Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1013885
70 / the tasting panel / august 2018 CELEBRATIONS To bring this to fruition, the winery hosted a reunion dinner last November where members of the Fetzer fam- ily and colleagues past and present gathered to reminisce. The video interviews they captured on that memorable evening, now posted on the company website, movingly convey the dedication and appreciation the team has shared over the years. "I could have done a montage of people saying, 'It was more than a job; it was a family,' or 'Those were the best years of my life,'" notes Pramanik. "That emotional resonance was powerful." Of course, this vocal admiration for the brand applies not only to Fetzer Vineyards' values, but to how the winery actually implements them, as well. Blue joined the team 30 years ago, a heady time for California winemakers in gen- eral and Fetzer Vineyards in particular: "It was that moment when Americans were just starting to drink varietal wines, and we were going from those old-timey operations" to full-scale estates, he says, adding that the Fetzers "were right there and growing incredibly fast" on the strength of their Sundial Chardonnay. After nine years spent running the winery while his children worked the vineyards, patriarch Barney Fetzer brought renowned winemaker Paul Dolan—who recently lent his voice to the Storyteller Series—on board in 1977 along with Blue to assist him. "It was really hands-on winemak- ing every step of the way" from the grapevine to the bottle, recalls Blue, who was "amazed" by the integrity of the process. Yet he was also enamored with the family itself: "There was never a lot of ego," Blue says. "They grew up on a farm in the country—they were very humble, and I think it carried over into the wine. We always wanted to overdeliver, to make really great wine at a really fair price." When Barney died unexpectedly in 1981, the estate fell into the hands of his wife Kathleen and his children. "The oldest was like 32 and the youngest was 14, but they were schooled in hard work," says Blue. "They didn't have a fallback position—what they had was a lot of courage." This conviction showed in their participatory spirit. "[Management] was never top-down. It was always collaborative," says Sonoma State University Corporate Relations Officer Jonathan Fabio, who spent decades in sales and education first at Fetzer Vineyards and then at onetime parent company Brown-Forman. That cooper- ative, freewheeling approach extended from employees to distributors and customers, as Fetzer Vineyards aimed to make "the business fun for them, too, as it empowers them to be part of the winery's success" through training and cultural initiatives, Fabio adds. Take a legendary enterprise like Fetzer Vineyards Valley Oaks Food & Wine Center. Its restaurant run by culinary director John Ash—as well as its Biodynamic garden and demo kitchen where "Julia, Emeril, and Wolfgang came and cooked"—served to advance culinary knowledge that "not only helped us sell wine, but helped us make friends," Fabio says. (Speaking of friend- ship, he also recounts with gratitude the year Jim and Mary Fetzer assumed some of his travel duties so he could care for his severely ill wife and their young children without leaving his job.) A piece of history: Kathleen Fetzer (center) surrounded by the 11 Fetzer children in Mendocino County in the 1980s. PHOTO COURTESY OF FETZER