Winning the Balancing Act: Holding Home Base while Expanding New Revenue Streams, Business Models and Consumers

Damian Doffo

Organization:

Doffo Winery, California

Damian is the 39-year-old son of Marcelo Doffo, who purchased the land and planted vines in 1994, and wasted no time involving the whole family in the business, including Damian and his sisters Brigitte and Samantha. Damian has been the winemaker for 12 years, and also became CEO five years ago. In the early days of winemaking in the backyard, Damian would help out by washing bottles for 10 cents apiece. That was long ago, and thanks to his father’s mentoring he has since developed into a promising winemaker.

Julie Lumgair

Organization:

Art Nouveau, California

Julie Lumgair is an award-winning consulting and hands-on winemaker. Her wines span nineteen vintages and 25 varietals from Napa Valley, Sonoma County and Italy. She has served in many combined estate winemaking and winegrowing roles with a keen eye on agricultural and cellar practices to significantly elevate sustainability, wine quality and sales. Her calling cards are consistently producing acclaimed wines that reflect their place, excellence in winery operations, substantial innovation and trial programs feasible for artisan wineries’ scale, a passionate attention to customer delight and long-lasting relationships.

Julie is a 5th generation Tennessee family farmer, who honed her sensory science, new product development, team building and executive leadership in her first career at Procter & Gamble and other noted Fortune 100 firms for 15 years. That experience, along with her “roll up the sleeves” work ethic, plus technical and analytical skills learned on the job from many mentors in the vineyards and cellars have been supplemented by years of rigorous independent technical study.

She has made exceptional wines including Art Nouveau, a new artisan Napa winery launching in 2025, J. Moss, Ideology Cellars, Valley of the Moon / Lake Sonoma, Castello di Montegiove, Windsor Oaks Vineyards and other private clients. Julie’s ongoing wine trials and experiments have been featured in industry press and conferences. Over 70 of her wines have consistently achieved 90+ scores and been noted by several leading critics including a Wine Spectator “Producer to Watch,” Wine & Spirits varietal “Top Ten” and “Year’s Best” lists.

Julie deeply enjoys volunteering, mentoring and building community. She is one of thirty industry leaders on the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium Program Committee and serves as President of Women for WineSense Napa / Sonoma and long-time Chair of their Winemaking & Viticultural Roundtable. She is a contributing technical writer and wine judge for wine industry trade and consumer publications, frequent winemaker panelist for Napa Valley Vintner’s top trade and media conferences and VIP immersions and masterclass developer / instructor at Napa Valley Wine Academy. She is a past board member for Napa Valley Wine Technical Group and IQ (Innovation + Quality) Conference for luxury winemaking advances.

For more information, please connect via LinkedIn or reach out directly to Julie.lumgair@gmail.com or 415-786-3415

Susana Balbo

Organization:

Susana Balbo, Argentina

Susana Balbo studied enology at university and graduated cum laude in 1981, becoming the first female enologist in Argentina.

With a career in the wine industry of more than 40 years, Susana Balbo is certainly the most well-known Argentinian female winemaker and is called the “Queen of Torrontés” for role transforming Torrontés from a table wine to a world-class variety. She was elected to be president of Wines of Argentina for three terms during which Argentinian wine exports increased exponentially taking the country to stand out in the world wine map.

As an entrepreneur, she is currently the owner and founder of Susana Balbo winery, her family-run winery, which in almost 25 years has become one of the most important and renowned in Argentina. She also runs Susana Balbo Unique Stays, a luxury boutique hotel that she opened with her daughter Ana. With an audacious and innovative spirit, Susana has also founded Vision Air, offering “air safaris” for visitors to enjoy some of Argentina’s most emblematic places. Due to her vast career and her influential role as a businesswoman, she was granted the 2019 BRAVO Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council of the Americas and, in 2023, she was honored with the “Onorificenza dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia” by the Italian consul.

Susana Balbo is a woman of strong convictions and ideas, and she firmly believes that, in order to change something, you need to get involved. In 2015 she became National Congresswoman and in 2017 Argentinian President Mauricio Macri selected her as Chair of the W20 (Women’s 20), a G20 working group dedicated to women’s empowerment on a global scale. The following year, she became the first female Goodwill Ambassador of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), fostering development, inclusion and empowerment, emphasizing matters related to gender and rural youth.

Her cutting-edge character and essence have earned her many national and international awards and accolades. Susana was distinguished by the British magazine The Drinks Business as ‘Woman of the Year’ (2015) and was included in the top list of ‘The world’s most influential women in wine’ (2018). Moreover, she was named Winemaking Legend (2020) by world-respected, British wine journalist and Master of Wine Tim Atkin, and in 2022 the International Wine Challenge granted her the IWC Lifetime Achievement Award.

Corey Beck

Organization:

Delicato Family Wines, California

Corey’s first stop in the business was at Chateau Montelena where he followed in his Grandfather’s footsteps. In 1998 the Coppola family brought Corey on to their winemaking team and the 20 later he was named CEO of the Francis Coppola Winery. He then led the company through the merger with Delicato Family Vineyards in 2021 and currently holds the title of EVP Production and Chief Winemaker

As a respected member of the Sonoma County community, Corey is a past president of the Sonoma County Vintners and Alexander Valley Winegrowers. In 2019 Wine Business Monthly named Corey one of the “Top 50 Leaders” in the wine industry

Mark Garaventa

Organization:

Rack & Riddle, California

Mark Garaventa’s professional success, which spans more than three decades began in his family business, before he moved on to manage national sales for a large corporation. He then transitioned into the wine business in 2007, joining Rack & Riddle when the company was still in its infancy.

An integral part of the executive team, Mark rose from the role of Vice President of Sales to General Manager, a role he embraces, meeting and learning about every employee. As a lifelong baseball player who still competes in Northern California leagues today, Mark is a natural team player, and like most committed athletes he recognizes the importance of every team member, as well as the collective power of the win.

A native of the North Bay Area, Mark earned his degree from St. Mary’s College in 1988. Initiatives in which Mark has been involved include the original move of Rack & Riddle to their main Healdsburg location in 2014; company acquisitions including production facilities in Alexander Valley, Geyserville, and Lodi; the development of multiple custom wine brands; and the vast evolution of producing primarily Méthode Champenoise, to adding state-of-the-art technologies, as well as multiple sparkling beverage production capabilities including Charmat and premium canning.

While Mark has been a member of the Rack & Riddle team, the company has experienced unprecedented growth. Through careful guidance and focused innovation, Rack & Riddle is now the #1 custom sparkling wine producer in the United States. A hallmark is the level of quality and care for their customers, employees and wines that remains consistent with the day the company began.

Matthew Hughes

Organization:

BevZero, California

Matt brings more than twenty years of experience in the industry to his role at BevZero, he has served as a Winemaker, Director of Winemaking, and General Manager for the last decade.  After progressing from various positions in the cellar, lab, and winemaking, Matt owned and operated a small wine company for several years before returning to helping others build and grow their companies.  Most recently prior to joining BevZero he helped create and launch a large custom crush facility, Feliz Creek Cellars, literally from the ground up.  Matt has also held positions at Kendall-Jackson, Vérité Estate, and Six Sigma Ranch.

“I’m passionate about the no and low alcohol space. The products and brands we work with end up in my kitchen, on my table, and in my glass. I’m excited to see how our company and our clients evolve along with our overall knowledge and technology.”

Matt joined the team in early 2021 as Director of US Operations and has transitioned to the role of General Manger.  If he’s not at his desk you might find him on his mountain bike, in a yoga class, at a concert, or exploring the amazing food and beverage culture of California and beyond.