Meet Lynn Phelps Finch: Former Owner of Joseph Phelps Vineyards

This interview has been edited for clarity and was featured in the March 22, 2023 issue of Merobebe.

Lynn Phelps Finch
Hi, I'm Lynn Phelps Finch. I am the youngest daughter of Joe Phelps who founded the Joseph Phelps Vineyards in 1973. I was about 11 at the time, so the winery has been a part of my life for decades. I didn't have much of a role for most of that time until I joined the board about 15 years ago. About 6 - 7 years after that, our father passed away and then I became an owner and that was it. I was really involved in a lot of aspects of the winery until last August when we passed the torch [and sold the winery] to LVMH. 

Merobebe
What was it like to grow up around a winery?

Lynn Phelps Finch
I think one of the differences from my childhood is that we would have wine at dinner. My dad would pour a little bit for us and we were expected to taste it and comment on it. I didn't care much for it at all, but I just remember that it was part of our – not everyday dinner, but any time we were in the dining room which meant it was more of an important meal.

The other thing that was a little different for me is that I actually grew up in Colorado. My father's first business was in Colorado and I never lived long-term or moved to California. My dad commuted back and forth for many, many years between the winery and the business in Colorado. We also traveled out to Napa a lot and so I felt, in a way, that I was always gone and not around when kids were playing football or doing other things that kids normally do. It was a little weird, but it was my life! It was the way it was. I spent a lot of time traveling and I spent a lot of time in San Francisco. I think that in a way, it made me different from my peers while growing up.

Merobebe
Did you feel like you would eventually work in wine as you got older, or that it would become your business one day?

Lynn Phelps Finch
You know, I really didn't. When Joe set out and founded the business, I don't think he had in his mind that it would be a family business. I think that that came along later. At the beginning for him, I think what he was really focusing on is creating something very, very special. He had his goals in terms of the wine he wanted to make and what he wanted to do with his land, and he really focused on that. I don't think he focused on who was going to take over when he was done. I think that came along quite a bit later when my sisters and I joined the board. At that point, I felt it was my responsibility to learn as much as possible and to make good decisions. I was in my fifties by that time, so I don't know that I ever felt like I was destined for the wine business.

I will say that those last 15 - 20 years of my dad's life, I took it upon myself to really learn a lot and to become as educated as I possibly could about [the wine business] and I still like to do that. When [my husband and I] travel, we try to add a little wine education as part of the trip. It is still a big part of my life and I love learning about it because it's so fascinating. There’s so much to learn and there’s still so much being done. It really is fascinating so I still love it, but it’s nice because now I don't have to put a pencil to it. I don't have to worry about – if we have another pandemic, how do we keep our employees total?

Merobebe
How was owning a winery in the middle of the pandemic? Because, for people who don't know Joseph Phelps Vineyard, you have a beautiful tasting room and you have a kitchen and dining room that’s available as well. You’re not just selling wine. 

Lynn Phelps Finch
Our on premise sales suffered greatly. Fortunately on the other side of that, as I think almost everybody knows, the retail sales that are off premise – like restaurants and liquor stores – really blew up. It wasn't an even balance but it did help. We were closed for months and months, and we have our wine education staff and our culinary crew that were impacted.  A lot of other people, like those that do our fulfilling and shipping, were also impacted because there was not much going out.

Everybody was suffering in some way, but my sisters and brother and I learned from our parents that – there was no question that we were going to do whatever possible to keep them whole. And we were able to do that for the most part. Some of our wine educators went to work in the vineyards and did other things. We were on the phone almost every single day, talking about how we were going to make things work. It was extremely important to us to not lay people off.

Merobebe
How was the transition into being on the board and involved with the winery, especially as a woman – even if this was your family’s winery?

