As St. Francis’ President & CEO, Christopher Silva has a specific focus: producing world class Sonoma wine. He believes that the best wines can be grown in Sonoma County and everyday his efforts are centered on continuing the awareness and enjoyment of St. Francis’ award-winning wines.

Silva is a fifth generation Sonoma County native and a member of the well-known Zucchetti and Cassina dairy farming families, who came to Petaluma from Switzerland in the late 1800s. He grew up in Santa Rosa and graduated from Cardinal Newman High School in 1982. Moving to Los Angeles, Silva continued his education and graduated cum laude from Loyola Marymount University in 1986, followed by Loyola Law School in 1989. He was elected Student Body President of both his high school and of his college.

He worked in Los Angeles as a litigation attorney for three years before returning to Santa Rosa in 1992. At Santa Rosa's Lanahan & Reilley LLP, he retired from the practice of law in 1998 to begin employment at St. Francis Winery & Vineyards. Brought on to the St. Francis team in management and marketing in 1998, Silva became its Chief Operating Officer in 1999, traveling extensively in the U.S. and internationally as the Winery's spokesman. At the age of 38, he became St. Francis’ President & CEO on January 1, 2003.

Silva resides in Sonoma County, where he served for 5 years on the Board of Directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Sonoma County. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. His son Joseph, 9, and daughter Sydney, 7, attend local public elementary school and are sixth generation Sonoma County natives. Chris is fluent in both Spanish and Italian.

Question #1
Adams Beverage Group (ABG): Since you became president of St. Francis three years ago, the winery has initiated many changes in terms of production, processing and aging of its wines. Why these changes?

Christopher Silva: The fact that, in this highly competitive environment, we were at a turning point in the history of our Winery. One argument was that we could essentially become a "volume house," as we had just completed a state of the art facility here in Sonoma capable of producing significantly more wine. The other argument was that we could capitalize upon over 30 years of vineyard and winemaking lessons, skill, and expertise by increasing our quality and decreasing production. In other words, we could passionately focus our efforts on the art, rather than the industry, of winemaking.

We chose the latter, as we only get to do this once. We have the best raw materials, facility, and winemaking talent in the world. We have a long term audience that looks to St. Francis to deliver consistent quality that meets or exceeds the wine quality we have delivered in the past.

Our mission is to become the premier producer of Sonoma wine in each of our target categories. As I have told our entire team: Our time here will not be measured in years, it will be measured by the contributions each one of us makes, as individuals, to constantly improving the quality of our grapes and of our wines. 'Good enough' is contrary to our mission.

Question #2
ABG: What's the overall effect of all the changes, on the wines and your position in the market?

Christopher Silva: Quite simple: our quality is even better than it was before, and most of our wines are currently sold out or on allocation in every state in the Nation. I can't think of better proof that our move to higher quality is working.

Question #3
ABG: Now that you produce the majority of grapes that you use, you've become far more picky about grapes you buy, correct?

Christopher Silva: We certainly have. In fact, we now inspect every bin of grapes on the Crush Pad before accepting them for winemaking. At our Pre-Hopper Inspection Platform, at least two senior members of the winemaking team stand above every bin of grapes with a rake, rake through each bin in search of any defects in appearance, color, ripeness, smell and taste (yes, they taste from each bin prior to acceptance). Fruit that is not outstanding on all fronts is immediately rejected.

Before the grapes even make it to the Crush Pad, we have revised our contracts for all purchased grapes to ensure the most rigorous viticulture quality measures are adhered to - at the direction of St. Francis Winery - in every vineyard from which we purchase fruit. Thus, "when to pick" is now a Winemaker decision and is no longer based upon degrees Brix, or sugar levels, but upon several factors, including degrees Brix, grape color, sweetness, texture, overall flavor and aroma, and non-existence of bunch rot, virus of any kind, or any other MOG (material other than grape).

Question #4
ABG: Why the switch from American to French and Eastern European oak for all wines except Zinfandel? And why exempt Zin from the change?

