2020 EWE Meet the Experts |

Tiffany Aldridge

Williams Compliance and Consulting Group, LLC

Compliance Specialist

Tiffany has more than 20 years of experience in the alcoholic beverage industry. While finishing her BS in Forestry and Wildlife at Virginia Tech she began working with Chateau Morrisette, a large Virginia winery, and it was there her passion for the industry was ignited. What was initially intended to be a short-term position grew into 16 years of work in roles that expanded to more than half a decade as Vice President of Operations. TTB and state compliance responsibilities in this role prepared her for a transition to her current position with Williams Compliance, a full service alcoholic beverage compliance consulting group, where she has assisted beverage clients for the past six years. Tiffany specializes in TTB permits, COLAs, and Formulas, as well as state licenses for both the manufacturing and wholesale/import sectors.

Peter Bell

Winery Consultant

Peter, a Canadian native, was the winemaker at Fox Run Vineyards from 1995-2022. He holds degrees in Enology from Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, Australia and in Anthropology from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. He worked as a winemaker in Australia and New Zealand before landing in the Finger Lakes region of New York in 1990 to be head winemaker at Dr. Frank’s. He was also an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University and lectured to wine industry professionals throughout the world.

Peter is also a member of the EWE Program Advisory Board. He retired from full-time winemaking in 2022 and is active as a consultant to wineries in the eastern U.S.

Tim Benedict

Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards, Hazlitt Red Cat Cellars, East Coast Crush & Co-Pack

Consultant Winemaker

Tim is a native of the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York who grew up around his grandfather’s vineyards. His early formal training was in the field of music but other than an inspired period as a traveling musician, he brought the creative sensibilities of a musician to the craft of winemaking. Tim has 30+ years experience in the grape and wine industry. Throughout his career, he has crafted many award-winning wines from vinifera, hybrid, and native varieties, specializing in dessert wines like port, sherry, late harvest and ice wines. In recent years he has expanded his portfolio to include formula wines, hard cider, and wine spritzers. Tim is an experienced project and production manager and has judged wines in several international competitions.

J. Stephen Casscles, Esq

Winemaker, Dear Native Grapes Winery; Owner, Cedar Cliff Vineyards

Stephen comes from an old Hudson River Valley fruit growing family and worked at Benmarl Vineyards in Marlboro, NY from 1973 to 1986 where he worked with French-American grape varieties. Stephen has had a long career as an attorney for the NY State Senate and the NY State Department of Health. Stephen wrote 27 laws related to the production, distribution, and sale of wine, spirits, beer, and cider, in addition to laws related to his legal specialty of insurance, health care financing, municipal finance, and racing law.
In 1990, Stephen established Cedar Cliff Vineyards and Nursery in Athens NY where he evaluates 19th century Hudson Valley and Boston’s North Shore heritage grape varieties and other cool climate grapes. Stephen was a winemaker at Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, New York, from 2007 to 2020, where he made wines from French-American & heritage hybrid grape varieties. From 2021 to 2023, he was appointed director/winemaker of Milea Estate Vineyard’s Hudson Valley Heritage Grape Project. He now works at Dear Native Grapes Winery, in Walton, NY.
In 2015, Casscles wrote Grapes of the Hudson Valley and Other Cool Climate Regions of the US and Canada, which is now in its 2nd Edition (2023) with 2 new chapters on grapes bred in New England. He is associated with 3 small nurseries that propagate rare nineteenth-century heritage and other cool climate grape varieties. He is an award-winning winemaker who has been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, New York Post, Wine Enthusiast, Forbes Magazine, Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book (2021), the Albany Times-Union, and the Hartford Courant.
Stephen lecturers on wine, grape cultivation, and nineteenth-century American horticulture throughout the East Coast. In addition to his full-length works on grape varieties, grape cultivation, and 19th-century horticulture, he is a contributor to academic and trade journals for UMass Amherst, the New Jersey Horticultural Society, and Arnold Arboretum (Harvard). He also advises and lectures at the Fermentation Sciences Program at SUNY at Cobleskill and has a working relationship with many in the Korean wine industry. His new book, The Grapes of Chungcheongbuk-do, Korea, should be in print by early 2024.

Steve DiFrancesco

Winemaking Consultant

Steve became fascinated with wine while working in a restaurant during college and became the wine specialist there. He graduated with a BS in Plant Science from Stetson University, entered the wine business in the Finger Lakes of New York, and has since enjoyed 42 harvests there (plus one in Chile).

