There will never be another JoAnn Cherry, and there will never be another John Munch. Both artists and ardent lovers of nature, they were strong-minded originals who squeezed every bit they could out of this life. May their dynamic, full lives be an example to the rest of us.
JoAnn Cherry (1966-2024)
Owner and Co-Founder of the MAHA estate, Villa Creek Cellars
“There’s still a lot worth fighting for.” – Jane Goodall
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JoAnn Cherry was a protectress: of her family and close-knit circle of friends, of her pets and the many living creatures who called the MAHA estate home, and of the wilds of the Peachy Canyon corridor and beyond. Once, while we were standing atop a lookout high above the MAHA estate, she pointed toward a passageway cutting through a heavily forested canyon nearby. Raptors regularly emerged from that dense thicket of oaks and madrones, and she smiled recalling a recent, glorious sighting.
JoAnn and her husband Cris were farming mindfully and responsibly long before it was cool to do so. In this age of greenwashing, of the co-opting of phrases like regenerative, organic, and sustainable by countless marketing teams whose employers would rather talk the talk than walk the walk, JoAnn and Cris were doing the important work of caring for and nurturing the natural environment around their home. They quietly yet ardently pursued certification for organic and biodynamic farming. JoAnn was proud to be named to the board of the CCOF (California Certified Organic Farms) and spoke tirelessly to local farmers about the dangers of glyphosate (Roundup) and other harmful chemicals used too frequently in the growing of wine grapes and countless other crops.
JoAnn was also an observer. She cast a discerning, wry, and often comedic editorial eye toward humanity and found the creative act her most immediate form of self-expression. The wine labels she designed for the MAHA estate and Villa Creek wines reflected her preference for minimalism, clean, intentional lines, and a color palette that mirrored tones found in the natural world. The textile arts spoke to her love of fibers and form, the tactile and malleable.
JoAnn Cherry knew who she was and was comfortable in her own skin. That she wanted others around her to feel equally comfortable in their own skin probably explains why she was such a warm and welcoming hostess. At the frequent gatherings and dinner parties she and Cris held at their home, JoAnn possessed a confident, easy air. Relaxed, poised to listen, engaged. Tall, lean, and elegant of bearing, she cut a sophisticated shape in this life, filling up spaces where she went with a quiet kind of strength and so much style.
She was unabashedly proud of her kids and enjoyed talking about Maddox Meadery, the joint mead-making venture established by Camille and her husband Kenton. And Daft Punch, the natural wine brand established by son Henri, who also performs as a DJ under the moniker Julian Cherry. She was an avid supporter of the Natural Coast Wine Festival in Santa Barbara and was excited about a skin-contact, natural wine she’d been making in the cellar at Villa Creek, a personal project she was excited to see come to fruition.
The wine business is full of big personalities and big egos, but JoAnn found the more competitive social milieu of the business tedious. She preferred to be with a small circle of close friends, many of them artists themselves. “Sometimes we meet a person along our busy ways that stops us in our tracks, and we realize that this one is different, this one is exceptional, this one is gifted in ways that most of us cannot even begin to understand,” said her friend, local artist Tova Celine. “Perhaps they themselves don’t even understand who they are. In JoAnn Cherry, I discovered such a creature.”
On a recent bright, blue Paso morning, the community of Paso Robles gathered at the MAHA estate to honor and remember JoAnn, and to hold up and love her family. Her husband Cris and their children Camille and Henri, surrounded by hundreds of friends and neighbors, dressed in white, memorialized her with a celebration that included white kerchiefs, gifted to each guest and emblazoned with one of JoAnn’s favorite sayings, “Keep your shit together.”
“After her departure, there was a huge weight lifted,” Cris told us. “But after that, there was another weight placed. It was the weight of loss, of missing someone….You bid farewell to someone, and you put them in a ship, and they sail off into the horizon. And we’re waving goodbye, waving goodbye, and then they hit the horizon line, and they’re gone. But on the other side of the horizon line, there’s someone waiting, saying, ‘There they are!!! Come on!’ I choose to – we choose to – look at it this way. This is just a departure. We will reconvene at a later date. Somewhere down this path, who knows when that time will come, but that’s how I prefer to think about it.”