Lynn Phelps Finch
I really had to learn a lot and learn a lot quickly, but I was not intimidated as a woman. I was more intimidated as a person who was behind in my knowledge of the industry. And so, in my particular situation, no. But my daughter is also in the wine business – she produces a sparkling wine brand of her own – and I think that she encounters that quite a bit. Women have come out in droves and it's been so wonderful. Our head winemaker is a woman and her assistant winemaker is a woman. It seems like every time I pick up a publication or get in my email about wine, there's women being celebrated and so I definitely think that's new. But I also feel like it still is a good old boys network. For example, if you don't own enough vineyard land to make your production, then you're at the mercy of the growers. I don't think that there are a lot of women in that part of the industry, and I think it's still mostly old families that have known each other for two or three generations and it’s kind of a good old boys deal.

I think going on the board was more of a personal learning experience for me. I didn't really feel intimidated as a woman. However later on, once we became owners, I did encounter some of that. Sometimes people just wouldn't believe that I was an owner. And I mean, I don't know whether it's because I was a woman or because my hair was purple! I used to get a lot of that but I really do feel that the tide is turning and it's turning very quickly.

Merobebe
They’re like, "She's a woman with purple hair. There's no way she owns a winery!"

You mentioned that your head winemaker and assistant winemaker are women. The GM and CFO at Joseph Phelps's are also women. Do you feel that having women in key roles improved the winery or the wine itself? 

Lynn Phelps Finch
I will say praises to the end of my days for Ashley Hepworth [the head winemaker]. She is like a wine whisperer. She somehow has this under her skin and in her blood and her veins. But I don't know that all of our experience with women leaders has been great…Maybe this isn't the right place to say so.

Merobebe
This is a place to be honest!

Lynn Phelps Finch
Honestly, when I look back at the people we've had in key roles over the years, I feel like it's about the person. There have been both men and women that have been absolutely fantastic and others that weren't, regardless of gender. I've always been really excited when we hire a woman in a key role. But to be really honest with you, experience tells me that it's really about the person.

Merobebe
I think that is the end goal, right? It would be ideal if in any position – whether it's owning a winery, working in a tasting room, or being a doctor – you can focus on your job and not worry about being the only woman or that you might be shut out. I love the approach that it could be any person as long as they do the job well and are a good person.

Lynn Phelps Finch
Yeah, and I don't know what it's like at a lot of other places, but I do think my dad really valued women's input and we've always had a lot of women around [at Joseph Phelps]. I think that was something that he put in place – that it's the person.

But I do know that it's not that easy in the wine community. In addition or even more so than the gender, it's a familial setting. I think [the families] have been around a long time and they tend to form these clubs and it's not always easy to break in.

Merobebe
You mentioned earlier that LVMH acquired Joseph Phelps Vineyard, and a lot of other small wineries are being acquired by larger companies. Do you think this will help wineries and the wine industry long term? Do you have conflicting feelings about it?

Lynn Phelps Finch
Honestly, yes, we did. We did the unthinkable that, up until about two and a half years ago, we wouldn't have even entertained. But there were a lot of reasons why we came to think that it was the best thing that we could do, not only for our family but for the winery as well.

LVMH is a little different – I mean, they are huge. I think they're a little bit different in their approach to buying smaller entities compared to some other large brands. If we hadn't been able to sell to LVMH out of all of the other companies that were interested in us and that we talked to, I don’t think we would have sold. We were assured by looking at their acquisition history and how they had treated the companies that they had taken possession of. We knew that they would preserve our legacy. We knew that they didn't want to turn Insignia [the flagship wine] into a 300,000 case brand, because obviously then the quality wouldn't be there. We knew that they may do some things differently as time goes on. But we are really confident that they're going to preserve the legacy that my father set out to achieve.

But it does seem like at least 2 - 3 times a month, we see that somebody has bought a small winery and I don't think it's a good thing. Consolidation was one of the things that we were really worried about. Most of these companies and venture capital funds will buy a winery, and what they want to do is just squeeze every bit of equity out of it and then get rid of it. I think we've seen it over and over again with brands that were great 30 - 40 years ago, but the wine isn't any good anymore. So yes, I think consolidation is bad and I think it's bad for the Napa Valley. I don’t think there will be any wineries like Joseph Phelps in 10, 20 years because it's just too difficult. Consolidation was making it hard for even us to compete in things like glass or workers – and there are a lot of [even] smaller wineries out there that are not going to be able to compete.

