Paris-Gritz

I grew up in Maryland, where the best moments always happened around the table: long dinners, good food and the people you love. Food has been at the center of my life for as long as I can remember. As a kid I helped manage a local farm stand, delivering produce there before school and working with farmers who grew only organic produce. That was my first lesson in where good food really begins.

After high school I followed the coast west. My sister was working for Chef Lee at Spago, and she was a big influence in my choice to pursue a life in food and wine. Both of my grandfathers loved wine, one of them was in the wine industry, and I had family tending vines in Napa. My heart was set. I started at the bottom with winery internships, learning the work from the ground up.

After my internships I met Seth Cripe of Lola Wines, my first mentor. Seth loved wine, food, people and the land with his whole heart, and he made wines from grapes no one else in Napa dared to grow. He took me in like family and placed an old-vine Zinfandel vineyard in my hands, the first vines I ever cared for as my own. He taught me that when you have a dream, you chase it.

Since then I’ve spent my days in the vineyards and cellars of some of California’s most storied wineries, including Spring Mountain Vineyard, Davis Estates and Star Lane Vineyard, as a cellar hand, viticulturist and cellar master. While working at a winery I wanted to go deeper, so I went back to school to study viticulture and enology at UC Davis. Along the way I also built my own vineyard consulting company, growing it from half an acre to the 30 acres I care for today. I still work as cellar master for Roblar and Refugio Vineyards, building Paris-Gritz alongside it.

In 2024, I finally made wine from grapes I farmed purely for myself: the first Paris-Gritz vintage. The name joins my mother’s family, Paris, with my father’s, Gritz. It’s a promise of commitment, love and hard work, for the generations still to come.