As Cris eulogized his love JoAnn, their two dogs, sisters, began to wrestle, play, and kick up dust, just feet from where he was standing. “Only in West Templeton,” he said, as the crowd issued a gentle laugh. He shared a saying by an Indigenous American friend of his, “We live in the dark, we move to the light,” before raising his glass to the sky. “To JoAnn Cherry and a life well-lived.”
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John “Munchie” Munch (1944-2024)
Owner, Founder, Le Cuvier Winery
“I promise I shall never give up, and that I’ll die yelling and laughing, and that until then I’ll rush around this world I insist is holy and pull at everyone’s lapel and make them confess to me and to all.” – Jack Kerouac
On a recent, white hot Paso morning, as Grateful Dead music flowed out of the speakers, guests gathered at Le Cuvier Winery for a fiesta paying homage to John “Munchie” Munch, a beloved and pioneering winemaker, musician, and artist. His close friends, Lloyd and Maureen Herrera, made altar candles for the guests, adorned with roses, words, and this prayer: “O, John, continue to encourage us with your humor, positivity and irreverence.” A small envelope holding a single oak leaf was another take-away, for John loved oak trees. Many guests wore Central American-inspired, brightly colored linen clothing, a nod to his heritage.
John was born in Costa Rica in 1944 and spent his youth getting into trouble along the Caribbean Coast of Central America. As a young man, he moved to San Francisco, jamming and hanging out with musicians, including Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, the founder of the Grateful Dead. While in the city, he found work as a contractor and for a time restored Victorian houses. From there, John traveled through France, taking odd jobs at oyster farms and with whomever would have him. There, he fell in love with Andree Guyon. He and Andree returned to California in the late 1970s, where John taught himself to make wine, founding Adelaida Cellars and Le Cuvier Winery. By the early 1980s, he was garnering attention for his award-winning, lively wines. Sadly, he lost Andree, the love of his life, when she passed suddenly in 1998, the 26th year of their marriage.
John persevered through that plaintive, mournful time, becoming a mentor to countless people who came to Paso Robles to make wine. “John acted as my biggest fan, always encouraging me even when the world seemed to doubt me,” said Lloyd Herrera, long-time friend and fellow musician. “Looking back, I see now he was acting as a mentor, as he would to many others. John possessed a poise and grace in both his speech and actions. His life was not easy or without sorrow, yet he was one of the happiest people I knew.”
I met John while interviewing him for a story years ago. I’d arrived mid-morning, intending on spending a couple of hours with him. Instead, we spent the better part of a long day together, raiding his cellar and tasting wines dating back to the late 80s, many of them still surprisingly fresh. He was playful, self-deprecating and a lot of fun. He and his assistant winemaker, Clay Selkirk, were kind and respectful to each other. Clay remains at Le Cuvier, where he’ll be carrying on John’s legacy in the cellar.
John was a gifted vocalist and musician, performing frontman duties for Sound of Gleet, the band he formed and met with religiously every Wednesday for afternoon jam sessions. And he loved to cook, especially anything in his sous vide. Architecture sparked his imagination, and he helped build his home at Le Cuvier and the winery facility. He was a lover of books and literature, and in 2017, he published his novel, “The Great Roach Race.”
“As we well know, the wine industry is littered with unique, interesting, and talented people,” said winemaker Neil Collins. “Yet even amongst these, John Munch stood out as special. John was eclectic in his talents, a talented guitarist and lyricist, avid motorcyclist, a master of the written word, a master woodworker…the list goes on. John was a very special mentor. I spent five years working with him at the onset of my career in wine and enjoyed a 33-year friendship with him; never dull, always entertaining, and always pushing the boundaries of the norm. In wine and life, John was curious, fearless, intelligent, kind, and hilarious. The depth of my admiration and gratitude to Mr. Munch is beyond measure….The wines of Tablas Creek and Lone Madrone, indeed of Paso Robles in general, are better for the touch of his hand.”