California-born and Oregon-raised, Chris attended Le Cordon Bleu’s Western Culinary Institute in Portland, OR. There, he was introduced to and captivated by the romance of wine.

Now, with nearly 20 years of wine industry experience (most recently as associate winemaker at Twomey), Chris credits his mentors for his tactical approach. “I was at Erath [Winery] during ’10 and ’11—two difficult vintages,” he says. “It was great learning the ins and outs of the land from Dick, who farmed it for 35 years. I also observed Gary [Horner] deal with rain storm after rainstorm. It taught me that you can’t be hyper-technical all the time—but it is better to have those skills and not need them [due to unavoidable conditions] than to not have them at all.”