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

William Allen

Organization:

Two Shepherds Wine, California

Located in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma, Two Shepherds just completed their 13th vintage, now at 5,000 cases a year. Partners William and Karen craft natural wines, from unusual and rare varieties, organically farmed, from leased vineyard row contracts across the North Coast, many of which are 45-100+ years old. They also grow Grenache Gris and Grenache Noir on their farm, alongside their adorable mini donkeys and goats. Wines are made in their own facility, vinified with native yeast, small bin fermentations, exclusively neutral oak, with no fining, filtration, or any additions save a small amount of SO2. Their light-handed approach, and reputation for unflawed wines, has been heralded by the press, with articles in the NY Times, Wall St Journal, Washington Post, SF Chronicle, Bloomberg, and more.

Prema Behan

Organization:

Three Sticks, California

Prema Kerollis Behan is the Co-Founder and General Manager, Three Sticks Wines & Head High Wines. A California native, whose mother and stepfather were executives in the restaurant and hospitality industry, Prema grew up understanding the importance and appreciation for sensory, gustatory experiences as they were always at the forefront of her upbringing. Her first job, after graduating with honors from UC San Diego with a Sociology and Spanish Literature dual major, was on Capitol Hill in Washington DC and then on to Organizational Administration at Texas Pacific Group where she worked directly for Bill Price, III starting in 2000. From there she helped set up the nascent Three Sticks Wines from the TPG offices. As an expert in the pleasures of life and having honed her diplomacy and business skills on the job, Prema was ready to jump full force into the wine industry in 2009, when she pivoted from TPG Capital to full time focus on Bill’s wine and new business ventures.

Under Bill’s tutelage Prema has built and run a variety of different wine businesses. Three Sticks Wines in 2002, Head High Wines in 2010 and Lutum Wines in 2012. Prema earned an Executive MBA with honors in Wine Business from Sonoma State University in 2014. From 2012 to 2014 she led the preservation and rehabilitation process for the Castenada Adobe into the beautiful, unique Three Sticks tasting experience that it is today. As former President of the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation from 2015 to 2018 and former President of the Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Alliance from 2019 to 2021, she demonstrated her commitment and love of the community and its agricultural and historic resources. She is currently a member of the Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation Board, switching her sights to the people of the valley.

Prema was promoted to Co-Founder of Three Sticks and Head High Wines in 2019 and takes great pride in having built one of wine countries most notable teams and rich company cultures. She is a mother, a great friend, a fearless leader, a swearer and a proud French bulldog owner!

Lulie Halstead

Organization:

The IWSR Group, England

Lulie founded Wine Intelligence in 2002, now a division of the IWSR Group and backed by Bowmark Capital. IWSR is the leading global beverage alcohol market data and insight specialist, with coverage in over 160 markets, whilst Wine Intelligence is widely regarded as the leading wine focused consumer behavior insights organization globally. Lulie is now a group Board Director at IWSR. Over the past 20 years, she has been a regular keynote speaker at high profile international wine conferences and retains her academic links as a guest lecture and advisor on Masters and MBA programmes. Her client work includes advisory roles to the leadership teams of some of the world’s leading drink and hospitality businesses.

She is a trustee of the WEST (Wine and Spirits Education Trust) and more recently, has established a vineyard in East Sussex, England which will, she hopes, be delivering full yields in 2024!

Christine Moll

Organization:

O'Neill Vintners and Distillers, California

An expert in brand building and marketing, Christine Moll has over 22 years of marketing and leadership experience in the alcohol beverage industry. Christine currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer at O’Neill Vintners & Distillers, the 10th largest winery in California, where she is responsible for developing a team of talented individuals and oversees the core marketing strategy for all brands. As head of the department, Christine is also responsible for marketing and communications for the company and its brands, as well as portfolio strategy and innovation.

