Grassini Family Vineyard Forms Equipo Team
The folks behind the Grassini Family Vineyards are getting creative when it comes to employee perks. And it’s appropriate that their headquarters are in Happy Canyon.
Tucked in the hills of the Santa Ynez Valley, far from the traffic of tourism, the company is celebrating teamwork one label at a time.
“It’s part of my life,” Manuel Cardoza tells us through a translator.
Cardoza and Juve Buenrostro lead a team of workers, side-stepping 35-acres of sloping hillsides, cutting and tugging through rows of vines.
“Help it grow more,” Buenrostro said in broken English as he rips at the vines. “More clean with fruits on and shoots don’t grow too congested.”
“Our crew is the heart and soul of this place,” said Sharon Grassini, who heads up quality control. “They are the people who work this land and we owe them so much for that.”
Five years ago a different type of seed was planted here at the ranch; one firmly rooted in the soil and in the hearts of the Grassini family.
“In 2010, my son was sick and had an operation,” Cardoza said.
“The baby was 1-and-a-half years old and had a heart problem,” Grassini said. “I was dumbstruck: What do we do? This is part of our family.”
They family collected donations and gift cards, but Grassini realized Cardoza’s family would need much more. So, the Grassini family set aside an emergency fund for the entire team: An entire block of vines — just for the crew — to trim, cull and harvest however they want.
Wine bottled from those grapes would be sold under the employees own label and the money would go to that emergency fund.
“They came back to us with the most beautiful name: In Spanish it’s “Equipo.” In English, it means “team,” it was perfect,” Grassini said.
The first year the crew yielded a small batch of Savignon Blanc — roughly 100 cases. This year, about 330 cases of Cabernet — roughly 10 percent of the ranch’s production.
Katie Grassini, the family’s oldest daughter and CEO of the vineyard, said she had no problem selling the Equipo wine, and the story behind it, to buyers back east. And hiring on a distributor out of Chicago has helped. His focus: Country clubs.
“One of the members I met was Abraham Lincoln’s great-grandson!” said Katie. “I’m standing there telling them about this Equipo project and having them try the wine and they’re falling in love with it!”
The two Grassini women take us across the property to a large chicken coop. They tell us this is Cardoza’s other love.
We find the team leader holding a small tub of multi-colored eggs, freshly hatched.
“All the crew members take care of those chickens,” said Katie. “It’s 100 percent theirs. When the chickens are at the end of their laying cycle, they become part of the dinner table.”
Up the road, raised beds are set aside for the team and their families to grow their own vegetables.
“A few years ago they went crazy with peppers and we had a ton of peppers … that ended up in different places all throughout the county,” Katie said.
As for Cardoza’s son, who is now 4, he loves coming to the ranch, his home-away-from-home.
“He’s super good,” Cardoza said. “100 percent .. running, playing, little troublemaker!”
Sharon Grassini reflects on the ranch property and the sprawling vines.
“It’s grown and they’re (the crew) extremely proud of this block,” Grassini said. “And so are we. It’s such as meaningful thing to us to have this for our crew. These people and the people who come behind them will have this for themselves and their families.”
