Rutherford, California
Frank was raised with his hands in the dirt, helping run his family nursery and ranch wherever he could. His love of tractors is great, meticulously caring for and repairing them. Her worked long hours, nearly every day of the week, and rainy days were spent in the shop repairing equipment. Frosty springs were spent lighting smudge pots and starting wind machines all night long. When his father passed away in 1966, he took over Emmolo Nursery, and grew it to be the largest rootstock nursery in California. During harvest, he loved driving his double gondola to the CoOp (now Hall Winery), Charles Krug, and Oakville Winery (now Napa Wine Co.)
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Annie held her own in a man’s farming world, managing the office for Emmolo Nursery. She knows everything about planting, grafting and growing. She helped translate for their employees, put together crews, and drove tractor when she needed to. Annie was the second woman to obtain a license to haul gondolas to the winery. Where their three car garage stands now was originally built as a lath house, a mini nursery, where Annie sold small trees and plants.
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Today, these two boast an unbelievable vegetable and flower garden that they tend to daily as soon as the sun comes up. This year they “only planted about 40 tomato plants…” Just about every single one of their children and grandchildren are involved in the wine industry in some way. What an incredible testament to their hard work and roots in this special valley!
