Front Page  »  

New owners at Jada Winery accused of unneighborly behavior

November 14, 2022

By KAREN VELIE

Neighbors of a Templeton winery owned by the Riboli Family of San Antonio Winery out of Los Angeles are complaining of sleepless nights after the family decided to place a loud wind machine next to a neighbor’s home.

Claire Mamakos is infuriated that the new winery owners appear not to care if her house is pelted by walnuts and branches and that her family is unable to sleep at night. San Antonio Winery acquired Jada Vineyard & Winery from founder Jack Messina in 2021.

Late in the season, the Riboli Family planted a new section of grape vines. Until the young vines harden and go dormant, the recent frosts can destroy the plants.

To protect the crop, the Riboli Family placed a large vineyard fan about 100 feet from Mamakos’ home. During the past week, the fan runs each night, rotating 360 degrees every five minutes, blowing wind directly on Mamakos’ home during each rotation.

“Our house shakes and the noise is like a helicopter hovering overhead,” Mamakos said. “The previous owners were good neighbors.”

Winemaker Anthony Riboli said he is permitted under The Right to Farm Act to run the machine regardless of any nuisance incurred by his neighbors. As for the sticks and walnuts hitting the home, Riboli said Mamakos’ sons need to remove them from around their trees.

San Luis Obispo Assistant Agricultural Commissioner Marc Lea said the wind machine “likely does not meet the right to farm exemption,” which requires the activity had been occurring for three years and was not a nuisance when the activity began.

However, it is not a clear cut argument. In 2015, a Boonville man sued three of his neighbors after they installed large fans, one only 200 feet from his home. In the end, the vineyard owners agreed to stop using the louder two-bladed fans, and replaced them with three-bladed fans, which are almost 20 decibels quieter.

When asked if he would consider moving his two-bladed fan to another area of the vineyard, Riboli said the spot near Mamakos’ home is the lowest, which is the most optimal for his vines.


Loading...
Related:


32 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

During the past week, the fan runs each night, rotating 360 degrees every five minutes, blowing wind directly on Mamakos’ home during each rotation.


How incompetent (or morally bankrupt) do you have to be, to aim a wind machine directly at your neighbor’s house?


Start intentionally blowing wind into my yard, those fiberglass blades on your fan will be needing replacement on a daily basis.


52

And you’d need to be hiring an attorney.


-24

For what?


10

Not that we need anymore Wineries but if you move to the Country, Ag Country, you will have these conflicts.

They could choose to farm or raise Pigs in that hollow if they wanted.

While you can build houses on this acreage it is zoned for exactly what the Winery is doing with it.

I would be more concerned with the use of pesticides so close to all these houses in Templeton. The noise is a nuisance but the pesticides give you cancer.


-18

zoned for exactly what the Winery is doing with it.


It’s not zoned to aim a wind machine directly at neighboring properties.


If the machine is aimed at the vineyard, there is a case to be made for legit farming usage. But as soon as it rotates and aims at the neighbors house it is not benefiting the farm.


The noise is a nuisance but the pesticides give you cancer.


This is not an either or scenario. The neighbor can be concerned with both issues. And the vineyard in question (Jada Vineyard) was (is?) organic.


35

No one ever said Country living is quiet and peaceful. Farming stuff happens on farms


-26

Blaring music at 100db all night long? “Eh, just farm stuff”


Dumping animal waste into the neighbors yard? “Eh, just farm stuff”


Owning a farm doesn’t give the owner carte blanche to suddenly become a nuisance whenever they feel like it. The law states:


No agricultural activity, operation, or facility, or appurtenances

thereof, conducted or maintained for commercial purposes, and in a

manner consistent with proper and accepted customs and standards,

as established and followed by similar agricultural operations in the

same locality, shall be or become a nuisance, private or public, due to

any changed condition in or about the locality, after it has been in

operation for more than three years if it was not a nuisance at the

time it began


18

Mixed feelings about this. I understand the nuisance, but, owning a home in wine country usually entails having a large piece of property and a knowledge that your neighbor will probably grow grapes. Why build so close to the property line?


-33

The courts routinely rewards the eff you approach to obtain rights. The City of Paso Robles recently perfected a taking of certain water rights through a prescriptive right adjudication, they didn’t get much but they were awarded something by convincing the court that they were not liars and cheats, just successful takers (don’t believe me ask a lawyer). This practice is usually overlooked by the negligent public until it affects you, just like many other actions.


16

Another entitled Southern California A -(deleted) moving in to the area.


59

1. Why are we planting new grapes given everything?

2. To install most likely a 20-70 thousand dollar turbine to prevent frost on grapes/ who permitted all of this?/ change the blades must have cost a fortune/ under the guise of an old law “right to farm”; must have an expensive Attorney.

