Wine growers fear funding will wither after fall of Silicon Valley Bank

As venture capitalists and tech founders traded frenzied WhatsApp messages that fuelled a historic run on Silicon Valley Bank on March 9, other important clients of the lender were toiling in the dirt, oblivious to what was coming.

Jasmine Hirsch, general manager of Hirsch Vineyards in Sonoma, said she only found out about the $42bn bank run from a family contact in finance the day before the lender was rescued by federal regulators, having had no foreknowledge of its problems.