Category: Judges

Signe received her Master’s Degree in Enology at the University of California at Davis.  She worked for Kendall-Jackson 11 years and Meridian Vineyards another 11.   In 2006 she started her own consulting business.  Her clients are all small startups including growers motivated by a desire to showcase their grape quality, those excited by the industry and lifestyle hopefuls.

Signe has served as president of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture, Board Chairperson for the Paso Robles Vintners and Growers Association and has been named Winemaker of the Year by the Mid-State Fair.

Signe Zoller

Norm Yost graduated from the University of California, Davis with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies in 1981. When his college roommate graduated from the winemaking program with a job and Norm didn’t have employment, he morphed from a beer drinking football player into a winemaking craftsman. During his 35+ vintages in the industry, Norm worked for diverse wineries in cool climate regions, from Oregon’s Willamette Valley to the Russian River in Sonoma County and finally Santa Barbara County. He attributes his vast experience in the industry to the success of Flying Goat Cellars, which he launched in 2000. As the proprietor of his own business, Norm enjoys the freedom to focus on his passion for making vineyard designated Pinot Noir and sparkling wine. Half of Norm’s winemaking career has now been in Santa Barbara County, where he celebrates working with the exceptional local fruit. He is currently a board director of World of Pinot Noir; formerly a board director of Sta. Rita Hills Winegrowers Alliance and Santa Barbara County Vintners Association and a winemaking instructor at Allan Hancock College.

Flying Goat

After graduating from Sonoma State University with a degree in Biology and Chemistry, Evelyn heeded the advice of friends and took a temporary harvest job at Chateau St. Jean. Over 30 years later she remains in the wine business as the winemaker at Taft Street Winery, focusing on Russian River wines.

The initial harvest job at Chateau St. Jean was followed by a position at the winery as a laboratory technician. Evelyn then completed several enology and viticulture courses at Santa Rosa College before accepting a position at Lyeth Winery in Geyserville, where she was eventually promoted to assistant winemaker. In 1992, she was offered the position of laboratory enologist at Clos du Bois Wines, where she spent 11 years and rose to the position of winemaker.

She joined Delicato Family Vineyards in 2004 as its winemaker and was involved in the production of all white wines produced there. She joined Taft Street Winery in 2007, where she crafts Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Rose of Pinot Noir, among other varietals.

Evelyn is a member of the American Society of Enology and Viticulture and is involved in a tasting group that includes many of Napa and Sonoma County’s top winemakers. Some of Evelyn’s hobbies include cooking, gardening, and traveling worldwide with her husband, who also is a wine industry professional.

Taft Street Winery

Skinny Vine wines are made by Assistant Winemaker Dawn Wells, who has a passion for making and enjoying wines. “From the moment I learned that a career in winemaking was a possibility, I was interested” says Dawn. She has been with Treasury Wine Estates since 2006 and is excited to have created a line of wines that deliver rich, ripe flavors while offering wine drinkers a way to consume fewer calories. “I love the mix of science and art that makes winemaking slightly unpredictable and a great deal of fun – and I’m happy to be crafting wines that people enjoy and share with others.”

www.theskinnyvine.com/

(No longer judging)

Proprietor Ken Volk has been making Santa Barbara and Central Coast wines for more than a quarter century. Perhaps best known as the founder of Wild Horse Winery, Ken has earned a reputation for crafting world-class wines, particularly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Santa Maria Valley.

Ken’s unparalleled knowledge and skill have garnered him immediate recognition for producing luxury wines of exceptional character with his new brand, Kenneth Volk Vineyards, located in Santa Maria Valley.

In many ways, Ken’s landing in Santa Maria is sort of a full circle journey. He made home wines from the nearby Rancho Sisquoc Vineyard in the 1970’s, and his first professional wine under the Wild Horse label was a 1983 Pinot Noir from the nearby Sierra Madre Vineyard. Rodolfo Callado, of Mesa Vineyard Management, who oversees the management of Kenneth Volk’s small estate vineyard, was Ken’s first employee at Wild Horse.

http://www.volkwines.com/

Saddleback Cellars was established in 1981 in the heart of the Napa Valley by Nils Venge. Nils Venge is universally regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of the Napa Valley wine industry.

