Sonoma County Wine Celebration 2024 Honorees Announced

We’re excited to announce this year’s Sonoma County Wine Celebration (SCWC) honorees, whose contributions to our local community will be recognized at the live auction on Saturday, September 21 at Chateau St. Jean.

The Sangiacomo Family, third generation Sonoma County farmers, are the 2024 SCWC Vintner and Grower Honorees. Mark & Terri Stark, founders of Stark Reality Restaurants, are the 2024 SCWC Chef Honorees. Nate Weis, Vice President of Winegrowing at Silver Oak and Twomey, is this year’s Wine Business Leadership Award recipient.

Event proceeds will benefit Sonoma County nonprofits through SCVF Community Grants and Emergency Relief Fund.

“We love recognizing the positive impacts our vintner community brings to our region,” said Michael Haney, Sonoma County Vintners Foundation Executive Director. “Members of our wine and hospitality industries continue to work tirelessly to care for those in our area who need help the most. They are always willing to help raise critical funding for our programs that provide sustainable funding for frontline nonprofits.”

2024 SCWC Vintner and Grower Honorees

As third generation farmers, Mike, Mia, and Steve Sangiacomo proudly continue their family’s farming tradition in Sonoma County, a legacy dating back to 1927. Their story started in 1913, when their grandfather Vittorio Sangiacomo sailed alone to America at age 17. After arriving at Ellis Island, he traveled to San Francisco, eventually settling in Sonoma Valley.  In 1927, Vittorio purchased a 55-acre farm, Eden Dale, establishing the roots of what would become the Sangiacomo Home Ranch. He and his wife Maria raised four children: Angelo, Buck, Bob, and Lorraine. They steadily expanded their land to support this growing family and became one of California’s largest pear-growing operations.

The late Angelo Sangiacomo, father of the current generation, was recognized as a Sonoma County Barrel Auction Icon in 2017 after working in agriculture for more than 70 years. During the decline of the California pear market, he encouraged the family to uproot their pears, and they planted their first vineyard in 1969. As the wine industry continued to gain acclaim in Sonoma County, they expanded and today they farm over 1600 acres of certified sustainable vineyards, supplying grapes to over 90 premium wineries. They were among the first to introduce vineyard designated wines, with over 30 wineries currently producing a “Sangiacomo Vineyards” wine.

Sangiacomo Family Wines, launched in 2016, celebrates their family’s heritage as grape growing pioneers in Sonoma County. These terroir-driven wines are a tribute to the family’s commitment to showcasing the unique characteristics of their estate vineyards.

2024 SCWC Chef Honorees

James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur semifinalists Mark and Terri Stark together own and operate eight of Sonoma County’s favorite, and most highly rated, restaurants: Willi’s Wine Bar (2002), Monti’s (2004), Stark’s Steak & Seafood (2008), Bird & The Bottle (2015), and Grossman’s Noshery & Bar (2020) and Augie’s French (2023) in Santa Rosa, and Willi’s Seafood (2003) and Bravas (2012) in Healdsburg. After losing their flagship, Willi’s Wine Bar, in the 2017 Tubbs Fire, the Starks re-opened Willi’s at the restaurant’s new home in the Town & Country Center in Santa Rosa in June 2019. Willi’s Wine Bar first welcomed diners and introduced Santa Rosans to the small plates concept in 2002. Less than one year after re-opening Willi’s Wine Bar, the Starks opened Grossman’s Noshery & Bar in Santa Rosa’s historic Railroad Square in March 2020.

The Starks founded Stark Reality Restaurants in 2006 to manage the operations of their diverse group of dining establishments. They are now one of Sonoma County’s largest employers. More than awards and accolades, Terri and Mark are most proud of being able to provide mentorship and employment to so many workers in the local culinary field. The Starks are committed to promoting from within, what Terri refers to as “stocking our own pond.” All of their chefs started out working for them as cooks, and, in some cases, dishwashers. The biggest measure of success, according to Mark, “At least 20 employees who started out washing dishes and bussing tables now own their houses; more than anything else, that is our greatest accomplishment.”

2024 Wine Business Leadership Award 

The Wine Business Leadership Award is a partnership award between Sonoma County Vintners and The Wine Business Institute (WBI) at Sonoma State University which recognizes an individual annually who demonstrates great wine business leadership, vision, innovation, inspiration and impactful service to the Sonoma County community.

Nate Weis, whose father is also a winemaker, grew up locally and joined the Silver Oak team in 2014. He brought with him a wealth of experience from working at wineries in California and New Zealand.

He is especially proud of helping the Duncan family, who co-founded the winery in 1972 with Justin Meyer and are now the sole owners, build upon the culture they’ve established. This includes being a leader in sustainability by building their LEED Platinum and Living Building certified winery in Alexander Valley and winning the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance Green Medal for Leadership in 2019. He helped found the winery’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee and subsequent apprenticeship program in partnership with The Veraison Project for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals interested in wine careers, establishing paid time off for volunteerism as a company benefit, and instituting a formal internal mentorship program and leadership development for high-potential employees.

Nate has been an adjunct faculty at Napa Valley College since 2018, teaching courses in enology and wine education. He has been a board member of the Wine Business Institute since 2022, a former board member of the Northwest Chapter of the American Red Cross, and a member of the Unified Grape & Wine Symposium Program Development Committee since 2018. He was a North Bay Business Journal “40 under 40” recipient in 2014 and a Wine Business Institute Outstanding Alumnus award winner in 2021. However, Nate maintains that his real claim to fame is being the father of triplets (two boys and a girl) and their little brother, as well as recently celebrating a 20th wedding anniversary with his wife, Sally.

Gathering to Give Back at SCWC

The proceeds from SCWC will continue to support Sonoma County nonprofits focused on the areas of literacy, education, health & human services, the environment and arts & culture. In addition, a key focus for this year’s Fund-A-Need paddle raise will benefit the critically impactful K-3 Proficiency Project from the nonprofit K-3 Innovation, which has seen tremendous results in increasing literacy in Sonoma County school children.

“A staggering 59% of our third-grade students in Sonoma County are not reading proficiently,” said Gary Nelson, Co-Founder of K-3 Innovation. “Learning to read by third grade is crucial; it marks the transition from learning to read to reading to learn. K-3 Innovation is expanding the K-3 Proficiency Project here in Sonoma County. This private/public partnership works to ensure all students reach reading proficiency by the end of third grade. We are incredibly grateful that a portion of the SCWC Fund-A-Need Paddle Raise will help K-3 Innovation provide more students with the literacy skills needed to succeed.”

This year’s Sonoma County Wine Celebration will be held September 19-21, 2024. Tickets are on sale now for three days of new experiences benefiting the Sonoma County community!