Winery Employee Delivers 12-Minute Estate History To Man Asking About Hours

Answering the phone at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, a tasting room associate at a Sonoma Valley winery delivered a 12-minute account of the estate’s founding to a Petaluma man who had called to ask whether the winery was open on Thursday, witnesses confirmed.

The man, Doug Ferrante, hung up at minute four. The associate called him back.

“I don’t think people understand that when you call us, you’re not calling a business, you’re calling a place with 130 years of continuous farming behind it,” said tasting room associate Presley Mahoney, who reached the 1952 replant on the second call and the current owner’s grandmother on the third, adding that Ferrante had seemed engaged throughout. “He got very quiet toward the end, which is what happens. People come in thinking wine is a beverage and they leave understanding it’s a relationship with a piece of ground.”

Ferrante set the phone on his kitchen counter at minute seven and washed dishes until the call ended. He did not learn the hours.

At press time, Mahoney had left a voicemail with additional context.