Born to Danish immigrants, Venge’s exposure to wine came at an early age: his parents operated a wine and liquor import and distribution company in Southern California. Venge continued his pursuit of wine at the University of California in Davis where he earned a BS in Viticulture in 1967.

Following a tour of duty in Vietnam as a Navy Reservist, Venge moved to the Napa Valley to pursue his interest in winemaking. In the subsequent years, Venge worked for notable wineries, such as Charles Krug, Sterling, Villa Mount Eden and Groth. During his tenure at Groth, Venge became the first American winemaker to receive a perfect 100 point rating from wine critic Robert Parker Jr. The 1985 Groth Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon catapulted Venge to a venerated position in the California wine industry.

Saddleback Cellars

Time flies when you love what you do, and, over the last 30 years, Linda has made exceptional wines and helped to build strong winery organizations around the globe.

LindaTrotta.com

Born and raised in northern Bulgaria, a region with many millennia of winemaking history, Miro (Miroslav) Tcholakov was exposed to wine and winemaking at a very early age. His grandfather had long made the family supply of wine. As a boy, Miro was at his side during all phases of the process.

After completing his mandatory military service, he attended the Higher Institute of Agriculture in Plovdiv where he studied viticulture and enology. Soon after graduation, in the summer of 1990, he was chosen from hundreds of candidates to participate in an international exchange program in agriculture set up by The Future Farmers of America. After a few months in Napa, he was taken on as harvest intern at Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Vineyard. What was supposed to be a temporary harvest job turned into a nine-year position moving through the ranks from Cellar Master to Assistant Winemaker in 1997.

In 1998 Miro went to work as Winemaker for Trentadue Winery, which is still his “day job.” In addition to bringing more acclaim to the winery by creating world class award-winning wines, Miro’s duties include overseeing many custom crush operations for some renowned winemaker clients. In 2001, Miro became his own customer with his inaugural bottling of his Petite Sirah. Within a few weeks of its release, it received a fat 90 points and a “well-endowed” write-up from Robert Parker, Jr. in the Wine Advocate.

Winemaker Mark Stupich work his first harvest at Kenwood Vineyards in 1975. In the beginning it was his summer job, working as a cellar rat shoveling grape skins out of tanks and falling in love with everything about the wine business. Knowing he’d found his passion at Kenwood, he almost gave up on his studies at Sonoma State University – but decided to finish his psychology degree after his mother broke into tears when he floated the idea of dropping out.

He used his early Kenwood earnings to hike the Pacific Crest trail after graduation, making it from Mexico to Lake Tahoe before tossing his boots and heading back to Kenwood in time for crush. “It’s just so much fun making wine,” he says now, never having lost an ounce of the enthusiasm that’s fueled him since early on, carrying his career upward at the winery until he was made winemaker in 2006.

He started at Kenwood not long after the Pagani family sold vineyards and prune orchards to John Sheela and Mike and Marty Lee – and Kenwood Vineyards was born, in an old wooden barn with the leaky redwood tanks. The orchard was felled and Kenwood grew, including being the exclusive producer of Jack London Vineyard wines for the Sheppard family since 1976, where Stupich has taken part in every vintage. His lifelong favorite vintage is 1979 when they were shorthanded and he worked with three other guys from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. day after day, going home only to sleep. “I was 26 and I was the oldest,” he says.

He also relished the challenge of the various troubled years – 1989, 1998 and 2011 – when Kenwood made great wine even when early rain was followed by a wet spring, a combination that makes fighting botrytis a challenge. “We had no rot character, our wines were very clean.”

In 1999, Gary Heck of Korbel Winery purchased Kenwood, creating “a super team” that he remembers fondly. “Gary wanted a symbiotic relationship between us and we achieved it,” he said, explaining that he was always on hand to do “whatever needed to be done.” He eventually became facilities manager, carrying the responsibility for 17,000 barrels. As a winemaker, Stupich most enjoys zinfandel and sauvignon blanc. “They are the most fun to make, with incredible aromas.”