March 14, 2001

Women of Wine

They dared to take a great leap of faith

By June Smith
Special to the Sentinel

Jennifer Jackson, Equinox Methode Champenoise
Jennifer Jackson looks back over the 27 years with husband, Barry, and knows that the most important part she played was based on a decision made 11 years ago. That was to take a leap of faith and share in a future that revolved around the art of wine making.

Four generations ago, her father’s family began a hard-won claim for a way of life in the Central Valley as cattle ranchers and farmers. It was for them, as it is for the Jacksons now, an invigorating challenge: making the natural elements yield to you, or be unceremoniously driven out. The women at that time made decisions with their husbands as a team effort, just as Jennifer and Barry are doing today.

Jennifer and Barry’s lifestyle is based on agriculture, which translates into hard physical work, and unpredictable weather and grape crops. There are hours of lab work and myriad other details to attend to.

The Jacksons produce 300 to 500 cases of sparkling wine each year and Jennifer and Barry work together planning sales strategies, targeting their market, and simply trying to get their foot in the door. Jennifer does sales and finds it a highly competitive field involving persistence, personal commitment and constant promotion of the product.

While she is studying interior design at California State University at San Jose, she plans to transfer in the spring to UC San Francisco. She has also attended wine classes at UC Davis.

To sum up her feelings, Jennifer says, "How many men or women can say that they have made it on their own terms? That intangible bond that was shared by my father’s family and his peers is the same as that which we now share with the wine makers of our time.

"It is the challenge, the shared vision and the highly individual lifestyle that are the primary reward."

Ellie Patterson, Mount Eden Vineyards
Ellie Patterson became the business manager and marketing director of Mount Eden Vineyards in l983. She handles all financial aspects of the business and helped her husband, wine maker Jeffrey Patterson, turn the winery around after a reorganization in l985.

They are now stars in both their wine and their financial performance.

She plans the marketing strategy, the wine allocations, and offers her opinion regarding wine style.

Ellie prefers a soft-sell approach. They do not have a tasting room, and visitors are welcome by appointment only.

The family lives on the winery site with their two children, ages 8 and 15. With degrees in history and ornamental horticulture, she also makes time for gardening tennis and reading.

Ellie believes that the wine business provides a friendly environment for women.

"Being fair, honest and professional is key."

Peggy Crews, Pelican Ranch Winery
While growing up in Chicago, Peggy never knew such things as wineries existed. Her first exposure to wine came when she met her husband, Phil, a home wine maker committed to producing professional quality wine.

Their home became the site for monthly dinners, always preceded by blind tastings. These dinners were all the excuse she needed to indulge in her love of cooking, and out of necessity, she began to learn about the pairing of wine and food.

In 1997 they made the decision to start their commercial winery, Pelican Ranch.

Son, Mitch, 14, can do some of the heavy work, while Neil, 11, helps with bottling and food prep for open houses.

Peggy, a former high school special education teacher and speech pathologist, is most comfortable in the role of teacher when educating people about wine in general and her winery in particular.

She does not feel as adequate in the role of saleswoman.

Her real love is hosting the "Passport Saturday" open houses, sponsored by the wine association four times a year. She provides unusual food in an attractive setting, and says it never feels like work. Sure, she’s beat by the end of the day, but it’s the kind of tired feeling anyone would experience at the end of a six hour party.

To sum up the family work load, Peggy says, "Phil makes the wine and I do everything else."

Christine Slatter, Hunter Hill Winery and Vineyard
For the past nine years, Christine has assisted husband, Vann, in the installation and maintenance of their original three-acre vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Not afraid to get her hands dirty, she has planted, pruned, sprayed and trellis-trained the vines.

In 1998 she prepared and submitted the paperwork to bond their small winery.

After their first product was bottled, she took over the duties of accounting, compliance reporting, sales and marketing.

Christine enjoys achieving recognition for the winery through community involvement and has made donations to many local foundations, charities and community events. Being a sponsor and representative for her winery is, in her opinion, the fun part of the business.

The operation of the winery is truly a family affair involving grown sons and their wives, grandchildren, and friends.

As with all aspects of a woman’s life, time management is the ultimate challenge, as she is still helping her sons run the family owned-company, Slatter Construction. She applies the skills she has learned from this first venture with her husband, to the wine business, their second joint venture.

She sums up the lifestyle this way, "Growing grapes, making wine, meeting new friends and working with family on the land my grandparents worked has been an inspiration. It is food for my soul and a source of renewed energy for life."

Karen Hibble, Co-executive Director Santa Cruz Mountain Winegrowers Association
Karen comes by her love of wine naturally. Growing up, her family always served wine with dinner. A dinner without wine was not worth eating.

In the ’80s, Karen and husband, John, were the winery coordinators for the Capitola Art and Wine Festival, and while doing the promotion, Karen’s love of local wines grew into a passion. The winery folk recognized what gems they had with both Karen and John, and they were invited to become the executive directors of the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association.

Karen promotes this premier wine appellation tirelessly. In Canada, for instance, she saw a local wine on the menu, ordered it, and then shared the bottle with the server so he could learn about Santa Cruz Mountain wines. He was so impressed that he took his next vacation in our area and did some local tasting. While in Atlanta, Karen was pleased to find four local wines on a restaurant wine list and sent her compliments to the wine buyer. He not only came to her table, but phoned her the next time he was traveling in Northern California.

