Jonathan Nagy

As our regular readers know, we frequently pose a series of questions to a winemaker to probe their winemaking philosophy and to gain insight into how they became a winemaker. This week, we are featuring Jonathan Nagy, the winemaker at Byron Winery.

Founded in 1984, Byron Winery is a part of the Jackson Family Wines Collection. Byron is located in Santa Barbara County, California.

Jonathan was raised there, in Santa Barbara County. His first job in the wine industry was at Robert Mondavi. Jonathan was then a senior in college finishing up his chemistry degree. He decided to work a second harvest at Mondavi, and before long, he was back in the industry at Cambria Winery. Jonathan joined Byron Winery as an assistant winemaker in 2001, and has been its winemaker since 2004.

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Lisa Strid

As our regular readers know, we frequently pose a series of questions to a winemaker to probe their winemaking philosophy and to gain insight into how they became a winemaker. This week, we are featuring Lisa Strid, the winemaker at Aridus Wine Company in Arizona.

Aridus is a new winery in an emerging wine region. Currently it makes wine from purchased grapes, but Aridus has owned 40 acres of estate vineyards since 2009. The winery is just beginning to figure out how best to express the grapes from there.

Lisa Strid will therefore have a significant role in developing Aridus’s portfolio. Lisa joined Aridus just a year ago, after spending some time at Gallo.

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David Ramey

As our regular readers know, we frequently pose a series of questions to a winemaker to probe their winemaking philosophy and to gain insight into how they became a winemaker. This week, we are pleased to feature David Ramey of Ramey Wine Cellars.

David’s storied winemaking career began as he graduated from U.C. Davis and interned at Jean-Pierre Moueix’s Château Pétrus. Then, after working in California wineries like Matanzas Creek, Chalk Hill, Dominus Estate, and Rudd Oakville, David and his wife Carla founded Ramey Wine Cellars in 1996. Today, David’s two children, Claire and Alan, also work at the winery. And in 2014, David founded Sidebar Cellars, which experiments with different varieties and regions.

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Juan Micieli-Martinez

As our regular readers know, we frequently pose a series of questions to a winemaker to probe their winemaking philosophy and to gain insight into how they became a winemaker. This week, we are featuring Juan Micieli-Martinez, the winemaker at Martha Clara Vineyards of the North Fork of Long Island.

Juan was born in Mexico, but was raised in Long Island. So he knew from childhood memories that Long Island had wineries. And when the wine bug bit him in college, Juan returned to Long Island to work in the wine industry. He began at the tasting room at Pellegrini Vineyards and moved into other roles in the cellar and in the winemaking team.

After brief stints as a brewmaster and then as a winemaker in other places, Juan joined Martha Clara Vineyards in 2007.

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Roman Roth

As our regular readers know, we frequently pose a series of questions to a winemaker to probe their winemaking philosophy and to gain insight into how they became a winemaker. This week, we are featuring Roman Roth, the winemaker at Wölffer Estate in Long Island, NY.

Founded by Christian Wölffer in 1987, Wölffer Estate is run today by his children, Joey and Marc Wölffer, along with Roman.

Roman’s path to winemaking is perhaps the most to be envied. Roman was born into a winemaking family in Germany, so, as he explains, his childhood was accompanied by great wine that was celebrated and revered. At age 16, Roman began an apprenticeship in winemaking in Germany. After more experience in the United States and Australia, and after finishing an oenology degree, he took his current position as winemaker.

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Rolando Herrera

As our regular readers know, we frequently pose a series of questions to a winemaker to probe their winemaking philosophy and to gain insight into how they became a winemaker. This week, we are featuring Rolando Herrera, the winemaker at Mi Sueño Winery.

Rolando fell in love with wine after working harvest at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in the 1980s. He would stay there for ten years, learning and moving up, and then work with Paul Hobbs on several projects, before settling in 2004 into his current role.

His winemaking philosophy, he says, matches the philosophy of his winemaking mentors: to focus on producing the best possible grapes, and then simply to translate those grapes into wine without doing too much.

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Adam Kubrock

Each week, as our regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we are featuring Adam Kubrock, the winemaker at Hillersden Wines in Marlborough, New Zealand.

Adam hails from Walla Walla, Washington, which is of course famous for its wines. There, he began his career in the wine industry, working at Gramercy Cellars. Then Adam visited New Zealand to experience winegrowing in a cooler-climate region. Initially he thought he would stay just a few weeks, but after brief posts at other wineries, Adam settled down at Hillersden Wines.

Now, Adam oversees the winemaking for Hillersden’s portfolio of wines, which includes a Pinot Gris, a Pinot Noir, a Riesling, and of course a Sauvignon Blanc.

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Brandon Lapides

Each week, as our regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we are featuring Brandon Lapides, the winemaker at Armida Winery.

Brandon’s path to winemaking resembles many of our paths to wine appreciation. Growing up, Brandon saw that his grandfather collected wine — and did so seriously, buying among other things two cases of 1961 Chateau Latour — and so Brandon naturally developed an interest in wine, as he watched his grandfather open bottles at dinner. Born in Ithaca, the site of one prominent enology school, Brandon studied fementation science at another prominent enology school, UC Davis. After graduating, Brandon spent some time in New Zealand, before returning to California first and to Sonoma County in particular soon thereafter. In 2010, he joined Armida Wines.

Armida Winery was founded by brothers Steve and Bruce Cousins about twenty years ago. The estate produces several bottlings of Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay from purchased fruits, and also produced a field blend of Zinfandel and Petite Syrah from a seven-acre estate vineyard.

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Theresa Heredia

Each week, as our regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we are featuring Theresa Heredia, the winemaker at Gary Farrell Winery.

Gary Farrell founded the eponymous winery and debuted the label with a 1982 Pinot Noir. Since then, the winery has added more and more to its portfolio of vineyards, working with multiple viticulturalists.

Theresa Heredia was studying at UC Davis in its Chemistry program when she met other graduate students in the Enology program and decided that she wanted to apply her knowledge and techniques to study wine. So she transferred programs soon thereafter and, after graduating, began working at Joseph Phelps Vineyards, and specifically helped launch the Pinot Noir bottlings of Freestone Vineyards. Theresa then joined Gary Farrell Winery in 2012, where she has been a winemaker since.

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Luis Pato

Each week, as our regular readers know, we pose a series of questions to a winemaker. This week, we are featuring Luis Pato, the famed Portugese winemaker at the eponymous Luis Pato Winery.

The Pato family has been making wine at Quinta do Ribeirinho since at least the eighteenth century.

Luis was born and raised in Portugal, though in several different parts of the country, from Coimbra, to Alentejo, to Lison. After serving in the Navy, Luis was a teacher, until he joined the family business. As you likely know, Luis Pato’s wines have been leading the surge in interest in, and quality of, Portugese wines. Luis continues to invent and to reinvent, making his first single-vineyard sparking wine in 2008, Baga sparking wines in 2010, and so on.

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