3. Does this sound insane we are allowing this in our county; what local in their right mind thinks this is ok; minus wealthy folks?


43

“We” get to zone property for intended use.

In a free market however “we” don’t get to decide which crops are grown by the landowners.

I preferred the Alfalfa fields to grapes, but I don’t get to choose


7

Wild that growing grapes for alcohol can be considered “farming”. Alcohol is a poison, not a food.


29

Tell that to those in Kentucky growing tobacco, plus our government still subsidizes tobacco growing.


8

LOL, you must be fun at parties. Many things that people consume can be poisons in high enough quantities. Excess consumption of sugar, not alcohol, is the leading cause of the obesity epidemic which causes far more health issues than alcoholism. Even water can be a poison if you drink too much. Alcohol consumption in moderation is not detrimental and actually has some health benefits.


-12

Excess consumption of sugar, not alcohol, is the leading cause of the obesity epidemic which causes far more health issues than alcoholism.


Not only is this classic whataboutism — it’s also patently false. Excess consumption of calories (not sugar) are the cause of obesity. Fact is, over the past 20 years sugar consumption has trended down in the US while obesity has trended up.


Even water can be a poison if you drink too much.


The only health-risk from drinking excess water is to the person who over consumes the water. Nobody is drinking too much water then wrong-way driving on the freeway and killing innocent people.


Trying to compare alcohol, which increases risks of addiction, health problems, violence, liver disease and cancer — to water, is about as foolish of a hill to die on as you can choose. Well done.


6

It’s pretty clear that you don’t actually know what “whataboutism” actually is. Original comment called alcohol a poison, I was pointing out that alcohol is only toxic in high quantities, so by that definition, sugar and even water is also a “poison”.


Many doctors, such as Dr. Robert Lustig, have shown that excess sugar consumption does indeed have many extremely detrimental impacts to your body, especially your liver, in ways that are quite similar to alcoholism. Lustig and others have deemed sugar a poison for just that reason. Also, the claim that sugar consumption is down in the US is patently false. The only organization that has tried to claim that is the American Sugar association with their carefully cherry-picked statistics they paid for. The truth is, in 2020, Americans consumed 1 million more metric tons of sugar than they did in 2010, so it’s no wonder we have an ever increasing amount of obese Americans.


It is you that engaged in whataboutism when you made the giant leap to start talking about drunken driving and other societal effects of alcohol, which is a completely separate issue unrelated to the toxicity of various farmed substances.


So I’ll break down the premise here for you, so you can easily understand it.

Alcohol is not a poison if consumed in moderation. Overconsumption of many farmed substances can also have toxic affects on the human body. Thus, the claim that if you use grapes to make wine, the growing grapes of those grapes should not be considered “farming” is a ridiculously false assertion.


-5

slo-to-load what part of:

“Please address the Policies, events and arguments, not the person. ”

is not clear?


“you don’t actually know”

“so you can easily understand”

“It is you”

“It is you that engaged in whataboutism when you made”


You stop it.


4

It’s pretty clear that you don’t actually know what “whataboutism” actually is.


Whataboutism is responding to an argument by bringing up a different issue, to distract from the original point.


For example, attempting to equate the toxicity of alcohol with the counter — “what about [sugar, water, etc.] ingested in a high enough quantity — it’s toxic too!”


With that logic, oxygen is equivalent to alcohol since there is risk of poisoning from excess intake. If society operated under this premise, every substance would be poisonous.


That entire position hinges on false equivalence.


Alcohol and water are not toxic equivalents.

Alcohol and sugar are not toxic equivalents.


Facts.


But I’m open to being proven wrong…


Six people die daily from alcohol poisoning.


How many people die of sugar poisoning daily? How about water poisoning?


5

Well I hope the Ag commissioner helps the homeowner with this problem and I’m not surprised with the winemaker’s refusal to find a solution that would work for them both.Somebody needs to help out the locals when big grape growers start pushing them around.

Good reason not to support Jada Wine.


106

Ribolio Family owns a ton of different brands; Stella Rosa, La Quinta, Il Campione, San Antonio, Mariella, Santo Stefano, Windstream, Maddalena, Opaque, Forty Ones, etc.


They’ll probably just take the grapes from this vineyard and bottle them under whatever brand of theirs is most profitable.


Ironically, the Riboli Family “crest” has a windmill at the top of the logo.


30

Wow. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised at the lack of respect and consideration by a corporation with its’ origins and headquarters based in Los Angeles. Shame on the Riboli family for being such crap neighbors. I can think of several solutions that can be implemented to mitigate the noise and wind. Some that the Riboli’s would approve of and some very effective ones they wouldn’t.


52
1 2 3