By Laurie Wachter
Ren Harris’ roots are firmly planted in California. He is a sixth-generation Californio, a descendant of José Carrillo, who came to the not-yet state with the Portolá expedition in 1769. Another ancestor was the sister-in-law of Sonoma’s founder, General Vallejo. The family of Harris’s wife, Marilyn, adds Napa Valley heritage, as the Pelissa family has farmed there for four generations.
In 1967, the couple purchased 30 acres of prunes in Oakville, which they sold in 1975 and acquired the 55-acre estate across the highway that is now part of Harris’s Paradigm Winery’s vineyards. It is also the source of its classic Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon wines.
“The Agricultural Preserve saved Napa Valley,” says Harris. “My father-in-law, Andy Pelissa, was the only farmer on the Planning Commission when a zoning proposal was put forth in 1968 to stop chopping up farms into home sites. It passed to become the first agricultural preserve in the United States.“
Shaping Napa Valley
Harris has also been instrumental in shaping the Valley’s heritage. He proposed farmworkers’ health insurance to the California Farm Bureau, which became Ag Health Benefits Alliance of Northern California, providing benefits to more than 1,500 agricultural employees. Then he debated César Chávez on national television after his United Farmworkers Union (UFW) boycotted Napa vineyards.
“César was very personable, and he and I wanted the same thing for farmworkers, namely that they grow and prosper,” says Harris. “But I don’t think the debate changed any minds.”
“Ren was president of the Napa County Farm Bureau and one of Napa Valley Grapegrowers’ founders,” says Napa Valley Grapegrowers Executive Director Caleb Mosley. In 1975, growers delivered their grapes to wineries without knowing the price. When Gallo later announced the price, most wineries followed its lead. Harris championed marketing order legislation that would set grape prices before delivery, thus ensuring greater fairness for growers. Mosley continues, “He helped shift prosperity into the hands of the growers.”
Harris is a statesman, so everything he does begins with building alliances and ends with sharing the credit for whatever is accomplished.
As Trefethen Family Vineyards’ owner, John Trefethen, said when Harris was honored as Grower of the Year in 2021, “Ren Harris is one of the most consequential leaders of what happened in the early years of the Napa Valley. He was either founder, co-founder or leader of all of the early organizations that we desperately needed because there wasn’t any infrastructure here.”
Mosley adds, “He has had the vision to make amazing things happen for the better in this valley. Anyone who interacts with Ren ends up a better person.”
More to come
As Harris looks forward, he notes that “Climate change has definitely impacted what we grow and how we grow it.” When he first bought his property, it was planted to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and white Riesling. Many growers have shifted away from those varieties in favor of Cabernet Sauvignon, which they wouldn’t have planted in the 1960s because it might not ripen.
Plans for the future include reopening Pancha’s, a treasured Napa Valley bar Harris bought from long-time friends to preserve the legacy of 1970s Yountville.
“I knew Pancha pretty well,” he says. “I’ve got pictures of Pancha and me from when she ran my wife’s family’s bunk house and cook house.” He adds with a mischievous smile, “It’ll give me a place to hang out when I get old.”
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Laurie Wachter
Laurie Wachter is a leader in consumer behavior and direct-to-consumer marketing analytics, having worked for consumer packaged goods companies such as Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Catalina Marketing and IRI (now Circana). Based in Northern California’s wine country, she writes about innovation and the business of food, wine and beverages for a global client base.
