Q & A with Nicolas and Sirilo Cornejo, Clendenen Vineyard Management
Nicolas Cornejo was born in Michoacan, Mexico and raised his family in Sonoma County. He worked for many years with John Clendenen at Clendenen Vineyard Management, and when John retired, he wanted to sell the business to someone he could trust to carry on. Today. the Cornejo family owns the business and Nicolas manages the vineyard […]
Q&A with Junghoon Lee, Telofarm Inc.
Junghoon Lee grew up in Seoul, South Korea. He planned to go to technical school after graduation so that he could learn how to design mechanical devices that people would enjoy using, but one of his teachers encouraged him to instead go to a university. He ultimately earned a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA […]
Q&A with Kenneth Noren, Wonderful Nurseries
Ken Noren grew up in the Salinas Vallley, surrounded by agriculture. As a young boy, he was heavily involved in 4-H and FFA, When the time came to choose a college, Cal Poly was a natural fit. Although he was interested in wine and grape growing, viticulture wasn’t offered as a major at the time, […]
Q&A with Anne Moller-Racke, Blue Farm Wines
Anne Moller-Racke grew up in Oberwesel, Germany, a small town along the Rhine River. She came to California to work a harvest, but the plan was to return home after it concluded. Instead, she went to work for Buena Vista Winery as their Viticulturist. Following that, she launched Donum Estate, while also planting a vineyard […]
Q&A with Victoria De Crescenzo, Bevan Cellars
Victoria De Crescenzo was born in Southern California, surrounded by horse farms and orange groves. Wine was not a part of her world until she moved to Des Moines and began attending wine-tasting classes at a local wine shop. After meeting Russell Bevan, a colleague in the dental industry, they began making wine together. Their […]
Q&A with Alice van Ommeren, The Wine Data Researcher
Alice van Ommeren was born in Amsterdam, lived in Belgium and France during her early childhood years, and then, as a teenager, moved to Phoenix, AZ. Although wine was on the communal lunch table in grammar school, the kids were not interested; instead, they fought over the Sprite. Alice went on to pursue degrees in […]
Q&A with Katie Carter, Winemaker, Boisset Collection
Katie Carter grew up in Forestville. Although her dad loved wine, she didn’t take any interest in the wine industry until she had an opportunity to utilize her college biology and chemistry lab skills during a harvest internship. That led to working with Greg La Follette and an opportunity go to South Africa to work […]
Q&A with Laurence Donald, Parum Leo
Laurence Donald began his career with a degree in Business Administration and in a few roles in finance and sales but wanted something more. A friend pointed out that he had grown up in wine country, had talked enthusiastically about his winemaking endeavors with his dad, and was clearly excited about wine, that perhaps he […]
Q&A with Alexis Iaconis, brick & mortar wines
Alexis dreamed of being an artist, but the pragmatic side of her thought cooking, or possibly wine, would allow her to utilize her creativity while earning a living. Matt was on his way to being an astronaut when he discovered wine while taking a class at UC Davis. They met while working at Meadowood, where […]
Q&A with Liz Dickson, Grower Relations, Suterra
Liz Dickson grew up in California’s Central Valley; her father was an auto electrician and her mother worked for the County. She thought she wanted to be a corporate attorney and work on Wall Street. But she eventually discovered her passion is for agriculture, and so she pursued a master’s degree in plant science at Cal […]
