The Sonoma Community Center on Saturday, July 31, will honor its chosen annual “Muse,” a person who contributed to the culture of Sonoma Valley and the world and inspired others to do the same. This year’s honored Muse is the late James D. Zellerbach, founder of Hanzell Winery. The theme of the dinner is Roman Holiday of the ‘50s and will feature live music, champagne, and vintage wines. The donation is $150 to support the Community Center’s arts programs and projects. To order tickets call 938-4626 Ext. 1 or e-mail sonomacommunitycenter.org
For two-and-half millennia since the hey-day of Greek culture and mythology, the muses have represented inspiring figures who have encouraged the arts and culture of all kinds. Witness examples of past honorees selected as muses by the Sonoma Community Center: M.F.K. (Mary Frances Kennedy) Fisher, the great stylist author who introduced two generations to the joys of food and travel; Robert Lynch, who presided over the Index-Tribune and other publications for a half century; and Alma Spreckels, the statuesque artist’s model who used her inherited wealth to build museums, sponsor artists and architects and develop Sobre Vista.
So where does this year’s selection, James D. Zellerbach, fit as an inspiration? His usual résumé reads industrialist, diplomat, winery founder, but that shortchanges the accomplishments and legacy of this humble man, who re-directed the profile of wine-making in Sonoma Valley. Born in 1892 in San Francisco to Isadore and Jennie Zellerbach, cultural and financial leaders of the city, known for its culturally influential Jewish community, James attended Lowell, the academic public high school, and graduated from the University of California in 1913 with a Bachelor of Science degree. Three years later, he married Hana Fuld, for a lifetime and two sons, Richard and James.
Through expansion of what had been a small paper company founded by James’ immigrant grandfather, and a series of strategic mergers, by the late 1920s father Isadore had created Crown Zellerbach, the largest paper company on the west coast, and second in size nationally. Upon graduation, young “J.D.” began working with his father and moved up to executive vice president of the company in 1928. When Isadore retired in 1938, James became president of Crown Zellerbach, an empire of paper manufacture, with 11,000 employees and 13 mills in the northwest, particularly in the charming town of Camas, Washington, which fronts on the Columbia River gorge just east of Vancouver. After an early history of resistance to unionization, the company developed a reputation for peaceful management-employee relationships and a campaign for industrial safety.
The success of the company under J.D.’s management gave him the time and reputation to open the door to public service. In 1942 he was invited to join the Committee for Economic Development which had been organized by Paul G. Hoffman, President of Studebaker Corporation. That bi-partisan Committee was composed of 200 industrial leaders and opinion makers, and concentrated on planning national “reconversion” to a peacetime economy at home and rebuilding world economies abroad when the global war would end. It proved an ideal arena in which Zellerbach–dapper, gentlemanly, confident and innovative–could shine even among a gathering of the establishment elite.
As an executive of a company well-known for labor harmony he was appointed by President Harry Truman as American representative to a series of conferences of the International Labor Organization. J.D. was soon selected as a vice president of the I.L.O. At the same time he joined other business executives in an unsuccessful crusade against smoking.
Meanwhile, Zellerbach was a member of a team at the Committee for Economic Development that designed a plan of foreign aid to rebuild and restructure the economies of the devastated countries of Europe with assistance from the United States. This program became the “Marshall Plan” unveiled by Secretary of State George Marshall in 1948 with the backing of President Truman. Unexpectedly, Zellerbach found himself among the chief defenders of the Marshall Plan against attacks by isolationists who opposed any American-financed foreign aid.
After the plan was adopted by Congress, Zellerbach was chosen to administer the program in war-torn Italy. A reluctant ally of Germany for most of the war, when Italy tried to withdraw from the fighting, it became the battle arena from Sicily to the Alps between desperate defending Wermarcht veterans against American, British and Canadian armies, leaving the country a massive wrecking yard requiring reconstruction.
Just before they left for Italy in 1948, James and Hana purchased 14 acres on a slope on the east side of Sonoma Valley. Their hopes for the fertile possibilities of this somewhat rocky plot would have to be put on hold, but over the years the Zellerbachs kept buying adjoining real estate until the total reached 200 acres. While he was stationed in Italy, they toured Burgundy, France, and decided that their favorite Romande St. Vivant was the type of wine worth producing.
