First posted on Instagram
A City Journal investigation by Christopher Rufo, Ryan Thorpe and Kenneth Schrupp reports that California Governor Gavin Newsom's wine business has contracted a vineyard management company with a long history of employing illegal labor, and that the business appears to be no exception to the Napa Valley wine industry's reliance on illegal immigrant workers.
The investigation, published on November 11, centres on the PlumpJack Collection of Wineries, the wine and hospitality business Newsom founded. In 2022, PlumpJack purchased the Oso Vineyard, a 129-acre site in Pope Valley, for $14.5 million, bringing its Napa Valley holdings to more than 400 acres.
PlumpJack contracts Renteria Vineyard Management to manage field operations at Oso. A PlumpJack website identifies Oscar Renteria as Oso's "long-time vineyard manager," and Renteria's own website lists PlumpJack's CADE Estate Winery as an active client. The investigation says the journalists contacted PlumpJack and Renteria Vineyard Management, and neither disputed the existence of the contract.
Renteria Vineyard Management was founded in 1987 by Salvador Renteria, who arrived in Napa Valley from the Mexican state of Jalisco as an illegal immigrant in 1964 and worked his way from vineyard labourer to management. His son Oscar took over the business in 1995. The company now manages more than 2,200 acres and employs 80 full-time workers and up to 400 seasonal workers, and the Napa Valley Grapegrowers recently named Oscar Renteria its Grower of the Year.
The investigation says it is based on court documents, federal labour reports, state and federal oversight records, and interviews with numerous sources in the Napa Valley wine industry, along with a whistleblower who said the operation is built on undocumented migrant labour. Rufo wrote on X on November 11: "We spent weeks in Napa Valley investigating Gavin Newsom's wine empire. According to a whistleblower, the operation is built on undocumented migrant labor, in violation of the law. Illegal aliens pick the grapes — and Newsom sells the wine for up to $7,000 a bottle."
Newsom did not divest his financial stake in PlumpJack when he was elected governor. Tax returns for him and his wife show at least $11 million in income between 2019 and 2024, most of it coming from wineries, restaurants and other investments. His history in Napa dates to 1995, when he founded the PlumpJack Estate Winery in Oakville. The company later acquired the CADE Estate Winery in 2005, the Odette Estate Winery in 2012, Ladera Vineyards in 2016 and Oso in 2022.
The investigation places the findings in the context of an industry-wide practice. In Napa, 71 percent of agricultural workers are immigrants, and industry sources told the journalists the real share of illegal immigrants working in the vineyards is considerably higher than generally acknowledged — one vineyard management company owner, speaking anonymously, put it at 80 percent, and another source said about 80 percent of vineyard workers in California's wine industry are illegal aliens. Research from the Migration Policy Institute estimates that between one-quarter and one-third of Napa's overall immigrant population is undocumented.
The investigation also argues that Newsom, as governor, has used tax dollars to facilitate the presence of illegal immigrants in California, including $35 million allocated in February for support and legal services for illegal aliens facing deportation — support the report says helps prop up the struggling Napa wine industry from which he profits.