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2 0 1 4 • N A P A V A L L E Y V I N T N E R S
COMMUNITY
After retiring from the military as a lieutenant colonel, Bud Robinson
headed to Napa Valley in 1967 and purchased 78 acres, half of the Stags
Leap Palisades. He wasn’t a wine drinker and he didn’t know anything
about planting vines, but his neighbors—legendary growers Nathan Fay
and Father Tom Turnbull—did. While his daughter, Susan, rode her
horses all over the hills (she used to show hunters and jumpers), Bud
and his neighbors experimented in the fields, eventually planting and
growing grapes for home wines and to sell to other wineries. If it wasn’t
for the friendships he cultivated along with those vines, Robinson Family
Vineyards would never have been born. “There were many parties to
celebrate their home wines,” remembers Susan Robinson, who took the
winery commercial in 1998. The neighborhood rallied back then to see
Bud’s eventual success, and the momentum continues to this day. “We
all support each other—everyone wants everyone else to do well, and we
all feel that can happen. We all socialize together and refer our guests
to each other’s wineries. Besides, it’s a nice community to raise a family
in,” says Susan, citing community as the big reason her three daughters
and their families have moved to their hometown. Today, Susan and
her husband, along with her girls and eight grandchildren, carry on the
family business with a hands-on approach. “It’s a lot of work and a labor
of love, but my family enjoys it. And we hope that will continue on.”
NEXT GENERATION
Fourth-generation Taylor Bartolucci didn’t always recognize her
family’s passion for grapes as her own. Since 1922, her family has been
making wine, first at the Madonna Winery and then at the Madonna
Estate, after the original winery was sold. The Bartoluccis are the third-
oldest winemaking family in Napa Valley, a legacy Taylor did not take
lightly. “I always followed my father around the cellars when I was a
kid—it was his passion. My family never pressured me to stay in the
business, but I fell back into it very naturally after attending college.”
Ultimately Taylor channeled her skills into sales and marketing at the
company. “When I did decide to come back, my parents insisted I learn
all aspects of the business first—from the office, to the tasting room,
working the harvest and being in the lab as well.” Taylor is also part of
Next Generation Vintners, an organization for second generations to
promote family legacy wineries. “Because this is more than just a job to
me,” she adds, “it’s a lifestyle.”
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Robinson Family Baldacci Family
Photo: Kristin Maher