Steve worked with Guy DeVaux and Charles Fournier at Gold Seal Vineyards (owned by Seagram’s), with their excellent sparkling wines, from the late ‘70’s to the mid ‘80’s. He then worked with high quality red hybrids at Bully Hill Vineyards, and became an assistant winemaker at Glenora Wine Cellars in the late ‘80’s. He became winemaker at Lucas Vineyards in the early ‘90’s and helped expand production in high quality sparkling and still wines.

Steve returned to Glenora in 1995 and has helped expand its reputation and production. In 2000, the owners of Glenora purchased Knapp Winery, and Steve was responsible for production at both wineries. Riesling is at the forefront of a broad production line, including sparkling wines, red and white viniferas, as well as hybrids and natives.

During Steve’s career he has been involved in scale-ups, scale-backs, acquisitions, start-ups, and shutdowns. His wines have won over 450 gold medals in regional, national, and international competitions. He has made over 40 professional presentations in the Northeast and Midwest.

He has judged in wine competitions from California to New York to Virginia. In 2022, Steve was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Eastern Winery Exposition. He is also a board member for the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association. Steve retired during the summer of 2021, and is now available as a winemaking consultant.

Contact: steve.difrancesco@gmail.com | P: 315-719-2113

Tiffany Farrell

Haak Vineyards and Winery

Winemaker & Outside Sales Manager

Tiffany stands among the “Young Turks of Texas Wine”. Inspired by passion, she has acquired over nine years of well-rounded production experience working in AVAs of California including the Russian River Valley and Mendocino, as well as Snake River Valley in Idaho. She returned home to the great state of Texas to work with her Haak team producing wines of distinction in Galveston County. She earned a BS in Microbiology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 2004 and MS in Hydrologic Sciences at Boise State University in 2016. She is currently working to obtain her winemaking certificate from Texas Tech University.

Barry H. Gump, PhD

School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Florida International University

Harvey R. Chaplin Eminent Scholar in Beverage Management

Barry is the first holder of the Harvey R. Chaplin Eminent Scholar’s Chair in Beverage Management at Florida International University’s Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. In this position he has developed new graduate and undergraduate beverage classes to expand the offerings of the Beverage Management curriculum. Barry is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and Emeritus Adjunct Professor of Enology at California State University, Fresno. He has had a long association –over forty years– with the wine industry, conducting research in analytical methodology applied to grapes, juices, and wines.

E09 | Advanced Lab Analysis

Lee Hartman

Bluestone Vineyard

Grape Grower & Winemaker

Lee has worked in the Virginia Wine industry as a grape grower and winemaker for his family’s farm, Bluestone Vineyard for the last 15 years. Formerly the president of the Virginia Wine Council, he has always taken interest in the industry beyond his own vineyard, and is currently vice president of the Shenandoah Valley Winegrowers Association. As a way of expanding the industry beyond his family’s farm, he also helps neighbors with vineyard management and custom crush programs. His 2019 Petit Manseng was his third wine to be included in the Governor’s Case, the top 12 wines in Virginia’s Governor’s Cup competition.

Michael Kaiser

WineAmerica

Executive VP & Director of Government Affairs

Michael is the main voice of WineAmerica on Capitol Hill, taking WineAmerica’s message to Members of Congress and their staff.

Michael is also the main point of contact between the organization and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and handles general regulatory concerns for WineAmerica members. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Free the Grapes. Michael is a regular fixture at industry trade shows and conferences throughout the country. He has been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, USA Today, Wine Business, and Wine Spectator.

Prior to joining WineAmerica, Michael provided research and logistical support to two DC-based lobbying firms. He also handled compliance issues with a major political party. Michael earned his BA in American Studies and Political Science from Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ, and MA in Political Science from American University in Washington, DC.

Roger Kissling

Iron Heart Canning Company

VP, Sales and Client Management

Roger is the Vice President of Sales and Client Management for Iron Heart Canning Company which offers industry leading quality mobile canning services to all segments of the beverage industry. Previously, he worked in supply and sales for eight years in various positions with Gallo Wines and Terlato Wines International. Roger began his career in the wine industry working as vineyard manager and assistant winemaker for 5 years at a boutique East Coast producer, Alba Vineyard. Accreditations include CS, CSW, CSS.

