Winemaking

CHARLIE TSEGELETOS

Winemaker/Director of Winemaking

Charlie Tsegeletos (pronounced Seg-uh-let-ose) was raised in northern California by Italian and Greek parents. Growing up, his family always had a bottle of wine on the table. He inherited his interest in wine from his great grandfather, Giuppe Guidotti, who in the 1930s grew grapes and made wine in the Guerneville area of Sonoma County, California.

In 1979, Tsegeletos earned his degree in agricultural science and management/plant science from the University of California at Davis . He launched his winemaking career in 1980 at the age of 24 as an apprentice for Pendleton Winery. In 1981, he joined Hacienda Wine Cellars as assistant winemaker in Sonoma , and in 1984 assumed the role of winemaker at D’Agostini Winery. Tsegeletos joined Glen Ellen Winery in 1987 as senior director of winemaking when it was owned by the Benzigers, and then ultimately sold to United Distillers & Vintners. There, he crafted his blending skills and the effects these skills had on wine. He joined the winery in 2002, and is responsible for winemaking and production.

Tsegeletos often lets the grapes guide his style of winemaking. He works closely with vineyard managers to ensure that varietals are planted in locations that will provide optimal acid and sugar levels and express true varietal characteristics. He then hones his winemaking skills to shepherd the wine toward his chosen style. His red wines are big and dark with lots of fruit concentration and delicate oak nuances; white wines are bright and fresh.

Tsegeletos is a professional wine judge, as well as president of the board of directors for the Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Association. An avid snow skier and motorcyclist, he resides on an old chicken ranch in the hills of Sonoma with his wife, daughter and an assortment of animals.

FRED & NANCY CLINE

Proprietors

When Fred was a young boy, he spent summers visiting his grandparents, who lived on a farm in Oakley, California. It was there that Cline learned both the love of agricultural life and the mysteries of vinifying grapes into wine, a love that would later allow him to obtain a degree in agriculture science and management from the University of California-Davis.

In 1982, with an inheritance from his grandfather, he founded Cline Cellars near Oakley, California and in 1991, the winery was relocated to the Carneros region of Sonoma, Calif. In 1994 the first Jacuzzi Family Vineyards wine was produced. Cline built the 18,000-square-foot winery across the street to Cline Cellars on Arnold Drive in Sonoma-Carneros and opened its doors in 2007.

Fred's innovation and experimentation has produced distinctive and rich wines for which he has garnered enormous acclaim.

Fred and Nancy reside in the town of Sonoma with their seven children.

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