Antonio Galloni

Founder, Vinous

Antonio Galloni is the founder and CEO of Vinous, one of the world's most influential wine publications, for which he is also the lead critic covering the wines of Bordeaux, California, Italy and Champagne. Since founding Vinous in 2013, Galloni led Vinous' acquisitions of Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar and Delectable, which made the company unique in the wine industry in its ability to offer both professional reviews from the world's top critics and the perspectives from hundreds of thousands of wine consumers. Galloni also leads Vinous' pioneering efforts to map the vineyards of California with renowned cartographer Alessandro Masnaghetti. Prior to Vinous, Antonio was the lead critic of Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate, which he joined having established himself as an influential wine writer through Piedmont Report, the first in-depth, English language journal solely focused on Italian wine. Galloni has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and is a Berklee trained musician. When not tasting wines or leading his business, Galloni can be found shredding a guitar or keeping fit.

Trevor Durling

General Manager and Chief Winemaker, Beaulieu Vineyards

Trevor grew up in Sonoma County, at the heart of Northern California’s wine country, where wine was a staple at his family dinner table.
Following high school, Trevor became an officer in the US Air Force, as his grandfather, a 37-year air force veteran, had done. After a brief time as an undergraduate at Davis, however, he enrolled in an introduction to winemaking class and was immediately enamored. Trevor realized that winemaking united his love of agriculture, science and cuisine, and transferred to the UC Viticulture and Enology program. After a harvest internship at the Russian River Valley’s Sonoma-Cutrer winery in 2003, Trevor worked two consecutive seasons for Gloria Ferrer winery’s sparkling wine harvests. In late 2005, Trevor joined Moon Mountain Vineyard, a small, well-regarded organic vineyard in Sonoma Valley. “Moon Mountain was a great place to start my career,” he says. “I got to work on exceptional, small-lot wines made primarily from Bordeaux-style grapes grown in mountain terroir.”

In March of 2010, Trevor joined Provenance Vineyards and Hewitt Vineyard as assistant winemaker, where his first contributions were integral to Hewitt Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 earning Wine Spectator’s 2013 #4 Wine of the Year. In early 2015, Trevor succeeded founding winemaker Tom Rinaldi and previous winemaker Chris Cooney in his appointment to lead winemaker. Trevor worked hand-in-hand with Tom and Chris, crafting highly regarded wines that continued a rich winemaking legacy until June 2017, when he took the mantel of chief winemaker at Beaulieu Vineyard.

At Beaulieu Vineyard, Trevor presides as only the fifth chief winemaker in the winery’s 117-year history, following esteemed previous chief
winemaker Jeffrey Stambor. Respectful of and humbled by BV’s storied history, Trevor joins the winemaking team keenly aware of his role
shaping the winery’s future. “Early in my winemaking career, I recall trying the 1968 Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon with a family friend,” he notes, “it not only left an indelible impression on me, but it shaped the path of my career and the wines I wanted to create. I’m honored to begin this new role at Beaulieu at such an exciting and pivotal time—entering a new chapter of growth and relevance in today’s market and culture—while preserving BV’s rich heritage and legacy.”

Chris Phelps

Winemaker, Inglenook

Born into a wine-loving family, Chris Phelps completed a degree in enology at UC Davis prior to studying viticulture and enology at the University of Bordeaux. He was selected by his future mentors, Christian Moueix and enologist Jean-Claude Berrouet, of Château Pétrus and Ets. Jean-Pierre Moueix, to direct winemaking at Château des Laurets in Puisseguin-St. Emilion for the 1982 harvest. This led to extensive training at Château Pétrus and other Moueix properties on the Right Bank, and then to 12 years as founding winemaker at Dominus Estate, the Napa Valley property owned by Moueix. After Dominus, Chris served in as winemaker at Caymus Vineyards, prior to joining Swanson Vineyards, where he directed production until 2015. Chris likes to make “New World wines with an Old World sensibility,” blending experience and intuition with appropriate technology. He is passionate about bringing elegance and balance to the wines with which he is privileged to work. Chris has been producing his own Napa Cabernet Sauvignon under the Ad Vivum label since 2007. In addition to serving as Associate Winemaker for Inglenook Winery in Rutherford, he continues to consult for several other brands in Napa Valley and the Pacific Northwest. Chris and his wife, Maria, live in St. Helena, Napa Valley, where they raised their four children.

Kristy Melton

Winemaker, Freemark Abbey

Kristy Melton has more than a decade of experience crafting wines with structure, finesse, and age-worthiness. Before joining Freemark Abbey, Kristy held winemaking roles at several Napa Valley and Sonoma County wineries including Clos Du Val, Bootleg, Kendall-Jackson, Saintsbury, and others. In her role as Director of Winemaking at Napa Valley’s iconic Clos Du Val, her exceptional ability to craft modern wines of balance and elegance was widely credited for the winery’s reemergence as a leader in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon production.

An El Paso, Texas native, Kristy graduated with a BS in Biology and Animal Science from Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. Following a passion for science, she began her career as a research scientist at the prestigious National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. To afford living in the metropolitan area, she supplemented her wages by bartending and working at a winery in Maryland. This brought her into contact with food and wine aficionados and piqued her interest in both. A family trip to Napa Valley brought the realization of the science that underlies winemaking and inspired her to shift her focus towards wine. She enrolled at the University of California at Davis where she earned a Masters in Viticulture and Enology in 2007.

Honored to be named among Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s "Top 40 under 40 Tastemakers" as well as Drinks Business’ "Top 30 under 40 Winemakers to Watch," Kristy leverages her meticulous attention to detail to craft wines of structure, finesse and balance.

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