Michael Mitchell

Cape May Winery

Head Winemaker

Michael recently took over as head winemaker at Cape May Winery after 11 years of studying under his predecessor and mentor. Oddly enough, he fell into the industry after working on the construction of a deck bar overlooking the vineyard on the winery property. Michael enjoyed the scenery and began working in the vineyards after the completion of the deck. It did not take long for him to realize that he had found his calling in the wine industry. After 5 years in the vineyard, Michael began an apprenticeship under the winemaker and became focused on production and cellar operations. Thanks to everything he learned during this period, Michael was named head winemaker at Cape May Winery in August of 2019. His goal is to continue the strong name that the winery has built for itself and to bring it to new heights. He has been assembling a young and passionate production team who, together, are out to prove that world class wines can be made in New Jersey.

Tom Payette

Winemaker & Winemaking Consultant

Tom is a hands-on, analytical, East Coast pioneering, winemaking professional with a Food Science Degree. His extended expertise focuses on winemaking, winery and vineyard start-ups and expansions, still and sparkling wine and general winery issues. Tom has over three decades of well-rounded experience in still and sparkling wine production in Virginia along with nine years in ultra-premium Bordeaux varietal wine production in Napa, CA. Tom studied under famed Bordeaux enologist Jacques Boissenot. He was awarded Winemaker of the Year in 1999 by Vineyard & Winery Management and most recently named a “Wine Industry Leader of the Year” by Wine Business Monthly. Visit winemakingconsultant.com to learn more about Tom.

Christopher Pearmund

Effingham Manor Winery

Managing Partner, Pearmund Cellars & Vint Hill Craft Winery

Owner & Winemaker

Chris has been in the wine industry of Virginia since the mid-1980s, starting as wine steward and manager for northern Virginia restaurants, to working in wineries in the 1990s. He helped start and manage the first winery mobile bottle line on the East Coast in 1991. He has been a wine buyer and store manager for Total Beverage and managed the wine training classes for their stores. This extensive experience provided Chris with a solid foundation for his role as a consultant for The Country Vintner, a fine wine distributor until opening his own winery in 2002.

Chris was president of the Virginia Vineyards Association, first chairman of the Virginia Wine and Food Society, and board member of the Virginia Wineries Association. He is a certified wine judge of the American Wine Society, has organized and taught wine appreciation courses for both amateurs and professionals for decades, including for WSET since 1997.

Chris regularly travels throughout the world’s wine regions, is managing partner of three wineries and lives amongst 15 acres of Virginia’s oldest vines.

Dennis Rak

Double A Vineyards

Owner

Dennis operates a 1000 acre farm; 325 acres of Concords and 7.1 acres of Niagara, all of which are under contract to National Grape-Welch’s. Double A Vineyards also runs approximately 70 acres of wine and table grapes as well as growing grapevine and other nursery stock that is marketed across the U.S. Double A Vineyards has planted 25 acres of 2010 Protocol nursery increase material that includes over 150 variety, clone and rootstock offerings.

Andrew Reynolds, PhD

Consultant

Andy is a viticulture consultant in the Niagara Region of Ontario. His activities include writing, editing, reviewing manuscripts, grant writing for businesses, and vineyard consulting. Prior to this he was: Professor of Viticulture, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, 1997-2020, and Research Scientist, viticulture & enology, Agriculture Canada Research Station, Summerland, BC (1983-1997). Andy’s education includes: BSc (Agr.), horticulture (1978), Univ. of Guelph; MSc, plant breeding & genetics (1980), Univ. of Guelph; PhD (1983), Cornell Univ., horticulture and plant physiology; thesis: grapevine canopy microclimate in relation to wine quality.

Andy has been conducting research in grapes and wines since his MSc studies in 1978. Major research interests include precision viticulture and use of geomatic technologies and remote sensing for studying the terroir effect; wine aroma chemistry; irrigation and water relations; cultural practices, site, and soil and their impact upon wine flavor; canopy management. His publications: more than 150 in refereed journals and symposium proceedings, as well as two books, and several articles and one book still in progress. Awards: OIV Award for Best Book in Oenology (Managing Wine Quality; 2011); Decanter Award (Grapevine Breeding Programs for the Wine Industry; 2015); ASEV/ES Outstanding Achievement Award (2010); Brock University Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching (2009). Andy has been very active in the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) including Associate Editor since 1995. ASEV/ES activities include: Director 1997-99, 2002-06; Chair 2000-02; Section Rep. 2006-2020. Andy is a frequent speaker at conferences internationally, or at least was, prior to COVID.

