The Renteria Vineyard Management Co. farms about 1,800 of the Napa Valley's 44,000 planted acres for 27 clients who come from all but one of the region’s 15 sub-appellations. The knowledge, expertise, and background of the Mexican-American family that runs RVM, has turned it into one of the largest and most respected vineyard management companies in California.

From its roots in 1962, when the patriarch Salvador Renteria came to the Napa Valley from Jalisco, to mid-October of this year when permits were granted for the Renterias to break ground on a cave for their eponymous wine brand, their story is an epic one. And still, it’s not that much different from earlier Napa Valley settlers who arrived in the last two centuries from Europe.

Now, it is the Mexican-Americans’ turn and, more specifically, the Salvador Renteria family, including Salvador’s 39-year-old son Oscar, who has taken over both the vineyard company and the Renteria Winery.

But it all began with Salvador, who recently turned 69. Remarkably, he had never farmed before first getting involved with vineyards. Salvador made his bones in two disparate professions first as a barber and then as a pool shark. But 45 years ago, he gave it up to start a career in the vineyards at Sterling. There he was quickly named crew leader because he could speak a little better English than his colleagues.

I guess you could say that Salvador was a fast learner. In short order, he helped innovate such vineyard techniques as trellis trials and canopy management systems, working in various places, including the famed Three Palms Vineyard.

Salvador then went on to work in the vineyards of some of the valley’s more prestigious wineries such as Screaming Eagle, Domaine Chandon, Dalla Valle, Trefethen, Caymus, Duckhorn, Beaulieu, Clos Pegase, Cuvaison, Silverado, and Sonoma’s Williams Selyem.

In 1987, he started his own vineyard company. Today, with Oscar at the helm, RVM boasts such clients as the Robert Mondavi Winery, Caymus, Rombauer, Duckhorn, Vine Cliff, Silver Oak, Baldacci, Juslyn, Reynolds, and Michael and Rob Mondavi’s vineyards in Pope Valley, Atlas Peak, and Carneros.

Ten years later, Oscar started producing wines under the Renteria name. The Renteria’s themselves own 107 acres, which include seven acres of Cabernet Sauvignon on the Oakville Cross Road on Mt. Veeder (which is for sale), 42 acres of Cabernet in Pope Valley, three acres of Pinot Noir in Carneros, and an undisclosed parcel on Howell Mountain that has not yet been announced.

They are now building their own winery on a 55 acre site, at an elevation of 1,300-feet, on the southeast slope of Brown Valley where Mt. Veeder meets Carneros. The project won’t be finished for a couple of years. But Oscar hopes to begin crushing there next year. Currently Renteria produces 3,800 cases of Cabernet from the Stags Leap District, as well as Merlot, Pinot and Chardonnay. The new winery, which will sit near the Artesa Winery and Lee Hudson’s storied Carneros vineyard, will continue to employ the highly respected Karen Culler, to make the wines.

Salvador and Oscar Renteria spoke to Appellation America’s Napa Valley correspondent, Alan Goldfarb, recently from Salvador’s home in the hills above the Silverado Country Club in southern Napa Valley.