The Patriarch of Sonoma's Famous Latino Winemaking Family

The Patriarch of Sonoma’s Famous Latino Winemaking Family

Sonoma has its share of gentlemen vintners who enjoy the finer pleasures of winemaking without getting dirt under their fingernails. But it’s also the grape-stomping grounds of Reynaldo Robledo, a pioneering figure who turns that genteel image on its head. In 1968, at age 16, Reynaldo left his home in Michoacan, Mexico, and worked his way north to Calistoga, where he scratched out a living in the vineyards, earning as little as $1.10 an hour.

At 65 and silver-haired, Reynaldo today is the patriarch of a robust family business, and the founder of the first winery in the U.S. owned by a former migrant worker from Mexico. The Robledo Family Winery has vineyards encompassing roughly 350 acres, stretching from Sonoma into Napa and Lake Counties.

From “The Robledos” by Josh Sens in Sunset, 2016; Photo by David H. Collier

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