The generosity of the wine industry is well known, and a recent report from MKF Research indicated that vintners in Napa Valley account for a whopping $62 million a year in charitable contributions.

Although most vintners set aside a percentage of their production for donations, they expect to sell the rest to offset expenses and show a profit.

But there’s one vintner who doesn’t follow that formula. Steven Rivera doesn’t sell any of his wine but instead donates all of the production from his Rivera Vineyards on Atlas Peak to charitable causes — 100 percent goes to charity.

Rivera and his wife Marilyn created the Rivera Family Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) organization that operates Rivera Vineyards as a way of fulfilling his desire to assist Bay Area organizations, primarily those that help children.  

Nearly 30 years ago Rivera started a company that now publishes a half-dozen Bay Area lifestyle magazines. The business thrived and provided the means for the Riveras to buy some property on Atlas Peak.

They decided to plant a small vineyard “with the goal of making some good wine and using it to raise some money for charities,” he said. “I knew very little about the wine business so I started talking to friends in the food and wine industries, asking about winemakers.”

Hires Karen Culler

A few names kept coming up, so Rivera obtained wines made by the three “finalists” and asked some sommeliers and other friends to help him taste them. Karen Culler’s wines stood out, he said, so he invited her to come to the vineyard and talk with her about making his wine.

“She came up on a terrible day,” he recalled. “It was foggy and just a miserable day.” He figured she was thinking, “Why should I do this? Why put myself through this?”

He was right. It was in April and none of the vines had budded yet. It was cold. “I deal with cold weather fruit,” Culler said, but added that this looked impossible. It is a cold region and the vineyard is in an area that’s even colder yet, she explained. “I thought it would be like shooting myself in the foot,” she said.

Rivera, however, explained his idea of making the wine for charitable purposes and said he wanted to make just one good wine. He told her he had the mechanism in place to generate the fundraising idea. Culler said his enthusiasm was infectious and thought, “I think I can do this.” She signed on. “It’s a labor of love for him and everyone who works with him,” she said.

Vineyard manager

Rivera convinced his vineyard manager to work with him in a similar way. Pete Richmond, who heads Silverado Farming Company, was highly recommended to him, and giving to charity from the vineyard started even before the first vintage was made.

Rivera agreed to pay Richmond’s costs, and Richmond agreed to donate his profits to the Community Foundation of Napa Valley, and Rivera matched the sum. Richmond planted five acres of cabernet sauvignon and a small parcel of syrah. He agreed that it’s a difficult area. “It’s the latest ripening property we work,” Richmond said.

Charitable giving is not new to Richmond, either. He donates 1 percent of his gross profits to the Community Foundation to assist underprivileged children and farm worker programs, so the Rivera offer fit right into his agenda.

Rivera has always believed in the concept of giving back to the community. The mission statement of his publishing company reads in part, “… our primary aims are to serve readers, customers, the community, our industry and our staff members with equal commitment to excellence and integrity.”

It goes on to say, “… (We) pride ourselves in being an active participant in our community and in providing ethical leadership.”

Employees also give

That philosophy carries through to all employees — the mission statement also says, “In an effort to reach out to the community, our employees give their time, services, and efforts to a variety of charitable and community action groups and organizations.” With Rivera’s encouragement, they offer their time and services to more than 50 Bay Area organizations.

So it is no surprise that he has carried the same feeling of giving to the community over to his vineyard. Rivera emphasized, “This is not about me or my wife. It’s all about this place. We can take something and make it do some good. All the people (I work with) stepped in and contributed to it. We’re only the drivers of it. This is not my thing alone.”

His first vintage was 2003, but “we put out just a few bottles,” he said. “We had a snap frost and lost most of the vintage.”

The Taylor Family Foundation, which assists children with life-threatening illnesses and their families, asked Rivera for some wine to auction at a fundraiser.

“No one knew of us, and we had no reputation,” he said. “I told Marilyn, ‘What if no one bids on it?”

His concerns were unfounded. He donated a 3-liter bottle, plus a dinner at the vineyard, and the opening bid was $5,000. “Narsai David was the auctioneer,” he recalled. “He got it (the bid) to $24,500, and two people were bidding on it. He asked us if we would give another bottle and dinner, so it was sold to two bidders. As soon as the gavel went down, another bidder said he wanted one, too.”

