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TheHealdsburg HealdsburgTribune Tribune The Enterprise & Scimitar Enterprise & Scimitar
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POLICE CHIEF PREPARES TO SCAN, STORE CAR LICENSE PLATE DATA NEW SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS WILL WATCH TRAFFIC, AID PARKING ENFORCEMENT By Christian Kallen
➝ License Plates, 3
Photos by Kim Carroll
By the end of the year, or early next, every car, truck or motorcycle entering Healdsburg will have its license plate and other vehicle-specific information photographed and stored for up to a year. The plate is read by a sophisticated optical-digital Automated License Plate Reader, which then checks that information against an active “hot list” of vehicles suspected of crimes, from vehicle thefts to terrorism. If there’s a hit, the Healdsburg Police will know. “Yes, the system will automatically compare the license plate to plates on a hot list (stolen vehicles, amber alerts, etc.) and immediately notify dispatch and officers in the field,” said Police Chief Matt Jenkins about the Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) technology. Ten cameras fixed at five ingress/egress locations will be only part of the city’s ALPR system, which the Healdsburg City Council green-lighted at its Aug. 15 meeting. Parking enforcement vehicles too will continue to use ALPR cameras to track how long a tourist or a local has been docked in a time-limited spot. The proposed initiative has been on the civic docket since Jenkins requested funding for the program in February; he formally proposed the system to the council in May and successfully lobbied to get it included in the 2022-23 city budget. The technology has generated controversy elsewhere. Last year, Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle was sued for illegally providing motorists’ license plate and vehicle location information to out-ofstate and federal agencies,
CHEERS Joe Rochioli Jr., in August 2019 at the Russian River vineyards.
Goodbye, Mr. Pinot RUSSIAN RIVER FARMER MADE PINOT NOIR SONOMA’S FAVORITE WINE By Christian Kallen
Joe Rochioli was one of those people whose chosen trade had an impact far beyond his friends, his family or the town in which he grew up—Healdsburg. He helped start the Future Farmers Fair (still held on Memorial Day weekend), hit home runs for the Prune Packers in the 1950s and worked with his dad to run the family hops, bean and grape farm on Westside Road. But he will always be known as the man who brought pinot noir to the Russian River. And today, Rochioli vineyard-designate pinots are widely recognized as among the world’s best expressions of the fickle varietal. Joe Rochioli Jr. suffered a stroke in 2020 and had dealt with a series of health problems since that time. He died at home on Aug. 18, at the age of 88,
with family at his side. “It was the right way to go,” said his son Tom, who now runs the family farm and business. The late Rochioli had himself taken over his father’s farm in 1966, when Joe Sr. passed away. At the time, the 130-acre farm was like many in the area, cultivating a diversity of crops including string beans, hops and grapes, with success but not much vision. Joe Jr. talked his dad into planting sauvignon blanc, still a productive varietal in the region, but he could never convince him to try pinot noir. “I’d been trying to get him to put some varietals in because I had been reading books when I got out of college," Rochioli told the Wine Spectator in 2017. "I was really interested in grapes. They intrigued me. I read about French Burgundies. I couldn't find any [pinot noir] budwood, and a friend told me about a guy south of St. Helena who had French clones. So, I started planting in 1968." Joe Rochioli believed
Rochioli will always be known as the man who brought pinot noir to the Russian River.
the prime Burgundy varietal would be well-suited to the cool climate of the Russian River Valley, and time has proven him right. Though not the first vintner to plant the grape— the Bacigalupi family and Rodney Strong had already done so—but with the Rochioli commitment, the local future of the varietal was assured. The grape is a cornerstone of the Russian River Valley appellation (designated in 1983) and is now virtually synonymous with fine Sonoma County wine—only some of it from the so-called “Sideways Effect,” when the 2002 movie of the same name elevated pinots into a spiritual class of quality (and relegated merlot to the dark side). With characteristic modesty of a farmer, however, Joe Jr. took the success of his Russian River pinot all in stride. “He was very proud of it, but I don't think it ever went to his head,” said his son. “He was a hard-working, down-to-earth guy,” said Tom Rochioli. “He
was classic farmer, I mean, he never called a mechanic to fix anything, he did it himself. If something’d break, he’d weld it himself… he built all the picking bins out of metal—he was really a talented guy.” Over time, the reputation of the Westside Road farm grew, and as Rochioli began breaking out several vineyard blocks and bottling them separately—East Block, West Block, Three Corners, River Block, Little Hill and Sweetwater—the quality rose. The reputation followed. Their first estate wine, the 1985 Rochioli Pinot Noir, was named “The Best Pinot Noir in America” by Wine Spectator. Joe Rochioli was awarded the prestigious Copia Wine Grower
of the Year Award in 2003. Their estate and vineyard-dignate bottlings are available only by a mailing list (and there’s a fouryear wait just to get on that mailing list)—though they are sometimes available at the time of a byappointment-only tasting at 6192 Westside Rd. in Healdsburg. Rochioli followed his own success by turning to chardonnay, another grape that loves a slightly cooler climate and similar soils. Both varietals, pinot noir and chardonnay, are the cornerstones of champagne, and there’s hardly a vineyard in the appellation that doesn’t bottle a top-quality sparkling wine, and that includes Rochioli.
THE MAN IN BLACK MEETS ELVIS AT THE RAVEN
Cash & King show on the Raven stage. Okay, so it’s not really Johnny Cash, and it’s not really Elvis— that probably goes without saying. Cash died in 2003, and Elvis in 1977, but Steven Kent Barker is still going strong, and he’s not yet another Elvis impersonator. The Healdsburg-based performer has had a lifelong enthusiasm for these two pillars of American music, and proudly lays claim to meeting them both. Using the shortened name Steven Kent, the 61-year-old singer/songwriter has worked for years as a country musician, many of them in the Phoenix area at a Western theme park and event center called Rawhide.
TRIBUTE SHOW BY HEALDSBURG MUSICIAN RETURNS TO WHERE IT BEGAN By Christian Kallen Photo courtesy of Steven Kent
HERE'S JOHNNY Steven Kent performs as Cash.
It’s been five years since Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley last took the stage in Healdsburg. That changes this Saturday, Aug. 27, when Steven Kent brings them back to town with his
➝ Rochioli, 4
➝ Man in Black, 4