721 Martha Barra: Owner of Barra of Mendocino

0:00I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be.

0:09Kara Goldin:You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to The Kara Golden Show. I am super excited for my next guest today. She is someone whose story will absolutely inspire you.

0:53Kara Goldin:anyone navigating legacy, reinvention, or the long road of building something super real and awesome. I'm joined by Martha Berra, who is the owner of Berra of Mendocino, and also Girasola Wines. You may know about those incredible, incredible wines. They are some of the most tenacious leaders in the California wine industry up in Mendocino. And Martha has spent over four decades helping grow one of the earliest organic vineyards in the U.S. before organic was even a conversation. Alongside her late husband, Charlie, a pioneer in sustainable grape growing, She transformed what started as a quiet family operation into a powerhouse business and 350 beautiful acres of certified organic vineyards up in Mendocino, two successful wine brands, and a massive custom crush facility serving wineries across the region.

2:05Kara Goldin:That is known as Redwood Valley Cellars. But this isn't just a story about grapes and wine and good wine. It's about staying the course through change, standing by your values when it's easier, maybe more convenient not to, and building a business that reflects who you are. So I cannot wait to jump into this conversation with Martha. And without further ado, welcome, Martha. How are you? I'm just fine. Thank you, Cara. That's awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you for coming on today. Really, really appreciate it. So let's start with the brand. Actually, the two brands, if you can talk a bit about Bara and also Girasola.

2:55Kara Goldin:Girasola. Might as well be Italian this morning. You say it much, but much better. You've had more practice with it. What makes both of your brands stand out in this incredible world of wine? This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Range Rover Sport. You know that old saying, it's not what you say, it's how you say it. Well, I believe it's also how you show up because in business and in life, You have to lead with presence, power, and adaptability. That's exactly what the Range Rover Sport brings to the table. It's a force inside and out with a dynamic sporting personality, an assertive stance, and refined performance.

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4:37Kara Goldin:Again, that's RangeRover.com slash US slash sport. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. And there is, as you mentioned, Kara, there is a lot of wine out there. We're distinguished in the marketplace by, we're not big, we're only about 20 ,000 cases, but we are certified organic. That is one of the things that makes us distinct. There aren't very many wine labels that have certification on the label. And to be certified, you have to be not only farming certified organic in the vineyard, but you have to be certified at the wine level too. Because making wine under National Organic Program standards is very different.

5:32our recent winemaker told us when he started making wine for us that he felt it was like making wine with one hand tied behind his back wow it's there's a lot of things that you cannot add to it so both brands are carried the california certified organic farmer certification That does, as I say That's one of the distinctions We are all a state Family owned We have a story, a long history Not only in just Mendocino County But in the California North Coast too And we're in 28 states And Japan Well, we were in Canada But that order got canceled and I totally understand why.

6:27Kara Goldin:Oh, crazy, crazy. So you started way, 45 years ago was when you first started. When I married Charlie. When you married Charlie. So can you give us the backstory, the family backstory of the vineyard? Well, Charlie's family came, they were Italian, came from Northern Italy around a town called Cuneo. which is northern Italy, but just up north of the French Riviera. So his mother was actually born in France. So they were always farmers. So Charlie was brought up in the vineyard. And in high school, he actually went to school half a day, leased a vineyard from one of his neighbors, and when all was said and done that year, he made three times as much as the principal.

7:30Charlie never went on to college. He jumped right in and started farming. He did spend time in the Korean War, luckily at the Presidio of San Francisco. When he came out of the service, he had some money in his pocket And that's when our vineyards were purchased, much of it, 150 acres at that time. The home ranch is now 275. We've just kept adding parcels of neighbors that came up for sale. And then have bought another 50 acres surrounding the custom crush facility, River Valley Cellars. And then one high on the mountain that has Petit Saraw and Zinfandel in it, on it, planted on it.

8:23Kara Goldin:Wow. And so those are the three estates. That's incredible. So you've been farming organically long before it became popular. For the neophytes of organic wine, can you share how that, what does that mean exactly? Well, and then if you look at food production, it's much the same. You don't use anything that has CIDE. That's chemicals. We don't use any kind of chemicals. We are above sustainable. My husband, Charlie, would never become biodynamic. He would never fill that cow horn with manure and bury it and then make tea. You just couldn't talk him into that. He would call that voodoo, but he understood the organic production of planting cover crops, not using commercial fertilizer.