Prior to joining O’Neill Vintners & Distillers, Christine was with Campari America as the Category Marketing Director, and was credited for driving the growth of a complex portfolio, including Espolon Tequila. She began her career with Bacardi USA, where her focus was the launch and development of several spirits brands including Bombay Sapphire Gin, D’usse Cognac and Corzo Tequila.

Originally from Guatemala, where her family still resides, Christine came to the United States for college. She has lived in Boston, Miami, San Jose and currently lives in San Francisco where she enjoys the lively restaurant scene, cooking, traveling, and supporting her local community. In 2022, she joined the San Francisco Bay Area board of directors for Reading Partners, a literacy organization helping children become lifelong readers by empowering their communities to provide individualized instruction with measurable results.

Leticia Chacón-Rodríguez

Organization:

University of California, Davis

Leticia, a wine professional with more than 20 years of experience in California, and currently the Winemaker and Winery Manager at the University of California, Davis. Previously, Leticia has been at Safe Harbor Wine Storage, Treasury Wine States, E&J Gallo Winery, Golden State Vintners (now Wine Group) and Delicato Family Vineyards.

She is on her third year as co-chair of the Program Development Committee for Unified Wine and Grape Symposium and participates actively on the Spanish Track.

She is an active member for the American Society for Viticulture and Enology (ASEV), a professional society dedicated to the interests of enologist, viticulturists, and others in the fields of wine and grape research and production. She is past President (2012-2013) for this Society, and she has served as a Poster Chair for the National Conference, Best Paper Award Committee, and others.

She enjoys her free time with her husband and her two young sons in various activities like cooking, reading, swimming, biking, watching movies, attending symphony orchestra concerts, among others.

MS in Food Sciences (Enology emphasis), UC Davis.
BS in Chemical Engineering, Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México, Mexico City.

Alisa Jacobson

Organization:

Turning Tide Wines, California

Owner, winemaker, environmentalist, and outdoor enthusiast Alisa Jacobson “AJ” founded Turning Tide Wines in 2018 under her company name, Wines by Alisa Jacobson, with the goal of showcasing the true essence of the grapes she harvests, respecting the elements each vineyard site provides, and helping Turn the Tide toward more sustainable and eco-friendly practices in vineyards and winemaking round the globe.

Her first Turning Tide wines were released in December of 2020, all showcasing eco-friendly farming and business practices. A year later, Jacobson (who goes by “AJ”) added “AJ”, “Rare North” and “Avec Moi”, all high-quality, sustainable, and value-driven wine brands.

A graduate of UC Davis with a degree in viticulture and enology, AJ has produced California sparkling wine, made Shiraz in Australia (while diving along the Great Barrier Reef), and worked at Joseph Phelps where she met Joel and Sarah Gott. Jacobson rose to the rank of VP of Winemaking, overseeing a team of 35, and managing all winery and vineyard operations throughout California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as international projects all over the world. She passed the baton back to Joel and Sarah Gott in 2020 and set out to forge her own path with a renewed and passionate focus on making wine from organic and sustainably-farmed vineyards in coastal regions of California and Oregon.

AJ assumed a lease on an iconic winery in Santa Ynez Valley in August of 2022. This is now where AJ makes her “Made with Organically Farmed Grapes” Avec Moi and Turning Tide wines, both labels certified organic. The winery project has been named Milestone for its commitment to regenerative and organic farming and winemaking practices. She adheres to strict organic and vegan only winemaking practices at Milestone and makes wine from her two vineyards she owns in the Santa Ynez Valley..
Dedicated to her cause of trying to help the wine industry become more sustainable and climate-forward, AJ also serves as Co-Chair of the Unified Grape and Wine Symposium Program Development Committee, the Chair of the Research Committee of the West Coast Smoke Exposure Task Force and a number of wine industry advisory boards, all to further her passion for education outreach and to raise awareness for global climate change impacts —and of course, to help Turn the Tide on how vineyards are farmed around the globe by way of outreach and education. AJ believes that by demonstrating the success and quality of wines made by organically and sustainable vineyard practices, she can inspire and provide examples to others on how to be more climate pro-active.