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 shown at events for Hafner Vineyard patrons are matched by her fiscal skills at the winery and her dedicated volunteer work in helping to meet community needs and preserving Sonoma County’s beautiful landscapes. |
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After graduating from the world-famous enology department at the University of California in Davis, son/winemaker Parke Hafner worked at wineries in the Napa Valley and Burgundy region of France. Then he directed the building of our winery and since 1982 has made all 30 vintages of Hafner Vineyard wines. In addition Parke oversees grape growing in our 96-acre vineyard, uses weekends for group bicycling, is a gourmet cook, skilled furniture maker and a leader in supporting community activities. |
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Scott Hafner designed and runs Hafner Vineyard’s pioneering marketing program. Patrons often hear his voice when they phone in orders. “Personal service you can count on” is his mantra. 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 spouse 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 was the longtime president of the Alexander Valley School board and is 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. A Midwest 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 healing methods. |
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Steve Miller sends those 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. And her expertise with a camera results in most of the photographs you will see here! |
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Michele Osborne 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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Kate Hafner is Parke and Sarah’s oldest daughter (and one of Dick and Mary’s four grandchildren). A 2009 Boston College graduate, she recently joined the Hafner Vineyard sales team bringing a younger perspective and experience in social media. Formerly a manager at the Ralph Lauren flagship store in Greenwich, Connecticut, she recently worked the harvest in France and Argentina. |
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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's viticulture and winemaking courses add deepth to his hands-on experience in the cellar. Always of good humor, he is willing and able to take on any winery task and do it well. A father of three, Ricardo enjoys fishing as a hobby. |
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As vineyard manager of Hafner Vineyard in Sonoma County's Alexander Valley, David Huebel has come home. He was born in nearby Santa Rosa, graduated from Healdsburg High School, was a teen-age grape pruner and picker in our valley, and a local barista. After an honors degree in mathematics at UC Santa Cruz, he studied in Germany but was soon back to wine grapes. From Hafner Vineyard's century-old ranch house where he lives with his wife and two daughters, David oversees our 76,000 vines, drawing on vineyard experience at three larger wineries. |
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A longtime member of our vineyard team is Martin Aleman. He can be found most often among the vines 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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Jose Maria Gonzales is known as "Chema" and is also from the town of Palo Alto in Mexico's Michoacan state. Quick with a warm and welcoming smile, he likes to help others with their tasks and is a skilled and lively dancer. |
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Gerardo Lopez is the expert operator of our French-made mechanical harvester that also does vine-pruning and cultivating. He looks very stylish with a red bandanna at his throat and an easy smile at the ready. Gerardo knows the vineyard well having been at Hafner Vineyard for over 35 years. |
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Jose Luis Lopez is equally expert with pruning shears and with 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 Windsor reflects his investment of “sweat equity.” He is an avid fisherman, a dedicated vegetable gardener and fruit tree grower. |
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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 that same village of Palo Alto. All of them are buying homes in Sonoma County. Juan also is 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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Antonio Ordaz-Flores is the newest member of our vineyard team. His more than 20 years of experience in Sonoma County grape growing make him an expert with pruning shears and a skilled tractor driver. Married to one of Agustin's daughters, he is also from Palo Alto, Mexico. |
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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. Her husband, Jack, and she have two 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 experienced 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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Grace Hafner, youngest of the four Hafner grandchildren, is a senior at Tufts University in faraway Massachusetts. She was on high school championship teams in soccer, cross country, track and lacrosse, and was named Athlete-of-the-Week three years in a row by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. 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 and Sarah. |