9:21You get your nutrients of building the soil. And so, you know, you're protecting soil, water, air, quality of working conditions, particularly for our employees. so there's a lot of that and it's a commitment so we've been certified since 1988 wow his grandfather and father farmed and he said they never use chemicals and so he would say why should I so we have other for example leafhoppers is one of our biggest pests but what we use is stylet oil which is kind of a mineral oil Or we can use pyganic, which is chrysanthemum oil. So these are what I call soft chemicals. They're naturally produced.

10:20So very, very different than what standard agriculture uses.

10:27Kara Goldin:So interesting. So did you ever think, obviously, you met Charlie, I would imagine. Did you live in the area and you met him? And that's, that's amazing for that story, Kara. I'm asking for that story. How did you end up? People tell you that we met in church. That's not true. We, uh, both of our children, I had two children and he had one in St. Mary's school, which is a Catholic school. So we, I was on the school board with Charlie and there were fundraisers and we would work together on that. And then there is, uh, He was on the County Planning Commission and I was on the City Planning Commission.

11:10And here again, there was this person. So, you know, you just recognize there's a bond there. So that's, I was always in the legal field. And when I married Charlie, then I jumped right in.

11:28Kara Goldin:That's amazing. So I love hearing the story of people who, I mean, there's multiple stories there, but you didn't know you were going to get into the wine industry. Not at all. And you didn't go into the wine industry right out of school, any school, right? You had a whole other career. How challenging was it for you to really understand this industry and all of the ins and outs? I mean, I think it's almost when you grow up doing something, there's just so many things that you get up every morning and make sure are getting done that are critical and important. I would imagine that, you know, jumping in a little bit later on in life was interesting but challenging.

12:19Well, it was. But my skills of my previous work experience came in very handy here. And I learned, Tara, very early on that I didn't give Charlie any kind of advice on how you farm. And then he didn't get into my compliance, finance, contracts. I had different skills that I brought to the table. So we complemented each other. I love that. Our diverse skill sets.

12:54Kara Goldin:So how did once you came in and it sounds like you were putting some processes in place, is that fair to say? And what was the main, I guess, what did it look like then versus what it looks like today? Was there innovation? What else did you start that maybe you didn't have when you first got involved? Well, we didn't have the custom crush when we first, when we were just farmers, that was kind of a piece of cake because we didn't have brands. We didn't have brands and we didn't have the custom crush. So we could actually, my son was going to Cal Poly at that time. and we would take off and go to Europe for two and a half months and Charlie would be on the phone to my son and he would pretty much run the vineyards and that was pretty simple but then you know we bought the custom crush facility and in a big tasting room 5 ,000 square feet it's beautiful wow it is and so then well we and we bought that with a partner well he had brands And so pretty soon it's evident that we will follow along that line.

14:17And so that was created, just another entity. So I started out with farming and then go to brands, actually the custom brush first, and then the brands. So now we've got three separate projects going here. is so much to build.

14:41Kara Goldin:I bet. What is the biggest part of your business then? Money-wise right now, the custom crush is. Interesting. Because it's, and you know, we've been not selling grapes, but making bulk wine that other wineries would buy. Well, now there's a lot of bulk wine coming in from other countries that's giving us competition. But also, too, there's just a downturn in the total worldwide wine market. And alcohol in general, because there is a movement, it's very strong in Europe and in Canada, that all alcohol is not good for you. So I'm sure you've heard this. Yes, yes. So what are your feelings on that?

15:34Kara Goldin:I mean, has it, I know I've heard of non-alcoholic wines and there's a few out there. Right. I haven't explored them. Even there's non-alcoholic gin. So, no, there's, and there's something for everyone. So I think we will stay the course and not follow what may be the trend today. but I just, I know that there's a lot of grapes coming out in California. But as I say, I think we are able to stay the course and to make really, really good wine and be in that niche of the organic sector. And it will all balance out. That's my opinion. So can you explain to people the difference between the two wine brands, Barra as well as Girosola.

