I wrote a napablogger column in Napa for around ten years, 2004 to 2014. Then my wife and I decided to retire and at the end of 2015 we sold our vineyard and moved out. After living elsewhere for over eight years we decided to move back and landed in Saint Helena. Several people asked me my impressions of how Napa was different since I left and came back, so I decided to start my new napablogger column with that. I actually wrote this piece in August of 2024 and saved it to start my new napablogger column with, so it would be fresh eyes on the valley.
So, here goes.
It takes a while to get a feel for a place, and I was not willing or able to answer the question of how Napa has changed when asked in the last few weeks because I felt like I didn’t know enough yet to say. Napa has changed, I have changed, the world has changed, so it would be surprising if anything wasn’t changed.
Since I am starting up my napablogger column again, I thought a good place to start would be there, what I do notice about Napa now that is different. I also have to say that living here is a very different experience than visiting. I came as a visitor perhaps a dozen times in those eight years and one just does not have the same frame of mind as a local when you are a tourist. Tourists are here to have fun, spend money, party, relax. You don’t notice or think about the problems or issues going on, and you don’t go to the same places, like say the grocery store or dentist.
Napa has an incredible spirit or soul, a unique energy which is what I love about the place. The other thing I always loved about Napa is that the people got along well with each other, there was definitely a spirit of community where we all felt we were working together, and even though there was a lot of disagreement, in the end some kind of consensus would be reached, a decision made, something got done. It’s not like that in other places, there was clear leadership and buy in by the community that is unusual in my experience.
I know from my wife and her stories about her family, which has been in Napa since the 1870’s as farmers, that that strong sense of working together originated long ago, when if your tractor got stuck in the mud your neighbors all came over and helped you pull it out. Welfare here used to be, if you were down on your luck you stopped by a farm house and in exchange for some work you got fed.
The culture was also fed by the early wine industry pioneers, especially Robert Mondavi who always worked together with others for the greater good of all. Without going into much detail, the winery pioneers who put up the now famous sign, “bottled poetry” created a community of cooperation and all in it together.
Giving was the key to the winemakers success, giving the world the best wine, giving to the community of winemakers to help them make better wine themselves. New winemakers were welcomed in and taught in a tremendous community spirit.
Now with the corporatization and investment group ownership that era has actually very recently passed. If someone’s tractor gets stuck they have numerous professional staff to handle it, no need to involve neighbors, but that kind of working together for the greater good isn’t happening the same way any more.
The old guard has passed on now and nothing equal has risen up to take it’s place. There is a lack and one can feel it here, and that has changed just in those last eight years.
Another thing that happened is that tourism rose high, but now that I am back it seems that it has curtailed off. I was surprised by the lack of traffic, when we bought a house in St. Helena I was prepared to just grin and bear the traffic, but in fact it has not been bad at all. It’s certainly better than when I left at the end of 2015.
On the other hand, seeing long lines of traffic on Silverado of workers going home in the afternoon, I wonder. I guess I will find out more as I go.
So tourism is on the wane, as are wine sales, something I never considered could happen at the time I left, we were on an upward trajectory and it never occurred to me it could start downward. Silicon Valley Bank reports that tourism has reduced by 30%– a big number! Since 2016.
Napa seems tired, it seems beaten down. It’s a bit dusty and bumpy. Worn out. My wife noticed the same thing apart from me and confirmed my sense of it. I attribute it to too many people, tourists and wine entrepreneurs included, coming to take what they want from the place. Too many takers, and not enough givers has worn the place down. Too many bought out wineries whose management is here for the quarterlies, looking to expand the profit margin.
People are still arguing about the same land use issues, same tourism issues, growth vs environment. It seems the environmentalists have taken more of an upper hand to some extent than before, but still the same issues.
But the context has shifted. Overtourism seems to be taking care of itself due to changes in the market, one aspect of which is that Napa is catering more to the high end wine drinker, and it also has become a desirable place for wealthy second home owners. Some big percentages of homes are now owned by second home owners. I understand that the population in St. Helena, for example, has reduced by a thousand since 2019, in only five years. That’s big. Why??
The problem here now is not overtourism, the problem is under community, not enough locals, and a loss of the guiding hand of community spirit that used to prevail. Oh, it is not 100% gone or lost, there’s a process that is going on, but that is where it is going and the recent deaths of Mike Grgich and Warren Winiarski was another two nails in the coffin.
Something has died in Napa, and one way I notice it is how many people are saying Napa needs something new. Napa needs a new and different kind of business. But what? Nothing has yet fully emerged, a few ideas floating around, but what’s telling is that that is even on the table here.
Yet it is, and maybe that is not a bad thing. The situation here is not unique, the whole world is going through a period of destruction, looking for something new to emerge that has not yet been created. It has been an incredibly difficult past five years for everyone, not just Napa. This is Napa’s unique experience in part of a larger process going on, well, everywhere, even internationally.
The feeling is, it’s time for transformation, but to what? Honestly, I think tourism is here to stay, but if it increasingly turns to higher end people who spend more money but there are less of them, that kinda works methinks. More TOT, less cost to maintain.
The real problem is turning grape growing into a tourism industry has drained the place, not revitalized it. Wine is here to stay, however, and so is tourism most likely.
One further thing I have noticed, in consonance with the rest of the world, is how divided people have become against each other. It’s hardly a surprise, as I see constant put downs on social media here and everywhere of people turning against each other based on politics. Everyone realizes this.
The thing that gave Napa community spirit was the influence of the original wine industry, the knowledge that we were creating something special and we are all in it together. Knowing our families history, that started a long time ago, there is this sort of original spirit of Napa that is a strong community spirit.
What is a community spirit? It’s a spirit of belonging, you were somewhere you belonged, where people care about each other and their community, the sense that we are all in this together and work together to create success, to make it work well for all.
I felt that tremendously when I lived here before, and it inspired me to get very involved in the community. What’s happened is that it has somewhat lost it’s focus here. The ideals of making the world’s best wine, working together in this actually very small valley to create something special, happened. Then so many people wanted a piece of it, and so much success happened that it went so far as to dilute it’s own self. The pioneers of this wine movement gradually died off and sold off, and now Napa is on the brink of something new that hasn’t happened yet.
People are trying to find a new basis for community. The old basis that has gotten tired and too weathered is agricultural preservation. The old wine makers gathered around that value, that ideal, literally that zoning law from which all else followed. Preserve the farms, preserve the farmland, and work together on that, and all else follows.
And all else did follow, maybe too well.
Part 2 coming—Some thoughts on creating a new Napa