Sandy Wilson has been an integral part of the Hafner Vineyard for 24 years. She’s the face behind the camera for most of the pictures in our emails and on our website. She’s billed your credit card for wine shipments, so they keep coming to you. She’s a cheerful voice on the phone, often the person who handles UPS damages or returned packages. And she’s the one with the most beautiful calligraphy, handwriting the gift notes to thousands of lucky gift recipients, along with Sarah.

After nearly two and a half decades at Hafner Vineyard, Sandy is retiring, looking forward to spending more time with her husband and her expanding family which now includes six grandchildren with another on the way. Hard to imagine but when she started at Hafner Vineyard, her kids were in middle school and high school, now all three of them are parents.

A team lunch this week to honor Sandy

Sandy’s history runs deep here at Hafner Vineyard and in the Alexander Valley community. Her family has been in the valley for more than 100 years. She grew up in Geyserville, just 15 minutes from us, where her family had a prune ranch that later became a vineyard and has regaled us of stories from her time back then. “As a kid with my grandparents, picking prunes was a dirty sticky job. That was a long time ago.”  She is the third generation in her family to work at Hafner Vineyard. She and her cousin, Michele, worked together here for a number of years, and her sister even worked summers here on the bottling line more than 30 years ago.

Sandy second from left next to her cousin Michele in 2005.

What stands out for you from your first year or two at Hafner Vineyard?
I went to secretarial school and learned important things there, but when I got to Hafner Vineyard, I learned even more, especially about computers and customer service. It was intimidating at first. Laurie really taught me a lot!

What’s something you learned to do here at Hafner Vineyard that became your job but you weren’t expecting?
 Photography. Everything else I expected to do. I really fell into photography by accident. I had a camera, and I started taking pictures of my kids. Then I did their senior portraits along with some friends’ children. I shared the photos with Scott and the team, and Scott encouraged me to pursue photography as part of my professional career. I learned a lot about photoshop and bottle shot photos (which are quite tricky!). My favorite photos to take were nature shots. Here are a few of my favorites:

See more of Sandy's photography and blog posts here. 

What is your favorite time of year at the winery?
Spring! Because it’s green, lush and starting to warm up.

What were some of the experiences from working here that meant the most to you?
I wasn’t expecting to make friends with my co-workers but people have really become friends.

Is there anything you will miss from being here day to day?
Comraderie and friendship.

How will you spend your new free time?
Lots of time our grandchildren… soon to be seven of them! I also plan to garden and do more photography for fun.

Sandy will be deeply missed by all of us here at Hafner Vineyard. She has a profound knack for spreading kindness and positivity. She is very humble, never wanting the spotlight or kudos even when it is well deserved. She has been a quiet leader for us in the office particularly as Laura and Quinn have joined the sales team in the past few years. We are deeply grateful to her and wish her all the best.

Although Sandy won’t be here from day to day, she may come back occasionally to help during busy times, and we hope she’ll be back for Break to share updates with her family and sweet grandchildren.  We very much look forward to those future visits! Thank you Sandy for all that you have done for Hafner Vineyard, our patrons and all of us here.