Vintner’s Diary
“Taking ownership of our story is really how we’ve been able to grow our marketing and brand ourselves. (Our Advisor, Ed Troxell) is the one who has taken us to a new level. He has really helped us to see our strengths as a business.”
Growing up in her family’s Napa Valley vineyard, working alongside her brothers and sister and learning the ins and outs of the industry from her parents, Vanessa Robledo gained an invaluable foundation that led to the launch of her own wine, Vintner’s Diary, in 2023.
Vintner’s Diary specializes in Rosé, crafted by three generations of Latina winemakers in Napa Valley – Vanessa, her mom, Maria Robledo, and her daughter, Jocelyn Robledo-Solis.
Vanessa started Vinter’s Diary after more than 25 years working in the industry, including 10 years as the president of Robledo Family Winery. She helped her family grow production of their winery from 100 cases in 1997 to 20,000 cases annually by 2007.
It’s an inspiring story filled with resilience and determination. But Vanessa admits that when she first opened Vintner’s Diary, she struggled with marketing and how to best tell that story.
“The challenge is that sometimes, when you’re in it, you’re doing so much – you’re farming, you’re bottling, there is so much going on,” she said. “It takes someone from the outside looking in, to say try this or try that. It takes someone like Ed.”
“Ed” is Ed Troxell, a marketing advisor with the Solano-Napa SBDC, who began working with Vanessa, Maria, and Jocelyn two years ago.
“The Solano-Napa SBDC has been such a tremendous support for our small business and we’ve really enjoyed working with all the different consultants” Vanessa said. “Ed is the one who has taken us to a new level. He has really helped us to see our strengths as a business.”
She went on to explain that Ed helped them to identify their target markets and create a targeted marketing plan. Knowing there are significant shifts in the wine industry in today’s economy, they have focused on understanding their strengths as a women-owned Latina company and showing how that sets them apart from similar businesses.
“Taking ownership of our story is really how we’ve been able to grow our marketing and brand ourselves,” Vanessa said. “When you’re in the middle of it, you don’t see how unique it is. Ed helped us to see our strengths as a company, what that means for our marketing, and how to refine our story to be able to put it out there in a clearer way. He gave us direction on how to mold our story.”
As Vintner’s Diary’s website reads, “Despite taking the lead in building her family’s winery—the first in the U.S. founded by Mexican vineyard workers—tradition denied (Vanessa) ownership simply because she was a woman. Now, alongside her mother and daughter, she has created a Rosé that reclaims her legacy—handcrafted by the very women who built it.”
With Ed’s guidance, Vanessa and her daughter Jocelyn have launched an email newsletter and expanded their social media marketing. Vintner’s Diary printed cards highlighting their story and attach them to every wine bottle sold. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, Vanessa said.
“It’s all making it easier for us to build and maintain a relationship and connection with our customers,” she said.
