Quake-damaged Sonoma winery barn saved for another century

On paper, it’s not the kind of expense that would pencil out for a publicly traded corporation. But at Sonoma’s Rhinefarm, where six generations of Gundlachs and Bundschus have worked its fertile, clay-loam soil, typical business formulas don’t apply in the face of 150 years of history and tradition.

So when the Napa earthquake dealt a devastating punch last August to the old redwood barn that has served as the heart of the agricultural operation for more than 100 years, there was no question that it would be repaired rather than replaced.

“When you have a dollar and 100 ways to spend it, it’s hard,” said Jeff Bundschu, president of Gundlach-Bundschu Winery and Vineyards. “We’ve got deferred maintenance that if added up would take centuries and centuries.”

But Jeff was persuaded to redirect money from other projects to protect and preserve the barn because of a mistake his own father Jim regrets to this day.

Back in the 1970s when Jim began reviving the premium winery at Rhinefarm, which had been shut down since Prohibition, he went to his father, Towle, and asked permission to tear down another historic old barn to build a modern, new structure for dry storage.

He got the OK and the old barn was razed. As it turned out, that 19th-century barn was never replaced, making the remaining barn, with is multiple additions, ever more important as the winery grew.

“It was absolutely beautiful. It’s one of the worst mistakes I ever made, tearing that barn down,” Jim Bundschu lamented of that historic, two-story structure with horse stalls and a bell tower.

“It’s one of the reasons we’re restoring the current barn. It’s more expensive to maintain one’s history, but it’s definitely worth it.”

The remaining barn is a survivor, built sometime after the 1906 earthquake. Gundlach Bundschu wines at the time were produced in a block-long facility in San Francisco. A million gallons of wine and three family homes were destroyed by the fires that ensued after that terrible temblor, prompting the family to retreat back to the country and rebuild near the vineyards at Rhinefarm.

Survived 2 quakes

It withstood the 1969 earthquake that rocked Santa Rosa and the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. But the 6.0 Napa shaker, with an epicenter only 10 miles away, struck a serious blow to the old barn. The ceiling is now sagging and the whole structure is listing to the south.

“The foundation is cracked in one corner and one of the wooden pillars, the eight-by-eight stanchions that supported the barn, is actually cracked in half,” Jim said.

Everything has been removed and the barn is now being reinforced, hopefully, he said, to stand for another century of use.

Damage was also inflicted on the historic family home a short walk from the barn. The 1919 wood-shingled residence was designed by Albert Farr, the architect for Jack London’s doomed Wolf House.

The writer’s widow, Charmian, was good friends with Sadie Bundschu, who lived there with her husband, Walter, before passing it on to her son, Towle, and daughter-in-law, Mary. Jim Bundschu grew up in the house and his mother lived there until her death in 2006. It is now used as offices.

Fortunately, most of the house damage was cosmetic - cracks to the Sheetrock, a damaged chimney and some displacement of the stone in a terrace overlooking the vineyards.

At a time when many wineries are prettying up their barns for weddings and winemaker dinners, the Bundschus are determined that theirs will remain a working barn. For Jim, the barn was where he learned how to farm.

“One of my first recollections, besides it being a very spooky place and kind of dark with all the equipment in there, was as the center of the grape harvest,” he said.

“All the wooden lug boxes used for the grape harvest were stored in that barn. Dad had fabricated a box-washing machine and I’d spend a great deal of time after school and on weekends washing boxes and stacking them in the barn.”

Little removed

Many of those old boxes are still stacked in one of the many rooms added on to the structure over several generations. In fact, little was ever removed.

So cleaning out the barn to shore it up has been a real archaeological dig. Jeff has ordered workers to take wide-angle pictures of the walls so every old tool and yellowed pin-up-girl calendar placed over the years can be put back exactly where it was.

“It was an early agricultural education for me to be washing boxes and sorting pears and just being among the group of laborers who were working on the farm,” Jim said.

“The barn itself has a spiritual aspect for me. It was also where all the equipment and tractors were stored. It was full of antique wrenches, pumps, handsaws, ancient woodworking and barrel-making tools. In the afternoon when the work day was over, you’d drive the tractor up in the barn and have to service it, grease it and clean it.”

He remembers fondly watching the farm hands roll cigarettes, kick back at the end of the day and swap stories about their pasts.

“That barn was my schoolhouse. It’s where I learned to weld and do shop work. They taught me the difference between a claw hammer and a ball peen hammer. They taught me the nomenclature of the tools,” said Jim, who majored in agricultural economics at U.C. Berkeley. “Those men taught me how to be a farmer.”

His sister, Gigi Fernandez, thinks fondly of the barn as the center of family gatherings, not so much for entertainment as work parties.

“I definitely remember the pear season,” she said. “We’d pick the pears and then we sorted them and it always was a good time, and a fun place to play.”

Love of music

Occasionally, Jeff Bundschu will clear out the equipment and let the rafters rock with music.

“I’m passionate about emerging music. When I first left home, I joined a band in Los Angeles and cut my teeth in that universe. But ultimately I opted not to go on tour and to work in the family business instead. I’ve never looked back,” he said.

At 46, however, he still wants to support young bands. So, working with an old friend from the music business, he has provided a venue to introduce young, talented but relatively unknown artists to Sonoma County audiences. The Barn has hosted Daniel Rossen (of Grizzly Bear), Art vs. Science, Ra Ra Riot, Fruit Bats and Bonnie and the Bang Bang, among others.

“It’s a special place to experience live music. What makes it so special is that not only is the audience in a very beautiful and unique place,” Jeff said, “but the artists themselves are enchanted by the structure.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204.