Category: Judges

A Northern California native, Winemaker Michael Cox grew up in the town of Sonoma and spent time in the Sonoma Valley wine production region as a student. His local headstart gave him an enviable background that most young winemakers find very difficult to achieve.

Mike first attended the University of California at Los Angeles, studying chemical engineering. It was then that his love for wine surfaced and took him down another road. In order to become a member of the wine industry, he transferred to the U.C. Davis campus and graduated with a degree in Enology in 1991. Mike also took advantage of coming home from school each summer to work at Sonoma area wineries, gaining good solid experience every step of the way. He worked his way up through the cellars of two prestigious wineries, Hacienda and Dry Creek Vineyards, while still in school. Prior to joining Schug in 1995, he held the Head Winemaker’s position at Napa Cellars.

Mike is of the “new school” of winemakers — superbly trained in a technical sense, but also involved in every step of the winemaking process. Like many good winemakers, he realizes that the quality of the grapes on the vine is the key to making good wine — ideas of his own that go beyond the laboratory measurements he learned so well at Davis. Mike likes to work closely with growers and prefers small production vineyards that contribute unique qualities to his blends. The Carneros grapes Mike works with at SCHUG offer unrivaled wine-making opportunities due to their unique diversity and complex, well-developed flavor characteristics.

Working at Schug for the past 20 years has afforded Mike the opportunity to make his home in Sonoma with his wife, Tina, and two children.  His youthful passions of music and mountain biking have evolved.  These days his spends most of his free time on a road bike and listening to music louder.

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Now Associate Winemaker at Coppola Winery, he was formerly Head Winemaker at Metanzas Creek Winery, and before that Winemaker for Greenstone Winery, Clos du Lac Cellars.

Francois has been a judge at the Riverside International Wine Competition, and Guest Lecturer at UC Davis Extension. He holds a graduate degree in Enology from the University of Montpellier, France.

Dave Cofran has worked in the Napa Valley as an enologist and winemaker since 1967. In 1984 he joined an old classmate, Justin Meyer, as General Manager of the famed Silver Oak Cellars. To this day Silver Oak is regarded as one of the premier Napa Valley wineries. Dave remembers the early days of Silver Oak when the winery was literally in an old cow barn.

Think back to where you were in 1967 when Dave started in the wine business. His accumulated wine knowledge, experience and judgement can be tasted in every glass of Highlands Winery wines.

Winemaker Ondine Chattan has just completed her 15th harvest with Geyser Peak Winery. Under her leadership, the winemaking team has honed and refined the now distinctive style of our wines, introducing innovative production techniques, and enthusiastically promoting the Alexander Valley and our broad portfolio of award-winning wines. A native of Marin County, Ondine spent a great deal of time in Sonoma Wine Country during her childhood, where she fell in love with the wine industry at an early age. This passion in her soul has never wavered and grew even stronger while obtaining an undergraduate degree in Viticulture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a Master’s Degree in Enology from Fresno State University . After college, her love of Zinfandel and Rhone varietals led her to positions at Cline Cellars in Sonoma Valley and Ridge Vineyards in Cupertino before settling down to her ‘winemaking home’ in the Alexander Valley. Joining Geyser Peak was a dream come true for Ondine, with its diversity of varietals, vineyards and wine styles inspiring her creativity and fueling her passion for producing exciting, accessible, unique wines. Ondine resides in Healdsburg with her husband David and three young sons.

Chuck Carlson’s winemaking career in Santa Barbara County spans more than 34 years, including the past ten years as the proprietor of Carlson Wines, specializing in limited-edition wines including Pinot Noir from Santa Rita Hills along with Cabernet Franc and several aromatic white wines from the Santa Ynez Valley.

As a young winemaker with a newly minted enology degree from Fresno State University, Chuck first joined Zaca Mesa Winery in the Santa Ynez Valley, where he helped create the winery’s groundbreaking Rhône varietal program. The “school of Zaca Mesa” has since become renowned for launching the careers of many notable Central Coast winemakers. For nearly 20 years, Chuck served as the winemaker at Curtis Winery in the Santa Ynez Valley, which was founded as one of California’s first wineries to specialize exclusively in Rhône varietals.

Along the way, however, Chuck never lost his personal affinity for the Pinot Noir grape, and in 2004 he launched Carlson Wines, with the singular goal of crafting a trio of Pinot Noirs showcasing the individual qualities of three standout vineyards in three premier Central Coast appellations. He has since expanded his offerings to Cabernet Franc and aromatic whites.

Among Chuck’s personal interests is deep sea fishing, and his related adventures have earned him the nickname “Calypso.” Chuck and his wife have two grown children, and live in Arroyo Grande.

Jason Bushong has created Graveyard Vineyards’ wonderful wines from the beginning in 2005. While looking for a winemaker, Rob and Paula interviewed Jason, the husband of their boys’ school teacher from Pleasant Valley Elementary School. No question about it, it was a perfect fit.

Jason grew up in Riverside and discovered his palate was far different than the other high school seniors when he opened a bottle of Sanford Chardonnay and believed it to taste fantastic. While acquiring his B.S. degree in Psychology from Humboldt State, his drinking preference was always wine. His desire to learn more about Oenology grew and prompted Jason to work with Bob Hodgson at Fieldbrook Winery in Humboldt County, Daryl Mason at Vinatura Winery in Arcata, then becoming the winemaker at the historic Galleano Winery in 1997 while he continued his technical viniculture education at UC Davis. While at Galleano, one of his consultants asked Jason to move to Paso Robles and help build, develop and manage a large wine facility in Paso Robles area with Shandon Valley Partners. This 2.5 million gallon facility was developed from the ground up and Jason’s roll was not only the original winemaker but manager of the facility and developer of all the wine offerings.

Due to working in several different AVAs (American Viticulture Area), Jason has a keen sense on how to produce elegant, balanced wines from the variety of soils available. The wines produced at Graveyard Vineyards are focused on being full bodied, approachable and easy drinking. His technical knowledge of winemaking practices and gifted palate have brought Graveyard wines many 90+ point, Platinum, Gold, 4 Star Gold and Chairman Awards. Jason is a family man and when not working on wine, prefers being with his beautiful daughters and wife.

Mark grew up in Hilmar, California, an agricultural community southwest of Modesto and was actively involved in raising livestock for the Future Farmers of America. He raised many a champion, each win helping him pay for an agronomy degree at community college. A harvest job with Gallo changed the direction of his career and life abruptly. He so enjoyed the work that he transferred to Fresno State and changed his major to Viticulture. He continued working for Gallo while attending school and after graduation they promoted him to Production Supervisor.

In 1989 a former colleague wooed him away from the Central Valley to Sebastiani in Sonoma and 10 months later they made him their Cellar Master.
On a quest to learn as much as possible about making super-premium wines, he went to Kendall-Jackson where he worked as their Assistant Winemaker. Through Kendall-Jackson he met Myron Holdenried, and the excellent reputation of his grapes led Mark to Wildhurst Vineyards as consulting enologist where he was able to customize his ideal workspace, given his years of hands-on training working his way from the cellar to winemaker.

Mark’s exposure to many different winemaking techniques over the years has helped him develop his own personal style. Chacewater wines are exceptional because of Mark’s creativity and vision.