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Old Posted Nov 17, 2007, 6:56 AM
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Rossi endows wine research
Napa grower leaves $12.5 million gift for UC Davis to bolster vineyard agriculture

By Jim Downing and Bill Lindelof - jdowning@sacbee.com
Published Saturday, November 17, 2007
Story appeared in SacBee BUSINESS section, Page D1



For nearly all of her 99 years, Louise Rossi raised grapes quietly on a plot of land on the east side of the Napa Valley. But on Friday, she made a posthumous splash that likely will etch her family's name in California wine history.

At a celebration at the Rossi ranch, University of California, Davis, officials announced that her estate has donated $12.5 million from the sale of the family's 52-acre ranch to the campus's viticulture and enology department. It is the largest donation ever to the world-renowned program, and among the largest ever given to the university.

As specified by Rossi, the gift will create a permanent endowment for research on improving the sustainability of vineyard agriculture and enhancing the flavor of grapes and wine.

Andrew Waterhouse, interim chair of the viticulture and enology department, struggled to come up with enough superlatives to praise Rossi's philanthropy.

"Through this incredibly generous gift, Louise Rossi is touching the lives of generations of Californians for years to come," he said.

Industry experts hailed the windfall as a much-needed boost to California wine research. Australia, a top competitor, has been pouring money into research for more than a decade and now outspends California by a factor of five.

The Davis program, for decades the nation's top wine and grape research center, has lost some of its luster in recent years in part due to funding shortfalls, said Dan Berger, a Santa Rosa-based wine authority.

"This really gives Davis back its original charter," Berger said. "It is a phenomenal gift."

Cliff Ohmart, research director for the Lodi Winegrape Commission, praised the gift's focus on sustainable grape-growing techniques – an area where research dollars have been especially hard to find.

"There's so many basic questions we need answered," he said, ranging from pest management to water management to the apparently simple question of how changes in agricultural practices affect grape quality.

Rossi lived 97 of her 99 years in the modest house on the family vineyard in Rutherford. Vines of riesling, sauvignon blanc, merlot and cabernet sauvignon grow on the land.

Rossi arranged for the gift to the university before her death, specifying that the 52-acre property was to be sold to nearby Frog's Leap Winery, one of the valley's oldest organic wineries, and the proceeds given to UC Davis.

"Louise had values of conservation and sustainable farming, values of taking care of the land, values of frugality," said John Williams, owner of Frog's Leap and a friend of Rossi's, at Friday's ceremony. "She believed that UC Davis shared those values."

Rossi's oldest brother, Arthur, ran the grape operations until he died in 1950. Napa winemaker Robert Mondavi was a pallbearer at his funeral. Mondavi's $35 million gift to UC Davis is the largest private contribution to the campus.

Louise Rossi ran the property with her brother, Ray, a UC Davis alumnus, until he died in 1997 at age 91. Then, Louise Rossi oversaw the vineyard until her death.

The siblings' uncle, Antone Rossi, began to grow grapes in the Napa Valley in 1879.

Elizabeth Leeds, a longtime friend of Louise Rossi and co-executor of her estate, described her as "a feisty little thing. She was outspoken. You always knew what she was thinking."

Louise Rossi loved children and dogs – especially dachshunds, Leeds said.

Despite her family's nearly 130-year history in Napa, Louise Rossi was little known outside of local grape growing circles, said Darrell Corti, president of the Corti Brothers wine emporium and supermarket in Sacramento.

"I knew of the property, but I never knew about her," he said. "One of the things that's interesting is that this isn't strange in Napa Valley. There are people who you never know in the Napa Valley. And she was one of them.

"They're not the CFOs who moved to the Napa Valley and decided they wanted to make wine. These are people who grew and sold grapes as their sole source of income. This is the sort of person who forms the backbone of an agricultural community."
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Last edited by urban_encounter; Nov 17, 2007 at 4:28 PM. Reason: updated story
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