history, i guess you could say began with wine. the first vines planted here whereby the general at the mission before, in sonoma, 's or early the 1820 1830's. they were mission grapes and nobody in their right mind would make wine out of them now. but they did then, because that is what they had. the wine industry really significantly began in the brought somea man property in the sonoma valley and started to wine breathe it. that is the birthplace of what we now know as california viticulture. he was very interested, he did not plan the first grades -- somebody was already growing grapes when he came. that he got interested in european bridles. -- varietals. and then in 1860 two may be, the state established a wine commission because people were getting interested. they sent him to europe. he brought back varietal cuttings of the european grapes, and the old mission grape went out the window and we began to grow real grapes, real wine grapes. he was the father of that movement. was the sonoma county ninth raking county in agricultural production in the entire united states. significant because it was the product of a lot of different things. we were first in hops, significant in wine, petaluma was the chicken and egg basket of the world. apples, and we had in the north county french prunes. all through this, you had vineyards. farmers andies, 200 acrest farmers, of land. they would have 10 acres of hops, and 10 acres of vineyards. does an apple trees, doesn't prune trees and maybe some peaches. -- a dozen apple trees and a dozen countries. significant difference. one of the factors that has made sonoma county into wine country is the diversity of the population. came in chunks. the immigrants came to be farm labor, because it was such a strong agricultural community. and we needed for labor, particularly italian and german laborers. the italian immigration was a huge factor. the wine industry pretty much died in prohibition. not just here, but everywhere. the sons and daughters of these immigrants stopped drinking wine and started drinking gin. language,ndustry after prohibition came the depression. and after that, world war ii. it was not until -- i like to date the wine renaissance here in sonoma county to the 1970's. it was kind of the health kick that america went on and is still on. the whole idea of the holistic approach to food, and wine seemed, and is more helpful than hard liquor. with the wine country label that started in the 70's, by the 80's and 1990's we were beginning to be better and better known. became a tourist destination. that whole wine country thing has boomed antiterrorism. -- into tourism. it now brings in over a billion dollars a year into sonoma county. we are in the river valley, one of the wine appalachians in northern san francisco. folks first purchased a ranch in the late 50's, they did not know it at the time, but they saw quite a change in the industry happening just in our little valley. it was in the late 50's, the end of hop production. we starving neighboring winery that uses the name hop winery. -- they saw the end of hops, the height of the prune orchards and business. there were pruned dehydrators all up-and-down the northern sonoma county at the time. and the beginnings of grapes being planted. my dad least a property across the road for a couple of years until louis martini from napa and purchased the land, and planted one of the first vineyards in our neighborhood. within the first 10 years of my folks owning the ranch, they saw a dramatic change in the crops that were grown in the area. "wine 't always been the country." we have a wonderful, storied agriculture industry here. -- story here. my parents immigrated from switzerland in the mid-50's. my dad's dream was always to start his own dairy farm in california. he was able to do that by purchasing this property, and started milking 50 cows twice a 1958.nd the end of there was a big change in the dairy industry in the early to a lot ofin california, large dairy farms going in the central valley. i talked to my parents at the time, and we looked at our options. it was pretty evident that our profit margins were going to be squeezed in the dairy business. so obviously, living in this area, we saw the changes in the growth of the wine industry and grape growing. so i felt it was really important for us to diversify into wine grapes. slowly in the late 90's, doing that, and slowly grew the vineyard to about 40 acres over the last 15 years. the diversity is actually helping us, but just diversifying doesn't necessarily equate to profitability. as long as we are diversifying into higher value crops, we have a chance at keeping the farm successful. -- we do sell to other wineries. we started doing that. we just started bottling our own label a couple of years ago. i grow the grapes for sections of the vineyard that we take fruit from, and for the other wineries i saw grades to. -- grapes two. o. we partnered with a consulting winemaker to help us. we don't have our own production facility here. we rent space at another facility, and work with a consulting winemaker. again, trying to capture a bit more of the margin, basically vertically integrating our business to where we are producing a raw product and actually gravitating towards rawng a percentage of our product, putting it into a finished product, and being able to sell directly to consumers than the root. -- down the road. we are of relatively rand -- small print. you have to get a different license for each state you want to sell into. that is a challenge. it is also challenging when certain states, you have to go through a distributor or a broker to get into those states. sell your you have to able to sellre not directly to the consumer, which is a higher margin. when you are small like we are, only producing a thousand cases of wine. when you are small, to go to registered under means we have to give up a lot of the potential profit margins. it is very difficult to do that. it is difficult to get traction when you are a small brand working through the three tier system, distribution system in place in a lot of the states. how government is involved in the ag business. it is very similar to other businesses. a lot of times, the process of these rules and regulations is what gets the average business bogged down.wn -- that process can be under some, but there are beneficial parts. the usda has great observation programs that we have participated in, where they actually help fund improvements as it isanch, as long to help with conservation ksactices to keep that cree those are great programs because those programs -- there is an incentive for farmers to participate. it is nice when you have programs like that. too, isr thing, sometimes the rules and regulations are the same whether you are a small business or a larger business. when you are small, you cannot necessarily afford some of the changes or the new rules and regulations. you can do that as easily because of the burdensome financial