Partners in Conservation
The Jack L. Davies Fund seeks to create a $500,000 endowment to support a perpetual, annual program of micro-grants focused on research and educational outreach. Guided by a volunteer board of directors, the JLD Ag Fund operates under the premise that only an educated electorate can protect the integrity of the land, and is dedicated to a mission of preserving, protecting, and promoting agricultural land in the Napa Valley.
In 1967, Davies served as chairman of a citizen committee formed to support the creation of the groundbreaking Napa County Agricultural Preserve. Under the tutelage of nationally recognized environmentalist, Dorothy Erskine, Davies was a leading supporter of one of the region’s earliest conservation groups, Upper Napa Valley Associates and circulated petitions supporting the creation of the Ag Preserve. He also appeared before the County Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors to speak in favor of it.
After the Ag Preserve’s successful establishment in 1968, Davies continued to be an active participant in every major agriculture-open space issue and program facing the county until his death in 1998.
Davies came to the Napa Valley in 1965 after a career as a successful Los Angeles businessman. He bought the 220-acre Jacob Schram property including, Schramsberg, the name of the winery built there in 1862. The winery achieved notoriety in 1883 when Robert Louis Stevenson, in his book “The Silverado Squatters”, wrote long and lovingly about the Schramsburg winery, its wine, and its owner, Jacob Schram.
However, in 1965, after years of neglect, all of the buildings on the property, the wine caves and the vineyards were all in need of repair, restoration or replacement. Over the next 33 years, Jack and his wife Jamie not only rebuilt the facilities and restored the vineyards and caves, they also established Schramsberg as the home of internationally acclaimed sparkling wines.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon chose a 1969 Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc to toast the normalization of United States’ diplomatic relations with China during his historic trip to Beijing.
The Napa County Farm Bureau is a grass roots organization that began over 100 years ago when members banded together to share resources and promote agriculture throughout Napa County.
Today, NCFB strives to preserve land for agriculture, and creates policies and programs that allow us to maintain a high quality of life in the Napa Valley.
NCFB supports sustainable farming practices, and works with the community in order to achieve these goals.
This philosophy is witnessed in the Napa County Farm Bureau membership totaling over 700 local farmers and ranchers, individuals involved in production agriculture and non-farm members and businesses that support our goals, activities, and services. We are a voluntary, non-profit, non-governmental organization whose basic goal is to ensure the right political, social, and economic climate for the continuation of agriculture.
It began as most things do in Napa Valley – over a table replete with good food and good wines. Seventy years later, that epicurean and social camaraderie has grown into a spirited partnership committed to advancing Napa Valley wines worldwide. Founded in 1944, Napa Valley Vintners is a voluntary regional trade group with an active membership of more than 525 wineries, representing a tradition of dedicated vintners and grape growers who work and care for this premier winegrowing region.
In the early 1940s, the fledgling Napa Valley wine industry faced a number of problems, including price controls and a daunting shortage of labor, bottles and rail cars for eastern shipment of wine. In 1943, Louis M. Martini, John Daniel Jr., Charles Forni and Louis Stralla discussed forming an association, a vintner’s forum, which would allow a regular opportunity to exchange ideas and work as a group to overcome some of these obstacles and to elevate the status of Napa Valley wines.
The vintners believed they could solve industry-related problems better collectively than as individuals. By 1944, a formal agreement of association was drafted and signed by seven vintners: Fernande de Latour of Beaulieu Vineyard, Felix Salmina of Larkmead, Charles Forni of the Napa Valley Co-op, Robert Mondavi of CK Mondavi and Sons, John Daniel Jr. of Inglenook, Louis M. Martini and Louis Stralla.
Although the original members of the Napa Valley Vintners often referred to themselves as “an eating and drinking society,” they set in motion the hospitality, industry advocacy and marketing activities that have focused worldwide attention on the uniqueness of this small valley as one of the premier winegrowing regions in the world.
“Fifty years ago, few recognized the name Napa Valley in world wine circles,” said the late Robert Mondavi a few years ago. “Now the world looks at Napa Valley vintners as leaders in the world wine community.” The vintners are community leaders as illustrated by the efforts to establish the Ag Preserve in the late 1960s, and are also committed to supporting the wellbeing of the local community, having given $170 million to local nonprofit organizations since the inception of Auction Napa Valley, the organization’s community fundraiser.
Today, members of the Napa Valley Vintners focus on preserving Napa Valley as a viticultural and enological treasure; producing the highest quality wines; advocating on issues of interest to the Napa Valley wine industry; and marketing Napa Valley wines in the national and international marketplace.
The Napa Valley Grapegrowers (NVG) is a community of wine industry leaders committed to working together to advance the heritage and reputation of the Napa Valley appellation.
Representing the majority of planted vineyard land in Napa County, the NVG is passionate about helping growers produce quality grapes in a sustainable fashion that enhance their value and preserve Napa’s long history of world-class winegrapes.
As a steward of the land and a resource to its members, the Napa Valley Grapegrowers provides educational seminars, events and services that assist growers in addressing the issues they face, while preserving Napa Valley’s unique grapegrowing heritage for the members of tomorrow.
The NVG represents over 726 Napa County grapegrowers, vineyard owners, and associate businesses.
For more information, visit their website Napa Valley Grapegrowers.
On April 9, 1968, the Napa County Board of Supervisors passed the landmark zoning ordinance that created the first Agricultural Preserve in the United States, which reflects a commitment to agriculture as the “highest and best use” of most of the land outside of the local town and cities. This preserved open space and prevented overdevelopment – ensuring that Napa County’s limited resources are preserved for agriculture first and foremost.
The local ordinance dictated that the only commercial activity allowed in these areas was agriculture and set minimum lot sizes that prevented further subdivision of parcels, limiting the potential for development. The 20-acre minimum in the Ag Preserve and 40-acre minimum in the Ag Watershed were later increased to 40 acres and 160 acres, respectively.
Initially, the ordinance protected 26,000 acres of land from Napa to Calistoga. Today, 31,609 acres are contained within the preserve, and no land has ever been removed. It’s why Napa County looks the way it does today.
Napa County is dedicated to preserving and sustaining our community for present and future generations with generous open space, a thriving agricultural industry, and a quality human and natural environment.
Find out more about how Napa County continues to protect the Ag Preserve: countyofnapa.org
Visit Napa Valley is the official tourism marketing organization for the Napa Valley, with a mission to promote, protect and enhance the region’s position as one of the world’s premier wine, food, arts and wellness destinations.
The Napa Valley, conveniently located just an hour from the San Francisco Bay Area, consists of the following distinctive towns, including, from north to south, Calistoga, St. Helena, Rutherford/Oakville, Yountville, the city of Napa, American Canyon, and the outdoor recreation area of Lake Berryessa.
For additional information about the Napa Valley, or to plan your Napa Valley experience, please explore VisitNapaValley.com, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram @VisitNapaValley