For the second day running I am wearing another bloody poncho. Today I’m in the middle of a Zinfandel vineyard with 20 Mexican blokes.
My tour schedule claimed this morning would be ‘Down and Dirty’ but it did not involve any saucy underwear or adult movies or any of the Mexican blokes – we were picking grapes in the rain.
Oscar Renteria picked me up at 7.30am to get out into the vineyards. He has taken over from his father running Renteria vineyard management company, which is charged with looking after everything that goes on in the vineyards for many well-known wineries around the region including Duckhorn, Rombauer and Michael Mondavi.
Today we were picking like crazy – well, the Mexican boys were – I was going at a leisurely pace: one grape for me, one for the bucket, one grape for me…If the Zinfandel was left out for another 24 hours and the expected big rains arrive in the valley, the Zin could ‘turn to mush,’ said Renteria.
The Renteria family are all around the valley – he has more than 100 first cousins in the area, which must make Christmas an expensive time. His mother and father came to Napa Valley from Mexico, as market farm workers and met in Rutherford in the mid 1960’s. His father started the vineyard management company in 1987 and Oscar has since taken the helm, and more than 300 people are employed by them.
Find out the lowdown from the 2011 Napa Valley vintage thus far by watching my interview with Oscar..
