Wine & Spirits - February 2018 - 8

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At Home & At Work in Wine Country
Seasonal workers settle into the wine community as
by Elaine Chukan Brown
year-round vineyard staff.
The recent fires on California's North Coast have shone a light on a growing problem for the wine industry: a
shortage of affordable housing. The massive increase in wine tourism, as well as an accompanying increase
in vacation rentals and second homes in one of the country's most prestigious destinations has meant a
significant increase in the local population. Wine tourism and an influx of wealthy residents have built demand
for more service and hospitality workers. As those workers have moved in, it's become harder for agricultural
workers to find homes.

"People with the
specific skills needed
to do what we do
in vineyards in
Napa Valley outpace
temporary labor
that isn't regularly
focused on
those tasks."
-Oscar Renteria
8

WINE & SPIRITS

In 2015, Karissa Kruse, who serves as president of the
Sonoma County Wine Growers, set out to revamp
the group's mission, focusing on sustainable conditions for the county's agricultural workers. To better
understand the challenges, the group initiated a community study. They found that key issues included
workforce development, education, healthcare,
childcare and affordable housing.
"We realized that addressing these issues wasn't
something vintners could tackle on their own," Kruse
says. So SCWG invited political leaders and community groups throughout Sonoma County to help
design the new sustainability program. The response
was unprecedented. "We had 49 community organizations and 89 people show up to help us plan,"
Kruse says.
The group launched a pilot program to create
architectural plans for dorm-style housing and get
fast-track permitting from the county. The goal is
to make the plans available for free to anyone who
wants to build near their vineyard, along with an
expedited permitting process. The group was close to
finalizing the permitting process when the wildfires
hit in October 2017; now they've shifted to handling
urgent needs for those impacted by the fires, and the
county has put a hold on all nonemergency permitting as they reassess where it is safe to build.
In the midst of dealing with the loss of her own
home to the fires, Kruse helped displaced families
find housing. She looked back over a survey she'd
taken before the fires that tracked available employee
housing and discovered some placements from that
research. The SCWG also raised funds to help agricultural workers who'd lost income during what is
usually their peak season and were threatened with
eviction. And they raised funds to purchase RVs.
"An RV is not an amazing long-term solution," says
Kruse. "But in the midst of winter weather, if you
need a roof over your head, here is a place to go."
For the region, the fires were simply part of a

FEBRUARY 2018

larger reckoning that sustainability of the nation's
most prestigious wine industry depends on supporting the people who do the work.
The North Coast employs the highest concentration of vineyard laborers in the nation, with well over
10,000 agricultural workers in Napa and Sonoma. But
the skilled farming needed to make the region's wine
depends on a trained labor force.
"People with the high-level specific skills needed
to do what we do in vineyards in Napa Valley outpace
temporary labor that isn't regularly focused on those
tasks," says Oscar Renteria, a director for the Napa
Community Foundation and owner of Renteria Vineyard Management.
Renteria has found that, while temporary employees cost less per person, the long-term cost is significant. Without regular experience, Renteria says,
"they were slower in the vineyard, and needed additional training. It cost me twenty percent more in
both production and labor costs." He's moved to
year-round employees now.
Frog's Leap Winery in Napa Valley has also made
the change. "We are directly farming 175 acres with
a vineyard team of 23 people," Frog's Leap vineyard
manager Rory Williams says. "That's not a huge team
to get all that work done. We don't bulk up come
leafing or suckering. It takes a lot of planning to
make sure we get the work done in a timely fashion and don't have to push or stress." The approach,
Williams explains, can be challenging, but means
greater intimacy with every block, and so higherquality farming.
To retain talented employees, both Renteria and
Williams increased pay rates. At Frog's Leap, vineyard, garden, cellar and office staff are now on the
same benefits, overtime and paid-vacation programs.
The only differences depend on how long a person
has worked for the winery. By effectively leveling the
status of employees, workers from one aspect of the
winery can help out in any other without worrying

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - February 2018