Elleary Wine was founded by Palo Alto residents, Shawn Karimi and his wife Vivien Wang Karimi with their first vintage produced in 2016. Shawn immigrated to the U.S. at age 16 from his hometown of Abadan, Iran located next to the Iraqi border. His career began as a chiropractor; he has long since been retired from that field and since 2002 operates, … [Read more...]

Kubani Wines was founded by Rajeev B. Parikh with the brand's first vintage in 2022. Kubani is an homage to family; with the word created as a portmanteau from his children's names, Shibani and Kunal. Rajeev's wife once asked him, “You are such an active person — how are you going to handle retirement?” Half jokingly, he suggested opening a wine bar. At … [Read more...]

Missimer Wine. Juggling four kids equates to a full time job for Sinead and Travis Bullard, and Travis also has a full time winemaking job. Yet, both found the time to launch their own brand in 2025, a realized dream of nearly 20 years, launched simply because it needed to be done. And their ambition to do so, came from a good place, rooted in heritage. In … [Read more...]

Sown Estate was founded by Alexis Whitesides-Greenhalgh, along with her husband, Andrew Greenhalgh, and her brother Bryan Whitesides. The Whitesides family has held the estate since 2018, and they produced their inaugural vintage in 2023. Both Alexis and Andrew are from Sacramento; Andrew is an art major from UC Berkeley, while Alexis is a graduate of Loyola … [Read more...]

Scarecrow was founded in 2003 (inaugural vintage) by artists Bret Lopez and Mimi DeBlasio. But the story begins with Judge Joseph Cohn, Bret's grandfather. Cohn was born in Harlem in 1895; his family was very poor. Lopez remembers visiting his grandparents at their home for dinner and wondering why his grandfather always had two loaves of bread in the … [Read more...]

Aubert Wines was founded by Mark and Teresa Aubert with the first vintage in 2000 focusing exclusively on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The first single vineyard wine bottled under Aubert was a 2000 Chardonnay from the now iconic Ritchie Vineyard in Sonoma County. While not the first to vineyard designate a Chardonnay from this vineyard, (that honor goes to … [Read more...]

Screaming Eagle Screaming Eagle is arguably the most influential cult wine ever produced in California. Emerging from a vineyard in Oakville in the early 1990s, it transformed the economics of luxury Napa Valley wine through a combination of extraordinary critical acclaim, limited production, and unprecedented demand. Founder of Screaming Eagle, Arlie … [Read more...]

Kongsgaard Wine - A cave shrouded in silence is perhaps the ultimate studious environment to work within an underground winery. A cave with classical music playing quickly changes the atmosphere and ties the science of winemaking into the art of winemaking. Judging by John Kongsgaard's large collection of CDs in the wine cave - his work here is seldom done … [Read more...]