I returned from the Naples Winter Wine Festival hoping to interview Napa vintners. As it was, I hadn’t received many replies. The one person I wanted to interview more than any was Dick Grace from Grace Family Vineyards http://www.gracefamilyvineyards.com/. I saw a phone number on my cell phone that I didn’t recognize. I pick it up and it’s Dick. He was his usual friendly self but made it very clear, “I’m extremely busy, how can I help you?” I know he is a generous man and is focused on helping the needy. I got right to the point. “Mr. Grace, I appreciate what you did for my hometown, and I remember when there was nothing there for the kids. I just want to tell your story and tell people about your charities.” He pauses for a moment and then agrees to a thirty minute interview. He reminds me to be on time and that it will be brief. I thanked him and got the address.

I was so anxious not to miss the 9:00 am appointment that I slept at a friend’s house nearby.  As I drove to St. Helena the night before, I missed my turn and was forced to backtrack through the mountains. I pulled the car over on the side of the road as a lunar eclipse began. It was clearly an auspicious sign of things to come. My wife and I stood there with no streetlights or houses nearby. It was silent and the stars were shimmering bright. We have been searching for property in Northern California, my daughter had her first solid food and it seemed we were all on the verge of a new chapter in our lives. I carefully put her back in the car seat and continued to our friend’s house. As we pulled into St. Helena, the moon appeared a Cabernet red color. We ate dinner and before going to bed, we looked outside. The eclipse was almost over and the brightness of the moon lit up the woods on the ranch.

The next morning, we are up and I am determined not to be late. It is raining and the sky is dark. Everything is cold and wet, the mustard is in full bloom, refusing to be ignored. The sulfur yellow blooms appear as if the sun is on them while everything else waits for spring. Somewhere in there is a message, I say to myself as I wind my way down the road towards the Silverado trail. I was told it was hard to find Grace Family Vineyards, but my wife had lived in the Napa valley for some years and was sure we would find it.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t and as the clock struck 9:00 am, I apologetically called Dick and sheepishly told him I couldn’t find the road sign. He explains there isn’t one and tells me how to find the turn. I’m not quite sure if the driveway is the right one and I climb the hill. I see long Buddhist prayer flags. “This is it!” I exclaim.

I open the car door and even though it’s raining, I stop in my tracks. Looking around, I sense a serenity about the place and I’m not sure why. As I look closer I realize the artwork, statuary, plants and buildings don’t look as if they were put there, they look as if they were placed there.

Crow sculptures on the shed.

A clean, simple, yet sophisticated balance between plants and sculpture runs throughout the property.

It has a feeling of part monastery and part artists retreat. Asian art alongside modern sculptures is blended with the Victorian architecture and gardens.

I love this guy. he made me laugh.

The grape picker takes a rest.

We are greeted By Dick and he tells me to hurry to photograph the pruning because they are stopping soon. The canes need to dry a bit to prevent mildews and the rain is only getting worse.

I am led to the field by Daniel Mendoza and in my broken Spanish, I interview him. He says that Mr. Grace is a wonderful, kind boss and he is glad to have him as an employer. I believe him, I would be too.

As the pruning is halted, the rain increases. I am quickly shown Dick’s field. Grace Family Vineyards uses no pesticides or herbicides and practices bio-dynamic gardening. A cow horn is buried with manure and months later, is dug up and added to a tub of water; it is stirred vigorously first one way, then the other to thoroughly mix the ingredients.

The Grace Family vines are fat and healthy and while dormant, they have a nice growth of cover crops at their base. 

I return to the house to dry off and we sit. Mr. Grace asks what I want to know. He has, I have heard, amazing stories. I say,” This story is about you so perhaps you should tell it.” He stops and says, “Actually, it is about you.” and he proceeds to explain.

“The very essence of what we are trying to do is decrease the painful gap between the haves and the have-nots.” “The wine produced here sells for as much as nine hundred dollars a bottle in restaurants. That amount of money can educate, clothe, house, and feed three children for a year in Tibet.” Dick goes on to explain that the massive injustice of this painful gap between rich and poor is the core of all problems. He wants to narrow the gap. The price of his wine attracts the economically affluent and Dick prevails upon them to help narrow this painful gap.

Dick feels we have an opportunity, if not an obligation, to serve the disenfranchised. He says he is assured of the basic goodness of people. Older folks can turn into crotchety cynics on one hand, or on the other hand can try to take responsibility for addressing the inequities that exist.  Dick says he used to think the term “Zealot” had a negative connotation but now feels he is himself a zealot for change.  He has, in his words,”Given up on trying to affect policy for positive change.”  He feels that these efforts have been diluted, consciously or subconsciously, by self interest. While he loves this country, he feels we are operating under the single worst administration in his lifetime. It has, as he says, caused us to lose face internationally. It has nurtured fear under the guise of patriotism, and caused us to pay no attention to the concept of interdependence. 

