The Hafner Vineyard Team
From vine to bottle to your door
When patrons visit our winery and meet us, many times the first thing they say is, "Now I have a face to go with the voice." Here are the faces that go with the voices on the telephone answering “Hafner Vineyard” and are part of our online presence, and also our veteran vineyard crew:
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Wine made at home in 1966 and a bad horseshoe game in 1967 led Dick Hafner to this secluded Alexander Valley spot in California’s Sonoma County. St. Louis native, former newsman and retired from the University of California in Berkeley, he corresponds regularly with patrons of Hafner Vineyard wines. And from time to time the 1925 Hafner drives the vineyard’s 1946 Ford flatbed truck in the vineyard and local parades. |
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Much spirit in this small family winery comes from Mary Hafner, wife of Dick and mother of Parke and Scott (and daughters Julie and Betsy in the East). Reflecting summers backpacking in the Sierra, she can be found jogging through the vineyard in the early morning. Her social and culinary skills are shown in events for Hafner Vineyard patrons and are matched by her fiscal skills at the winery and her dedicated volunteer Land Trust work in helping to preserve Sonoma County’s beautiful landscapes. |
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After graduating from the world-famous enology department at the University of California in Davis, winemaker Parke Hafner worked at wineries in the Napa Valley and Burgundy region of France. Then he directed the building of our winery and in 1982 began making Hafner Vineyard wines. In addition Parke oversees grape growing in our 96-acre vineyard, uses weekends for long distance bicycling, is a gourmet cook, skilled furniture maker and in between, a leader in supporting community activities. |
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Scott Hafner designed and runs Hafner Vineyard’s pioneering marketing program. Patrons most often hear his voice when they phone in orders. “Personal service you can count on” is his mantra, giving patrons the service he wants to receive from others. With experience at Louis M. Martini Winery and The Sharper Image, he took Hafner wines into the marketplace in 1984. He visits leading California restaurants to produce our impressive list of gourmet destinations where Hafner wines are served. A trustee of Connecticut College and a leader in community and church groups, Scott and his partner Bill Glenn live in rural Santa Rosa. |
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Artist/designer Sarah Hafner teams with Scott to create Hafner Vineyard’s colorful and artistic publications for our patrons. Also an integral part of the winemaking team, Sarah has worked on every harvest since the winery began in 1982. She is president of the Alexander Valley School board and a trustee of Sonoma Academy, as well as a dedicated gardener and an accomplished equestrian. Her family includes husband Parke and daughters Kate and Grace. |
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Laurie Williams is a major reason our service is so personal and so dependable…and has been for more than two decades. An Indiana native transplanted to Alexander Valley by way of Colorado and Berkeley, her good humor and unfailing follow-through on every order make gifts a certainty and timely delivery a sure thing. Laurie is a nutritionist with interests in different means of healing. |
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Steve Miller sends these green Tasting Packages of Hafner wines to patrons across our country. In northern California he often delivers cases of Hafner wine personally to happy welcomes at patrons’ homes. A Wisconsin native, Green Bay Packers fan and certified Dog Lover, Steve excels at not missing a detail when organizing, packaging and shipping Hafner wines. |
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An Alexander Valley native with a lively can-do spirit, Sandy Wilson is ready and able to handle phone and e-mail orders, packaging and computer monitoring of wine shipments, and many other challenges. She is a living example of the disappearing art of fine penmanship which she uses when writing patrons’ gift card messages. Sandy is the consummate, skillful utility infielder. |
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Michele Osborne is one of the several upbeat voices you hear when you call Hafner Vineyard. She is a fourth generation Alexander Valley rancher who with her husband runs a small herd of cattle, often in the hills above the vineyard. She is a master of the computer and Internet and quickly learns the skills for any new assignment. Michele and Sandy are cousins, further evidence that Hafner Vineyard is indeed a family business. |
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Ricardo Juarez works with winemaker Parke in the magic of changing grapes into wine. When 11 years old, he came from Mexico to be with his father Agustin who was already a longtime vineyardist at Hafner Vineyard. Ricardo took viticulture and winemaking courses and after-school jobs have taught him many added skills. Always of good humor, he is willing and able to take on any winery task and do it well. When winery activities slow, he joins the crew at work in the vineyard. |