Christopher Silva: Through years of careful study, we found that the increased use of French and some Eastern European Oak provides better, more integrated wine structure and a sense of balance that highlights the wonderful fruit in each wine. As to Zinfandel, our Winemaker believes that stylistically, the cedar, tobacco, leather and even "pencil shavings" notes imparted by American Oak are far more compatible with those jammy, peppery, berry characteristics of Zinfandel. The fact that St. Francis Zinfandels have been named Number One Zinfandel In the World by at least three major international publications gives further credibility to this approach.

Question #5
ABG: Are wines from Sonoma like St. Francis still overlooked in terms of consumer and media attention compared to those from Napa?

Christopher Silva: Speaking for ourselves, we are very pleased by the feedback we continue to receive from both consumers and media regarding our wines. As a category, Sonoma still remains less developed than Napa, but the quality of so many wonderful Sonoma wines is gradually changing this situation.

Question #6
ABG: Any other changes in store in the near term for St. Francis?

Christopher Silva: We intend to stay in focus in constantly increasing - though not necessarily changing - our efforts to improve the quality of our grapes and of our wines. We still use 100% Sonoma grapes in all St. Francis wines, using hand-picked grapes from the best Sonoma vineyards. By way of background, the changes we commenced in 2003 are now the backbone of our efforts at St. Francis Winery. Those changes were necessarily focused on what we all knew to be the three most important areas of winemaking: the vineyards, the crush pad, and, of course, the cellar.

In the vineyard, we immediately issued letter grade, quality "report cards" to our grape growers; grapes that did not receive an "A" grade or "A minus with promise of reaching an A" would no longer be a part of our program. We cancelled grape contracts with nearly half of our growers because they didn't earn a grade of "A" or "A minus with promise of reaching an A." And we revised all of our existing grape contracts to include our higher VQ protocol (e.g., degrees Brix is one factor in WM's decision when to pick). So today we have fewer grapes, but I know for a fact that we have better grapes. And months before each harvest, we're dropping fruit on the ground in each of our estate vineyards, which increases richness and concentration of the remaining fruit. Our estate vineyards are finally mature, well cropped, and producing most of the grapes we use.

On the crush pad, in our pre-hopper inspection platform, at least two senior members of the winemaking team stand above every 2 ton bin of grapes, rake in hand, and visually inspect/rake through them to verify high quality before acceptance. Grapes that do not meet our exacting standards are rejected.

In the cellar, we’ve reduced our total wine production by 30%, enabling our team to focus on quality, rather than quantity. As a rule we've stopped sterile filtering and de-alcoholizing our wines, as doing so stripped them of flavor, structure, richness, and complex mouth feel. We now eliminate the "bottom 10% of every wine - and sell it on the bulk market or to other wineries - before final blending of each varietal. Dropping the "bottom 10%" per varietal, per vintage may require us to take a loss from time to time on wine we’ll never use. So be it. Our winemaking team now has only the best blending components for each of our varietals. Consistently high quality more than justifies this plan; it is also far more profitable in the long term.

Question #7
ABG: What's your favorite St. Francis wine?

Christopher Silva: St. Francis "Old Vines" Zinfandel, without question. It has been written that to make wine in Sonoma is to stand in the presence of the past. I am a 5th generation native of Sonoma County. My grandparents and great-grandparents were dairy farmers. I grew up hearing that Luther Burbank wrote that Sonoma County is "the chosen spot of all earth as far as nature is concerned." No wine captures the essence of both Sonoma farming and winemaking like our "Old Vines" Zinfandel, made with non-irrigated, dry farmed grapes from vines first planted in the 1880s.

I took my two children to the nearby Pagani Zinfandel Vineyard (from where we get grapes for our legendary Pagani Reserve Zinfandel) just before Crush this past September. They shook their heads in amazement when I told them that Mr. Pagani planted the vines that surrounded us that day just 15 years after Abraham Lincoln was President. The promise of Sonoma has always been, as Jack London wrote, focused upon "the dreams and mysteries" of our people and of farming our land. All of us at St. Francis are passionate about delivering that promise every day.