Name: Ricardo Juarez

Number of years at Hafner Vineyard: 11 years

Department/Role: Assistant Winemaker/Jack of all Trades/Fence Repairer/Steve’s Shipping Buddy/Intern Overseer/Snake Charmer

Helping Steve with shipping during the busy Holiday Season

Teaching the intern about the important jobs like cleaning

What’s something most people don’t know about you? I don’t like reading. I read really slowly, so that deters my interest. If I do read, I choose to read about enology because it is going to actually help me with my work.  

Where did you grow up? In Palo Alto, Michoacan, Mexico until I was 11 years old and then came to the US in 1989 and lived at Hafner Vineyard with my parents, two brothers, uncle and aunt until 1999 or so.
Favorite local restaurant: Dry Creek Kitchen

What’s your perfect weekend day look like? Relaxing outdoors either camping or fishing.

How else do you spend your free time? Fishing, cooking and sometimes going for walks or working out, but I spend a lot of my free time with my three kids.

Favorite Hafner wine (yes, just one!): Main Chardonnay

What’s the best part of being part of the Hafner Vineyard team? The best part is that it is family owned and that no two days are the same for me. I’m constantly switching jobs from cellar to shipping to the outdoors so the days go by very quickly.

What’s the most exciting time of the year at Hafner Vineyard? Harvest is the most exciting because it’s so unpredictable. Throughout the year, the work is steady but during Harvest, the days are very busy (often including weekends!), and there’s an excitement in the air.
   
What’s the best part of living in Sonoma County? Weather and most of my family is here in the area, including my two brothers and sister with their families. That makes for some very fun weekends because we often get together in the afternoons or evenings for a BBQ.

Personal motto or saying that you live by: Always be positive because no matter how bad your day is, someone else is probably having a worse day than you.

Favorite day of the year: Thanksgiving. It’s such an appreciative day.

What’s a memory of when you started working at Hafner Vineyard? When I started working at Hafner Vineyard, my mentor was my dad, Agustin. He had been working in the vineyard since the 1970s, and he helped Parke in the cellar, so Dad taught me a lot about cellar jobs. Now we have three generations of my immediate family who have worked here. First my dad, then me and now my daughter Betty who helps at the Spring Tastings.

Betty and me at a Spring Tasting

What’s the craziest/funniest job you’ve done here? My role entails many different wild jobs… Parke and I clean the gutters around the winery, which are pretty high up. We also wash the solar panels twice a year. Also, Parke is deathly afraid of snakes, so when any snakes appear, particularly rattlesnakes, I’m called in to take care of them.

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