Life in the Time Of

Life in the time of pandemic Jeremy Ball TONY POER Elizabeth Vianna, General Manager and Winemaker, Chimney Rock Winery Recently, during baseball’s first Sunday pie, and the nation’s favorite pastime are night broadcast of the pandemic-shortened American. ELIZABETH VIANNA, GENERAL 2020 season, the archrival Giants and With the state’s tasting rooms having MANAGER AND WINEMAKER, Dodgers took to the field in Los Angeles. closed back in March, and now cautiously CHIMNEY ROCK WINERY From separate studios, a pair of veteran reopened in recent weeks, the situation It famously once featured a small golf announcers lamented the “fanless experi- parallels how baseball has looked over the course running through the property, but ence” of the sport this season. same period. The delayed season has finally if Chimney Rock Winery was a baseball “We know that fans have been miss- begun, and the players and coaches are park, it would have an ESPN camera-ready ing players since the shutdown,” ESPN’s doing their jobs on the field. Meanwhile, backdrop. The viticultural estate just off Buster Olney observed to his colleague, winery staffs are doing theirs in vineyards, of Silverado Trail boasts one of the valley’s Matt Vasgersian. “Well, you know what? cellars, labs, and tasting rooms. more ideal locations, framed by the Vaca The players are so much missing the fans, It’s all happening under the dark veil Mountains near the base of the Stags Leap playing these empty ballparks.” of COVID-19 and the global pandemic: Palisades. Entertaining summer crowds, and a new normal for these two industries that At a larger winery, it would be the stuff being entertained, are something baseball often seem to transcend the category of of PR department dreams. Chimney Rock, and wineries have in common—nowhere mere businesses. Fortunately for wineries, however, is more of an artisanal operation. more for the latter than here in the Napa the “fans” are allowed back in, albeit with They like to point out that just six pairs of Valley. precautions in place. hands are responsible for crafting the wines. To winery hospitality teams, the sum- With this in mind, Inside Napa Valley The small team is helmed by a woman mer-to-fall tourist season is like opening talked to a few vintners who share wine as who’s a one-person PR machine. day, the All-Star game, and the playoffs both a profession and passion. Each has rolled into one. The fan experiences of been affected by shelter-in-place in distinct Please see Winemakers, Page 10 wine tasting and wine country hospital- ways that are snapshots of life during a ity are as Californian as hot dogs, apple global pandemic. Winemaker Remi Barrett with her band Vice Reine. Submitted photo SUMMER/FALL 2020 INSIDE NAPA VALLEY | 9 grapes eight years later. Since their inaugural WINEMAKERS commercial vintage of 2000, they’ve created an enviable wine business model: they sell From page 9 approximately 75% of their production direct to mailing list and other customers. At a time “The assistant winemaker here decided in when retail wine sales and home shipping are 2002 she was kind of bored with wine, and perhaps unsurprisingly strong, it borders on she now delivers babies in Chicago,” Elizabeth pandemic-proof: a stark difference between Vianna said with a laugh. “I took her job and Lagier Meredith and most other wineries. became winemaker in 2005, and then became Lagier is pragmatic about coronavirus, the GM-winemaker in 2011.” even as he joked again about his treasured golf The thoughtful, engaging vintner was Courtesy Steve Lagier‌ movie. reached on the phone at the winery in July. Steve Lagier “If you’re going to go to a rave, or if you’re While her day-to-day responsibilities for turn- doing the ballroom scene in ‘Caddyshack,’ ing grapes into wine at the 105-acre estate “It’s been a great way both for the public to then, you know, you’re going to risk getting haven’t changed, that’s about as close as it gets have a respite, I think, in their daily pandemic this disease. But if people are careful and keep to life as she knew it less than six months ago. life, and for us to connect with them.” a distance and stay within their social pods— “You know, traffic’s definitely down, need- you know, don’t get nutty—they can avoid less to say,” Vianna said about the drop in STEVE LAGIER, CO-OWNER AND getting the virus.” tourism. “But we’ve had a regular trickling in WINEMAKER, LAGIER MEREDITH He’s also fairly sanguine about the future of people, and we’ve been complimented by VINEYARD or, at least, the ’20 harvest and crush around our guests