Joe moved from Southern California to Sonoma County in 1995.  He completed his degrees in business and history at Sonoma State University.  While he was a student, he worked part time at Ravenswood Winery and fell in love with the wine industry.  While it was a difficult decision to give up a career in the profession he had studied, his passion for wine caused him to change course and to try to make a living making wine.

Soon he was working under Chris Loxton, who had become a close friend and mentor, at Wellington Vineyards.  Over the next four years Joe and Chris were a two man winemaking team.  Chris took personal interest in Joe’s development and encouraged Joe’s aspirations to make wine under his own label.

Working first at Ravenswood and, later, with Loxton, Joe learned very different winemaking styles.  At Ravenswood, the winemaking style was very flexible with a great deal of variation in the process.  Loxton taught Joe to tightly control every stage of fermentation.  While native yeast ferments and non-traditional winemaking practices brought an exciting character to the wine, he learned the value of consistent flavor profiles that came from a very controlled process. Today he tries to exploit the unique characteristics of high quality grapes while working to maintain a consistent flavor profile year after year.

In 2001 Joe had an opportunity to procure some outstanding Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley.  He had for the last three years been looking for superior grapes; not wanting to start a wine label with just what was available, but patiently waiting for an outstanding fruit source to become available.  This was much more difficult than he originally thought it would be.  Joe was only 26 at the time and not many of the high quality vineyards wanted to take a chance selling their grapes to a “kid”.  Fortunately when a young vineyard outside the town of Forestville in the heart of the Russian River was sold, the vineyard manager got Joe in contact with the new owner, John Tracy.

After their first meeting John was so impressed with Joe’s passion that he asked if Joe was looking for a business partner.  After a few more meetings Willowbrook Cellars was formed with Joe as winemaker and John Tracy as president.  The following year John confessed to Joe that he also had a passion for big Napa-style Cabernet Sauvignon and in 2002 Owl Ridge Wines was started to make big Sonoma County Cabernets.  Joe became the winemaker and remains so today.  At Owl Ridge Wines, Joe’s mantra is “Big, yes – but balanced.”

Over the years Willowbrook and Owl Ridge have expanded and, recently, has achieved name recognition and many accolades so it is nice to point out that the “kid” does now get respect from many high profile vineyard owners.  Joe is constantly approached by some of the best known vineyards in the area to see if he would be interested in their grapes.  How times have changed over the last couple of years.