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.
Alex is a Virginia-licensed and nationally certified professional soil scientist, a licensed Alternative Onsite Soil Evaluator (AOSE) and certified combined administrator in Virginia. He is a charter member and past president of the Virginia Association of Professional Soil Scientists. He worked for VA Tech on the National Cooperative Soil Survey program mapping soils extensively in five of the eastern physiographic provinces. During his tenure in Loudoun County Alex was in charge of interpreting soils for multiple uses related to planned development and agriculture for the county. He subsequently managed all the environmental programs for the county.
Soils are highly variable. Even within very short distances they can – and do – affect how vines grow and are managed. For the last 20 years Alex has worked with vineyard owners, other vineyard consultants, and both the Virginia Tech and Penn State cooperative extension services to assist in establishing vineyards in the best locations, landforms, and soils to ensure their success. Planting vineyard rows up and down the hills on steep slopes and the use of cover crops under the vines to control both growth and erosion are vineyard practices that he promoted.
Consultant and Principal
A winery designer, winemaker and grapegrower for over 30 years, Howard’s wines have received more than 500 medals in national and international competitions. He has contributed to winery designs on three continents. His last two design projects were in New Hampshire and Mexico. Past President of the New England Wine Council, former member of the USDA Advisory Council for the Northern Grapes Project, cooperating winemaker with Cornell University’s Enology program, and serving member of the ASEV Scholarship Committee, he can be reached at his consulting website www.wineryplan.com.
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.
Associate Professor of Viticulture
Michela received her BSc and PhD in horticulture at the University of Bologna, Italy, and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell University. At Penn State, Michela works with a multidisciplinary research and extension team and the Pennsylvania grape and wine industry to solve vineyard management issues and optimize crop production practices. Her program investigates the effects of environmental factors, cultural practices, and biotic stressors, such as the spotted lanternfly, on grapevine physiology, production, and fruit and wine quality.
There are no limits to the ways Kris can help you promote your winery/business online, but at the very core it should be a great-looking and well-optimized website. Kris works closely with his clients to develop an online presence that is not only suitable for their individual needs, but also delivers measurable results.
Kris is a Certified Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers and a Certified Specialist of Wine with the Society of Wine Educators. His work involves website/mobile website design, eCommerce, online strategy, content creation and social media planning and development for businesses in all niches. His beverage client list includes wineries, distributors and wine brands producing from 500 to close to one million cases annually.
Associate Professor & Extension Viticulture Specialist
Imed is a professor in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science and state viticulture specialist at The Ohio State University with research and extension responsibilities in viticulture. His research interests include cold hardiness of grapevines and developing methods of cold protection; improving fruit and wine quality using cultural practices; and germplasm evaluation and matching varieties with climates and sites. He participated in research assignments and educational tours in Canada, Chile, China, Italy, Tunisia, and the U.S. (CA), and has been invited to speak nationally and internationally in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, France, Italy, New Zealand, and Tunisia. Imed was the editor and lead-author of an Extension book titled Midwest Grape Production Guide, authored Spring Frost Injury of Grapevines and Protection Methods and co-authored Winter Injury to Grapevines and Methods of Protection, and co-produced two educational videos titled Grapevine Canopy Management and Grapevine Nutrient Management: Petiole Sampling and Analysis. All were awarded best extension publications by the American Society of Horticultural. Imed served as Chair of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture-Eastern Section (ASEV-ES), Board Director in ASEV-E, and as academic advisor to Ohio grape and wine industry organizations for the past 19 years. To learn more about the viticulture program at OSU, visit Buckeye Appellation at https://ohiograpeweb.cfaes.ohio-state.edu/.
Winemaker
Matthieu was born in Crozes Hermitage in the Rhone Valley of France. Coming from a family of viticulturists and wine lovers, Matthieu was predisposed to continue his family’s pursuit of making and enjoying wine. He first studied viticulture and oenology at Beaune, in the heart of Burgundy. After graduating in 1995, Matthieu worked in many different wine regions around France including Rhone Valley, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Provence, and Jura. He then worked in Italy and South Africa to gain experience around the world before settling in Virginia. Since arriving in 2003, Matthieu has worked with wineries throughout the state and, more recently, is a founding member of the Winemakers’ Research Exchange and Board Member of the Monticello Wine Trail. He enjoys being active in the local winemaking community and challenging his skills through experimental design at King Family, working with different terroir at Turk Mountain Vineyards, which he currently manages, and partnering with his brother to establish and expand Domaine Finot in two regions in France.
Professor and Specialist in Viticulture & Small Fruit
Joseph has over 30 years of academic and industry experience in research and extension in viticulture, small fruit culture, and enology. He is currently a professor and specialist in Viticulture and Small Fruit for the University of Maryland. He coordinates a statewide R&E program, concentrating on grape variety testing, as well as conducting small batch winemaking studies of the experiments. He also has been awarded 12 patents for small fruit variety development and has extensive experience fermenting berry and fruit wines.
Winemaker
Jerry, together with wife Kathy, and sons Jon, Kevin and Chris founded, own, and operate Buckingham Valley Vineyards, a forty-acre, 18,000 case Pennsylvania vineyard and winery. Founded in 1966, they are celebrating fifty years in the business. Buckingham Valley is unique in that the entire production is sold direct to the consumer. Jerry is unique in that after fifty years he still loves what he is doing. In 2017 Jerry and Kathy were awarded the Eastern Winery Exposition Lifetime Achievement Award.
