The Robledo family: Generations of farmers built an empire in Wine Country

On a gusty spring day in Sonoma, the gates to Robledo Family Winery sat wide open, inviting visitors to the first tasting room opened by former vineyard workers on their own land.

Surrounded by olive trees, sheep and goats chew grass in a pasture adjacent to a vineyard, three flags fly vigorously from flagpoles stationed steps away from the tasting room. They are: an American flag, a Mexican flag and a flag bearing the Robledo family crest.

“We love the United States. Our heritage is from Mexico ... It’s just who we are. It represents who we are,” said Everardo Robledo, the CEO of Robledo Family Winery. He is one of nine children of Reynaldo Robledo Sr. and Maria Robledo who founded the internationally recognized winery together in 1997.

The flags are markers of a story that spans generations and crosses borders. The Robledo Family Winery is just one of many businesses owned and operated by members of the sprawling Robledo family whose ancestors first arrived in Sonoma County in 1942 from Michoacán, Mexico through the Bracero Program.

From 1942 to 1964, the federal program brought millions of much-needed Mexican men to work in the U.S. on short-term labor contracts, like the great-grandfather, grandfather and great-uncles of Everardo and his siblings.

Reynaldo Sr., the eldest of 13 siblings from Atacheo, Michoacán, arrived a few years after the program ended on Feb. 25, 1968, with various family members. He said the day after he arrived he started work at Christian Brothers Winery in Napa, earning $1.10 an hour.

Farmworking brought him to the many fruit orchards and vineyards in Sonoma and Napa counties. This led him to master new ways to graft, the skill of joining parts of two different plants to form one, which he employed at vineyards across wine country. Then, in 1982, he taught others his techniques in Nice, France.

In 1984, Robledo, Sr. and now ex-wife, Maria, purchased 13 acres in the Carneros wine-growing region in Napa County that produced the family’s first bottles of wine in 1992.

Planting roots

“It was our new beginning,” said Everardo, who was 9 years old at the time. He added he and his siblings were expected to help.

“People always wonder, ‘Why do people have so many kids’ but in Mexico, there's the belief that ‘Yes, I'm gonna have a lot of kids so they can help farm,’ because we come from an agricultural family in Mexico … ,” said Vanessa Robledo, the fourth oldest. “My parents had a lot of kids, and they expected us to work.”

Maria often worked in the vineyards “in her spare time,” Vanessa said, and cooked meals for her family and vineyard workers over the years.

Maria was essential to the winery’s growth, cooking homemade Mexican food, like ceviche or chile rellenos, to pair with wines for up to 400 visitors a day. Though Maria left the family business to run her own vineyard after the divorce, she’s happy to see her children continue to thrive.

“I feel very proud of them,” she said in Spanish.

Making a name

Today, members of the Robledo family operate mostly wine-related businesses under their family umbrella: wineries, a vineyard management business, a winery management business and an olive tree business in Napa and Sonoma counties.

“I admire my family because I believe they already have a vision. They were born with that vision because they never have issues learning things,” said Reynaldo Sr., sitting at a large wooden table inside the tasting room bearing his surname.

Across the table sat Everardo, who was flanked by his son, Angelo, 21, and daughter, Vianna, 23, who both work at the Sonoma winery.

Everardo, alongside his parents and siblings, helped formally launch the tasting room in 1997, five years after they produced the first bottle of pinot noir in 1992. The family planted more vineyards after the first harvest, which included chardonnay, and began to sell their wine to local customers and restaurants leading up to the winery’s formal launch. He’s been running it since about 2007, he said.

Together Reynaldo Sr. and Maria also started Robledo Ranches in 1984 — the same year they purchased the first 13 acre plot of land — and Robledo Vineyard Management in 1994.

Today, Robledo Family Winery owns about 450 acres of land in Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties. They produce 15,000 to 20,000 cases of wine annually and about 1,200 tons of grapes per year, of which some are sold to other wineries, Renaldo, Sr. said.

It is one of 43 Latino-owned wineries in California, according to Alex Saragoza, an ethnic studies professor at UC Berkeley.

