Monthly Archives: June 2024

In the wine world, there are a lot of producers that come from multiple generations of grape growing and winemaking. To them, wine isn’t just a way of life, it is THE way of life. For Armando Castagnedi, co-owner of Tenuta Sant’Antonio in Valpolicella, this belief is the driving force behind the establishment of their business.

Armando and his three brothers grew up in a small village in the eastern part of Valpolicella, where their father Antonio was a grape grower for the local wine cooperative. The brothers worked with Antonio and as wine consultants for many years, but they also wanted to make their own wines and not just grow grapes. Their father never agreed. 

So, naturally, the brothers purchased a plot of land on Monti Garbi in 1989, and started Tenuta Sant’Antonio; the first vintage was 1995. 

In this second of two articles on Northern California's next-generation successes, Drs. Lucia and John Gilbert share the generational-transition stories of six highly-regarded family-owned and operated Sonoma County wineries: A. Rafanelli Winery, Hafner Vineyard, Hawley Winery, J. Rochioli Vineyards and Winery, Nalle Winery, and Peterson Winery, offer insights and reflections, and a coda.

At wineries, parents and their offspring who have joined them in the business can have fraught relationships. And sometimes their disagreements are elemental: They are about grapes, nature. We have no way of proving this, but it seems to us that more generations are leaving their wineries, or the winemaking, to their daughters, and that creates a particular kind of dynamic. (We have two daughters, so we know something about this.) 

In the business of wine, once a region establishes an identity, it can be hard for producers to venture past that boundary. But with Bodega Trivento (“Trivento”), one of Argentina’s most successful single varie...

...we identified six of Napa's iconic family-owned wineries and vineyards established in the 1970s and 1980s that have significant next-generation involvement. We sent an invitation to the founding owners and their children asking them to participate in a conversation about their "Generational Transition," and the career paths of the children who have become involved. We also asked their advice for those who might be considering a generational transition.