Graton to host the first Green Valley Food & Wine Festival
At this different kind of wine festival, explore local wines, enjoy food from local farms, hear from farmers and farm workers, and try foraged bay nut truffles and acorn treats
The tiny town of Graton has been punching above its weight ever since local developer Orrin Thiessen redesigned the town’s downtown strip years ago. With the addition last year of its new, still-in-process town square, the town has become even more lively, with regular events downtown. Now, the folks behind Graton Town Square have hit upon a great new way to both celebrate the town and the local area and advertise its existence to the larger world.
The first annual Green Valley Food and Wine Festival, which happens in Graton’s Town Square this Saturday, celebrates the food and wine of the Green Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA). (An AVA is the American equivalent of the French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée. Learn more about the Green Valley AVA in a sidebar at the end of this article.)
Matt Jorgensen and Tori Immel of ReVillage/Green Valley are putting together the festival.
Jorgensen doesn’t remember who came up with the idea. “I feel like most of my ideas come from listening to what everyone’s talking about,” he said. “As a community organizer—whether it was self-generated or generated from the field—I really couldn’t tell you, but I think it’s been tossed around for a long time.”
“There hadn’t been anything specifically highlighting the Green Valley AVA as wine producers,” Jorgenson said, “Plus I’ve been trying to think of fundraisers [for the Town Square].” All the proceeds from the Green Valley Wine and Food Festival will go into the construction fund for the Graton Town Square.
Jorgensen says he’s “not really in the wine world,” so he tapped some local experts to help spread the word. Paul Mathews Winery, which is located in Graton, sent out an email blast to their list. He also reached out to Barb Gustafson of the Taste West County Wine Association, and some of their members joined in.
The Green Valley Food and Wine Festival features 21 wineries—many from inside the AVA and some from nearby. These include Paul Mathews Vineyard, Pax Wines, Red Car Wine, Emeritus Vineyards, Ryme Cellars, Dutton Estate, Dutton-Goldfield, Bowman Cellars, Iron Horse, Martinelli, Freeman, Merry Edwards, Marimar, Lynmar, Krueger Vaught, Marchelle, Russian River Vineyards, and Balletto Vineyards.
Jorgensen says that the Green Valley Food and Wine Festival will have a different kind of “wine festival” vibe.
“We’re trying not to have it be an unreachable ‘bougie’ wine fest,” he said. “We really want it to be for and by the community.”
As an example of this community orientation, Jorgensen noted that the event is kid-friendly. “We’re going to have a little kids’ village with crafts and face painting and flower crowns.”
As a way to deepen participants’ understanding of place, Jorgensen said, “We’re also going to have a storytelling lounge and have some of the growers and producers and chefs and also agricultural laborers from the Graton Day Labor Center talking about their experiences.”
“We don’t think it’s going to feel like your typical wine festival,” he said. “It's gonna feel like a community celebration that brings us deeper into relationship with each other and with the place where we live.”
Festival co-organizer Tori Immel noted that, in addition to wine, Green Valley is also home to dozens of small vegetable and flower farms and other food producers, many of whom will be at the Green Valley Food and Wine Festival.
In terms of food, Lata's Indian Cuisine, Cesar's Paella, Tacos Don Pepe will be in attendance. Other food partners include Mycopia Mushrooms, Marin French Cheese Co., Wildbrine, Bubbies Sauerkraut. In addition, there will be more mushrooms from KM Mushrooms, and Kiss the Flower Honey Co. will be selling local honey and pouring mead samples.
Been thinking of getting a CSA box (Community Supported Agriculture)? Meet some of the local CSAs, including Doug’s Delivery (Farmer Cameron Lilly), Hopyard Farm (Farmer Amie Neff) and Fledgling Farm (Farmer Alice).
Finally, the Local Tree Nut Lounge will feature some unusual local treats. “Tree Folk’s Marko Shipley is a bay nut lover and expert, and he’ll be offering samples and stories of the bay nut and sampling his “Baytella” and bay nut truffles. Chef Jay Holecek will be curating savory sample bites using locally sourced and milled acorn flour,” Immel said.
Get your tickets now
The Sonoma County Locals rate is $44 per person in advance and $50 at the gate. There’s also an $88 family bundle. These pay for your (and, in the latter case, your family’s) admission to the festival from 1 pm to 5 pm.
The General Admission price is $88, which pays for admission to the festival from 1 pm to 5 pm. (This rate is for visitors from out of county or for those who just want to add some more jingle to the Graton Town Square construction kitty.)
VIP tickets are $150. VIP tickets are reserved for both significant patrons of the town square and anyone who wants to pay $150 for the privilege of attending the private “Meet the Makers” portion of the event, which runs from 12 pm to 1 pm, after which the event opens to general admission. VIP perks also include front-of-line passes to the afterparty at Bowman Cellars across the street.
There’s also a low-income rate of $33.
Kids under 11 enter free, and young adults (12 to 20) pay $22.
All ticket levels get a complimentary, commemorative, stemless wine glass. Go to the festival webpage and click ‘Tickets’ for full details.
A brief history of the Green Valley AVA
According to the Green Valley AVA website, “Grape growing in Green Valley goes back to 1836, two years before George Yount, who is credited with starting grape growing in Napa, planted vines in what is now Yountville. However, after such a strong start, grape growing in Green Valley, along with most of the wine regions in the world, went through a long fallow period because of Phyloxera and sheer economics—almost every other fruit was more profitable.
The Dutton family was the first to replant grapes in Green Valley in the 1970s. Even as late as 1976, when Audrey and Barry Sterling bought Iron Horse, agents from the UC Davis Agricultural Extension advised against investing here on the grounds that it was too cold and prone to frost, and that Napa was a safer bet.”
Green Valley became a federally recognized AVA in 1983, thanks to the work of the Sterlings of Iron Horse Vineyards.
“It’s a great source of pride for my family and me that the successful applicant for federal AVA approval for Green Valley was my mother Audrey M. Sterling in 1983, and her attorney of record was my father Barry H. Sterling,” said Joy Sterling, the current owner of Iron Vineyards.
According to the U.S. Tax and Trade Bureau, “An AVA is a delimited grape-growing region with specific geographic or climatic features that distinguish it from the surrounding regions and affect how grapes are grown.”
The website for the Green Valley AVA describes the Green Valley’s climatic and geographic differences this way: “The fog is Green Valley’s trademark. The predominant soil type (60%) of this American Viticultural Area (AVA) is Goldridge soil, the most sought-after type in Sonoma County—especially for Pinot Noir.”
Located in the southwestern part of the Russian River Valley, the Green Valley AVA is bounded by Sebastopol, Forestville and Occidental.
In 2008, the TTB approved a name change for the Green Valley AVA, and the official name is now Green Valley of Russian River Valley. That’s rather a mouthful, however, and most folks still just refer to it as Green Valley.
The Green Valley of Russian River Valley AVA is like the tiniest doll in a nesting doll of appellations: The Green Valley AVA is nested inside the Russian River Valley AVA, which in turn is inside the Sonoma Coast AVA, which is inside the Sonoma County AVA, which is inside the North Coast AVA and finally the California AVA.
