Podcast Episode 31: Come Over October with Karen MacNeil & Glass with a Grower: Jan Krupp10/10/2026
October is here, and this month on Grown in Napa Valley, host Caleb Mosley welcomes Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible and co-founder of Come Over October. The campaign is built on one simple invitation: open a bottle and invite someone over. Karen shares how the idea came to her on an early-morning dog walk in 2024. Wine consumption was slipping, and she found herself asking why the industry wasn't telling its own best story. With co-founders Gino Colangelo and Kimberly Charles, and no budget or infrastructure, she launched what she describes as the largest grassroots pro-wine campaign in the U.S. It has since been taken up by wineries, retailers and grower groups from Texas (where it became "Come Over October, y'all") to Canada and New Zealand.
Karen and Caleb discuss why the campaign focuses on wine and social well-being rather than health debates. Karen describes wine as the ultimate farm-to-table beverage and an antidote to loneliness, and explains why she would rather unite wine drinkers than divide them by generation. She also explains the ancient Greek reasoning behind the 750-milliliter bottle. In the spirit of Come Over October, Jan Krupp comes over for Glass with a Grower with a 2008 Krupp Brothers Cabernet Sauvignon from the M5 block, one of his favorite blocks at the heart of Stagecoach Vineyard. Jan was a practicing physician before he became a grower. He recalls spotting a listing on a telephone pole in 1995 and taking on a mountain property with no water, no road easements and plenty of rocks. He shares how tastings with his winemaker clients guided plantings across roughly 500 acres, and why the team behind Stagecoach (especially his brother Bart and vineyard manager Esteban) made it all possible. He also talks about his new memoir, Forging Eden, due out in late October. Jan closes with a candid view of today's downturn, the toughest he has seen, and his confidence that Napa Valley's terroir will carry the region through. Episode Highlights:
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Image from napacounty.gov Governor Newsom signed AB 1890 (Aguiar-Curry) into law on September 30, 2026. The bill doubles the State's annual matching funds for the Napa County Farmworker Centers Account, from $250,000 to $500,000 per year. This is great news for the people who tend Napa Valley's vineyards, and for the whole community that has worked for more than two decades to make sure they have a safe, affordable place to live during the season. Why This MattersHousing in Napa County is scarce and expensive. When workers can't find housing, they often have to commute long distances, live in overcrowded conditions, or leave the region altogether. Napa's three farmworker housing centers help with that. They offer stable, low-cost seasonal housing, and they also provide:
A Grower-Led Legacy Supporting farmworkers has been part of NVG's work from the beginning. Our founders, including Andy Beckstoffer and Ren Harris, pushed for fair treatment of growers and for better conditions for the people who work the land. Ren Harris also founded the California Winegrower Foundation, now Ag Health Benefits Alliance, which today provides healthcare for more than 1,500 agricultural employees. In 2002, Napa County's commercial winegrape growers created County Service Area (CSA) 4 and voted to assess themselves per acre to fund the farmworker housing centers. CSA 4 has generated more than $10 million for the centers since then. In the most recent vote, in 2022, growers representing 87% of planted acres voted to continue the assessment. NVG's Advocacy for AB 1890 This spring, NVG Executive Director Caleb Mosley sent a letter to the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development urging an "AYE" vote on AB 1890. In it, he wrote: "Our valley would not serve as a global leader in wine grape cultivation without a highly skilled and dedicated workforce. It is our duty to provide safe, clean and comfortable housing for farmworkers that expertly tend our vines and strengthen our community." NVG joined a wide coalition of supporters. Agricultural groups, nonprofit service providers, healthcare organizations, philanthropic funders, and Napa County all spoke up for the bill together. According to the County, several legislators pointed to Napa's public-private model as one worth replicating in agricultural communities across California. A Community Effort No single group sustains these centers. Growers fund them and provide the jobs. Nonprofits deliver services on the ground. Philanthropic partners give grants and donations. The County runs and coordinates the centers. Now the State has doubled its share.