Santa Cruz wines make their way all over the United States. Karen says the only place you may not find our wines is in Napa. They rarely serve anything other than their own wines.

Being a woman, one of the experiences she enjoys most is ordering the wine for her table when dining out. Usually the server will put the wine list down by the gentleman, but because Karen is so knowledgeable about local wines, she takes great delight in choosing and matching the wine with the food to be served.

Pamela Storrs, Storrs Winery
On the recommendation of a friend, Pam investigated courses in wine making, then enrolled in enology at UC Davis. She had been interested in the medical field, but had decided against it as a career.

Her Italian grandfather made the family’s table wine, and she credits her grandmother for encouraging her to be the first woman in the family to graduate from college.

While in school, Pam interned at Felton-Empire Winery, met wine maker Steve Storrs, and was bitten by the love bug.

After graduation, she put out her resume to numerous wineries in Santa Cruz to be near Steve, but no openings were available at that time. She accepted an offer to be the enologist at Almaden’s Cienega plant, where she gained much knowledge at one of the largest barrel cellars in the world.

After Pam and Steve were married, she accepted a marketing position at Felton-Empire, then after a time, she and Steve worked as consultants there, mainly to establish Hallcrest Vineyards.

In the fall of ’88, they took the well known leap and started Storrs Winery. For the first two years they shared the wine making duties and everything else. It was life on the edge, full of uncertainty and challenge. When their annual production jumped from 1,500 to 3,000 cases, cellar help was added, and later on, tasting room help.

Now with production at 10,000 cases, and two children, Aaron, 6 and Morgan, 4, Pam acts as a consultant for the winery, setting standards and directing operations. Aaron and Morgan, cellar/rug rats, compete to help dad drive the forklift.

Pam says that among the most important things needed to succeed as a wine maker, are great determination, a good palate and the ability to trust in one’s instincts. You can have knowledge of the science, but you must be able to utilize the art.

She is also in charge of public relations, payroll, the compliance paperwork and the Wine Club. With their wines in about 20 states, she and Steve travel when time allows.

They have recently purchased 50 acres of land in Corralitos and are designing a home to meet their needs and planning the varieties of grapes to plant.

Kathleen Starkey-Nolten, Zayante Vineyards
Kathleen has talents she hasn’t been able to fully use as yet. One day she hopes to be able to spend more time on her hobbies. She makes lost wax casting jewelry and stained glass windows, which she plans to display in the gift section of her winery tasting room. Later, she can offer these to other tasting rooms.

She has long been offering her organizational skills in the planning of the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrower’s Association display for the County Fair each year. And when our esteemed judges gather beforehand at Bittersweet Bistro to taste and rate these wines, she and I can be counted on to provide our experienced glass washing skills.

When Zayante Vineyards was bonded in 1988, Kathleen helped husband, Greg Nolten, plant the vineyard. Now she is occupied with bookkeeping, filing of the federal forms, bottling, labeling and making wine deliveries.

She enjoys representing her winery at numerous community events, such as the Capitola Art & Wine Festival and the wine association’s annual Vintner’s Festival in June.

On top of all of this, she works as a Special Education assistant in the resource program at San Lorenzo Junior High School.

Teen-agers Maggie and Andrew have always helped in the winery and Andrew is beginning to assist dad, Greg, in the vineyard.

Greg is most grateful for this help, as he works full time for the Felton Post Office, and Kathleen has made if perfectly clear: her planting days are over.

KATHLEEN’S ZAYANTE MINESTRONE SOUP
Serves 4 to 6

2 8-oz. cans kidney beans
2½ cups water
l Tbsp. olive oil
2½ cups red wine
3 Tbsps. butter
1 can chopped tomatoes
l chopped onion
mushrooms, chopped
3 stalks chopped celery
garlic to taste
3 chopped carrots
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
3 sliced zucchini
pepper to taste
2 sliced yellow squash
Italian sausage cooked (Kathleen likes hot and spicy)
½ bunch chopped spinach
cooked noodles

Puree l can kidney beans with liquid in food processor. Add to soup pot along with other can of kidney beans and liquid, veggies, oil, butter, water, sausage and wine. Simmer one hour or more. Before serving add cooked noodles.

Serve with Zayante Vineyards Estate Zinfandel and hot French bread.

PEGGY’S PASTA WITH CHICKEN AND SUN DRIED TOMATOES
Serves 4

½ cup plus l Tbsp. olive oil
3 Tbsps. balsamic vinegar
l garlic clove, minced
½ tsp. sugar
1 cup chopped red onion
½ cup chipped, drained oil packed sun dried tomatoes
½ cup fresh basil, chopped
½ cup chicken broth
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
l l-lb pkg. linguine

Combine ½ cup oil, vinegar, garlic, sugar, onion, tomatoes, basil and chicken broth. Set aside.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Sauté until browned, about 2 minutes per side. Add the broth mixture. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook until the chicken is done, approx. 5-7 minutes more. Remove the skillet from the heat. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and slice each breast in 5-6 pieces.

Toss the pasta with the sauce and divide between 4 plates.

© Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers' Association
info@scmwa.com   |  (831) 479-9463