From Serena Dai, senior editor of food and wine:
The Chronicle’s food and wine team is thrilled to announce our new wine reporter: Jess Lander, a seasoned Wine Country journalist who has covered topics ranging from the impact of wildfires on wine to the unique parenting challenges of women winemakers.
Lander, who is based in Napa Valley, will work closely with senior wine critic Esther Mobley on telling the most important and compelling stories in the country’s most famous wine region. She will be covering day-to-day news regarding what matters in the region, as well as bolstering The Chronicle’s service coverage on how to best enjoy Wine Country.
A Boston native and Emerson College graduate, Lander moved to California in 2010 to be a sports reporter for the Napa Valley Register. But in 2014, she turned sights toward wine. Since then, she’s covered wine, food, travel, beer and spirits as a freelance journalist. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, such as Wine Enthusiast, Decanter, Wine Business Monthly, VinePair and SevenFifty Daily. She’s also previously written for The Chronicle, including a piece in which she recounted the process of evacuating her home due to fires and debating which wines to save.
Lander will bring her intimate understanding of the region’s residents and businesses to her role at The Chronicle. As a writer and reporter, her storytelling has focused on Napa and Sonoma, and as a resident, she has spent her free time being an active member of the community. In 2021, she wrote and published "The Essential Napa Valley Cookbook," a project that raised more than $100,000 for restaurant workers impacted by the pandemic and wildfires.
This new role as a reporter is her way of further supporting storytelling in the community, while also fulfilling a longtime journalistic dream of working at a major daily publication.
“I’m very excited to join the incredible food and wine team at The Chronicle and work alongside Esther, whose work I’ve long followed and admired,” said Lander. “I can’t wait to start digging in.”
Lander’s deep ties to sources and stories within Napa and Sonoma will expand the way that The Chronicle covers this exciting region, said senior editor Serena Dai. Wine coverage at The Chronicle will soon be more frequent, and more comprehensive.
“I've followed Jess' work for years and been continually impressed by her deep knowledge of Wine Country, her ability to find news scoops and her knack for bringing out the human side of any story,” said Mobley. “I'm thrilled for the chance to work alongside her and to see how we can deepen The Chronicle's wine coverage together.
“Jess' hire makes The Chronicle the only newspaper in the country with two fulltime journalists covering wine,” Mobley continued. “That's an enormous testament to The Chronicle's commitment to providing comprehensive coverage of California's wine industry.”
Lander’s first day is January 10. You can follow her on Twitter @jesslander, on Instagram @willwriteforwine, and email her at jess.lander@sfchronicle.com.
About The San Francisco Chronicle
The San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfchronicle.com) is the largest newspaper in Northern California and the second largest on the West Coast. Acquired by the Hearst Corporation in 2000, The San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 by Charles and Michael de Young and has been awarded six Pulitzer Prizes for journalistic excellence. Follow us on Twitter at @SFChronicle.
