excitement levels for Reiff and Cakebread ratchet up several notches as they discuss one of the newest community initiatives underway. In May, NVV pledged to invest $1 million per year (from a portion of Auction Napa Valley proceeds) for at least the next three years, to “close the academic achievement gap” among English-learning and English-fluent children across different socioeconomic strata in Napa County.

 

“We’re always looking for meaningful ways to make an impact with our achievements. This is an issue that’s a national priority,” says Reiff. “We’re not waiting for the government to solve the problem. We’re trying to make a difference in our community and to help children now to have a better chance to succeed in schools.” The program, which emphasizes early education, aims to assemble a coalition of community organizations and educators with an emphasis on the development of high-quality preschool services, such as coaching for instructors on language development and basic learning skills and support for the transition from preschool to kindergarten.

 

“We saw challenges within the community in this area, and we also see the increase in immigration in Napa County,” says Cakebread. “So we started to look at how we handle the education component. To be able to take a community issue and address it through NVV is part of our mission. Whether it’s community, international or government issues, or how we regulate safety and the environment, we can deal with these things because of our continuity of philosophy and leadership.”

 

Cakebread elaborates on other areas of emphasis, “The key thing is to keep our membership engaged. Our organization has grown quite a bit. In 2010, we were at 300. Now, we’re at more than 450. We work to make sure our members are using everything we have to offer, from marketing and promotion to education and community issues. Take social media: How do you take these vintners that like to talk grapes and vines and help them understand the importance of social media? That’s all part of it, educating our members on new things that are available to help grow their business.”

 

Always evolving

Reiff notes the importance of unity: “Our basic philosophy has remained the same. NVV was founded in 1944 by a group of vintners who understood they were stronger when they worked together. We bring them together to work and involve them in the planning, execution and evaluation of all our programs and activities. We always say the work we do needs to match the caliber of our members’ wines. We have to be doing the best we can, always looking forward, always evolving.”

Part of that approach means an ongoing evolution of the programs of the past. “We’ll continue to develop a strong international presence for Napa Valley, making sure the name is out there and we’re competing with all the other grape growing regions in the world,” says Cakebread. “You never know what’s going to come up. But that’s one of our strengths, the continuity of our philosophy on promoting, protecting and enhancing. You have that continuity in leadership, and in the membership, which lets us handle different challenges.Take China. In 2008, there were only three or four distributors carrying our wines. It was all French. Five years later, Napa Valley is highly elevated.”

 

It’s been a dizzying day getting the lowdown on past and present plans for NVV, but Cakebread has one final thought, “Technology is growing. Everyone likes to speak of technology as a measure of change, but culture change is slower, so to make that leap into China was huge. People move around the world and wine follows. Our world is getting smaller, so we have to give people the opportunity to drink Napa Valley wines,” he says, and then laughs, eyes all a-twinkle, “we can’t leave it all to the Australians and French. We need that diversity of market to keep our brand strong.”

 

 

The Founding Vintners

Seven vintners officially signed the “original agreement of association” that established Napa Valley Vintners, including Fernande de Latour (Georges de Latour’s widow, who ran Beaulieu Vineyards after his death); Felix Salmina (Larkmead Winery); Charles Forni (Napa Valley Cooperative Winery); Robert Mondavi (Robert Mondavi Winery); John Daniel, Jr. (Inglenook); Louis M. Martini (Louis M. Martini Winery); and Louis Stralla (Napa Wine Company). In addition, the following are considered to have also played a role in the organization’s founding: Georges de Latour (BV), Elmer Salmina (Larkmead Winery), Charlie Beringer (Beringer Vineyards) and Roy Raymond (Beringer Vineyards; he later founded Raymond Vineyards & Winery).

 

 

Napa Valley Vintners’ Milestones