Grape Grandparents of MendocinoBy Laura NessCharlie Barra is one of the icons of Mendocino county grapegrowing. He’s been farming hundreds of acres up in Redwood Valley organically for 60 years, but says he didn’t know it for the first 40. It was just the way his Italian ancestors always farmed: naturally, on the hillsides, never on the flats, never near the river. That’s where you planted the other crops, like pears and hops, which were once the dominant plantings in the Redwood Valley, where grapes now rule. Hills, you see, were less prone to frost, and grapes can’t handle frost the way fruit trees and hops can. Mendocino’s agricultural bounty came to be as a result of what Glenn McGourty, Advisor, UC Davis Cooperative Extension, describes as a “Costco run” from China to San Francisco in the 1850’s. The wreck of the “Frolic,” a frigate loaded with supplies for the burgeoning city of San Francisco, which was in the throes of the Gold Rush, got lost in the fog and wrecked on the headlands of what is now the town of Mendocino. The local Indians made off with much of the loot, including fine China, but the shipwrecked crew discovered a magnificent bounty that would build a city, twice. The huge virgin redwood forests loomed just off the coast, and the temptation to harvest and ship lumber to the growing metropolis was irresistible. 100 tons of timber at a time were loaded onto doghole schooners bound for San Francisco: a city arose. When the 1906 earthquake and fire decimated that shining sepulcher, the majestic forests of Mendocino were once again tapped to hoist her skyline skyward.All this activity drew settlers from afar: the first arriving Italians realized something was missing. Vines! One of the first heritage vineyards, Fish Rock, was planted in 1878, and is still used in the Kendall-Jackson label. Areas like Calpella and Lolonis were planted by families like the Luchessis, Parduccis and the Grazianos (Greg Graziano farms more Italian varietals in CA than any other grower, and is a prodigious producer of award-winning wines), and soon there were 20 wineries, producing so much wine that the challenge was to drink it before it turned to vinegar.Alas, Prohibition was the bitterest cup of all and the Italian families that survived it, were, like their vineyards, tenacious. They grew the stuff that made jug wine, Zin and Charbono and Carignane. The stuff that saved vineyards from the grim reaper during Prohibition, because they produced fruit that could stand up to the long train ride across country to the paysans on the receiving end: the Italian relatives that remained on the East coast once they arrived at Ellis Island. On the backs of hardworking farmers, and on the sturdy backbone of varietals like Carignane and Alicante, they survived to spawn a new era for Mendocino grapes. Charlie Barra was part of both eras.Charlie was born in 1926, just in time to work the Prohibition gig: his parents wanted him to work the vineyards, and he considered dropping out of high school altogether, but was talked into remaining in school half-time. He ended up earning 3 times the salary of the school principal his senior year. Beginning in the 1950s, Charlie began ripping out Alicante and planting different varietals, like Chardonnay, Pinot, Petite Sirah and Cabernet, even though nobody wanted varietals. Barra explains that although Mendocino county days are warm, the nights are decidedly cool, which makes it ideal for growing Pinot, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio. Still, he was desperate to sell fruit in the 1960s, getting a mere $40/ton from Napa. Deals with Mondavi and Wente netted him twice that much, if he would deliver them the fruit. They were savvy customers, recognizing superior quality, even if its origins were never revealed.He Charlie proudly celebrated his 64th harvest in 2009. Of this back breaking work he says, “You get paid once a year: you’d better show up!”Mendocino County has the largest percentage of vine acreage farmed organically in California, some 4k out of 10K acres: most of it has been that way since it was planted by those early Italian immigrants.McGourty credits the organic and biodynamic culture of Mendocino to the philosophy of the original farmers, as well as to the combination of idealism and naturism that coalesced in the area in the 1960s, a reaction to the post World War II influx of fertilizers and pesticides into the farming scene. Byproducts of chemical warfare, these never before needed pollutants were sold to farmers as a way to massively increase production. Farms soon became factories. The environment suffered. “Silent Spring” was a wakeup call that drew many to the wild, unspoiled beauty of places like Mendocino, and helped popularize the innate purity of natural farming.Mendocino was and is a land that seems immune from time, yet is far, far ahead of it. Mendocino’s raw and vibrant natural beauty remains an inspiration for all those who seek what is still pure and inherently delightful, delicious and whole. Farmers like Charlie Barra have dedicated their entire lives to touching the land gently, preserving and protecting the ecosystem that sustains them, and delivering to us the fruits of their labors, proudly, and confidently, whether we know not whence they came. You can drink Mendocino with confidence.
