Winemaker: Mark Chesebro

At the age of 25 Mark went back to school at UC Davis studying Enology and Viticulture. After finishing the program Mark worked seasonally during harvest for a number of years. In 1990 his family and he moved to their present ranch in Carmel Valley with the intention of starting an artisan goat and sheep cheese dairy. After discovering that running a dairy and cheese making was like having harvest all year he turned once again to winemaking.

Mark took a crush job at Bernardus Winery under Don Blackburn in the fall of 1994 and ended up staying until spring of 2005. This was his real winemaking education. He worked first in the cellar, then as Enologist, and then starting in January of 1999 as Winemaker. Mark held every production job there was at this 50,000 case winery. It was a very thorough schooling, which taught him not only about winemaking but also about the extreme importance of farming. Mark believes wine is easy to mess up in the winery but it can never be better than the raw materials. Respect for this concept is the guiding force in his approach to the production of fine wine.

Annual Production: 1,500 cases

Grape Varieties Planted

• Grenache
• Pinot Noir
• Roussanne
• Sauvignon Musque
• Syrah / Shiraz
• Tempranillo / Valdepenas
• Vermentino