“The Art of Making People Feel Like VIPs: A Profile of Artesa’s Anne Salazar”

Walking into the modern, high-ceiling Visitor Center of Artesa Vineyards and Winery, you might overhear a cheery, British-accented “Hello Love” from Anne Salazar as she greets guests. As VIP Specialist and Wine Educator, she is more likely in one of the private event rooms in the back doing a sit-down tasting or downstairs in the cellar conducting a tour for trade representatives or other visitors needing that extra attention and a quiet, intimate experience at one of Napa’s premier wineries.

Essentially, Anne can and does meet anyone from business executives to a group celebrating a birthday to a couple marking an anniversary. In the process, she consistently displays an uncanny ability to make each of them feel important and valued. That innate skill is ingrained her personality and rooted in her rich experience. She has lived in a dizzying succession of places throughout her life and met a wide variety of people, each an opportunity to inform her vibrant and unquenchable mind.

After living in a dozen places in England, Canada and the United States as part of a military family, Anne started a new life in Napa Valley three decades ago and worked at Domaine Chandon, Conn Creek and Franciscan wineries, among other places. She was wooed by Artesa in April 2008 by Director of Hospitality Linda Champagne, who regards her as “legendary” and one of Napa’s best assets. “She has boundless energy surpassing those half her age, loves her job everyday and is extremely knowledgeable,” attests Linda.

What drives her? “The product is so interesting, you never learn everything there is to learn,” Anne responds, providing a window into her insatiable appetite to discover new things. Moreover, Anne finds the industry fun, each day furnishing her a chance to meet interesting people from whom she can learn something new.

The sheer joy Anne gets from making people feel important, from the time they are at Artesa to the time they leave, also greatly motivates her. “Life can be frustrating and tough sometimes,” she says. “So for an hour or two, I can make you feel valued and leave Artesa feeling good about yourself and the experience you’ve just had.”

Though she humbly declines the distinction, Anne Salazar is one of Artesa’s VIPs – for the inimitable way she makes everyone feel like a VIP. Her trademark “Hello Love” greeting and warm embrace are the quintessential currency of hospitality she has honed from decades of work and life experience and shared regularly at Artesa with wine lovers from all over the world.

An Artesa Winery Pet: Bodie

Welcome to a new feature of Artesa's blog, a feature on one of our winery pets.

First, some background on Bodie’s wine-loving owner: A local product hailing from St. Helena, Artesa’s Vice President of Finance, Tim O’Leary, is one of the longest employed people at the winery, even when it was known as Codorniu Napa. For twelve and a half years, Tim has been in charge of finance either as controller or in his current position. That places his starting date shortly after Artesa’s first crush in 1997. (The winery was reborn as Artesa at a black-tie dinner celebration on July 24, 1999.)

On August 23, 2001, a Yellow Labrador Retriever named Bodie was born and became a member of the O’Leary family, as well as the Artesa family. As the first “winery pet” featured in our blog, Bodie brings with him a brother, a Black Labrador Retriever named Jake, born last year on the Fourth of July. Jake, incidentally, has been described as Bodie’s favorite toy. When not carousing with Jake, Bodie loves typical dog things such as swimming. Less common is that when Bodie knows he did something wrong, he smiles (which is rare, for the record). Think about that next time you run into a smiling Yellow Lab with a Black Lab trailing not too far behind him.