The Holidays are busy here at Hafner Vineyard so Mary, my wife and co-founding partner, always planned a Holiday lunch for the winery team...in January. Carrying on her tradition, we gathered last Thursday to have a glass of wine (or two), enjoy a warm fire in the potbelly stove on a cold, wet Winter day and have lunch together. We always enjoy spending time together as the Hafner Vineyard Family and sharing stories of the Holiday excitement. It's a moment to take a breath and appreciate the hard work that we all accomplished throughout the year. 

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With the Holiday Rush here, it’s all hands on deck. We are answering phones, responding to emails, entering orders and writing gift notes. Down in the cellar, Spencer and Martín are packaging up the gifts of wine with each personal gift note before the UPS driver arrives. Here's a sneak peek video of the shipping team as they send Gift Packs (a bottle each of 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2015 Chardonnay) to lucky gift recipients all over the country. 

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Every July, our household and cellar team grow by one. We hire a young Frenchman as our winery intern for the harvest. He is between his second and third year at an agricultural university in Toulouse. He lives at our home with us and comes to work each day. We started this program in 1985, so Arthur Rebiere is our 34th intern. His internship is coming to an end, but he has made the most of his time here - exploring San Francisco, the Pacific coastline and Sonoma County. He and our dogs have become best friends. 

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After a very fun three months, Guillaume’s harvest internship comes to a close. His stay has been particularly special to us as he brings the Hafner Vineyard Internship Program into the second generation! His father, Ludovic David, now the General Manager at Château Marquis de Terme, a Grand Cru Classé winery in Margaux, was our intern in 1990. Twenty-seven years later, Guillaume continues the Hafner intern tradition. It’s been a pleasure for us to have Guillaume at the winery and also in our home. He has a great sense of humor making us all laugh whether it’s at the winery break time or around our dinner table.

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Back in 1981, the year before we built the winery, Sarah and I had the wonderful opportunity to be interns in Burgundy, France. There we learned new techniques and gained a new perspective that has greatly influenced the winemaking style of Hafner Vineyard. In 1985, we received a request from a young French enology student to work the harvest with us at Hafner Vineyard; thus began our internship program and friendships that now span generations. This year’s “internship” has been an exceptional one. Some would say that we’ve been invaded, but we consider ourselves lucky. Today, we have three (yes, three!) adorable, hard working and very hungry French kids living with us.

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