This is the best image I’ve ever taken of Petite Sirah vines, during autumn. They were all 130 year old vines.

Petite Sirah’s Giant Leap Began in 2002. It all started with a Petite Sirah Symposium, in 2002. Louis Foppiano, of Foppiano Vineyards, asked me to create a Petite Sirah “Symposium.”

He envisioned about five or six people sitting around his wine lab table, he later told me. I envisioned the entire California wine industry. Sometimes I think big. Before leaving Maine, I pulled off 250 people attending a Girl Scout summer day camp in Sabattus. What we got was about 35 attendees. Louis was flabbergasted, in the best possible way, but I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me.

After the event, I sent an evaluation form to the attendees and asked, “If there was a group, would you join?” Those who said yes, I simply sent a bill for $250, and the group was created.

Weathered wood, the low golden light, and the sun breaking through the trees all echo the original mood of this story.

Growth’s Created An Amazing History

Growth of any movement creates amazing history. There were hints that it was happening. More than one person wanted to sit down and talk, took copious notes, and I later recognized my own ideas showing up elsewhere. It was a lesson in understanding the influence I was actually having at the time.

And, it even took off in another interesting direction. My friend Dr. Sondra Barrett created this photo below. She dedicated her life’s work to children’s cancer research and ran an entire division of researchers. Using her immense microscope, given to her when she left that profession, she decided to photograph a drop of Petite Sirah on a slide, let it dry. Then she photographed it for me, and had it put onto a canvas.

It’s the greatest gift I’ve received for all my efforts. My trophy, if you will. I have a grand daughter called Astrid Sirah, carrying my burden, and she will inherit this art. The name Astrid is a Scandinavian girl’s name meaning divinely beautiful, beloved of the gods, or godly strength. That fits it all, IMHO.

A drop of Petite Sirah, taken years ago, as a gift to me.

Actual History

When I started Petite Sirah I Love You over two decades ago, Steve Heringer, for instance, was one of our very first members. He helped to create our first board of directors and one I like to call our “founding members.” It was an original group of California growers and producers, who believed a little Petite Sirah grape deserved its own advocacy organization. At the time, Steve Heringer was strictly a grower. He wasn’t making wine, he was farming it, and he was curious. I’ll never forget his arrival at our board meeting, with his first Petite release. Just thinking about it I get goose bumps (seriously).

Heringer Family photo, borrowed from their Website.

Organizing With A BOD

Our meetings were once a month, and lunch always came with a pour from whoever happened to be making wine that season. Kent Rosenblum started it. Then it became Foppiano Vineyards and Concannon Vineyard. We’d sit together, taste, talk shop, and then they’d go back to their vineyards and cellars; a little more inspired than when we all arrived.Those informal tastings turned out to be more powerful than any of us realized. They nudged several of our grower members, Steve Heringer among them, toward starting their own labels instead of only selling fruit to other producers.

Focusing on Founder Steve Heringer

That’s exactly what happened at Heringer Estates Family Vineyards & Winery. Today the winery is a sixth generation, family-run operation in Clarksburg, California, where the Heringers have farmed since 1868. It began when John Heringa arrived from Holland and put down roots in the Sacramento River Delta. The family spent generations growing row crops like alfalfa, corn, and tomatoes, which was before planting their first wine grapes in the 1970s. That is the move that helped launch what we now know as the Clarksburg wine region.

Now, “Papa Steve” and his wife Donna, have raised three children: Mike, Stephen, and Stacy. It is they who now carry the winery forward. Mike leads the winemaking, a role he’s held since establishing the estate label in 2003. His focus has always been letting the Clarksburg AVA speak for itself in the glass. Stacy built and runs the wine club. She also adds events, with a hospitality background, by hosts tastings, weddings, and private gatherings in their 150 year old barn.

Heringer Estates now farms over 650 acres, across more than 24 grape varieties, all certified sustainable. And the family’s estate wines have become a genuine expression of that Delta terroir. This is from a founding member to have a fully realized family winery, and is a story worth raising a glass to.

Witnessing History Being Made

It’s a neat piece of history when you think about it. A grower who joined a fledgling advocacy group because he believed in Petite Sirah, sitting at a monthly lunch tasting wine made by other members. And years later building a family winery of his own. PS I Love You itself has never grown into a large membership organization. We’ve stayed small, committed to growers and producers, never numbering more than 90 or so members at any one time. But our example has rippled outward. Over 1,100 growers and producers across the country have since put Petite Sirah on their own label, choosing to go rogue with a variety that, for a long time, nobody was betting on.

Three Cheers To Heringer Estates

…And to the small, inspired group of 62 who dared 1,100 others to go rogue with us. Also photo borrowed from their Website.

© Jo Diaz, July 25, 2026, All rights reserved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Written by Jo Diaz, a partner of Diaz Communications, who is helping to make stars realize their dreams.
Edited by partner Jose Diaz.

To reprint, please contact Jo Diaz: jo@diaz-communications.com

PR 101: Finding the Right People in Your Career