Harvesting the Dream: The Rags-to-Riches Tale of the Sutter Home Winery [Hardcover]

Kate Heyhoe (Author), Stanley Hock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 2003

Harvesting the Dream is the rare story of a large and successful business that remains family owned and continues to operate on the basis of professional and personal integrity. You’ll follow the Trinchero family from their common origins in a New York flooded with immigrant families like themselves, to their uncommon rise to success, to the present business challenges they face in the new Napa Valley. Their story brings the American dream to life–and underscores the reality that hard work and the willingness to defy well-rooted conventions are still the building blocks of business success.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Since 1947, when brothers Mario and John Trinchero moved to Napa Valley and purchased the old Sutter Home winery, the Trincheros have become one of America’s most successful winemaking families. Harvesting the Dream tells the remarkable story of this immigrant family and the vital role they played in remaking the American wine industry.

Started and operated as a family business rooted in the simple values of postwar America, Sutter Home revolutionized wine with its introduction of White Zinfandel. Breaking all the established rules–it was light, sweet, and best served cold–it was overlooked by critics but quickly embraced by customers who loved its easy drinkability and affordable price. Though the first White Zinfandel was the result of a lucky malfunction in the fermentation process, the Trincheros knew a good thing when they saw it.

The Trincheros treated wine as a business rather than an ego-boosting pastime for the already wealthy. They understood what customers wanted and unhesitatingly gave it to them. As a result, wine began to lose its image as the beverage of the elite and became a staple on dinner tables across America. At the same time, runaway demand for White Zinfandel catapulted Sutter Home to the fourth largest winery in the country.

But there’s far more to the Sutter Home story than just business success. This is the rare story of a large and successful business that remains family owned and continues to operate on the basis of professional and personal integrity. Genuine, generous, and humble, the Trincheros stand out in glitzy Napa Valley for their philanthropy, world-class employee programs, and long-term community involvement.

Harvesting the Dream follows the Trinchero family from their common origins in a New York flooded with immigrant families like themselves, to their uncommon rise to success, to the present business challenges they face in the new Napa Valley. Their story brings the American dream to life–and underscores the reality that hard work and the willingness to defy well-rooted conventions are still the building blocks of business success.

From the Back Cover

"Harvesting the Dream by Kate Heyhoe and Stanley Hock is that rare book: It exceeds the high promise of its title. Its chapters, insightful quotes and interviews, and independent commentary cultivate and harvest the exceptional story of Sutter Home Winery and the remarkable Trinchero family. The authors substitute puffery and spin with frankness and candor that are most refreshing, reflecting the family’s honest appraisals and realistic view of the world. All the chapters, especially Part III, are a must read for those who wish to understand the present and future dynamics of the globalization of the world of wine."
–John DeLuca, Executive Vice Chairman, Wine Institute

"The success of Sutter Home Winery was one small part luck and tremendous amounts of love of family, commitment to hard work, consideration of customer, and unequaled respect for their employees. Harvesting the Dream should be required reading for anyone working toward a degree in business or public administration."
–Mike Thompson, Member of Congress
Co-Chair, Congressional Wine Caucus

"From post-WWII struggles to extraordinary successes in the ’90s, the lives of Sutter Home’s Trinchero family read like a novel. Harvesting the Dream opened my eyes to the wine industry accomplishments made by this innovative, visionary, hard-working family. Written with honesty and clarity."
–Antonia Allegra, Editor in Chief, Vine Napa Valley
Coauthor, Napa Valley: The Ultimate Winery Guide

"‘Doubt’ is not a word I would use for the Trinchero family. ‘Without a doubt’ is more like it. Without a doubt their family will accomplish what they set out for, with humble dignity, pride, and humor. All consumers have to do is taste the story in the glass. The flavor cannot be duplicated. I am proud to have the Trincheros as friends, neighbors, and fellow vintners. We all can learn from their story of what happens when you give more than you take!"
–Michael Chiarello, Napa Valley chef, author, TV host

"Kate and Stanley’s tale of the Trinchero family’s success with Sutter Home Winery is heartwarming. It proves that nice guys sometimes finish first, even in the competitive wine world of Napa Valley."
–Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan, MW, authors, Wine For Dummies

"Nothing is more exciting for me to read than a rags-to-riches tale. This one could be called ‘From the Stoops of Manhattan to the Magnificence of Napa Valley.’ The Trinchero family, pioneers all the way, took an old broken-down shack and built it into one of the greatest wineries in the world."
–Mel Dick, President, Wine Division, Southern Wine & Spirits

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471429724
• ISBN-13: 978-0471429722
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,029,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

'At Global Gourmet, we bring you the world on a plate.'