16:30Kara Goldin:And just, you started to explain it, but I'd love to hear a little bit more and maybe name all the different brands underneath them and how they're really unique and different. The other varietals? Uh-huh. So we make Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, which is unusual. There's only 438 acres grown in California. So we make Pinot Blanc and we happen to have eight acres. The other white is Mustac Canelli, and a very small production of that. Our main varietals are Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Zimtendel, Sangiovese. And we do a Charlie's blend, which is a blend, and that blend changes every year. This year it was strong on Cabernet and with a bit of Merlot and some Petit Syrah.

17:21so it's a beautiful blend that's so delicious so the main difference between those two brands is bara it's all the new french oak and as i say we buy about 30 new french oak a year and then the girasole is we add staves hanging down in the tank just a kiss of oak but it's enough to give it complexity what are staves sorry i'm not familiar with that oh oak staves or you can buy blocks it's amazing the oak and there it's called oak adjuncts oak additives so some of them are squares that are in bags and you put them into the tank and it just gives it and and they've gotten so good that you can choose what you what the flavors are that you want to enhance the wine with.

18:19And it's just, as I say, an alternative to oak. And many, many wineries are drinking every stage. It just costs a lot less. A good oak barrel from France, France Roque Frere is what we use a lot of, is like$1 ,300 for 59 gallons.

18:39Kara Goldin:Wow. So interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Super, super interesting. So do you have one wine that is kind of the runaway bestseller, I guess, of all of your wines? We excel. We really, if you look at our sales records, it is Pinot Noir. We grow right up against the foothills in Mendocino County. And even though it's hot in September during the day when the fruit is ripening, The nights are sometimes 50 degrees difference. There's a diurnal shift between day and nighttime temperatures. And so we can ripen fruit, but have longer hang time and nice natural acidity. So growing the grapes, how long does that process take?

19:32Well, and I will take you through that because we just replanted 15 acres of a new Pinot Noir, Clone 667. So we pull it out and I will tell you about making biochar in a minute. I won't get sidetracked, but that's what we did with the old lines. So I have to tell you about that. Yeah, I'd love to hear that. It takes about, you plant, we buy the stock from the nursery, and we use St. George rootstock grafted at the nursery to the clone that we asked for. So those then, it takes about a year to do that. You order it a year ahead of time, plant it, and then there's, it takes three years before you get a decent crop.

20:23Kara Goldin:And then when you actually do harvest and do all of that, how long does that process take to the point where somebody can actually consume a bottle of wine? We'll pick the grapes and deliver them to the winery and press them off. And then with the bara, it will go into a barrel. And then Pinot Noir will age nine months. Petit Syrah, Zinfandel, and Cabernet, it's 18 months. So that's quite a while to hold wine. But it's something that we believe in. And it seems to pay off for us to have the two choices. And there really is a difference when you taste the two. Some people prefer the chirosoling.

21:17And it's just their flavor profile.

21:22Kara Goldin:It's so interesting. Has climate change impacted how you farm or think about sustainability? Not so far, no. One of the things, Kara, is this. We are very fortunate in that we have big ponds, big reservoirs that fill with about 10 inches of rain. So we have plenty of water that does not come out of, we do not pull it out of the Russian River. So we're very sustainable in that regard in that we do have plenty of water. So, so far, we've been able to, you know, our vines look beautiful. So know that we haven't felt, there are some challenges. One of them happens to be with labor. And that is, for example, this last week, it's been very, very warm.

22:19And so our guys will go home when it's 92 degrees. And so they don't get to work a full day. There's not a thing we can do about it. It's just too warm. It's just too warm.

22:30Kara Goldin:Yeah, it's so interesting. So when you think about the fact that you have a great organic wine, and maybe you see these other wines out there that are not following the same processes as you, I guess from a consumer perspective, how can you spot a great organic wine? Well, I think it comes down to the same concept as with food, is that either you believe that that product, which is certified organic, is better for you, better for not only you, but the health of the planet. You make that commitment. That's a choice that a consumer makes. It's very different than sustainable or regenerative unless it's regenerative organic.

