D Cubed Cellars, Biography
I was raised in an agricultural family; my Dad was a prized beekeeper and my grandfather manager of a fish hatchery. We were surrounded by family friends who dabbled in home winemaking. There were small, loosely tended vineyards scattered throughout the area and even some caves where these homemade, viniferous mixtures were aged. Naturally, I chose to enter my first 4-H winemaking contest at the age of eighteen. These memorable batches of swill were plum, blackberry and Grenache wines with the blackberry batch winning best of show! This was the inspiration I needed to enter the enology program at The University of California, Davis.
After graduating from UC Davis, I went to work as a cellar worker at Grgich Hills Cellars. There, alongside four other UC Davis graduates and Mike Grgich, I learned the critically important winery production processes for producing ultra premium wines. This was all about cleaning barrels, endless pump overs, lugging scores of hosing, racking wine and a multitude of additional chores that must be done to produce a fine wine. Grgich Hills was a great place to begin a winemaking career as I was surrounded by passionate, innovative peers and shown what it takes to build a great wine.
In 1989 I moved north as cellar master to one of Napa Valley's renowned Zinfandel producers, Jerry Seps's Storybook Mountain. The move to a much smaller operation afforded me the opportunity to oversee nearly all production aspects at the winery. This four year, Zinfandel intensive tenure was incredibly valuable to my winemaking career.
The year 1993 brought me to Rombauer Vineyards where I began as cellar master but quickly rose to the assistant winemaker position. Because Rombauer also functions as a custom crush facility, (a facility where small wineries may bring the their grapes to be produced into wine) it was a unique opportunity to work with a wide spectrum of varietals, winemaking styles and a multitude of respected winemakers.
Finally, in 1994 Frank Family Vineyards offered me the opportunity to be winemaker. Alongside fellow wine maker Gregory Graham, I produced an amazing array of wine brands including Rombauer Frank Family still and sparkling wines and many different boutique wineries. I could not have asked for a more broad and varied foundation as I was about to launch my own brand.
History
The opportunity to source and produce my own wine came in 1994 when several tons of the (not yet) super esteemed Black Sears Zinfandel was made available to me. Could anyone have asked for better grapes to start with??! While Ridge Vineyards was the first to source this once dilapidated vineyard, it was Turley Vineyards and D-Cubed who brought acclaim to its grapes. My premiere release was the blending of select Black Sears rows with other outstanding Howell Mountain vineyards (it is still one of my core productions).
In 1996 Brown Estate Vineyards, who produced their Zinfandel at Rombauer, asked me to be their winemaker and advisor for their new winery project. I believed their estate grown Zinfandel was of tremendous quality - Chiles valley vines that were passionately well farmed. I subsequently began purchasing grapes from different Brown Estate blocks that would ultimately go into the premiere production of my Napa Valley Zinfandel. In the spring of 2002, I left Frank Family Vineyards to devote my efforts to D-Cubed wines and Brown Family Estate. This is an amazing concentration as I am no longer stretched to oversee and produce 10-20 wines for a multitude of wineries.
So the early halcyon days have evolved into a career of Napa Valley winemaking. For me, there is no other grape like Zinfandel, an intensely purple beast that begs to be drunk with merriment and smiles. Zinfandel has a unique mouth-feel, an intensity of fruit and an inherent element of fun not matched by other reds. With this in mind, D-Cubed Cellars produces three distinctly different Zinfandels: Napa Valley, Howell Mountain and Black Sears.
