Jaime Rojas was 44 when he first tasted wine made from grapes he grew himself.
The wine – a 2016 Pinot Noir – came from Bravo Toro, the small vineyard near his home in Santa Rosa. Nearly thirty years had passed since he first entered the vineyards of Napa Valley as a teenager, pruning and grafting for wineries that bottled the fruit he helped grow—wines he never had a chance to enjoy.
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“I was always fascinated by the processes of grafting and growing grapes,” says Rojas. “I wanted to know what the variety I grew tasted like, but I never experienced it.”
Today, Rojas, 52, and his wife, Jana Rojas, 40, run a vineyard management company serving Sonoma, Napa and Oregon. They also own a small label of Russian River Valley varieties, grown and crafted on the land he once only dreamed of.
His path remains rare in Wine Country, where Latino workers make up much of the vineyard workforce but few winery owners.
The Mexican American Vintners Association counts just 18 Latino-owned wineries in Napa and Sonoma counties. Combined, the two provinces have more than 800 brick-and-mortar wineries, according to local tourism data.“There are several Latino-owned wineries now,” Rojas said. “We work the land, we understand the product, so if you have the opportunity to make your own, take it.”
Jana said she believes the shift will continue — even slowly.
“It had to be done,” she said. “Vineyards in Wine Country are being farmed by Latinos. Little by little, they will carve out a place for themselves in the industry.”
Dylan Sheldon, co-owner of Inspiration Vineyards, the winery that provides custom crush services for the Rojases, said fieldworker wineries still face barriers.
“We can do better with diversity,” Sheldon said. “There is a lack of Latino (winery) representation in the wine industries of California, Oregon and Washington.”
Rojas wines have already been recognized with more than 30 awards in almost ten years. His 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon, Pavel, won Best in Class at this year’s Sonoma County Harvest Fairbeating more than 100 entries.
Still, prices haven’t solved the hard part: selling wine.
He said the local wine market is already well established, adding that visibility is more important to winery owners than prices. He said this year was particularly challenging due to declining demand.
“It’s a single market where we all need each other – Latinos or not,” he said.
From a motorcycle dream to a life in Wine Country
Rojas arrived in Napa Valley in 1989, following a path that his father, Antonio, had begun more than a decade earlier. Antonio emigrated from Oaxaca in the 1970s to work in the vineyard and later gained legal residency through the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to farm workers. The program would eventually allow him to bring the rest of the family from Santo Domingo Tonalá to Napa: another son, two daughters and his wife. Rojas’ older brother, Marco Antonio, was already in St. Helena, and the three initially shared a house with other farm workers.
Their experience reflected a broader shift. According to the Library of Congress, an estimated three million people—mostly Spanish-speaking agricultural and service workers—gained legal status through the law during that decade.
Rojas didn’t plan to stay long. The goal was simple: save enough money to buy a motorcycle and return to Mexico to go to school. A year later, Marco Antonio was killed in a car accident along the Silverado Trail.
“My father would be alone,” he said. “I stayed and worked with him.”
Rojas eventually bought the motorcycle he had planned, but he did not return to Mexico. Instead, he spent the next decade working the same vineyards, developing a deeper appreciation for grape growing and soil management.
“My mentality was different,” he said. “I enjoyed working in the fields, but I needed to improve my skills and move forward in life.”
He received most of his training from his late father, who taught him how to graft. Respected vineyardist Ulises Valdez, founder of Valdez Family Winery, gave him his first opportunity to work with advanced winemaking techniques.
Jaime Rojas, 17 years old, working at the rootstock nursery of Emmolo Winery in St. Helena in 1990.
Jaime Rojas, 17 years old, working at the rootstock nursery of Emmolo Winery in St. Helena in 1990.
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Jaime Rojas, 17 years old, working at the rootstock nursery of Emmolo Winery in St. Helena in 1990.
By 2000, Rojas had obtained his farm worker license and launched Napa Second Generation, his vineyard management company. The company grew steadily, attracting customers in Napa and Sonoma counties and specializing in building vineyards from raw land to the first harvest.
“I started to specialize,” he says. “Creating vineyards from start to finish.”
Rojas sees the wine industry as a thought-driven industry where on-the-ground decisions and timing matter. Learning to deal with long days and fatigue is only part of the job, he says.
“What was the sentence your father said to you when you were in the vineyards?” Jana asked Rojas.
“If you cut off your finger,” he replied, “leave it alone and keep working.”
A turning point – and a new label
Rojas said the turning point came during a grape sale.
He had a buyer lined up to buy fruit at $5,000 a ton, but at the last minute the offer dropped to $3,000.
“I thought it was a joke,” he said.
When he refused, the buyer wondered what to do with the grapes since Rojas had no winery.
Rojas said that moment pushed him to launch his own label. He contacted Sheldon, a winemaker who crushes grapes for others, and asked him one thing: “Help me make me the best wine you can.”
The first vintage – the 2016 Pinot Noir – earned a gold medal at the Orange County Wine Competition and a bronze medal at the San Francisco International Wine Competition.
Sheldon, 52, considers the fruits of Bravo Toro to be some of the best Pinot Noir he has worked with in 25 years.
“I helped the Rojas family start their label,” he said. “To understand what their vision was.”
Cultivating a family
Rojas and Jana met online 25 years ago when Jana was living in the Czech city of Skalná.
“Jaime and I started talking,” she said. “We communicated via email.”
After two years of long-distance communications, she moved to Napa in 2003. They now have three daughters – Emily, Nathalie and Jana – who grew up among the vineyards.
In 2009, the family moved to Santa Rosa and bought a house with 20 acres – land that would become Bravo Toro Vineyards, where they also grow Sauvignon Blanc.
Nathalie, now 17, remembers a time when the vineyard was nothing more than open ground.
“This place was just a field,” she said. “Now you can see how much the company has grown. I am very proud of my parents.”
She has already begun to learn the work firsthand. Nathalie is still in high school and is taking an agriculture course at Santa Rosa Junior College as her interest in agriculture develops.
Jana, the administrator and office manager, said she hopes her daughters will one day continue the business. Sheldon said if they do, it could become a lasting family legacy.
Agustín Durán, a vineyard supervisor who has worked with Rojas for more than two decades and grew up in the same town in Oaxaca, said tasting the wine they grow is meaningful.
“It always feels very nice,” he says. “It comes from the grapes we grew on our own.”
Looking ahead in a changing sector
The Rojas family now sells about 400 cases a year – a model of a micro-winery, powered by limited acreage and handcrafted production.
But this year, he said, demand slowed sharply. Restaurants are leaning toward cheaper imports from South America, and some local growers have halted sourcing of unsold fruit and vineyard management.
Industry analysts echo his concerns. Nearly half a million tons of grapes will remain uncrushed statewide this year. said Jeff Bitter, president of Allied Grape Growers in Healdsburg. He predicted that 2025 could be the smallest crush in California in thirty years.
Yet Rojas remains involved.
He now leases two vineyards in Dry Creek Valley to expand varieties, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese and Sagrantino. The bull on his label is a nod to his address and the jaripeos, Mexican rodeo-style events he enjoys.
For him, the work remains simple – and very personal.
It’s about being able to “enjoy a glass of wine from a bottle that comes from your work,” he said, “and from your crops.”
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