Kate Heyhoe is the founding editor of The Global Gourmet, launched as the web's first food and cooking site in 1994. Julia Child and Jacques Pepin each made their online debuts with Kate, and the award-winning Global Gourmet site has introduced millions of cooks to exotic foods, recipes, and techniques from all over the world. Kate is also the founding editor of newgreenbasics.com and cookingwithkids.com.

Kate's books have been praised by Mollie Katzen, Martin Yan, Mary Sue Milliken, Graham Kerr, James McNair, Michael Chiarello, Marcel Desaulniers, and even AOL's Steve Case, among others. Her books include:

Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen--the New Green Basics Way
Great Bar Food at Home (James Beard Award finalist)
The Stubb's Bar-B-Q Cookbook
A World Atlas of Food (a culinary textbook)
Macho Nachos
Harvesting the Dream: The Rags-to-Riches Tale of the Sutter Home Winery
A Chicken in Every Pot: Global Recipes for the World's Most Popular Bird
Cooking with Kids for Dummies

Kate lives in the Hill Country near Austin, Texas, with her husband and business partner, and a menagerie of cats, dogs, and assorted wildlife, including Fluffy the toad. Hundreds of articles about Kate and Global Gourmet have appeared in media as diverse as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time, Los Angeles Times, Parade, FoodArts, WOR, Bloomberg, and Sony World Wide radio networks. She has written for Better Homes & Gardens, Saveur, Cooking Pleasures, Chile Pepper, Great Chefs, and other magazines.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars California's Wine History, March 1, 2004

By 

Margaret Martindale "Marty Martindale" (LARGO, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harvesting the Dream: The Rags-to-Riches Tale of the Sutter Home Winery (Hardcover)

HARVESTING THE DREAM:
The Rags-To-Riches Tale Of The
Sutter Home Winery:
By Kate Heyhoe and Stanley Hock

Kate Heyhoe and Stanley Hock have cooperated on a timely rags-to-riches story, one which pays tribute to hardship, hard work and unqualified success. "Genuine, generous, and humble, the Trincheros stand out in glitzy Napa Valley for their philanthropy, world-class employee programs, and long-term community involvement," says publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Sutter Home Trinchero family migrated from Italy to New York city for the usual reasons not long after World War II. Little did they realize their reasons for success would take them to far-away California, a continent away. They arrived in the late 1940s and ploughed their fate into the long-dormant Sutter Home winery. They would restore it, and they had the grit and determination to bring it to fruition. At one period it meant living in an unheated motel cabin with outdoor facilities.

By the 1950s the family was producing 52 different wines. Their success was based on strong family discipline, a certain amount of risk-taking and the "fortuitous accident" leading to their creation of the first White Zinfandel, thus the Part II of the book entitled, "Eureka! Liquid Gold and the Blush Rush."

Historians and students will appreciate the seven-page index to this viticultural account of California's colorful past.

Kate Heyhoe is an important pioneer in the field of food. On line since 1994, her earliest Electronic Gourmet Guide gave way to her current Global Gourmet site, (www.GlobalGourmet.com). Her newest books, besides, Harvesting the Dream, are A Chicken in Every Pot, a study of international chicken dishes and Macho Nachos, a worldly look at chip adornment and entertainment fun. She is also author of Cooking with Kids For Dummies.

Stanley Hock is former communications director for the Trinchero Family in Napa Valley. In a 25-year career in California's wine industry, thirteen of these years were spent as director of communications for the Sutter Home Winery. Hock also collaborated with James McNair in the compilation of the Sutter Home Napa Valley Cookbook.