Rombauer Vineyards
Rombauer Vineyards
THE first Rombauer Vineyards wines were a 1980 cabernet sauvignon and a 1982 chardonnay, bottled in Koerner and Joan Rombauer’s garage in St. Helena, California, a small town in the center of Napa Valley. Koerner had been a commercial airline pilot until he and Joan decided to start a family business. The mid-size winery is now 40 years old, and their granddaughter, Reagan Rombauer, says her grandparents’ working-class ethos underlies many of the company’s business decisions.
“Our family has never believed in living lavishly,” says the 30-year-old associate brand manager for Rombauer Vineyards. “We don’t own yachts or chateaus in France. We believe in investing the money back into the business. We’re known for our consistency, vintage to vintage, which is hard when you’re relying on Mother Nature.”
The Rombauers started small and expanded only when they could afford it, purchasing vineyards and increasing their varietals. Rombauer’s mother and uncle run the company now, and she’s the first member of the third generation to work there.
“When I was little, my mom would have me sleeping under her desk when she was working. Growing up, you get some secondhand exposure, you understand about harvest, but you learn more about the business side than the wine. When other girls were saying they wanted to be a vet or a princess [when they grew up], I would say I wanted to be a businesswoman.”
Rombauer spends much of her time traveling to wine festivals and wine dinners, making one-on-one contacts and encouraging wine lovers to continually expand their palates. She’ll be in Santa Fe for the 30th Annual Wine & Chile Fiesta Wednesday, Sept. 22, through Sunday, Sept. 26. Rombauer Vineyards is the honoree of the year. Rombauer leads a seminar about the vineyard’s varietals on Thursday, Sept. 23.
She talked to Pasatiempo about the history of the vineyard and family business, as well as some wine basics.
Pasatiempo: What was it like to grow up in Napa Valley? Reagan Rombauer: I grew up running around the winery. My mom would take us on what she called “field trip days.” She would take us out of school, and we would get to help out with harvest for the day and ride around on the tractor with my grandfather. So, I grew up with it, but I didn’t really totally understand it until I got out and saw the world and saw how special and cool it was. Pasa: It sounds like your year was tied to the growing and harvest seasons. R.R.: In Napa Valley, everybody’s year runs around the wineries, whether it’s harvest or tourist season in the summer. Everybody knows when it’s harvest, when the trucks are coming through and the air just smells of
Our philosophy is to take the best care of the grapes. If you have the best quality of fruit, then when you bring it in, you can do the least to it. We want to understand it on the vine and, when it comes in, have the softest touch.
it. We have a big harvest festival in town, as it is with many agricultural communities that really follow the seasons. Pasa: What brought you to your position at the company? R.R.: With our family, we’re not allowed to show up after high school or college graduation and start collecting a check. We have to go do other things. It’s only when you have a certain level of experience and can bring something back to the business that you can have the opportunity. I went to school at Boise State [University] and graduated with a business degree, then worked in project management for a government contractor. I ended up in Las Vegas in real estate. It was a slightly flexible career and opened the door to my family asking me to do events and dinners for them. Eventually, I told them I needed to focus on one thing or the other, and they hired me full time. It’s been four years now. Pasa: What was the first wine you ever tasted?
R.R.: [When we were kids] on very, very special occasions, you would get a little watered-down Rombauer chardonnay. My first “ah-ha” moment with a wine pairing was Thai food with a really good Riesling, shortly after I turned 21. I don’t remember the brand. Pasa: How has the business fared during the pandemic? R.R.: We have enough of a presence in retail [to survive]. Wineries that rely solely on people coming to their tasting rooms to sell wines or wineries that only sell to restaurants had a much tougher time. We were in outlets where people were shopping anyway. We made it through pretty well, but the fires had an impact. Pasa: Did you suffer any damage? R.R.: We’re on a hillside in St. Helena. The fire burnt all the way around. There was lots of damage and cleanup, but all of our buildings were saved. We’re very grateful to the firefighters. Pasa: Did the vineyards burn? R.R.: Because the vineyards are green and alive, and you water them, they act as natural fire blocks. Maybe an outside row gets burned, or the waterlines get burned. The fire will burn plastic before they burn vines. Pasa: Has climate change affected the vineyards? R.R.: Some years it feels so much drier than in the past, but you look back and see drought years and rainy years. We have noticed a trend of harvest starting a teensy bit earlier every year. But we’re thinking long term, taking care of the lands and the vineyards, so we can pass them down generation to generation. We have special drip-line systems that water only where it’s needed. When the fruit comes into the winery, the typical process would be using water with chemicals in it to clean your lines, your intakes, and your barrels. We use steam. It uses less water, you don’t need chemicals, and it’s more sanitary. The industry average is about six to 14 gallons of water to make a gallon of wine. We use about 2.4 gallons. Our goal is to be 1-to-1. Pasa: Rombauer is known for making very consistent wines. Is there pressure to change things up? R.R.: Our newest varietal that we added, in 2014, is sauvignon blanc. That’s quickly grown into our third-most-popular varietal, after chardonnay and zinfandel. Our philosophy is to take the best care of the grapes. If you have the best quality of fruit, then when you bring it in, you can do the least to it. We want to understand it on the vine and, when it comes in, have the softest touch.