Loving Wine, wanting to live in the countryside, and having a college degree in biochemistry made me a perfect candidate for my first winery job. I began my career, although I didn¹t realize it then, as a harvest or ³crush² worker at Simi Winery in 1980. That brief, two month experience and the people with whom I worked encouraged me to formally study the science of wine making. A year later I was enrolled as an enology graduate student at the University of California in Davis. By 1983, I¹d completed the course work and my research project, and landed my first job as an enologist. While working, I completed my thesis and was awarded a Master of Science degree in 1985.

My fascination with yeast led to my first job, assisting in the complex process of making sparkling wine at Wente Bros. in the Livermore Valley. Since the sparkling harvest is an early, quick one, I was also expected to help make all the other wines that were made by the Wente¹s: Rieslings in every style from dry to late harvest and ice wine; blush wines that were just becoming popular; and red and white table wines like Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Ugni Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Petit Sirah, and Merlot, to name a few! Experience with such a wide range of varietals and wine styles was to serve me well.

But I always wanted to return to the Healdsburg area of Western Sonoma County. In 1987 I became assistant winemaker at Clos du Bois, famous at the time for barrel fermenting its Chardonnay, selling more Merlot than any other winery in America, and making a Bordeaux-styled red wine called Marlstone. My wine making learning curve took another big jump. By 1990, I was THE winemaker, and took off for a decade of mostly very good vintages and incredible growth. By 1997, I was a vice-president and director of winemaking for a winery that was ten times larger than when I began working in 1987.

Plucky, iconoclastic little Clos du Bois had become just another series of spreadsheets in a large multinational ³drinks² corporation by the next decade. Nearing a 1.5 million annual case production and being screened financially every quarter finally took all the pleasure out of wine making. I retired in 2003; the corporation was sold and picked apart by two rivals in 2005.

And with optimism, I took my career in another direction. Requests for consulting came almost immediately. Then, some very nice Pinot Noir grapes came my way in the Fall of 2003. I made 100 cases of wine and launched my own brand, Davenport & Company, in August of 2005. I¹m continuing to make Russian River Pinot Noir but have also started a small vineyard on my own property, off Rockpile Road, in one of Sonoma County¹s newest and most distinctive mountain appellations.

Check out the blog, Wine Hubris, to read about my vineyard¹s progress, learn of my new releases, and what this winemaker thinks about current developments in the world of wine.