23:25One of the things, as I will mention again, is that our wines carry the certification on the label. There are many salespeople, and I will put it back on the farmer, but because there is a lot of greenwashing. yes we farm organically but no we're not certified it's too costly it's too time consuming um so there are a dozen excuses why they won't go ahead and get the certification but yet they would like to benefit from the move and there is a real strong movement of buying organic food and buying organic wine. It's very much a growing segment of the wine economy. So Europe has a, and they call it organic, if the product is grown, either food or grapes are grown by the organic standards.

24:32That's not true here in the United States. This is one of the things that really confuses a consumer when it comes to wine, is that if we add sulfites, and our wines are, by the way, under 100 parts per million sulfites, added sulfites under, that's very low. We can only say made with organic grapes. We can't use the USDA. and that's really confused whereas organic food can use the usda and that's common and so when you get to the wine this is the part that really confuses the consumer yeah is that um it because they will look for the usda and there are very few um we happen to have fry here in our own community who do not add sulfites.

25:28And so they can use the USDA. But there are only about, in California, probably about five or six that do not add sulfites. Wow, that's so interesting. Yeah. And so now then we've gotten into the other very, I call it a buzzword, is regenerative. so I farm regenerative but unless it's unless you're farming regenerative organic by those standards it really doesn't mean that much and explain that well because you can still use chemicals okay so there's a lot of what I would call nice things you can do you can how you treat your employees, how you're building wildlife refuges. You know, there's lots of other parts that go into it versus building the soil or what you're putting into the soil and the water and the air.

26:41So it's just very, very stringent what we, inspections that we do versus other certifications.

26:49Kara Goldin:So when you think back on building the business and maybe one of those hard decisions that ended up to be a really good decision, but it was a tough decision. You weren't sure whether or not it was the right thing to do, maybe outside of staying organic and not going with what everybody else is doing in the industry. What's one of those decisions that, you know, was kind of, I don't know if we're going to make it, right? If this is the right thing to do. You know, I think we've, you know, farming is always an iffy thing, period. And so I don't know that we've ever really been faced with that. I'll tell you what we've been faced with right now.

27:46And this is, we have just taken over another, at least another very large custom crutch facility. Oh, interesting. It was owned by Constellation. Ah. It's the same size we are. so is that the right decision we don't know but we've done it and so we'll just have to see how the market lays out so it's one of the things is we're fortunate in that we don't carry a lot of debt so we don't make I guess we just don't make unwise decisions we haven't expanded vineyards as much as we could have. You know, we're larger than many, but still pretty sound footing.

28:40Kara Goldin:Have you always stayed primarily in the Mendocino region? Have you ever been tempted to go outside, maybe over to Sonoma or Napa or any of the other areas? When we bought our partner out in the custom fresh business, And that was in 2007. We considered very seriously not buying him out, but going, having him buy us out and then going to Sonoma County particularly. And we had owned with partners what is now Francis Ford Coppola. Oh. Yeah. At that time, it was called Souverain. And so we, you know, we were familiar with doing business in Sonoma County. so um but we decided that since our farms all of our vineyards were here it would be better that we stay focused so we ended up buying our partner out and then um so interesting you know being the custom crush facility so what are some of the biggest misconceptions uh about the about i guess wine and wine production that maybe the typical consumer is not aware of, or even the typical new person coming into the industry who is, I'm sure you've seen many over the years.

30:08Kara Goldin:And I think, you know, just the misconceptions about wine, wine and winemaking. I think they think it's more maybe complex and sophisticated than it really is. If you find something that you really like, it's fine if you put an ice cube in it. That's your taste, right? I love that. If you like to drink Moscato, that's fine. If you like something a little sweeter, not everyone appreciates a really fine Cabernet. And there's such an opportunity there. I don't think there's any other product that tastes like fruit, different kinds of fruit. And this is what makes wine so much fun, is tasting each varietal that fits and ones that fit your palate and also what you're eating.

31:08So it's to be shared with family and friends. is to be shared at picnics, backyard barbecues, on the patio at 5 o 'clock, drinking a wonderful rosé, which, by the way, we make rosé too. Yeah, and it's terrific. And we're sure we make the San Gervais, Pinot, and Zinfandel. And it really pops.