American Dream Award honors Rolando Herrera: from laborer to vintner virtuoso
American Dream Award honors Rolando Herrera: from laborer to vintner virtuoso
By Tim Carl
NAPA, Calif. — On Sunday, July 9th, Napa Valley winemaker Rolando Herrera and four other individuals from California's 4th District were honored by U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson with the American Dream Award for their lifetime achievements and service to the community. The celebration was held at Herrera's winery in Napa and attended by a small group of family members, community dignitaries, friends and employees.
“Our region has been made better thanks to the contributions of immigrants, and Rolando Herrera is one of those immigrants who has improved our community,” Thompson said. “Rolando is the perfect example of the American Dream, working his way from a dishwasher to owning his own winery. His commitment to our community and region is clear, and I am proud to recognize Rolando with the American Dream Award in honor of his outstanding work.”
Rolando Herrera — the pursuit of excellence
Born in El Llano, Aguascalientes, Mexico, Herrera moved with his family to St. Helena in 1972. After a brief return to Mexico, the 15-year-old Herrera came back to St. Helena, balancing high school during the day and working as a dishwasher at Auberge du Soleil at night.
After graduation Herrera bounced around the Bay Area and eventually began working at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars under the watchful eye of one of the most famous vintners in the Napa Valley, Warren Winiarski, the founder. One of his first jobs there was to build a wall.
“When I saw Rolando working on the stone wall, he looked up and there was a look in his eyes that told me he had an aspirational quality in his soul and he was going to do something more than just build that stone wall,” Winiarski told me during a conversation years ago. “And so we offered him a job at the winery for harvest.”
Herrera didn't know what "working a harvest" meant, however, so he was reluctant to take the job.
"I told him that I really didn’t know anything about wineries,” Herrera said, “but Warren was adamant, and I eventually took the job. I’m happy I did because it really set me on my path.”
Within a few years Winiarski promoted him to cellar master, while Herrera concurrently started taking winemaking classes at UC Davis.
"He worked tirelessly to learn everything he could about winemaking," Winiarski said.
Herrera found his new career path invigorating, "loving everything from being in the vineyards to the smell of fermenting wine."
After working at Stag’s Leap for a decade, he was hired as assistant winemaker for Marketta and Jean-Noel Fourmeaux at their traditional-style Chateau Potelle on Mount Veeder. There he continued to learn about the value of terroir and how to work in a more rustic setting, compared to the famously clean and well-ordered operations at Winiarski’s winery.
“Hearing Marketta talk about the importance of the earth, sun and water reminded me a lot of what I’d heard my grandmother tell me when I was younger and working on the farm,” he said.
After Potelle, he was hired as winemaker at Vine Cliff Winery and then as director of winemaking at Paul Hobbs.
Mi Sueño
In 1997 he married his wife, Lorena, and they started their own side project, which they called "Mi Sueño," translating to "My Dream" in Spanish.
To make ends meet as they grew their brand from only a few hundred cases, Herrera worked as a consulting winemaker with another of the region's most respected winemakers, Paul Hobbs.
“Rolando wanted to make great wine and was willing to sacrifice anything to do that,” Hobbs said. “Hard work, long hours any time of the day or week, he was ready to go, ready to do whatever was required, always with a grin on his face from ear to ear. He was entirely focused. I felt like he was an extension of myself. He never let down, never gave up. He really added his own signature to our wines.”
Since then Mi Sueño has blossomed into one of California's most distinguished independent wine producers. The Herreras' wines have even found their way to White House dinners under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Today Mi Sueño Winery employs many full-time workers and owns more than 80 acres of their own vineyards with plans to plant more of their land in the coming years. They have long-term leases on many of the valley’s most prominent and well-regarded vineyards and run Herrera Vineyard Management Co.
Mi Sueño produces a variety of wines, including Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Tempranillo, Malbecand Petit Verdot. They also create the “El Llano” red blend made primarily from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, which honors Herrera’s birthplace.
But Herrera's contributions extend beyond his remarkable winemaking and grape-growing. He has also become a noteworthy pillar of the Napa Valley community, donating his time and resources to numerous local organizations that include the Napa Valley Vintners and the Mexican American Vintners Association, of which he is a founder.
“I always felt like something wonderful was going to happen,” Lorena told me during a previous interview, recalling their history. “I knew that if we worked hard every day we might build something meaningful for ourselves and for our family.”
Herrera smiled at his wife, adding that getting to know a well-made wine can shed light on its origin and its history — providing insight into where it came from and where it is going.
“And that’s what I love about people, too,” he said. “We all have our dreams, and in me and my family’s case we just feel truly blessed to be part of this special place we call home.”
Since 1999, Thompson has represented California’s 4th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties. In 2017 he created the American Dream Award. Currently he is a senior member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, the chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, co-chair of the bipartisan bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus and a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition.
Tim Carl is a Napa-Valley based photojournalist.