It’s nap time for George, which means it’s a great opportunity for the three-person winemaking team at Napa Valley’s Honig Vineyard & Winery to work on blending, a task that typically requires tasting dozens of lots of wine — swirling, smelling, sipping and spitting — at a time. George, aged 3 months, sleeps soundly in a carrier strapped to his mother, assistant winemaker Gabi Smith.
George has accompanied Smith to work nearly every day since she returned from a two-month maternity leave roughly six weeks ago. “We’re not in an emergency room. We’re not saving lives,” Honig winemaker Ashley Egelhoff said. “If we have to wait an hour to blend because she needs to feed him, that’s fine.”
Most Napa Valley wineries don’t let customers bring children to their tasting rooms, much less allow employees to bring them to work. But Honig — which also offers juice tastings for children for $10 — has done so for 27 years. “Napa is not known as a kid-friendly location, but we’ve kind of taken on the moniker of becoming the most kid-friendly winery in Napa Valley,” co-owner and president Michael Honig said.
George isn’t the only baby in the office at Honig, a family-owned winery in Rutherford with fewer than 50 employees. Ailany, who celebrated her first birthday earlier this month, often plays in an activity center while her mother, Maleni Penuelas, does accounting work. Down in the tasting room, 1-year-old Milo, who comes into work with his dad, wine club manager Raphael Cruz, twice a week, helps greet visiting wine club members. If Milo gets fussy, his grandmother, Honig’s director of marketing, Regina Weinstein, can step in…