on our safety measures.” Golf is part of the colorful past at Chimney the corner. A 10-minute phone call with the wine- Rock. If you bring up the sport to Steve Lagier, “I don’t anticipate that there’s going to maker turns out to be a clinic in coronavirus prepare for him to segue to one of his favorite be any issue really making the wine because protocols. When it comes to the pandem- movies. people can easily socially distance at the win- ic-related challenges to her staff, she describes “Everything I know about golf, I pretty ery” where they rent space. “We’re able to do herself as “a glass-half-full kind of gal.” She’s much got from ‘Caddyshack,’” he said over socially distanced winemaking, basically.” also a safety-first kind of boss. the phone recently, breaking into laughter. For the immediate future, he’ll continue to Like other California wineries, Chimney Lagier is the grower and winemaker for work on crop-thinning their Syrah and other Rock’s production never shut down after Gov. Lagier Meredith, the eponymous label he owns vines in preparation for the harvest, doing judi- Gavin Newsom ordered the closure of tasting with his wife, Carole Meredith, a former pro- cious watering, “and then hopefully come in rooms in March. fessor in the Department of Viticulture and for a nice soft landing during the ‘pandemic “We immediately addressed how to work Enology at UC Davis. They run an operation crush,’” as he calls it. safely,” she said. “I’m very lucky because we’re that makes Chimney Rock seem like a multi- “I don’t think that it’s really affected our just a team of six here, so it’s pretty easy for us national corporation by comparison. viticulture, because we don’t have any employ- to maintain the social distancing.” The couple grow and produce minuscule ees. So, we don’t have to comply with a bunch She added that now more than ever, she quantities of four red wine varieties—none of social distancing and stuff like that. We are feels a responsibility for the people working of which is Cabernet Sauvignon—high on kind of de facto socially distanced.” under her. “We’re trying to help them be con- Mount Veeder above Dry Creek Road. Their scientious about safety measures when they’re Mount Veeder AVA Syrah is known up and REMI BARRETT, SALES AND not at work, as well, and to protect their down California as one of the state’s finest MARKETING, LA SIRENA AND families. So that’s been a whole other learning examples of the spicy, complex Rhône grape. BARRETT & BARRETT (AND curve.” Lagier is quick to laugh about Rodney SYNTHPOP SINGER-SONGWRITER) As one of the Chimney Rock brand’s lead Dangerfield and slapstick comedies, but he When Remi Barrett says, “I always wear a ambassadors, Vianna would have already taken switched to a more serious mode when asked lot of hats,” it’s a bit of an understatement. multiple out-of-state trips this year to visit the about the current state of the wine industry On paper, the Calistoga native and San winery’s distributors and customers across under the pandemic, and his wife’s and his Francisco resident runs the sales and mar- the U.S. But the Terlato family and senior situation, in particular. keting, along with her mother, for a pair of management “made the decision that nobody “You know, no one is an island. But it is sought-after wine labels, La Sirena and Barrett would travel anywhere. So everybody is home- odd that the way this thing has played out, & Barrett. The latter of these is the project bound,” the winemaker said. we’re somewhat immune to a lot of the worst that carries “both” of her well-known parents’ While she’s still able to welcome visitors to attributes,” he explained. names. the Stags Leap property, that ambassadorial “Carole and I are the only employees of Heidi Barrett and her husband, Bo, have aspect of her job has ground to a halt. It’s per- Lagier Meredith. We don’t have a payroll that been Napa Valley’s power couple for decades, haps the biggest adjustment for a winemaker we’re burning through. And when leaner times respectively via Screaming Eagle and Chateau who is also a general manager. come, you know, it’s not really a big deal. We’re Montelena. To this day, Bo is the venerable But Vianna is upbeat. The experience of just not leveraged at all, so that gives us another Calistoga estate’s winemaker, while Heidi is substituting video conferences and Facebook avenue of resistance to this thing.” one of California’s pre-eminent consulting Live tastings for travel has been part of her own They purchased and moved onto the vintners.

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