That partnership was also recognized nationally this year, when the National Association of Counties gave Napa County's farmworker housing partnership a 2026 NACo Achievement Award for Community & Economic Development. "I shared this news with our Vineyard Policy Committee, and it was the best part of my day," said Caleb Mosley. "I'm glad to see the industry, the community, and the County all rally around this to get it passed." Thank you to Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry for authoring AB 1890, to Napa County for its leadership, and to every partner and grower who helped make this happen. Grower Voices shares perspectives from growers across Napa Valley. Some of the best insight on farming here comes from the people doing the work. This month, Ted Hall, who has walked Napa vineyard rows for about 35 years, looks at red blotch virus: how it spreads, what it costs, and why it may be the valley's most serious vineyard health threat since phylloxera. We're grateful he let us share it here. This article originally appeared on Ted's Substack on September 27, 2026. You can find more of his writing at Tell the Truth and Do the Right Thing.The Virus We Planted Napa Valley's Next Phylloxera Crisis? Ted Hall, Sep 27, 2026 I have walked vineyard rows in October for the better part of thirty-five years, reading the turn of the leaves the way every grower does: for color, for stress, for trouble. I could not tell you with certainty whether grapevine red blotch virus, a viral infection that quietly keeps an otherwise healthy-looking vine from ripening its fruit, is in a vineyard right now. That is not a comfortable thing for a grower to admit. And not every red leaf means red blotch. Leafroll, nutrient deficiencies, trunk or root damage, and other stresses can produce similar symptoms. Red blotch can sit in a vine for two or three seasons before a single leaf shows reddish to reddish-purple blotches and the telltale redness in its veins, which means the honest answer for most growers in this valley is less a confident no than an unconfirmed not yet. Nobody would know without testing for it, and until recently, almost nobody did. First recognized in Napa Valley in 2008, red blotch has since been confirmed in vineyards across the United States and internationally. Brix measures the sugar building up in a grape as it ripens, and the virus can cut that number by five or six degrees, while suppressing the anthocyanins that give red wine its color and altering the tannins and other phenolics that affect its structure. The mechanism is reasonably well understood: the virus disrupts the hormonal signals that trigger ripening, so the vine never receives the full instruction to finish the job it started in the spring. A National Academies review commissioned by the California Department of Food and Agriculture in 2025 described grapevine red blotch and its sister disease, leafroll, as threats to a wine and wine grape sector that contributes $73 billion a year to the state’s economy, made harder to manage by how long it takes winemaking itself to reveal the damage. Agricultural economists have modeled the lifetime cost of a heavily infected vineyard running into the tens of thousands of dollars an acre. That number is large enough to ask, carefully, whether this is the most consequential vineyard health threat Napa Valley has faced since the phylloxera crisis of the 1980s and 1990s forced growers across Napa and Sonoma to replant most of their vineyards at enormous cost. Marc Fuchs, the Cornell plant pathologist who has spent over a decade tracking a single Cabernet Franc vineyard in Rutherford, watched its infection rate climb from 3.9% in 2014 to 36.4% in 2023. That vineyard sits in Rutherford, widely described as the center of Napa’s outbreak; nobody has done the valley-wide survey that would show how far the pattern actually extends beyond it. He originally suspected red blotch was moving in from a nearby riparian corridor, the strip of wild vegetation that lines a creek or stream, which would mean many separate introductions, each carrying its own distinct genetic signature. The genetic evidence did not support that theory: the virus in his vineyard was too uniform for that many independent arrivals. What he found instead were two distinct epidemics running in the same vineyard at the same time: a slow, randomly scattered spread of about 1% a year in one section, and a fast, radiating spread of about 6% a year in another, a difference he traces to how densely the vector, the insect that carries the virus from vine to vine, had already established itself in each part of the vineyard block. An educational overview from Napa Valley Grapegrowers On November 3, 2026, Napa County voters will decide on Measure B, the Napa County Wildfire Preparedness, Watershed Protection and Open Space Preservation Act of 2026. Wildfire, watershed health, and land use all affect farming here, so we've summarized what the measure does. This post is meant to help growers make an informed decision. The basics
Where the money would go: Revenue would be split evenly between two groups: 50% to Napa County, for wildfire preparedness. The Board of Supervisors would distribute funds through competitive grants, mostly to qualifying Napa County nonprofits. Eligible uses include:
Provisions growers may want to review closely:
Oversight and accountability:
Context and differing views:
Questions to consider as you decide:
Read the official materials: We encourage every grower to read the primary documents, including the arguments for and against and the rebuttals. Napa County Elections has them all on its Measure B page, and you can reach the office at 707-253-4321. Napa Valley Grapegrowers does not endorse or oppose Measure B. This post is for educational purposes only and is not legal or tax advice Napa Valley's vineyards are part of the landscape everyone here shares. You see them on the drive to work, from a trailhead, or out the window at dinner. But for many neighbors, what happens inside those rows stays a bit of a mystery: how growers decide when fruit is ready, what a harvest morning looks like, and why farming well matters for the whole region. At Napa Valley Grapegrowers (NVG), we believe that support for agriculture grows from understanding, and understanding grows from real conversations. So we don't wait for the community to come to us. We go to them. Trust Is Built in Person Good relationships between farmers and neighbors aren't built through brochures. They come from showing up again and again, answering honest questions, and being open about how the work gets done. When people can taste a grape picked that morning or hear a grower explain why skin texture matters, agriculture stops being abstract. It becomes something personal. That's the idea behind our public programs: meet people where they are, share what we know, and invite them into the story of Napa Valley farming. Two Chances to Join Us This WeekNVC Estate Winery Friday Tasting Series: Cabernet Sauvignon Grape Tasting Friday, September 25 | 5:30 to 6:30 PM Napa Valley College Wine Education Center (Wine Spectator Building 3200) This hands-on evening follows Cabernet Sauvignon from the vineyard to the glass.
