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WINE: Fish-habitat plan uniting growers, conservationists

The Virginia-based fisheries restoration group Trout Unlimited is a champion of a new cooperative salmon conservation proposal with Sonoma County winegrape growers, but it wasn’t always.

From the early 1990s through mid-2007, Trout Unlimited, joined later by the Audubon Society, had been pushing state and federal regulators to get tough with hundreds of stalled North Coast applications for river water use and was a primary backer of Assembly Bill 2121, signed in 2004, calling for a North Coast Instream Flow Policy, presumably with teeth, by the end of 2007.

However, channels already were being cut to allow for cooperative solutions to the fish-habitat problem.

For two years previously, Trout Unlimited had been in talks with the Sonoma County Salmonid Coalition on cooperative conservation alternatives to stream restrictions allowed for by federal policy.

Step one toward that goal was a draft report the National Marine Fisheries Service prepared on critical fish-habitat restoration projects needed in a dozen tributaries in Dry Creek, Alexander and Knights valleys, according to coalition consultant Marc Kelley.

Step two was a stream creek flow model by U.C. Berkeley environmental scientists Adina Merenlender and Matt Deitch published earlier this year in the U.C. journal “California Agriculture.”

With that model and a list of needed projects, the coalition moved to step three, pulling together 16 influential grapegrow-ers for a “Water and Wine” proposal for cooperative water management as well as fish-habitat restoration projects in essential spawning creeks.

Now, the partners are isolating demonstration restoration projects they can submit to the State Water Resources Board by the May 1 deadline for comment on the draft instream flow policy.

Trout Unlimited’s successful restoration projects nationwide as well as with North Coast lumber companies and along the Russian River tributaries convinced Don McEnhill of water quality watchdog group Russian Riverkeeper.

Working with water users to bolster fish populations rather than suing growers or pushing Sacramento to take action was the most expedient method, he suggested. “I think the proposal for timing water withdrawals so farmers get water and fish get the water they need is a good solution,” he said.

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Wine People

Easton Manson, owner of Honolulu-based Malulani Investments, which owns Langtry Estate & Vineyards on 22,000 acres straddling Napa and Lake counties, appointed Tim Matz as president to lead the expansion of the wines and further development of tourism and hospitality opportunities at the property.

With 21 years in management of spirits and wine brands, Mr. Matz literally wrote the book on international wine sales, titled “Wine, A Global Business.” For four years previously, Mr. Matz was president of Jackson Wine Estates International, the global portfolio of vintner Jess Jackson. Before that he was president for Napa-based Southcorp Wines Americas and stayed on as general manager of imports and Canada for two years after its acquisition in 2002 by what is now called Foster’s Wine Estates.

At Langtry, Mr. Matz will be carrying out a three-pronged strategy. First, the company plans to increase sales and likely prices for the Langtry Estate brand, which has red wines that retail for $40 a bottle.

Secondly, he will base company growth on Lake County appellation labels of the backbone Guenoc brand, which retail for $12 to $15 a bottle. California appellation Guenoc, which retails for less than $10 a bottle, currently makes up much of the 120,000 cases a year the winery produces.

Earlier this year, Richard Camera was named director of winemaking to improve quality in Langtry’s 400 acres of vines. He also will be developing the Napa County vineyards for eventual production of a Napa Valley brand, according to Mr. Matz.

Third, Mr. Matz wants to improve the hospitality and recreation offerings of the property, and Malulani has been spending millions of dollars over the past several years upgrading the 18 lodging rooms in the historic Langtry House and other buildings as well as better roads, gates and signage. A proposed 18-hole golf course for trade representatives and special guests could be finished next year if county officials approve it in early April.

Langtry also will be working with the Lake County Wineries Association to promote wine tourism in the county. “If we grow Lake County, we grow Langtry,” Mr. Matz said.

Speaking of Lake County, Shannon Ridge winery in Clearlake Oaks brought on Kathy Brock as regional sales manager for the Pacific Northwest. Her sales management background includes Cecchetti Wine Co., Langtry Estate & Vineyards, DFV Wines and St. Supery Vineyards & Winery.

Portocork America, the Napa-based natural cork distributor, hired former Clos Pegase, Johnson/Turnbull and Belo winemaker Terry Dewane in sales.

The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone earlier this month inducted Darrel Corti, John Daniel Jr., Paul Draper, Ernest and Julio Gallo, Mike Grgich of Grgich Hills Estate, Louis Martini and Carl Wente of Wente Vineyards into its Vintners Hall of Fame, in its second year.

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Submit items for this column to Jeff Quackenbush at 707-579-2900 ext. 206, jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or fax 707-579-8475.