This poster was produced and released in 1986 making it 21 years old. There are 85 labels displayed of which 10 went out of business/ceased operations and 28 changed ownership. Thus, about 45% of the original labels are no longer available except via our poster-map.
You can skip to the postings on these wineries of series 'A' by clicking on the following URLs:
Series 'A' Wine Label Poster-map
Wineries from South Napa through Rutherford
Wineries north of Rutherford
The Wineries of Series 'B' Poster-map Past and present
Our founder, John Olney, provided us with following story about how this poster-map came about. You can skip this narrative and go straight to the winery write-ups by clicking here>> Wineries from South Napa through Rutherford
“In 1985, I came to Napa, California from Honolulu, Hawaii, to finalize my investi-gation into the profitability of converting Hawaiian sugarcane bagasse (the fibrous material remaining after the extraction of sugar) into a quality cattle feed. We were working with Parker Ranch on the Big Island of Hawaii. I needed to conduct discussions and trials at SRI, Menlo Park to see if some experimental equipment they were evaluating for coal processing into pellet form. I stayed at my father’s house in Napa and commuted to Menlo Park when tests were being conducted.
Well, my partner in Hawaii and I ran out of money just as SRI was preparing their final report which indicated that my partner’s proprietary process, although converting the bagasse into a quality feed, was not economically feasible due to the high costs of corrosion to the processing equipment. So there I was no more money and the project hopelessly flawed. I now had to find work to survive in California.
I was watching the Napa paper for work opportunities where I noted an adver-tisement for a salesman for a new project to collect winery labels which would be displayed on a poster containing a map of Napa Valley. I contacted him and agreed to discuss the project with the gentlemen who conceptualized the poster-map. We met at a restaurant in Vacaville and after a couple of hours I was on-board to solicit the wine labels. He told me I would collect the 100 labels, and he would lay them out, photograph and print the product. I would then be visiting the displayed wineries to negotiate sale of the posters though the winery tasting rooms and would receive a very good commission.
I still needed to find work that would pay me while I did the poster-map label collection during my off hours. I found a job in the Pro Shop at Chimney Rock Golf Course, owned by the name owners of Chimney Rock Winery located along Silverado Trail half way between napa and Yountville.
All was going well from my standpoint in that I had visited about 100 wine producers and got about 75 of them to agree to let us display their label. I had spent about a two months, at no pay when the developer called me and told me that because he was going through divorce he had to cancel the entire project!! Well, these was devastating news as I had a heavy commitment and vested time to the project.
Needless to say, I never heard from him again: his phone was disconnected and my letters went unanswered. What do I do now?
After a month of nothing I decided to go ahead and complete the project on my own but I would credit him with being the concept part of the project. I had no idea what to do next as I had never attempted such a project before. So I started stumbling around at photographer and printer offices getting advice. Meanwhile I continued to collect labels until I had accumulated 85 of them. This number would, by my calculations, fit nicely for a poster measuring 24” X 36” with a border and text.
Next I started the raw layout process. I purchased two black Styrofoam boards and laid them on side by side to create a working platform. I hung them on the wall in my dad’s garage. Then I began laying out labels starting in the upper left-hand corner. The problem was figuring out a layout that didn’t have hot white-out spots because of locating white and tan labels together or dark spots by laying colored labels adjacent to each other. So I’d spend a few hours switching labels around then stand back about 50 feet and try to see hot and dark spots then move back in and switch labels around again. In other words, it was a big jigsaw puzzle requiring iterative placement and replacement moves shuffling labels around to find a pleasing montage. Meanwhile, I had to be aware of the center portion of the layout so I could draw the map of Napa Valley.
Once I was satisfied with the label layout, drawn the map and annotated the streets, I was ready to take it to the photographer I selected in San Francisco. I needed a 10” X 10” transparency for the printer to work with and nobody could do that in Napa in 1985. Here is where there was a problem In order to transport the very large art layout, I had to separate the two boards. I photographed the attached boards, removed the labels that crossed over the seam between two boards, transported the whole thing to the City and reassembled it at the photographers’ lab using the photo’s so I could place the removed labels back in their original positions. Then the photographer would not allow me to be around when he positioned the lighting and conducted the photography. What I did not realize until well after the poster-map was printed and varnished was that thin raised gold lettering would present a problem as you can see by examining the “Artisan” label where the lettering washed out.
Now I had the copies of the four-color separations and I informed the participating wine producers that I was going to print and I offered them the opportunity to sign-up for copies at wholesale prices. Out of nowhere one and only one winery suddenly demanded that I show them the four-color separations for them to approve before they would let me use label. Wow! I was taken back by this move. I had a contract with all the wine producers to use their label and that contract did not give them approval rights on the finished product. I almost balked at this demand but then thought better, since this wine producer a major force in the Napa Valley wine industry and if I got mad at me, he could exert a wrath from which I would not be able to recover and expect to do business with the other wine producers. So I wasted a couple days of taking the proofs to him and getting his approval before I could let the printer make the 5,000 copy run.
Once I had the packages of poster-maps, I started the marketing process, and boy, did I learn a lot in a short amount of time about how critical people could become. I quickly became immune, brushed off the few negatives and made some good sales. As an example, Napa Valley Bank bought copies to use as a promo-ptional tool to gain new accounts. Then the Cannery and an art shop in San Francisco contracted with me. Soon winery retail rooms carried the poster-map and others came on board. I was off and running. I even began thinking about a second poster-map.
Incidentally, the gentleman who originally contacted me to work for him on this concept? I never heard from him again to this date.”Click here >> to return to the beginning of this summary of Series 'A' wine producers.
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