NVG at the Napa Farmers Market Saturday, September 26 | 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM Napa Farmers Market, 1100 West Street, Napa Stop by our booth for a relaxed, family-friendly morning celebrating harvest. We'll have samples of freshly picked grapes from local vineyards, and our team will be on hand to answer your questions and share what harvest really looks like from the ground up. No experience needed, just curiosity. Event details Why It Matters
Every conversation at a farmers market table or in a tasting room helps build a community that understands and values local agriculture. That understanding matters. It shapes how our region thinks about land use, water, and the future of farming here. It connects people to the growers who care for Napa Valley's land. It also helps make sure grape growing stays viable and resilient for generations to come. Our mission is to cultivate viticultural excellence and environmental stewardship for Napa Valley. We can't do that alone. It takes a community that feels connected to the land and the people who farm it. Come Say Hello Whether you've worked harvest for decades or have never tasted a wine grape straight off the vine, you're welcome. Join us Friday evening for a closer look at the science of ripeness, or stop by Saturday morning for a taste of harvest. We hope to see you there. Photo by Sarah Anne Risk Napa Valley Grapegrowers exists to serve the people who grow and steward this valley's vines, and we can't do that well without knowing what's actually on your mind. That's why we're launching our Member & Industry Survey this September, and why we're opening it up beyond our membership to the whole Napa Valley wine industry. Why we're asking, and why nowGrowers, vineyard managers, winery teams, suppliers, and consultants are all navigating the same pressures right now: water and regulatory questions, labor, market conditions, wildfire risk, and the ongoing question of what the next generation of this industry looks like. We want to understand how those challenges are landing across the board, not just within our own membership, and we want that to shape how NVG prioritizes its work. This survey will also help inform how we bring the Patrick Foley Center, our new home in Oakville, to life. What programming would actually bring you there? What formats are worth our time and yours? Your answers help us build something the whole industry will use, not just something we assume the industry wants. Who should take itThis one's simple: everyone. Whether you've been an NVG member for years, you're not sure if you're a member, or you've never joined at all, your perspective matters here.
If you're not an NVG member, we especially want to hear from you. Understanding whether and how NVG matters to people outside our membership is one of the most important things this survey can tell us.
Spread the Word If you know someone in the industry who isn't an NVG member, forward this along. The more voices we hear from, the more useful this becomes for everyone who grows, works, and builds a life in Napa Valley agriculture.
In this episode of Grown in Napa Valley, host Caleb Mosley sits down with Dr. Monica Cooper and Dr. Malcolm Hobbs of the UC Cooperative Extension Napa County office for a wide-ranging conversation about how science gets translated into action in the vineyard. Monica, who has served as Napa's viticulture advisor since 2009, traces her research path from biocontrol and insect vectors of leafroll disease through to red blotch, which has become one of her primary focuses. Malcolm, who got his start counting ants in the vineyard part time, brings a social science lens to a field that doesn't always think in those terms. Together, they unpack a deceptively hard problem: how do you get neighboring growers to coordinate on a disease like red blotch, when that means having a sensitive conversation with someone you may have never met, or may have had a disagreement with in the past?
That question led Monica and Malcolm to study communication networks across the county and to explore the concept of neighborhood groups, voluntary, small-scale organizations where growers in close proximity can build the trust needed to actually work together on regional disease management. They talk through what makes those groups work, what gets in the way, and why spreading a new farming practice through a community looks a lot like any other kind of social change. For Glass with a Grower, Scott Becker of Realm Cellars arrives with two bottles that tell fifty years of Napa history in a single sitting: the newly released 2024 Moon Racer from the Stags Leap District, and a 1974 Cakebread Cellars Cabernet, the winery's first-ever Cabernet bottling, sourced from the same district and pulled from a Silicon Valley cellar where it had been stored impeccably for decades. The conversation moves fluidly between the wines, touching on mentorship, the pioneering names of Napa's early era, and Realm's philosophy of stewarding vineyard legacies — keeping the names, the histories, and the intention of the people who came before. Episode Highlights:
Harvest STOMP 2026 is officially in the books, and we're still soaking in the generosity this community showed throughout the evening. |
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