V03 | Precision Viticulture II

Justin Rose

Rosemont Vineyards

Head Winemaker

After receiving his degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia, Justin studied viticulture and oenology at Napa Valley College, while interning at O’Shaughnessy Winery and Capiaux Cellars. In 2007 he returned to Virginia to help oversee the final construction of Rosemont Vineyards, his family’s 27 acre vineyard and winery, located in LaCrosse, and is now responsible for their 6,000 annual case production of estate grown fruit. For the past four years he also served as president of the Virginia Wineries Association. When he gets some free time, Justin enjoys golfing, coaching soccer, and enjoying time with family and friends over a good glass of wine.

Craig Ross

TrueCommerce Nexternal

VP of Sales

Craig has been with Nexternal for 20 years and has significant expertise in eCommerce and knowledge of the industry. His primary focus is to help wine brands convert more of their shoppers into customers, help them drive traffic to their online stores, and to run their online operations and wine clubs with maximum efficiency. If you are looking to expand your business into eCommerce, or your current online operations do not perform as they should, Craig is an excellent resource.

Scott Scarfone, PLA, ASLA

Kimley-Horn

Professional Landscape Architect

Scott serves as a practice leader with Kimley-Horn – a national planning, design, and engineering firm with 90 offices nationally. He is a registered landscape architect in nine states and a certified professional horticulturist. In practice for 28 years, Scott has a broad range of experience ranging from large-scale planning and urban design to development of site-specific landscape design solutions. His clients have included wineries, botanical gardens, parks, academic and healthcare institutions, corporations, and cities and municipalities. Scott writes and teaches prolifically on various aspects of landscape architecture and related topics and wrote an award-winning book, Professional Planting Design: An Architectural and Horticultural Approach for Creating Mixed Bed Plantings.

Vijay Singh, PhD

Sky Acres Winery

Biotech Scientist & Owner

With a PhD in Biochemical Engineering, Vijay spent most of his career developing processes to manufacture pharmaceuticals using fermentation. In 1996 he developed a novel way of culturing cells in disposable bags and founded the company Wave Biotech to manufacture and market this device known as the Wave Bioreactor. In 2013 he discovered winemaking, and took the UC Davis courses, but wanted to apply his chemical engineering and disposable technology background to winemaking. This resulted in a novel device that makes winemaking easy, requires almost no water, minimal labor and little investment. In 2014 he set up a commercial winery, Sky Acres Winery, to test and develop the winemaking machine now named the GOfermentor. The winery has won numerous awards over the last three years. In 2017 the commercial manufacture and sale of the GOfermentor began and in 2019 a home/microvinification version was introduced. Vijay has over 20 patents in diverse fields ranging from winemaking, biotechnology, gunsights, hydroponics and mixing.

E06 | Cap Management Options & Alternatives

Samuel Weiner

WineryConnect

Founder and CTO

Sam has over 25 years of experience in software, with a particular focus on Enterprise Architecture and Enterprise Application Integration. He helps businesses use technology to address immediate business challenges, positions them to drive towards their long-term business objectives, and works to minimize both up-front costs and total cost of ownership by selecting and integrating best-of-breed technology partners. Since 2013, Sam and WineryConnect have worked with wineries, breweries, cideries, and distilleries to develop broad “virtual IT department” solutions for beverage producers.

M01 | Master Data Management

Ron Wates

Boordy Vineyards

Vineyard Manager

Ron graduated from NC State in 1993 with a degree in Horticulture and worked in landscape design for 6 years. In 1999 he started managing vineyards. Since 2006 he has worked as the vineyard manager for Boordy Vineyards located in Hydes, MD. He continually works with growers in the Mid-Atlantic region to improve wine quality. Boordy’s philosophy is that “a high tide raises all boats” and they like to share their long-term experiences with other growers. Ron enjoys sharing with others not only on how to avoid making mistakes of the past, but his successes as well. He has experience growing 20 different varieties of grapes, five trellis/training styles, and many different types of soils in three distinct geographic regions in Maryland.

Peter Weber

Cork Quality Council

Executive Director

The Cork Quality Council is a non-profit organization comprised of leading U.S. cork suppliers. The Council was formed to develop industry standards for quality assurance practices and to provide an educational resource for natural cork. The CQC currently receives testing data from over 30,000 samples per year drawn from its members’ incoming cork shipments.In addition to working with the CQC Peter operates Deerfield Associates, a northern California consulting business focused on wine marketing. Peter transitioned to the wine business from mycological research in the commercial mushroom industry of neighboring Chester County. Winery experiences included management positions with Windsor, Rodney Strong and Lockwood Vineyards.

2020 Meet the Experts

TUESDAY, MARCH 10

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11

THURSDAY, MARCH 12