Founder’s grandson leads Cloverdale’s Pastori Wines into a new era

Frank Pastori was a fixture in the Alexander Valley grape-growing population rooted on the land his immigrant Italian parents planted in With his wife Edie by his side he replanted the family ranch north of Geyserville to acres of Zinfandel Chardonnay Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon and Carignane selling the fruit to local wineries and making a few wines of his own A natural storyteller Pastori set up a tasting room on the ranch in a converted prune dehydrator and charmed visitors for decades with tales of Alexander Valley s colorful past When he died in at the age of it marked the end of an era for Pastori Wines But not the end of the story Pastori s -year-old grandson Paolo Pastori-Ng took over the family grape-growing operation in and he has since revived the winery side of the business City kid on the ranch While growing up in Oakland Pastori s young prot g spent weeks every summer helping out on his grandparents ranch When he got older Pastori-Ng bottled wine and picked leaves from newly harvested bins of grapes I just loved coming up here as much as realizable he revealed I was apparently just in the way of the workers but my grandpa inevitably tried to get me as involved as attainable Later Pastori taught his grandson the basics of winemaking and vineyard management Paolo Pastori-Ng with his wife and twin boys Tuesday Sept at Pastori Winery in Geyserville Kent Porter The Press Democrat Despite this early apprenticeship Pastori-Ng didn t expect to one day take over the family business After spending a year at Chico State he returned to Oakland and worked construction jobs while trying to figure out his next move Mulling over his future his thoughts kept returning to Alexander Valley It just kept popping up he reported When I started thinking about it more in depth I realized that working on the ranch is something I ve consistently loved doing He moved there full-time to help with farming after his grandmother died in Pastori-Ng was essentially running the operation by the time his grandfather passed That year with encouragement from his mother Sharon Pastori he officially took up the baton Between pandemic lockdowns and the wildfires that ruined all of Pastori s grapes it wasn t an easy time to join the business It was an engaging year to say the least Pastori-Ng recalled It almost felt like the universe was throwing curve balls to make sure this was something I really requested to do Reviving the family winery For years the Pastoris sold preponderance of their grapes to Constellation Brands But when wine demand fell the wine giant pulled back This led Pastori-Ng to diversify the business by relaunching the family wine brand which had fallen by the wayside in his grandfather s later years First on the agenda was giving the old winemaking facility various much-needed love Still set in the original prune dehydrator the winery was stacked with dozens of barrels certain half-filled with wine-turned-vinegar along with old furniture and unusable steel tanks Pastori-Ng spent the first year clearing and tidying the space dumping about gallons of spoiled wine down the drain The facility is still what you d call rustic Daylight peeks through the building s wooden planks and the ceiling is covered in plywood Chosen of Frank and Edie s old furniture remains now neatly stacked near the winery s compact crusher Old vine Zinfandel and Pastori Winery in the Alexander Valley AVA Thursday Sept in Geyserville Kent Porter The Press Democrat The winery has no fancy open-top fermenters or temperature-controlled anything When the weather warms up Pastori-Ng transfers the barrels to an off-site storage facility There s an old press out back that he hopes to get working again someday in the meantime he uses a vintage model better suited to home winemaking With advice from a family friend who works as a winemaking consultant Pastori-Ng produced his first solo wines two old-vine Zinfandels under the revamped Pastori label in The Centurian Zinfandel made with grapes from the original Pastori estate vineyard planted in won a gold medal at the Press Democrat North Coast Wine Challenge He made just cases of the wine I truly wasn t expecting to win a gold Pastori-Ng revealed When we got the results I was very excited and super happy After all of the hard work it paid off Even more gratifying he declared was pouring samples at the North Coast Wine Food Festival after the competition Throughout the event attendees came over to share stories about Frank Pastori and offer encouragement I feel very connected with my grandpa doing everything I m doing here he declared It was heartwarming and also great to hear that people are excited to see I m carrying on the legacy They re big shoes to fill The future of Pastori By all accounts this is a tough time to be in the wine business Yet -year-old Pastori-Ng says he s determined to forge ahead Along to endorsement him are his wife Miriam and his mother who plays the role of family historian publicist and business advisor I m constantly very optimistic in how I look at everything Pastori-Ng noted If I can get through these times things will hopefully only get better I hope we can slowly expand production over time and I m excited about where our wine quality is now Though Pastori doesn t right now offer residents tastings the winery is open with advance notice for retail pick-ups Its old-vine Zinfandels are also available at Dahlia Sage Population Realm and The Beet restaurant in Cloverdale as well as Big John s Industry in Healdsburg Pastori-Ng s long-term plan is to upgrade the winery facility and build a little tasting room on the ranch he calls home As he looks toward the future Pastori-Ng and his wife are now raising what they hope will be the fourth generation to farm the Pastori ranch He says their -year-old twins Andres and Mateo have inspired him to double down on his dedication to carrying on the family business and they re already helping out in the vineyard They love being outside and they inevitably copy what I do Pastori-Ng reported I won t force them to do anything but I have a feeling they re going to have a secret love for being here in the country Details Pastori Winery Geyserville Ave Cloverdale Tina Caputo is a wine food and advance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications including SevenFifty Daily Visit California HuffPost and Sonoma Magazine Follow Tina on Twitter winebroad view her website at tinacaputo com and email her story ideas at tina caputocontent com