Robledo Family Winery.

Robledo Family Winery

Luis Robledo and his sons came from Mexico in 1942 under the Bracero program to pick California's crops. Fifty-five years later the family was making wine off its own Carneros ground.1

Why go

The war had taken California's farm labor and the harvest still had to come in, so the Bracero program brought workers north.1 Robledos have farmed vines for four generations, in Mexico first and then here.1 In 1997 Reynaldo and Maria Robledo began making wine commercially from their own estate grapes.1 Their son Everardo runs the company and signs the family's story on the site.1 The family says this is the first tasting room in the country established by a Mexican migrant vineyard worker and his family, and on another of its own pages it says first winery founded by Mexican vineyard workers on their own land.21 Those are the family's words. I have not found a newspaper or a guide that has checked either one.

Good to know

• You can stay on the property. The Robledo County Home is let out and comes with a two-for-one tasting.2
• The tasting room sits in Carneros, in the vineyard rather than on a main road.2
• The fee and the hours are not on the pages I read, so call before you drive.
• Do not confuse the address with Roche. Roche's winery tasting room is further along the same road at 22097A Bonness, and it is a different family.3

Verdict

could-visit — The arc is the reason to drive out to Bonness Road. Luis Robledo and his sons came from Mexico in 1942 under the Bracero program, when the war had taken California's farm labor and somebody had to bring the harvest in. For two more generations the Robledos worked other people's vines. In 1997 Reynaldo and Maria Robledo started making wine from grapes on their own Carneros ground, and their son Everardo runs the company now. The family also claims a first in the United States for this tasting room, in two different wordings on two of its own pages, and neither is settled anywhere else. The rung stops at could-visit because nothing published describes a single bottle.