The Sonoma Community Center on Saturday, July 31, will honor its chosen annual “Muse,” a person who contributed to the culture of Sonoma Valley and the world and inspired others to do the same. This year’s honored Muse is the late James D. Zellerbach, founder of Hanzell Winery. The theme of the dinner is Roman Holiday of the ‘50s and will feature live music, champagne, and vintage wines. The donation is $150 to support the Community Center’s arts programs and projects. To order tickets call 938-4626 Ext. 1 or e-mail sonomacommunitycenter.org
The Impact of Zellerbach’s Innovations in the “Hanzell Way”
Marshall Plan leaders Averill Harriman and Paul Hoffman, and the United Nations credited Zellerbach with a significant role in stimulating Italy’s recovery from World War II, and for sternly combating and speaking out against local corruption. His sensitive and effective administration earned him an Italian decoration.
His national and international celebrity led to Zellerbach’s involvement in numerous charitable, business and educational organizations in addition to their long-time support of the San Francisco Symphony and Opera Associations and the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The Zellerbachs also quietly established their own foundation which currently distributes over three million dollars a year to a long list of cultural, artistic and educational recipients.
A Republican, in 1952 he got his first taste of national politics as a supporter of Dwight Eisenhower for the party’s nomination and final election. Ike later named J.D. a public delegate to a session of the U.N. General Assembly. For two years he was chairman of the Economic Development Committee and also chaired the National Manpower Council. He served on the boards of Mt. Zion Hospital, the American Red Cross, the Foreign Policy Association, Mills College, Wells Fargo Bank and the Ford Foundation.
In 1949 he was named University of California “Alumnus of the Year,” not coincidentally with a gift of a million dollars to complete Zellerbach Hall, the university’s prime performance venue designed by famed architect Vernon deMars (incidentally a cousin of Sonoma architect Remo Patri). Indicative of his interest in the cutting edge of building design was the new Crown Zellerbach corporate headquarters completed in 1958 at the juncture of the financial district and Market Street in San Francisco. Designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill, the 19-story building appears to float above a ground floor patio open to pedestrian traffic. The largest glass curtain building in the west, it stands in fresh contrast to its more block-like neighbors.
Finally in 1952, Zellerbach felt free to explore his own inspiration: A winery employing various concepts he felt were necessary to produce rich Burgundian Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, at the time virtually unknown in the west, which he planted that year. His winery 600 feet above sea level at the foot of the Mayacamas Mountains was named for his love, combining Hana and Zellerbach into Hanzell. From this modest beginning Hanzell became the model (read Muse) for dozens of winery owners and winemakers in the wave of expanded production in the second half of the 20th Century.
Zellerbach’s practices became known as the “Hanzell Way,” which involved various innovations for wine-making in North America: To improve taste during the aging process they used small-sized imported French Oak barrels and stainless steel tanks designed by Zellerbach himself and built for only $45,000, the vital experiment of ample and prompt injection of nitrogen to replace oxygen in barrels and tanks (quoting winemaker Bob Sessions: “Air is our enemy”), and its gravity feed system. The tanks served to carefully control the heat during fermentation by circulating water of various temperatures through the walls of the original 12 tanks. Since the stainless steel was free of unstable natural bacteria, Brad Webb, his initial winemaker, prepared meticulous additions of a malolactic strain of bacterium to aid fermentation. Essentially, the application of technology broke the shackles of tradition.
Zellerbach remained President of Crown Zellerbach until 1956 when he was appointed Ambassador to Italy by President Eisenhower to replace the flamboyant Clare Booth Luce. During his tenure, which lasted through the remainder of Ike’s administration, he accompanied the President on a tour of Italy and represented the United States at the funeral of Pope Pius XII. Upon his permanent return to California in 1961, although a Cal grad, Zellerbach was invited to be the commencement speaker at the Stanford University graduation.
In the friendly confines of the Hanzell Winery, built in the ‘50s in the image of a 12th Century Burgundian press house, Zellerbach became a hands-on participant in the production of carefully developed vintages, from crushing, through tasting to bottling. Hanzell’s influence on the industry and public appreciation of prime varietals was extensive for a relatively low volume winery seldom exceeding 5,000 cases.
Sadly, James D. Zellerbach’s opportunity to continue vigorous leadership was cut short when he died of a brain tumor in August 1963, only 71 years old.
Fortunately for the preservation of the “Hanzell Way” winemaker Brad Webb was able to carry on, followed by popular Bob Sessions who served as General Manager and then also as winemaker covering a period of 33 years. It was if Sessions so thoroughly understood the guiding principles of Hanzell that he “channeled” the vision of the founder. For many years Sessions was aided in his efforts by his wife, Molly, who unfortunately died before her time.
Like any good muse, the influence of J. D. Zellerbach lives on despite changes in ownership and management, including in the person of Jean Arnold Sessions, who is Sessions’ second wife, and for the past eight years President of Hanzell. As the newest winemaker, Michael Terrien, recently expressed it each is a standard bearer of the Hanzell tradition.