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Born in Mexico and a longtime U. S. citizen, Rafael Jimenez is a 30-year veteran of the wine grape industry. His knowledge ranges from rootstock to composting grape stems and skins to buying good bugs to fight bad bugs. He oversees our 80,000 vines growing here at the winery whose grapes make Hafner wines “Estate Bottled.” He gives spirited leadership to our skilled vineyard team which includes his oldest son, and he also finds time for regular visits to the gym in Healdsburg. |
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Another veteran member of our vineyard team is Martin Aleman. He can be found most often in the vineyard and also does yeoman work in helping to send Hafner Vineyard wine to our patrons on the heaviest shipping days of the year. Martin has become a vegetable gardener with the guidance of fellow vineyard team members. |
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Cesario Gonzales, like most of our vineyard crew, is a native of Palo Alto in Mexico’s Michoacan state. In addition to his work over many years with the Hafner Vineyard vines, he is an accomplished gardener who shares his vegetable crop with family and friends. |
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Jose Maria Gonzales, like Jaime Ordaz, is a member of our vineyard team for eight months each year. Then he, too, returns to Palo Alto in Mexico’s Michoacan state to his family and farm. Known as “Chema,” he is a devoted dancer, has a ready smile and likes to help others with their tasks. |
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Rafael Jimenez, Jr., is the oldest of our vineyard manager’s three children and the newest member of the Hafner Vineyard team. He is studying wine grape growing at Santa Rosa Junior College, likes to play basketball and work out with his father at a gym in Healdsburg. He and his wife have made Rafael Sr. a first-time grandfather. |
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Agustin Juarez has been skillfully tending our vines for over 35 years and also works in the winery and the caves...a man of many talents. He is known for his singing and his crops of beautiful vegetables. A cousin of our many Lopez brothers and a native of the same village of Palo Alto, he is the father of Ricardo Juarez of our winery staff. |
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Gerardo Lopez is an expert operator of our French-made harvester that also does pruning and cultivating. He looks very stylish with a red bandanna at his throat and an easy smile at the ready. He is also a veteran soccer player who keeps in shape by running regularly. Gerardo knows the vineyard well having been at Hafner Vineyard well over 35 years. |
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Jose Luis Lopez is equally expert with pruning shears and with the tractors when cultivating the vineyard. Another longtime member of the Hafner Vineyard team, he is always quick with a wave and smile. Jose Luis’s home in Santa Rosa reflects his investment of “sweat equity.” He is an avid fisherman and dedicated vegetable gardener. |
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Juan Lopez first worked at Hafner Vineyard in the early 1970's. Yes, the other Lopez men are his brothers, all from the village of Palo Alto in Michoacan state of Mexico. All of them are buying homes in Sonoma County. Juan is also a dedicated vegetable gardener at his home. |
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Jaime Ordaz has worked with our grapevines since the 1970s. He is a skilled member of the vineyard team who works eight months at Hafner Vineyard, then returns to his farm in Palo Alto, Mexico. There each year he and his family grow a full crop of vegetables to be sold in Guadalajara and other cities before he heads north again. |
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Partner Julianne Hafner Farrell, Mary and Dick’s first-born, participated in many family work weekends in the early days of the vineyard and now enjoys the results of her family’s dedicated efforts. After careers as a research biochemist and stay-at-home mom, she is now a marriage and family therapist, living in coastal New Hampshire with her husband, Jack, and sons Jake and Jamie. |
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Partner Betsy Hafner lives in Washington, D.C. and is the youngest of Mary and Dick’s four children. An attorney trained in international trade law, she is now Director for Russia and Eurasia in the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. A devoted equestrian, she rides her horse “Irish” in Virginia when not in Geneva, Moscow or Almaty. |
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Kate Hafner is Parke and Sarah’s oldest of two daughters (and one of Dick and Mary’s four grandchildren). A 2009 Boston College graduate, she has spent many hours each year working on the bottling line and helping with mailings. In the vineyard she operates the “pressure bomb” that measures the water content of the vines and checks the possible need for irrigation. |
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Grace Hafner, the youngest of the four Hafner grandchildren, is a freshman at Tufts University in faraway Massachusetts. In high school she was on championship teams in soccer, cross country, track and lacrosse, and was named Athlete-of-the-Week by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Seen here on the bottling line, Grace has learned many winery and vineyard skills during vacations and holidays. |
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Lily is the winery dog whose muzzle is red from drinking Cabernet juice (but not wine!) during Autumn harvest. Often she doesn’t wait for the juice, jumping up to bite grapes right off the vines, a sign the grapes are about ready to be picked. Lily lives with Parke, Sarah, Kate and Grace. |
