Napa >> On his first day of work at Gallo Winery in Napa, Richard Peterson was given a tour of the facilities. He’d just walked past the fermentation tanks and was making his way through the bottling line when suddenly everything stopped. The bottles no longer clinked, the line was at a standstill and the workers began to wait.
Peterson was a little confused.
Then out walked the manager. He headed to the label machine, where he switched out Sauterne labels for new Chablis ones. Once he was done the line started moving again. The bottles contained the same wine. The only thing that had changed were the labels.
The reason was this: the public had stopped buying the Sauterne wine. Ernest Gallo had the thought, maybe everyone is tired of it. Rather than make a new wine, the winery decided to simply switch around the labels. The trick worked. Chablis sold so well that salespeople were still talking about it three months later.
Peterson thought the incident was so interesting he wrote it down and tucked the note into a box. He continued doing this for years. After a decade he realized he might have enough material for some kind of book. But it wasn’t for another 30 years that Peterson put pen to paper and wrote his first book: “The Winemaker.”
It’s not an autobiography, Peterson was quick to point out. “I consider it a history of the California wine industry as told by somebody who was intimately involved in it,” he said. “I really do think the truth is stranger and more interesting than fiction.”
Although the first chapter does read like an autobiography — regaling Peterson’s childhood during the Depression, when his family had to grow all their own food, to his studies at UC Berkeley, where he obtained a Ph.D in Agricultural Chemistry — it’s merely background information included to give readers an understanding of how Peterson got to be where he did.
He insists the real meat of the book starts after that introductory chapter. “There were two stories that happened at the same time and they were intertwined: one was my history in wine and the other was the repeal of prohibition,” he explained. “Those two stories were so intertwined that I’m logically the one to tell the story about the wine industry and the people in it.”
Prohibition essentially destroyed the wine industry, Peterson said. People no longer cared about what wine tasted or looked like. They just wanted alcohol. Winemakers also weren’t helping the situation as they crafted wine from raisin grapes.
The number one winery at the time, Roma Wines, was owned by a liquor company who placed alcohol content above fine winemaking. Gallo Winery, who were of the belief that they needed to plant quality grapes and make the best wine possible, were sitting firmly in third, behind a company who used table grapes for their wines. This is perhaps the best example of the state of the wine industry after Prohibition. “Most if not all liquor companies have this complete misunderstanding about what wine is,” said Peterson.
For 25 years the industry remained at a standstill.
Then in the late ‘50s a large number of people began visiting Europe. There they discovered what it meant to appreciate wine. Grape growers started planting wine-grapes again, and the industry completely turned around. Within three or four years Gallo had moved up to the number one winery in Napa. Roma, well, they didn’t just fall behind — they disappeared entirely.
Of course, there’s plenty more to the story. “The Winemaker” covers it all, diving into the events and people critical to the state’s industry. It’s a real inside look, one that those outside of the wine world have probably never heard before. Peterson insists that the autobiographical sections are the least interesting parts of the story.
“The book could be for anybody who is interested in businesses,” said “The Winemaker” publisher Gaye Allen, the founder of Lake County’s Meadowlark Publishing. “It highlights how good and bad decision making shapes things.”
The fact that the book isn’t a simple memoir makes it something special, Peterson said. Numerous books are written on wine every year, but they often focus on one person and one type of wine. “The Winemaker” spans decades and multiple personalities. “That’s what’s different than a plain autobiography and why I’ve gotten so many great reviews of it,” he added.
Edouard Cointreau, President and Founder of the prestigious Gourmand Awards, seemed to agree. Allen hadn’t entered her writer’s book in the international food and wine book competition, but one day she received a surprise email from Cointreau stating that “The Winemaker” was in his top five favorite reads of 1,400 wine books. The book was shortlisted in the “W4-1 Special Awards” category. Peterson said he didn’t think he’d have received the award if the book had been an autobiography.
“His history is really the history of wine in California,” Allen reiterated. “That’s why the book is so great.”
Today Peterson spends his time as a winery consultant. He’s done work for over 50 wineries across the state, including two or three here in Lake County, like Hawk and Horse Vineyards in Lower Lake. He also judges wine competitions and acts as an expert witness on legal cases involving wineries. “I’m not going to retire probably ever,” Peterson said. “The book tells why.”
“The Winemaker” is available now at www.richardgpeterson.com or call 738-1812. The 400-book is $29.95.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
