Premiere Napa Valley Special with James Suckling: 2018 - A New Benchmark for Neoclassicism and Harmony

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James Suckling

Founder, JamesSuckling.com

It all began in 1981 when James Suckling responded to an ad in the Los Angeles Times where the fledgling American magazine Wine Spectator was looking for an assistant editor. He was hired, and four years later, Suckling moved to Paris to establish Wine Spectator’s European bureau, which put him in the center of European wine production and cemented his relationships with a variety of vintners, as well as contributing to his expanding knowledge of wines throughout the continent. He still lives near Florence, Italy, part of the year, as well as in Hong Kong and Napa Valley.

In total, Suckling spent nearly 30 years as Senior Editor and European Bureau Chief of The Wine Spectator, and as European Editor of Cigar Aficionado. On his departure from the magazines, Forbes called the Los Angeles-born writer “one of the world’s most powerful wine critics.”

Shortly after in late 2010, Suckling launched JamesSuckling.com, a site that evolved from him seeing a need for wine to be communicated in a more modern way. The core of the site is made of of his tasting notes, and James and his team of critics rate everything with the 100-point scale. The site also offers subscribers high-definition video content from wineries around the world, with a focus on Italy, Bordeaux, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Napa Valley, Australia and New Zealand. The site attracts viewers from over 110 countries, with the largest audiences in North America, China, Brazil, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, and France.

Though most of his time is spent working for his own website, Suckling also promotes and creates pieces for Lalique, the famous French crystal manufacturer. His Lalique 100 points Collection by James Suckling features eight different glasses as well as three decanters and emphasizes “functionality and beauty.” His most popular glass in the line is the 100-points Universal Glass, which can be used for all wines: red, white or rosé. He has also designed a wine briefcase with the fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo that holds four Universal Glasses.

James is also a highly regarded public speaker. He was the featured wine expert for Wine Day in China with Tmall (Alibaba) on September 2017 and 2016, which attracted more than 100 million participants. He spoke in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in January 2018 as the keynote speaker on his experience with Chinese wine in front of 800 wine distributors and for the 40th anniversary of Great Wall winery.

He also is a highly respected instructor for Masterclass.com. His program on “Wine Appreciation” has attracted more than 20,000 subscribers while his trailer has more than 4 million views on YouTube.

In 2017, James received a knighthood from the Italian government – Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia – for his decades-long coverage of Italian Wines. He also received in January 2018 an honorary citizenship from the town of Montalcino for his almost four decades of writing about and rating Brunello di Montalcino.

Suckling is the father of two children, Jack and Isabel Suckling. As a British choirgirl, Isabel signed a record contract with Decca in 2010 at age 12, making her one of the youngest classical recording artists in the world. In 2012, she released a single on Robin Gibb’s classical album “Titanic Requiem,” and she has also performed at her father’s wine events. Jack, 25, is a part-time taster for JamesSuckling.com when he is not living in Bangkok. Suckling is married to Marie Kim-Suckling, a former Hong Kong-based wine merchant originally from Seoul who also works as vice president of JamesSuckling.com.

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Jae Chun

Principal, Dana Estates

Jae M. Chun serves as president of Dana Estates. With a background in both the agricultural and biochemical industries, Mr. Chun oversees a broad range of Dana Estates’ business operations, finance, strategy, and brand direction. Mr. Chun also was founding member of Nara Cellar one of the first and most luxury wine importer in Korea and involved with multiple international business entity. Mr. Chun received his Bachelor of Arts at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea and holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Jae Chun and his wife, Mrs. Jennie Lee live in St. Helena with their three children.

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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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Ashley Hepworth

Winemaker, Joseph Phelps Vineyards

Ashley Hepworth came to Joseph Phelps Vineyards in 1999 with a palate honed by working in restaurant kitchens, including the celebrated Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago. The experience also exposed Ashley to wine – she became friendly with Charlie Trotter’s sommeliers – and ultimately led her to apply for a harvest intern position at Joseph Phelps Vineyards. She got the job, and after working the harvest of 1999 she stayed on as a cellar worker, a “from the ground up experience” she says she wouldn’t trade for anything. From there Ashley went on to positions at the winery as a lab technician and enologist, and in 2004 she was named associate winemaker, overseeing all day-to-day winemaking operations.

In 2005 Ashley had the opportunity to expand her winemaking horizons when she took a “mini” sabbatical to work a harvest in Bordeaux at Chateau Angelus in St. Emilion. She earned a Winemaking Certificate from the Viticulture and Enology Department at the University of California at Davis in 2006, and in 2008 she was promoted to winemaker at Joseph Phelps Vineyards.

