The Posters (Part 2)

The poster program turned out to be an unqualified success. Our first two posters focused on teaching people how to pronounce the name of our winery. The third threw down the gauntlet declaring we were serious about making wine but had a sense of humor about it. We discussed how to continue with the series and decided we should introduce some of the key players.

Using Grant Wood’s American Gothic as an inspiration, we introduced the entire 1985 Gundlach Bundschu winemaking crew posed around a tank and in the process of shoveling fermented grape must to the press. We are using a Ministrine peristaltic pump. This thing had an augur in the back which would feed must into the pump and then force it through the ridiculously oversized six-inch hose all the way to the press. It was critical to keep enough wine dribbling into the must to keep it from plugging the hose.

We captioned the photo “Vineburg Gothic, 1985 Crush Crew.” Marcelo Hernandez Jr. holds the shovel. His father was our vineyard manager. Holding the bent pitchfork, is Jane Leach (now Milligan) who had come to America from England. She helped Ann Noble create the Wine Aroma Wheel while studying at UC Davis. She went on to head sensory and experimental wine production at Beringer Winery, before returning to England and marrying her high school sweetheart. Jerry Chong is scooping grapes with his hand into the hopper. Jerry left winemaking for vineyard management. Katie Quinn is operating the on/off buttons. She married Ben Zeitman and together they ran Amador Foothill Winery where she served as winemaker/partner. They retired from the wine business after selling the winery in 2014. Jim Farnkopf, our Cellar Master, is holding the hose dripping wine back into the pump. Bill (whose last name I cannot remember, even after years of working together, which I find frightening) is holding the black pump hose, and my head is sticking through the tank door. Sadly, Marcelo Hernandez Jr. and Jim Farnkopf are no longer with us.

“Como se dice vino en Baja Sonoma?” is one of my favorite posters. I always felt it was critical that we remind people of the incredible contribution Mexicanos made to the success of the California wine boom. I worked alongside Marcelo Hernandez my first Crush in 1978. He taught me the ropes, trained me to operate the equipment, and laughed at my jokes. He bestowed upon me one of the greatest compliments I have ever received when he told me, “Lance, you work like a Mexican.” We worked together in the winery for just that one harvest. The next year Jim Bundschu promoted him to Vineyard manager, a position he kept for more than 20 years.

We believe this to be the first Spanish language advertisement in the California wine business. It features Marcelo sitting on his tractor in the midst of Rhinefarm Vineyards. We set up to do this shoot on three different days before we actually shot photos, because Ron Zak insisted we wait for an afternoon with clouds on the horizon. It was worth the wait. Always trust the artist. Marcelo was understandably proud of starring in this photo.

Marcelo was able to purchase property about a mile from Rhinefarm. He planted two acres of merlot grapes and did all the work on the vineyard from disking, pruning, and harvesting the grapes. Wind blowing through a row of Eucalyptus trees to the west of his property seemed to flavor the grapes with a distinctive minty character. For years, I made small batches of wine from Marcelo’s grapes for my home brand called Guerrilla Vino. When Rusty Staub, the famous baseball player and my longtime friend, enticed me to make wine for him to help raise money for his various charities, we launched Relentless Wines using those unique merlot grapes from Marcelo’s Vineyard.

Marcelo passed earlier this year.

McCullough insisted it was time for Bundschu and I to appear in a poster. I stacked a bunch of Gundlach Bundschu cases until we had a wall seven feet high to serve as a backdrop. We shot dozens of photos with Jim and I toasting one another. I had the idea of “blind tastings and your last request,” so we shot a few photos of us in blindfolds. After looking at the photos, Jim decided to go conservative. He chose a simple photo of the two of us sitting on Gundlach Bundschu cases toasting one another. We even printed those posters, which I thought were boring.

I enlisted Ron Zak and Chuck House to help me produce the “Blind Tastings” poster. Chuck did a brilliant job with the bullet holes. I paid for the poster production myself. At the bottom we added, “Unauthorized, Unapproved Collector’s Edition.” Once I had the posters in hand, we passed them out letting people know that Bundschu was unaware of their existence and enlisting recipients to keep the secret as long as possible. If my recollection serves, we were able to go two months before the secret got out, making the poster a true collector’s treasure.