California North Coast winery Barra of Mendocino suffers with coronavirus shutdown of popular wedding site
The Barras have been a fixture of the North Coast wine business since Charlie Barra purchased 175-acre Redwood Valley Vineyards in 1955 then the winery and sizable events center in 1996, also the site of Redwood Valley Cellars, one of the region's largest custom wineries.
Charlie and Martha Barra launched the wine brand the following year, and annual production is about 20,000 cases. Charlie Barra died in June 2019 at age 92.
The state health order in mid-March to shut winery tasting rooms and stop large events hit the winery's event business hard, according to Martha Barra.
“We went from 65 events last year to four before the virus shut us down,” she said.
Sales of the brands, which include Girasole Vineyards and Corro Mendocino, had taken off since the beginning of the first quarter with a change to a large national distributor with over 10 times as many salespeople, but the heavy representation in on-premises sales have been hard-hit when shelter orders shuttered restaurants through much of the U.S. But certain markets, particularly Boulder, Colorado, have been strong for off-premises sales of certified organic wines at stores.
While Gov. Gavin Newsom has said that winery tasting rooms could reopen for guests in counties like Mendocino approved to move faster with reopening, county health officer Noemi Doohan told the Board of Supervisors on June 9 she wouldn't announce the next round of reopening until Friday. But Doohan said businesses will need to submit protocol self-assessments before reopening.
Given that the county posts its new health order Friday, Barra of Mendocino plans to reopen its event center by Tuesday, according to Martha Bara.
In the meantime, the winery has been selling wine curbside and temporarily reassigned Bonnie Butcher, tasting room and event center coordinator, to start outbound phone marketing. Phone and internet sales have been boosted by a Mother's Day social media promotion and 1-cent shipping incentives on full-case orders. Barra herself has been involved in virtual winemaker dinners, including for a Maryland restaurant that had been a major seller of the vintner's wine before the pandemic.
Based on the coronavirus safety protocols that have been developed by the state and wine trade groups, an additional person will be hired to make sure guests are wearing masks and are evenly spaced along the 30-foot-long tasting room bar and that the areas and items in contact with the visitors get about a half-hour of cleaning.
Martha Barra expects the tourism bounceback for Mendocino County to come quickly after the reopening of tasting rooms and hotels.
“When we really open, I think Mendocino County - because of our beauty and because of our cleanliness - our reputation for not having a lot of spread - we're going to have good visits from people looking for that kind of experience,” she said.
As for Barra's wine grape crop on the family's now 275 planted acres, it appears to be of average size this year. Much of the fruit is made into bulk wine. New plantings have been set up for machine harvest, but half continue to be hand-harvested by the full-time crew of 20 plus up to 14 H-2A visa workers.
