Gregory Graham, Biography

How does someone who was raised in a suburb of Cleveland get into the wine business? In Greg Graham's case, the love for viticulture began on his family's 10-acre Concord grape vineyard, where he worked as a youth.

After military service in the 1970's, Greg earned a degree in mechanical engineering and worked in the Cleveland area. During that time, he began to make home wine using local grapes. His desire to improve the quality of his wine increased quickly, but he knew that great wines required a climate that Ohio was never going to provide, so in 1980, Greg moved to California.

There he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis, one of the world's top viticultural schools. He completed the winery internship at Freemark Abbey Winery and began working at Rombauer Vineyard as assistant winemaker in June 1983, when Koerner Rombauer was finishing construction of the winery.

In 1985 he went to work for Robert Mondavi Winery, where he controlled barrel inventory and was involved in the production of "Opus One" and Mondavi varientals

Koerner Rombauer hired Greg back in July 1988, as head winemaker. Since then, Rombauer has had its greatest successes: the steady evolution of their Chardonnays, the wide recognition of their Merlots, and, most recently, the popularity of the Rombauer Zinfandels that now have all of the original Zin makers chasing. Besides producing wines for the Rombauer label, Greg is responsible for the winery's custom winemaking, which accounts for the balance of their production.