Optima Winery - For Mike Duffy, owning a winery was the culmination of a labor of love and a dream fulfilled. Mike majored in enology at UC Davis, the Princeton of winemaking. In 1980, during his last year at Davis Mike landed an internship at Trefethen Winery in the Napa Valley, where he worked during an annual crush. He was soon offered a job as their Assistant Winemaker, and so moved by his enthusiasm, he decided to accelerate his education to finish his last year into two quarters. In 1983, Mike moved to Sonoma County to continue his pursuit of one day owning a winery. After several offers, he accepted the head winemaker position at Field Stone. There he worked alongside Andre’ Tchelistcheff, America’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker. He stayed at Field Stone for nine years while crafting a Cabernet Sauvignon for his newly launched Optima label. By 1997, Optima received high praise and had become self-supporting growing from 400 cases to 4,000, enabling Mike to devote all his attention to his life-long dream. This year will mark Mike’s 37th year making wine. His approach is simple, making wine that combines art and practicality. He loves the honesty and hard work of agriculture and to him, winemaking is the ultimate fusion of agriculture and art. Goldschmidt Vineyards - is a vehicle by which Nick and Yolyn present their innovative way of wine making and wine presentation. There are two brands under their portfolio – the prestigious Goldschmidt Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon label, and the international Forefathers label. The Goldschmidt Vineyard label is a program designed to showcase single vineyard source wines from both the Alexander Valley and Napa Valley Oakville appellations. The goal is create wines that highlight the distinct characters, benefits and attributes derived from these site specific harvests. Joined periodically in the field by their five children, the Goldschmidt expertise is being passed down to the next generation, as evidenced in the wines released under the labels Chelsea Goldschmidt, Hilary Goldschmidt and Katherine Goldschmidt.