The Big Interview: Linda Reiff

For almost 30 years, Linda Reiff has guided Napa Valley Vintners to becoming one of the world’s most revered wine bodies, even though recently it has sometimes been a trial by fire, writes Roger Morris.

IT’S A bottom line that would make any business leader proud – with only 4% of total annual production, Napa Valley winegrowers today provide 30% of California’s wine income with a retail value of US$45.6 billion (US$36.5bn).

In the process of achieving this they have made the Napa Valley brand one of the most revered and most recognised wine regions in the world, one that is especially well-regarded for its Cabernet Sauvignons.

For Linda Reiff, president and CEO of California’s Napa Valley Vintners (NVV), this record of success is especially gratifying because it has largely been attained and solidified on her watch. Initially given the title of executive director when she was hired in 1995, Reiff has seen the voluntary, non-profit organisation of 540 wineries – all but 1% of the valley’s total number – grow exponentially in what it provides its members and community.

“We have the people, the place and the product,” Reiff says, “but I’m most proud of what we offer to our members, and to Napa Valley. We have a stellar group of colleagues and vintner leaders.”

The organisation is especially known for its charitable largesse in good times – since 1981 more than US$225 million has been invested, primarily in the community’s healthcare initiatives and in childhood education – and its resiliency in bad times, bouncing back from devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2020 when some members lost entire crops, and others lost their wineries and vineyards in devastating fashion.

In person, the elegant, flaxen-haired Reiff appears both reflective and enthusiastic at the same time, perhaps indicative of her years of experience in the agriculture business, news media, and state and federal government before joining NVV.

LIFE ON THE FARM

Reiff began her career helping out on the family farm in Yolo County, next door to Napa Valley. “My dad was a fifth-generation farmer,” Reiff says, noting that wine grapes were one of the crops her family grew, and that the farm “is now in its seventh generation.” She moved south to the state’s Central Coast to study agricultural journalism at California Polytechnic at San Luis Obispo, and after graduation became a writer specialising in farming news.

“I worked for the Daily Democrat in Sacramento and the San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune covering agriculture,” Reiff says. Her agricultural background led her to be recruited to the staff of California Congressman and national Democrat party leader Vic Fazio. During the eight years she worked for Fazio, Reiff was gradually promoted until she became his chief of staff in Washington, DC.

“I was recruited for the Napa Valley Vintners position through a San Francisco headhunter,” she says, and for the first time took up residence there. Reiff also met her husband in Napa Valley, Richard Ward, the gregarious co-founder and managing partner for Saintsbury winery in the Carneros region. Ward died of cancer in 2017 when he was 67. Reiff remains a partner in the winery.

Her experience proved to be just what the wine industry in Napa Valley needed to move up to the next level. Although residents had been making wine since the 19thcentury, their work was interrupted for 13 years during national Prohibition. When winemaking restarted in 1933, wine grapes were only one crop in what at the time was Napa Valley’s poly-agricultural profile. While it began earning international recognition during the 1970s, in large part through Steven Spurrier ’s Judgment of Paris competition in 1976, Napa Valley winegrowing during the goldrush years of the 1980s was somewhat akin to an emerging teenage rock star – lots of ebullience but somewhat lacking in discipline. Reiff’s organisational skills and leadership style helped consolidate its position as an adult leader in the international wine arena.

“When I began, we had no education programmes, and now we have over 50, including training,” Reiff says. “We had only three marketing programmes a year, and now we have more than 100. I’m proud of the depth and breadth of what we have to offer.”

Today, NVV’s agenda is wide-reaching – community social programmes that address education, healthcare and diversity needs, broadened sustainability practices, protection of the Napa Valley brand, the expansion of international markets, leadership training, as well as one item that addresses the region’s very survival – wildfire abatement.

Celebration: Napa Valley Vintners members mark the harvest

As with recently fire-plagued wine regions in France, Australia, Spain, and elsewhere, the valley’s trial by fire was witnessed internationally on TV and social media, causing many observers to question whether the narrow valley surrounded by mountain forests could successfully adapt to survive future fire disasters. Reiff is confident it can.

“We’re deeply involved through our fire-protection and mitigation committee,” Reiff says, highlighting two areas – removing as much flammable underbrush as possible, and by taking the lead in fire-detection- and response technology.

“We paid for rapid-detection devices throughout the county,” she says, and NVV has also lobbied for federal funding. Recently, it met with major insurers to maintain affordable ongoing coverage for the community.

FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES

The fires also helped force NVV to reengineer its fundraising activities after Meadowood, the popular venue for its Auction Napa Valley, was destroyed. Almost without missing a beat, the vintners established a new event, Collective Napa Valley, which features a barrel auction, dinners and educational programmes. The US$225m that NVV has raised over the years has funded ongoing programmes for farm-workers.

“We’ve been instrumental in the success of OLE Health, which provides discounted or even free healthcare whether or not the person is a US citizen,” Reiff says, “and have provided it with more than US$60m in funding.” That includes US$17m for a new facility in 2022.

On the business side, Reiff has focused on two areas – brand protection, and establishing a higher profile in the international arena. “We want to continue to make the Napa Valley name mean something,” she says, “so we are both on the offence and the defence.”

Domestically that has meant going to the country’s highest court to protect the Napa Valley name from those who have attempted to steal it or weaken its requirements for labelling. “Internationally, in 2005 we co-founded the Wine Origins Alliance, which now has 33 [regional appellation] members to help protect each other ’s names,” Reiff says.

“For Napa Valley to be credible, we have to work hard in the US to phase out historical usage of other regions’ names.” Recently, NVV successfully negotiated an agreement with Vietnam for Napa brand protection in that market.

Even though Napa Valley’s production is small, and a high percentage of its wines are sold directly to consumers at the winery or online, Reiff is adamant that a strong international presence is critical.

“We need to work to maintain access to all sales channels,” she says. “As an example, in the past two years we’ve been working to get our members represented on La Place de Bordeaux. We’ve met with négociants and courtiers in Bordeaux and hosted them here in Napa.”

Mist chances: Napa’s climate makes organic farming easier than in many regions

Reiff also notes that the NVV has international marketing programmes in Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, and Japan.

While winegrowers internationally have in recent years invested time and money into group and individual sustainability measures, Napa Valley has long implemented programmes that other regions are only now contemplating. Warm weather and a lack of moisture has made organic farming easier than in most temperate climates, and in 1968 the valley’s environmental pioneers implemented the first agricultural preserve in the US, which today protects more than 12,950 hectares of farmland from development and urban sprawl.

Fortunately, there are some issues that are major concerns for other glamorous wine regions that Reiff says don’t concern her – rampant tourism, a dearth of entry-level wines, and the need to increase production.

“So far, I don’t see over-tourism as a concern,” she says, even though three million people visit Napa annually. This is, in part, because wineries are restricted in the kinds of hospitality they can offer visitors. Additionally, in recent years, many wineries have established individual or joint tasting rooms in Napa city and other towns, allowing visitors who want to taste but not necessarily visit to stay in one place.

Burgundy has famously worried about not having enough lower-priced entry-level wines to maintain its fan base, but Reiff believes there already exist many great-value Napa Valley expressions in the US$30-to-US$40 range. Left unsaid is that limited production helps dim worries about having excess capacity at the top. That brings up the issue of growth, or the lack of it.

Unlike in the equities markets, where corporate sales growth is often prized more highly than the quality of earnings, Napa Valley doesn’t face those investor pressures. “Our physical room for growth is pretty limited,” Reiff says. “Fortunately we have some of the strictest environmental rules of any wine region in the world.” That limits the temptation to produce on marginal land or environmentally endangered hillsides.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

However, one issue that has captured Reiff’s attention is fostering a diverse development plan that will continue Napa Valley’s story well into the mid-century. “Leadership is one of our core values,” she says, and, unlike many trade organisations around the world, NVV membership regularly works hand in hand with Reiff’s staff of 20 people.

“Two years ago, we started a leadership programme to help develop the next generation of leaders, who will shape the future of Napa Valley,” Reiff says, “and we are presently in our third cohort.”

The text of a letter she wrote to NVV’s members about launching the scheme reads in part: “This is a unique, tailormade initiative in the world of wine, designed for driven professionals with a desire to grow and contribute to the greater wine community. The nine-month programme will include in-person sessions, inspirational speakers, thoughtful conversation, educational assignments and group projects.”

That attitude is another thing that sets Reiff apart from many successful business leaders who, like her, also run first-class organisations. In their cocoon of success, and perhaps with a degree of hubris, they often forget that the best leaders ensure the future success of the organisation by readying the next generation.

But, as Napa Valley winegrowers have known for more than 25 years, Linda Reiff has been no ordinary leader.