Dick takes a deep breath and begins to talk about a nine year old African-American boy named Anthony Fraser from Birmingham, Alabama. Dick met Anthony in 1991. He was a leukemia sufferer who passed away, but not before changing Dick’s life forever. To this day, Dick calls every Sunday night to talk with his mother. Dick became involved with the Magic Moments Foundation in Alabama and one day he received a call from them asking if he could put together a wish for a young girl from Huntsville, Alabama. Her wish was to gallop a horse on a California beach. Within weeks, the girl was at Point Reyes seashore saddling up. She and her family spent a few days riding on trails and finally she took the horse on the beach and galloped through the surf with her arms outstretched as if she were flying free.

She returned to Alabama, and a few weeks later Dick received a phone call and her parents called saying she was close to death. He flew down and held her hand as she was passing. After a long spell at her bedside, he slowly pulled his hand from hers. Before he let her hand go, she tightly clinched her grip, sat up in bed, and had a moment of clarity as many close to death experience. “Mr. Grace, I want you to continue to stand up against injustice around the world in my name for the rest of your life.” He promised her he would. The next morning she passed. Today a hospital stands in Manigango, Tibet, named the Taryn Nicole Williams hospital in honor of the young girl. Again, Dick says if you don’t stand up against injustice, you are complicit.  Dick also believes that the accumulation of pleasure upon pleasure will never equal happiness.  A person can buy pleasure but true internal happiness is not for sale.

After a moment of quiet, Dick begins again, recalling a sad story of a young girl who was crying on a trail in India. Dick asked her what was wrong and she said her sister was attacked by wild dogs and was dying. Despite the Doctors best efforts, the young girl died. Dick was in Dharmsala at the time for meetings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  As Dick was trying to help the girl, a number of people asked if he was going on the trip to see the Karmapa who had just arrived in Dharmsala.  Dick said no, that instead he would attend to the needs of the young girl’s family.  He asked the girl where her mother was and she said she was somewhere in America. Dick promised to find her. After a long, exhaustive search, he was able to find her and reunite the family in Madison, Wisconsin. Since that meeting, the two remaining girls in the family have graduated from college and one of the two is expected to attend Harvard Business School as a graduate student.  The other girl is applying to graduate school at Cambridge University in England.  None of this would have happened if Dick hadn’t asked a young girl why she was crying and how could he help.  While he missed that particular meeting with the Karmapa, he has visited him on numerous occasions since.

These days, Dick says he tries to always make eye contact with homeless people. He believes compassion should never be measured.  Rather, we should practice compassion and kindness whenever given the opportunity.  We never know where people will go in life. The young women he met might never have had a chance to go to school if he hadn’t stopped to help. He says people limit themselves with fear. Dick feels America has so many distractions, that we are often focused away from what is truly important.  Dick is often referred to as inspirational, but disclaims this attribute by saying “If you feel inspired, realize please that it has nothing to do with me, but rather it has to do with that ember of compassion and kindness that exists within you.”

With that, the interview is over. I am reeling. He agrees to give me a quick tour of the art collection.

This painting is a truly democratic symbol.

Here is Dick and Ann picking olives.

I see a Warhol soup can print and I am amazed to stand so close to one, complete with the Warhol signature. 

I am preparing to leave and I ask to briefly see the barrel room. The door is an ornately carved relief of grapes in the Balinese style of intricate woodworking.

As they swing open I gasp. Inside it looks like a temple. Nothing is out of place. Two large stainless steel tanks are wrapped in a cement staircase so beautifully designed, I simply must stand and look.

Behind is a large stained glass window with the “G” used on the Grace Family Vineyards logo. Many barrel rooms are cluttered and busy. This one is serene and reassuring.

Upon returning to Dick’s office to say goodbye, he tells me of a eight year old child who called the barrel room a “Wine Church” due to its peaceful calm.

Dicks wall of thank you letters.

There’s lots of them.

The phone rings and I bid Dick and Ann goodbye. He pulls out a bottle of wine and sets it on a table near me. I worry he would offer it to me and I immediately plan to tell him no as I couldn’t drink the well being of three Tibetan children for a year and enjoy it. Thankfully it is for the next guest and I breathe easy. While I enjoy wine, I am not a huge collector of fine wines. That, I leave up to folks like the thousands of people on a waiting list to join the Grace Family Vineyards clientele. While the wine can be found in a few select stores, it retails for as high as five hundred dollars per bottle. At auctions, specially prepared etched and handpainted bottles have fetched as high as $100,00.00 per bottle to benefit charitable endeavors.  Dick and Ann Grace are growing change and harvesting the fruit of compassion. I drive through the valley in a daze. I feel like pulling over and helping the first person with a flat tire I can find. His spirit is infectious. Now I know why so many people speak so highly of him. Now I am one of those people. I want to remember though, it isn’t just about him. It is about all of us. The best honor I can pay him is to get to work making the world a better place.

Upon returning home, Dick donated a bottle to the Livermore valley Winegrowers Foundation http://www.livermorewine.com/winegrowers.php 

See You at the 2009 NAPLES WINTER WINE FESTIVAL!!