Napa Valley Grapegrowers Breaks Ground on New Home

By MaryAnn Worobiec

With glasses of sparkling wine raised in a toast, a crowd of Napa vintners and community members cheered as a large excavator tore into the defunct former Napa Sanitation District pump station in Oakville on May 27.
The gathering and toast was to celebrate the groundbreaking on what will be the new home of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers (NVG), the Patrick Foley Center for Grape Growing & Farmworker Education.

“This project is the product of dreamers who refuse to let the idea falter,” NVG executive director Caleb Mosley told the crowd as he recognized the many collaborators behind the effort. Donation included a lead $3 million gift from the Foley Family Charitable Foundation that secured naming rights for the center. The education center’s name honors Patrick Foley, son of vintner Bill Foley and a winemaker, who died in 2018 at age 31.
“Being able to name it after Patrick is especially meaningful,” said Courtney Foley, Patrick’s sister. “He was heavily invested in the significant developmental and educational opportunities that the Grapegrowers and Farmworkers Foundation offers.”
Other major donors include Andy and Betty Beckstoffer, the Moulds family, Trinchero Family Estates, and Mark Pulido and Donna Walker. There is also a one-acre parcel adjacent to the Beckstoffer To Kalon vineyard that is part of the property and will serve as a demonstration vineyard for future NVG projects...

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