The meeting that changed Napa Valley: How a handful of farmers reshaped American wine

"Ren Harris didn't set out to reshape Napa Valley. He just wanted better grape prices. So one evening in 1975, he called a few neighbors to his house in Oakville names that today read like a who's who of modern Napa wine history: John Trefethen, Virgil Galleron, Justin Meyer and Andy Beckstoffer. Harris, a former San Francisco contractor who had recently ripped out 30 acres of prune trees and planted grapes, got straight to the point."

"What began as that casual meeting just a handful of growers around a dining table in Oakville would become the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, now marking its 50th anniversary. Over the decades, the group helped shape some of the most defining elements of Napa Valley's wine identity: standardized grape pricing, modern labeling laws, farmworker protections and the push to safeguard agricultural land."

"But to understand how the organization gained influence and why growers felt they needed it it helps to remember what Napa Valley looked like then. At the time of that first meeting, the future of Napa Valley wine was far from certain and Harris was still relatively new to grape growing, having moved from San Francisco a few years earlier after marrying Marilyn Pelissa, whose family had farmed in Napa Valley since the 1890s."

Ren Harris convened neighbors in Oakville in 1975 to pursue better grape prices, initiating a growers' organization. That group became the Napa Valley Grapegrowers and influenced standardized grape pricing, modern labeling laws, farmworker protections, and efforts to protect agricultural land. Founding participants included John Trefethen, Virgil Galleron, Justin Meyer and Andy Beckstoffer. Early members came from varied backgrounds and took financial risks planting vineyards during an uncertain era for Napa wine. The organization's behind-the-scenes work established market and regulatory frameworks that supported Napa's transformation from a quiet farming region into a leading wine landscape. Beckstoffer later expanded to farm roughly 4,000 acres across multiple counties.

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