$40,000 for V Foundation

Another 3-liter bottle was donated to the V Foundation, which raises funds for cancer research, and that brought $40,000. “My wife had cancer so the V Foundation holds a special place for us,” he said. He added that she has since been cured.

Although much of the production is in large format bottles, Rivera also produces 750 ml bottles that can be poured at charitable events, such as a recent fundraiser dinner for the John Muir Foundation.

“People want to give money, and this is a wonderful way to do it,” he said.

The Riveras bought their 65-acre property with the intention of just having a place to “get away from it all, somewhere where we could have a place to wander on the property.” They had been coming to the Napa Valley for several years to visit a neighbor who was a high school friend of Marilyn’s. They started looking for some property, found a location that was all scrub, with no roads but had what they wanted.

They contacted the owner who said he didn’t want to sell because he said he eventually planned to build a home on the property. “We kept calling,” Rivera said. “I realized he was never going to build his home.” Rivera told him he would buy the property, build a home and a guest house, and the owner could come and use the guest house any time.

After months of talking, they met, and the deal was sealed with a handshake.

To date the former owner has never come to use the guest house.

A little village

Rivera described the property as like a little village. In addition to the house, there’s a barn where the Riveras lived while the house was being built, a gym, a bocce ball court and a wine cellar. It’s also a place with memories. There’s a large garden area, along with a memory garden in honor of Marilyn’s mother and a fountain dedicated to Steve’s father, whose ashes are in a box under the fountain. A tree was planted in memory of the mother of Armando Mendoza, the ranch manager who started with Rivera when he bought the property in 1999.

Rivera, a Chicago native, graduated from the University of Illinois and started working at the Chicago Tribune, first in sales and marketing and later as editor of a five-times-a-week suburban edition of the newspaper. “I was totally unprepared for the job,” he said. “I had no experience but I think that if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. I guess he (the person who hired him) saw I had the drive, and once he gave me the opportunity, I felt I couldn’t let him down.”

He worked at the Tribune for four years. “I loved Chicago, but hated the weather,” he said, so he moved to California and started looking for a job. After several interviews, “I decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” he said, and started his business in a bedroom of his home, using some borrowed money.     

“I had a good concept and it was a growing area,” he said.

Publishes Diablo

His first magazine was Diablo, serving the East Bay. He now also publishes Design for Living, Diablo Arts, Destination Oakland as well as Concierge North Bay and Concierge East Bay, which are distributed in hotels rooms.

The firm also has a custom publishing division which produces magazines for the San Francisco Giants, Oakland A’s, Comcast, the research arm of Chevron and numerous health clubs and hospitals. “We’re like a gun for hire,” he said.

Ten years ago he bought San Francisco magazine with some partners, and nearly three years ago merged it into Modern Luxury Media, which publishes Napa Sonoma magazine, among others.

While it’s the publishing business that pays the bills, he devotes considerable time to the wine business. He’s looking to find other ways to use his wine for charitable purposes and is currently talking with Michael Mondavi of Folio Wine Partners about making Rivera wines available on the Folio Web site as a charitable outreach.

Currently he cannot sell his wine, but he’s applying for a Type 02 Alternate Proprietorship license so he can legally engage in sales. He will select four or five charitable organizations in the Bay Area each quarter, “mostly for children’s causes,” he said, and proceeds from the sales will go to those charities. “There are only so many auctions,” he said. “This is a way to broaden the outreach.”

Although the Rivera Vineyard Web site has a page “How to Buy,” he said it’s a way of collecting names for a future mailing list, if he completes an arrangement with Mondavi.

‘Chiseled in Jell-O’

He’s looking at all options. “The strategy is chiseled in Jell-O,” he said, an expression he’s fond of using.

In just a short time Rivera estimates he has helped raise about $200,000 for various charities, but said that figure should increase quickly. The 2005 vintage will produce the equivalent of about 250 cases of 750 ml bottles, and he expects production to increase in future years.

“I’m very pleased with what we’ve been able to do so far,” he said.

He pays for all costs associated with growing the grapes and making the wine, but he can’t write the expenses off. “You can’t take a write-off if you don’t make a profit,” he said. Rivera Vineyards is a non-profit organization.

For information, go to www.riveravineyards.org.