35 To Ride 'Wine Soul Train' Bus Tour Of Napa Valley To Raise Awareness Of Race Disparities
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Thirty-five people are headed from Oakland to wine country Saturday on what's being called The Wine Soul Train, a response to a racial incident last month on the Napa Valley Wine Train, the director of the Oakland Food Policy Council said today.
In the Aug. 22 incident that inspired the new event, a group of mainly black women were asked to leave the Napa Valley Wine Train because officials said the women were laughing too loud.
The officials later apologized in a statement by wine train CEO Anthony Giacco.
The group of women felt the treatment by train officials and staff was unfair and that white women would have been treated differently.
"It was not equitable," Oakland Food Policy Council director Esperanza Pallana said.
Train officials didn't understand how another culture expresses joy, she said.
Pallana said Saturday's trip is also an effort to support vineyard owners who are in the minority in an industry dominated by whites.
Of the 450 wineries in the region, Pallana estimates that Hispanics and blacks own only about three percent.
"We want to support them," Pallana said. "It's a demonstration of the collective economic power we have to create the food system that we want."
She said council members want a system that is equitable, sustainable and celebrates diversity rather than criminalizes it. In August's incident, police met the women when they got off the train, Lisa Johnson, one of the women, said.
Napa Valley Vintners spokeswoman Patsy McGaughy said the association doesn't know how many minority vineyard owners are in the Napa Valley region. The Sonoma County Tourism Bureau also did not have that data.
The bus taking the group to wine country will leave at 10 a.m. sharp from Real Ms. Ollie's Oakland restaurant at 901 Washington St.
Tickets are $100, and though the trip is sold out, Pallana encourages people to sign up because the council has already started calling people on its waiting list, she said.
The group will visit Esterlina Vineyards & Winery in Healdsburg and Maldonado Vineyards in Calistoga, she said. At each place, the owner will tell the group the story of their business, she said.
"We really want to hear that," Pallana said.
The owner of Maldonado Vineyards immigrated to wine country about forty years ago from a farming community in Mexico, according to the vineyard's website.
The owners of Esterlina Vineyards & Winery had an equally modest beginning, Pallana said.
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