A winemaker, retired pilot and political gadfly, Lake Berryessa resident Richard Barthelemy is familiar to many Napans as an advocate on land use issues, a critic of local government and the producer of pretty darned good port wines. Better known as Bart, Barthelemy is a longtime player in Napa politics who has railed against county regulations. But Barthelemy says he just does what any citizen would do.

"I just try to mind my own business," he said, "but I want to stand up for my rights."

Over the years, Barthelemy's concerns have ranged from Lake Berryessa-area schoolchildren to efforts to rezone residential parcels near the lakeshore.

His most recent legal battle is linked to activities at Moss Creek Winery. Barthelemy leases two-thirds of the facility to make his dessert wines, but got into a legal scuffle with the owner of the property and the county over his ability to work as a custom crusher -- contracting with an existing winery to crush and vint grapes.

Both Barthelemy and Moss Creek owner George Moskowite obtained restraining orders against each other this year, and last week Napa County Superior Court Judge Ray Guadagni issued a ruling intending to allow both to complete their 2005 crush and wine production effort. Guadagni also ordered them not to interfere in each other's endeavors. For Barthelemy, it is the latest in a series of dust-ups that began at Lake Berryessa 30 years ago.

Lake Berryessa

Bart found out about Lake Berryessa and a property at the south end of the lake that was in foreclosure in the early '70s.

The property is on top of a promontory overlooking a few small coves, with the expanse of lake to the north. Barthelemy remembers thinking, "I've gotta have this."

"I made a ridiculously low offer ... it was a 40-acre parcel with no legal easement to get to it."

A Sacramento dentist had purchased much of the land around Barthelemy's, and in the late '60s a plan for a 2,700 unit development was unveiled by the same builders that developed the nearby Steele Park resort. The dentist would not grant Bart an easement.

The nearby land had been put into a grid of 10-acre parcels for planning purposes, but was not legally divided. Bart's property was not included in the grid. Barthelemy says someone suggested he develop his property. He took on partners, forming BFG Associates, hired "a high powered San Francisco law firm" and learned as much as he could about the process. A plan for a 37 parcel development on his land, complete with stables, tennis courts and a large common area, was prepared for presentation to county planners.

He took his treasurer's deed to county officials. He said their first reaction was, "That's gotta be a legal parcel," but as soon as it crossed then-County Counsel Steve Hackett's desk, the project was nixed. This was Bart's first conflict with Napa County, and he contacted his attorney with a simple message: "Sue the bastards."

To this day, the development remains unbuilt, though Barthelemy can get to his home and lakeside vineyards on a long driveway near Steele Canyon Road. The most recent run-in between Barthelemy and the county involves his attempt to split his Berryessa property into three parts. He submitted a map in 2003 that would have created separate parcels of 10, 12 and 18 acres. It languished in the planning department for the better part of two years. Then, in recent months, both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors turned him down. "I think they're doing it to persecute me," he said.

Barthelemy believes he has been denied due process and cites a Santa Barbara County case where the plaintiff was awarded a multi-million dollar settlement when a court ruled in the property owner's favor. Napa attorney Matt Bishop is representing Barthelemy in the latest action.

"He's a pit bull," said Barthelemy. "I just finally reached the limit. I want to bring this county around to being responsive."

While Barthelemy fights to get what he wants on his own Berryessa property, a larger battle is being waged for the future of the Berryessa lakeshore. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is expected to issue a report this month finalizing plans for the shore, including a possible decision to remove some 1,300 trailers from seven Berryessa resorts.

"As a resident I should favor anything that keeps people out," he said, tongue in cheek, "but it is public."

Bart said whatever is done must be economically viable for the remote corner of the county, and he said retaining the mobile homes could be a good thing under some circumstances.

Moss Creek Winery

At a Fourth of July party, Harold Moskowite, a longtime Berryessa landowner and currently a member of the Napa County Board of Supervisors, offered Barthelemy the lease at Moss Creek. The winery had been purchased by Moskowite's family and was being run by his son, George.

For Barthelemy, saying yes was an easy decision, since building a new winery would be fraught with its own problems. "It was kind of a no-risk investment," Barthelemy said.

Gary Wooton became Barthelemy's consulting winemaker. The two men decided on a port wine, but felt most ports currently on the market were too sweet. "We wanted to taste the fruit," Bart said.

They had 300 vines that were 10 years old, and in 2001 they made their first batch of wine.

The St. Bathelemy Cellars dessert wines made from varietals such as zinfandel and petite syrah have been a success in limited production. But the deal with Moss Creek has resulted in several headaches. One of them has to do with the county's efforts to regulate custom crush operations.

Barthelemy said that in 1996, Planning Director Jeff Redding wanted to regulate custom crushers, but opted not to because doing so would require tampering with the delicately-crafted Winery Definition Ordinance. At that time, Barthelemy said, the Board of Supervisors "didn't want to mess with the WDO."

Redding then issued a separate memorandum, in effect setting rules for those who come in as custom crushers and alternating proprietors.

Several years later, several custom crushers had begun to process their wine under Barthelemy's auspices at Moss Creek. On the basis of Redding's memo, the county sought to limit the number of custom operators. Barthelemy has challenged the effort, saying the county has overstepped its bounds. At one point he also accused Supervisor Moskowite of using his authority to have county planners target Barthelemy.

Barthelemy now has a lawsuit challenging the county's authority over custom crushers.

Redding's policy memo Barthelemy said, "was never formally codified. Custom crush is a business arrangement" that the county has not established authority to regulate, he said.

Meanwhile, Barthelemy's arrangement with George Moskowite, in which Bart leased two-thirds of the facility and the two were to split costs based on their use, became mired in complications.