“I’ve been fortunate to work with some great winemakers at Joseph Phelps, and I’ve learned a lot from each one of them,” says Ashley, who credits the winery’s founder, Joe Phelps, with establishing the overall philosophical approach which guides the winery today. “He always pushed the winemaking team to explore, to do better. There was no limit. He always said ‘don’t stop at good, make it great.’ Even though he’s gone, we have a team that understands that really well.”

Ashley’s approach to winemaking at Joseph Phelps is deceptively simple: let the vineyards and the vintages speak for themselves. “Our estate vineyards give me such quality and purity of fruit,” she says. “There’s a consistency to our wines, but it’s not because of a recipe, it’s because the vineyards are so solid.” Still, Ashley is very much in favor of vintage expression. “We don’t want every vintage to taste the same.”

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Helen Keplinger

Winemaker, Kerr Cellars

Helen and Cristie have worked closely since 2013 to deﬁne Kerr Cellars’ vision of making the very best wines from the ﬁnest vineyards. Helen is one of the most acclaimed cult winemakers in California today. In 2012 she was named Winemaker of the Year by Food and Wine magazine. In 2014 Helen appeared on the cover of Wine Spectator magazine.

Helen earned a Masters in Enology from UC Davis in 2000 and became the assistant winemaker at Paradigm Winery after graduation, where she worked with winemaker Heidi Barrett. After heading to Australia to work a southern hemisphere harvest, Helen assisted Kathy Joseph at Santa Ynez Valley’s Fiddlehead Cellars, learning the art of crafting small-batch Pinot and Sauvignon Blanc. In 2004 she moved to Spain’s Priorat region to start a winery for a group of partners. When Helen returned to Napa in 2005 she worked with David Abreu and Heidi Barrett at Kenzo Estate.

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Dan Petroski

Winemaker, Larkmead Vineyards

Dan Petroski was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, and has the swagger and the accent to prove it. After attending Columbia University where he played football, Dan went to work for Time, Inc. While there, he earned his MBA from NYU and worked his way up the ranks towards a promising future in magazine publishing. A good chunk of his tenure at Time was spent managing advertising clients, which involved considerable schmoozing. This is how Dan learned wine, by walking his expense account through the lists of Manhattan’s top restaurants. When the Wall Street Journal tried to poach him, Dan took a moment to reflect. Deciding a change of life was in order, he jettisoned to Sicily for a year, where he interned at Valle dell’Acate. While Dan’s intention was to return to New York to sell wine, a harvest invitation from Andy Smith at DuMOL in 2006 was too good to pass up, and Dan left the city again, this time facing west.

After harvest, Andy Smith hired Dan as Cellar Master at Larkmead. The following year, Dan was promoted to Assistant Winemaker, ultimately claiming the Larkmead Winemaker title in 2012. Dan is a gifted, instinctual winemaker, and his old world palate has guided his philosophy on wine. Dan’s approach and ability to craft wines as diverse as Cabernet Sauvignon and Tocai Friulano has earned him the recognition as San Francisco Chronicle’s Winemaker of the Year in 2017.

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Rebeka Wineburg

Winemaker, Quintessa

With experience in the wine-growing regions of California, Oregon, Italy, and New Zealand, Rebekah contributes a worldly perspective to the cultivation and production of luxury wines in Napa. Rebekah’s passion for winemaking began when at the age of 16 she visited Napa Valley vineyards with her parents, and an Australian friend of her father who was a chemist and a winemaker. At each of the vineyards he explained winemaking and wine tasting to Rebekah. The discussions from that visit left such a lasting impression that she went on to pursue a dual degree in chemistry and biology at Macalester College with the dream of becoming a winemaker. Committing wholeheartedly to her dream, she enrolled in the winemaking program at the University of California, Davis, where she earned her master’s degree in viticulture and enology. After completing her MS with a thesis on the effects of winemaking techniques on the phenolic composition of Cabernet Sauvignon, she abandoned the lab and went headfirst into a series of harvests in Italy, Oregon, and New Zealand before settling down in Napa Valley where she has worked and continued to learn wine making at exceptional producers, such as Staglin Family, Rudd Estate and Buccella Wines before joining the Quintessa team in 2015. She is a professional member of the American Society of Enology and Viticulture and past President of the Napa Valley Wine Technical Group.

After all these years, Rebekah still cannot believe her good fortune – to have become acquainted in her teens with the beautiful Napa Valley and with winemaking, which led to such a fulfilling career. For Rebekah, the joy of winemaking is the opportunity to be a part of something so much more, as wines have a life and spirit of their own.