Merobebe
In an environment already unfriendly to outsiders, it makes it even more difficult if you don’t have the money and scale to compete against these huge companies.

Lynn Phelps Finch
I think a lot of people still do see a lot of positivity for the fine wine industry and maybe at some point, California wines can achieve what French wines have in being able to stand on their own. A lot of those producers don't make a lot, but they're still in business and they make great wine, and maybe we can get there. But I don’t think what I see happening in Napa is very positive.

Merobebe
I think we’re seeing that more in the news not just with wineries but agriculture in general. These smaller farms and producers don’t want to “sell out” but it’s hard not to if that’s the only way to survive.

Lynn Phelps Finch
And you don't want to see your business go up in smoke, right? Yeah.

Merobebe
Speaking of smoke...how did Joseph Phelps adjust to climate change? How do you think that wineries will need to change as fires and flooding increases?

Lynn Phelps Finch
I actually think that things are looking a little brighter on that front. The two fires that did us so much harm were in 2017 and 2020. They determined that the 2017 fires were caused by PG&E’s outdated equipment, and since then they’ve been updating their equipment, cutting trees, and also setting prescriptive fires. There's not much we can do about drought and climate change, but I think there is a lot we can do to prepare for these devastating wildfires. I think that they will get a handle on it eventually.

Drought and climate change is a different story. There's a ton going on right now with water rights – who can use water and who can't. Right now, I know we draw a certain amount of water from the Napa River, but I think they’re going to stop allowing agricultural draw from the river. We have a couple of wells and one went dry after they had been producing for years and years. It’s really a challenge and that’s another reason we had on our pro-sell [to LVMH] because you just can’t do a whole lot about that.

But going back to your question of how we handled the fire in 2020 –  that period of time overlapped with COVID. It was a lot for us to deal with and a lot to figure out. In the 2020 fire, we had to drop all of our red grapes. We didn't produce any red wine at all. We had to look back into what we had in the archives and figure out how we could make things stretch through the year. That involved a lot of figuring out pricing and distribution and allocation. We did all right through both of those crises, but it was a ton of work.

As a winery, we also did a lot of work around our ranch and the buildings to reduce the damage that a fire could potentially cause. I'm pretty sure most everybody did that. We also hired a private firefighter that fights fire by aircraft on an as-needed basis. I know a lot of other people did that as well. I think everybody has done a lot to increase the likelihood of wildfires not being so devastating.

Merobebe
My final question for you: Your daughter Kelsey has her own sparkling wine line, SEPPI. You’ve talked about how you’re seeing more and more women being celebrated in the wine industry. What are some other changes that you’ve seen as you grew up in the wine industry, and what else do you think the wine industry needs to do to better support and empower women?

Lynn Phelps Finch
I think there needs to be more exposure for women in the wine industry at an earlier level and we need to promote the growth of women more. We need to find ways to interest young women in wine and all of the different aspects of the industry, like growing, that are more male-dominated. A lot of it could just be that the tides have to start turning more than they have been. 

I think about our winemaker Ashley and her assistant winemaker, Kelly Fields. It’s like in their genes, and I like to think that they’re that good because they are women. 

Merobebe
It's a fact that there are more female supertasters than men, so you might be right!

Lynn Phelps Finch
I think women are different and look upon tasks or how they're going to accomplish their goals differently. It’s hard for me to explain how I feel about Ashley, but I think she's just a part of Insignia. She's been with us for 20 years and made Insignia for 15 years on her own and there's never been a score lower than 92! 

So to try and answer your question better, I think that we need to reach out to women and present opportunities. The more great, talented women are presented with opportunities in the industry, the more we can have them be a more integral and bigger part of it.