The family winery has a list of accolades that include about 30 gold medals and double-gold medals from national and local competitions.

In 2003, the city of Sonoma named Oct. 25, Robledo Family Winery Day.

During the Obama administration, Reynaldo Sr. met President Obama at the White House. In addition, Robledo family memorabilia is on display at The Smithsonian, which includes one of Reynaldo Sr.’s black cowboy hats.

Most recently, the winery’s 2021 Selección Reserva cabernet sauvignon received the Best of Lake County in the 11th annual North Coast Wine Challenge in early April. And and a Sonoma proclamation naming Oct. 25, 2003 Robledo Family Winery Day.

One of the most memorable experiences for the family was in 2008, when former Mexican President Felipe Calderon visited the Robledo’s Sonoma tasting room, Everardo said.

Beyond wine, grape growing

Crucial to the family business’ growth was adapting to change — whether strategically, agriculturally or personally striving for better, Reynaldo Sr. said.

As each of his children learned the stories of their forefathers who worked in the vineyards before them, they learned the same basic skills — tying vines, pruning, harvesting — before each Robledo child established their own path.

The eldest Robledo child, Lorena, co-owns Mi Sueño Winery with her husband, Rolando Herrera.

Reynaldo Jr., the second oldest, owns the Olive Tree Farm in Sonoma, which he operates alongside his youngest sibling, Adrian Emiliano.

The company sells olive trees across, California and ships over 20 varieties nationwide, Adrian Emiliano said.

Vanessa, who left the male-dominated family business in 2007, now provides wine management services for her mother’s business, Maria de la Luz Vineyards, which sells grapes to local wineries.

Jenaro, the fifth eldest, runs a vineyard management company, which also tends to his mother’s Napa County vineyard. Sons Luis, Francisco and Lazaro work at the family winery in sales and help with various aspects of the company.

Past lessons, future possibilities

Maria taught her children the morals her parents in Mexico taught her: to be humble, to be honest with oneself, to keep growing.

“I showed them the best of me,” she said.

For Reynaldo Sr., he knows he was tough on his kids growing up.

"I think it was not pleasant, because what I wanted was to keep them busy," he said

Everardo believes agricultural work comes natural to him and serves as a reminder of the generations that preceded him. Though he admits he didn’t understand them as a child, he said he now appreciates his parents’ strict lessons.

“What I wanted to do was for my children to not have time to be on the streets. I kept them busy. I wanted them to dedicate themselves to their studies and that they wouldn’t go out,” said Reynaldo Sr.

His plan worked.

“We had to be the ones that did our own labor. And I think that that’s the key thing (as) to why our family succeeded is that, you know, we all did it. We all worked,” Vanessa said.

Vineyards surrounded Vanessa and her siblings throughout their childhood.

Now, her daughter, nieces and nephews grew up in the midst of an industry larger than the one from her youth, whether it meant riding four-wheelers or tractor equipment, frequenting the family-owned cellars, moving boxes of merchandise with forklifts or joining in on harvest in the vineyards.

Vanessa said her daughter, Jocelyn, 24, was the reason she continues to push herself. She is also one of her mother’s biggest supporters.

As a single mother, Vanessa said she didn’t take Jocelyn to the vineyards as frequently as her parents brought her the vineyards. Instead, he took her daughter to business meetings, which seems to have been the right move. By the end of May, Vanessa and Jocelyn plan to launch a business together.

Angelo, Everardo’s son, works at the winery and is taking college-level courses to learn more about the wine industry.

Adrian Emiliano, who has three children, intends to teach them “to work hard, to get a good education and the sky's the limit,” much like the lessons his parents taught him.

Each of the family members agreed on the power of family, heritage and moving ahead. Vanessa believes the family’s ancestry carries them into their futures.

“How we honor our ancestors is through the product that they worked so hard to labor back in the 1940s. ... We now are producing it in a bottle of wine,” she said. “It's like the complete full cycle of the wine industry, you know, and I think that that is the magic that that my ancestors represent in that wine.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jennifer Sawhney at 707-521-5346 or jennifer.sawhney@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @sawhney_media.