"George and I quickly came to loggerheads," said Barthelemy.

After the county weighed in on custom crush operations, Moskowite and Barthelemy separated the operations to the extent possible under a single roof. But things remained difficult.

The battle spilled into court, resulting in Guadagni's recent decision. Barthelemy's fight with the county over the right to regulate is scheduled for trial this fall.

Recently, Napa County's current planning director, Hillary Gitelman, issued a new memo stating that custom crushing is allowed without a separate use permit or modification, as long as the approved winery production capacity is not exceeded.

The change would appear to hand Barthelemy a victory, and Barthelemy said he received a call from the county counsel's office asking if he would be dropping his lawsuit.

"To me," he said, "that is the height of arrogance."

He said his claim for financial relief will be in the tens of thousands of dollars. The court must decide whether to establish a class action in the matter, and Barthelemy is actively seeking other custom crushers to join forces with him. Bart called the whole thing "a waste of taxpayer money." Because the county is in litigation with him, Supervisor Moskowite had little to say about Barthelemy. "He does have some legal problems," Moskowite said.

Does Bart consider himself litigious? "I am to the point I stand up for my rights," he said. "I spend the bucks to get legal advice and do my best to solve problems without legal action."

Education battle

One of Bart's first battles with the bureaucracy was in the world of education, and he won that skirmish.

When the Napa Valley Unified School District was considering closing one-room schoolhouses in Wooden and Capell valleys, he helped form SOS, or Save Our Schools. The rural facilities remained open, and today he said they are flourishing and larger than ever.

About that same time the boundaries between the NVUSD and the Winters school district were muddy in the Berryessa Highlands, and children who lived in Napa County were attending Yolo County public schools. Barthelemy's daughter received the first inter-district transfer to attend Capell Valley School. The boundaries were eventually refined to place the Napa County part of the lakeshore in the NVUSD. The school at Capell peaked at four classrooms, but has since dropped back to two. Wooden Valley has remained a one-room school throughout the years.

Precursor to Stewards?

Several years ago, in response to a proposed hillside building ordinance, Barthelemy, Betty Rathjen and a group of property owners banded together, calling themselves the Napa County Small Landowners Association. "We were ahead of our time," he noted, making the connection to the Napa County Land Stewards Alliance. The Land Stewards have become a potent force in Napa Valley politics, defeating the stream setback ordinance called Measure P and promoting a new measure to compel the county to compensate landowners of new regulations hurt property values.

Bart is not an active member of the Land Stewards, but contributes to the cause. "They're doing a hell of a job," he said.

Barthelemy supports the Land Stewards' Fair Pay initiative, which is expected to appear in the June 2006 ballot.

"If there's a cost to government" to impose regulations, he said, "that might be a good thing."

Before Napa Valley

Bart has lived in Napa County for more than three decades, and in the Bay Area even longer. He was born in Chicago but raised in south Florida. He attended Oberlin College in Ohio and entered the U.S. Air Force where his piloting skills were honed, eventually leading to a successful career as a commercial pilot.

The son of a French mining engineer, who's best known for suggesting routes of passage for travel in French Indochina, Bart earned several military honors. He didn't get into the heat of battle, but got close enough. Bart flew huge C133 cargo planes out of Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. "We weren't exposed to as much danger as the kids on the ground," he said.

Besides the standard medals for those who served in his capacity, Barthelemy earned special kudos for his participation in a mission ordered by President Lyndon Johnson. South Vietnamese President Ky asked Johnson for 10 tanks to help protect Danang, and the President agreed. It required getting the 60,000 pound behemoths into the cargo planes two at a time, fueling the wing tanks to provide balance and stability, still exceeding the known record weight limitations for the huge airplanes.

All this led to a 29-year career with Trans World Airlines. "I flew everything but the 747s," he said.

Still a bachelor, Barthelemy lived in San Mateo and later in San Francisco, leaving the Bay Area for St. Louis when TWA closed its pilots quarters here. It was during that time he married his wife Cynthia, and they moved to Marin County.

While living in Marin, he said, "Cindy and I had been looking for country property, and Cindy liked the water."

That's when they found Berryessa.

Wine business

When it comes to food and wine, Bart and Cindy are "professional consumers." They helped found a wine tasting group when they lived in Marin and fell in love with wines from the Sierra foothills, an area he thinks is today much like Napa was several years ago.

They started a wine collection, and in order to build a good cellar and have enough good red wine to drink on a regular basis, he explained you have to buy at least two of everything -- one to drink and one to put down for several years.

"I'm real cheap when it comes to wine," Bart explained, noting there are many great wines for $30 or less. "The high-priced cult wines usually aren't worth $100 or more a bottle."

When Jeremiah Tower's Stars restaurant in Oakville was at its prime, Barthelemy and a group of friends started a dining club that met there monthly. For $15, they'd get a three-course dinner, and everyone would bring a good bottle of wine to share. When the restaurant closed, the diners moved around from spot to spot. The club known as D'Vine has 70 members now and gathers monthly at the Napa Valley Country Club.

At Moss Creek Winery, Bart produces port wine from seven varietals. "It's not port in the traditional sense," said Bart who has served as a judge for ports in various competitions.

His has a lower sugar level than the Portuguese wines familiar to most port drinkers, and uses entirely different grapes. He has taken best of show at the state fair and is now on the shelves in several states including Arizona, Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina.

Barthelemy makes only 2,000 cases of port a year, but he says sells more slowly than more popular and well-known varieties such as cabernet sauvignon. "People buy port by the bottle, not the case," he said. "It's been tough, but we're having a blast."