College Upset by New Neighbors : Teetotalers at Church School Unhappy Over Wineries

The teetotalers at a Seventh-day Adventist college nestled among the evergreens on Howell Mountain are trying to adjust to new neighbors: two wineries that have cleared trees to plant grapes.

One winery is planning its first bottling after the Adventists’ attempt to stop it ended in what Pacific Union College Vice President Herbert Ford called “abysmal defeat.”

The other is planting grapes as Ford and others consider whether to mount a last-ditch effort to protect their mountaintop sanctuary.

“It would appear to us that we’ve got enough wineries and vineyards to let everybody get all the wine they would want,” said Ford. “Why do we really have to sacrifice a beautiful mountaintop?”

Mountaintop Soil Better

Because, say wine makers, the rolling mountaintop’s soil is even better for grapes than land below in the wine-rich Napa Valley.

Besides, says Woltner Estates wine maker Ted Lemon, “It’s a free country.”

For now, there is a jittery truce.

“We want to be friends with everybody,” Ford said. “We don’t think there are any bad people, just good people with bad ideas.”

Pacific Union College shared the mountaintop with wine grapes for more than 40 years before economic pressures killed the wineries in the 1950s. Forest overtook former vineyards.

Over the years, the one-time resort became dominated by the 1,400-student college. Today, Ford said, more than 75% of the 3,000 residents are Adventist. Virtually all the town’s businesses are owned by the college or church members.

Adventists observe the Sabbath on Saturdays and have strict rules against alcohol, tobacco and caffeine.

But Ford and other local Adventist officials insist that it’s the school’s natural setting, not the temptation of alcohol, that concerns them.

“We don’t see the start of a winery as any greater threat than the liquor store in St. Helena (eight miles away),” said Ford.

In June, the Adventists petitioned the Napa County Board of Supervisors to stop wine production by Woltner Estates, a French firm that had planted a vineyard at the site of a 100-year-old winery that fell into disuse in the 1950s. The supervisors unanimously supported the winery.

Water Supply an Issue

The Adventists’ petitions addressed forest destruction, fears that the winery would sap the area’s meager water supply, cause erosion and create traffic hazards.

But Lemon says Woltner Estates won’t admit the public for tasting or tours. The vineyard’s water comes from its own rain-catching reservoir, not from wells, he said. And grass has been planted between rows to prevent erosion.

In the other project, crews have cleared 90 acres of forest across a road from the edge of the campus’ 2,000 acres of wooded land to reclaim the old Liparita winery.

Although Ford says no plans have been made, winery supervisor Reggie McConnell said he expects the Adventists to take action when the vineyard owners apply for alcohol sales licenses and the like. “These people up here are going to fight it tooth and nail,” he said. “It’s something they really don’t want up here.”