Story
“An improvised composition”
Going against the grain
After escaping the cultural straightjacket of the 1950s, David Hirsch studied at Columbia University under Lionel Trilling, listened to John Coltrane and Miles Davis at Birdland, and discovered that the 1960s offered more space between the molecules—room to breathe and build something real.
These experiences, followed by various beatnik wanderings, brought him first to the textile trade and eventually to the wild sheep ranch that would become Hirsch Vineyards.
Rattling down to Beaune after Paris
In the 1970s, David was a garment maker, developing a taste for the wines of Burgundy during frequent jaunts to France. He wrangled letters of introduction to luminaries such as Aubert de Villaine and Louis Latour, falling in love with the remarkable capacity of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to transmit place into wine.
An integrated,
transcendental
community
In 1978, David found a sheep ranch on a coastal ridge five miles up a dirt road—a place lost in the rural past of northern California, where the land flows away in all directions to the high blue horizon and the edge of the world. David planted his first vines in 1980. By the 1990s, Hirsch Vineyards had become legendary for its vineyard-designated bottlings from producers such as Littorai, Williams Selyem, Kistler, and Failla.
To become a better farmer,
build a winery
In 2002, after twenty-two years focused on planting and farming, David and his wife Marie built a winery at the heart of the ranch. The primary motivation was to provide feedback to his farming decisions. To taste each of his sixty farming parcels would be to better understand the nature of each’s unique soil and climate, the conditions of the vintage, and the consequences of farming decisions. The winemaking is a lens into the site.
Steadiness, not spectacle
In 2008, David’s daughter joined the family business. Over time, Jasmine’s involvement with the winery and vineyards deepened. In 2015 she took the helm as general manager; in 2019 she became our winemaker. Today, Jasmine makes our wines and guides our team. We’re proud to be family-owned and woman-led.
Mythology of
our own making
The beauty of this place tears at your heart and words are inept; then winter arrives and the storms roll in one following another, and the rivers of rain and shrieking winds rend the very landscape. But Buddhism taught David that trials are opportunities. Since a serious tractor accident in 2014, he has overseen our vineyards via an all-terrain wheelchair, all the more deeply connected to the land.
The
Hirsch Vineyards
Team
David Hirsch
Owner and Chief Bug
Our founder bought this ranch in 1978, built his own ten-mile power line to access PGE, then planted The Old Vineyard to Pinot Noir and Riesling. Responsible for reminding everyone ad nauseam that our goal is always to focus on the site, David believes that all important developments are the fruits of mistakes made with a serious attitude. His words grace this website; his mantra is that we don’t know what we don’t know.
Jasmine Hirsch
GM & Winemaker
Born and bred in balmy California, Jasmine attended the University of Pennsylvania in gritty Philly before working in finance for six years, living in Prague, Amsterdam, and New York. She returned to Hirsch Vineyards in 2008 to shine her light and spirit on sales and customer relations, and found herself drawn to the land, the vines, and the wines. Jasmine took over the winery as general manager in 2015, and became our winemaker in 2019.
Everardo Robledo
Vineyard Manager
In 1988 Everardo and his brother grafted two acres of Hirsch Old Vineyard Riesling over to the Mount Eden clone of Pinot Noir. He never left. Everardo married Marta, they had four children, and to this day they live on site. Everardo planted and cultivated all 90,000 vines on the 72 acres of Hirsch Vineyards. He is one of eight Robledo brothers who have been important to the development of vineyards and wineries in Napa and Sonoma.
Marie Hirsch
Marketing & Design
Born Czechoslovakia, Marie escaped in 1982 to Kansas City, then found Seattle and the West Coast in 1988. Boundlessly creative, Marie is an architect; lighting designer; jewelry maker; painter; graphic designer; and yoga teacher. It is her hand that captures our spirit—on our packaging and this very website—in symbolic, folkloric sketch and watercolor. Marie also assists in sales and marketing, grape harvest, and fruit processing.
Michael Cruse
Consulting Winemaker
Michael’s pull towards the wine industry started not with a bottle, but with the need to work with his hands to craft a tangible product. After becoming disillusioned with scientific research, he moved first into wine labs and then into the cellars in wineries in Napa. In 2008, he co-founded Ultramarine, which uses sparkling wine to examine coastal sites in California. In 2013, he founded Cruse Wine Company to focus on uniquely Californian wines that speak of sunshine and fun. In 2016, he was named San Francisco Chronicle’s Winemaker of the Year. He continues to be focused on sparkling wines and the refinement of their technique in the New World as a lens to examine terroir. Michael became Hirsch’s consulting winemaker in 2019.
Melissa Beck
Associate Winemaker
A Sonoma County native, Melissa attended Cal Poly SLO, earning a degree in Geology while spending summers working on active volcanoes in Alaska and Hawaii. Upon graduation she found a harvest position where she quickly fell in love with winemaking. Melissa spends her free time exploring the land with her loyal husband and loving German Shepherd Etna. After harvest you can find her either skiing or SCUBA diving, depending on the hemisphere.
Jimmy Boldt
Cellar Specialist
A Cleveland native, Jimmy worked on the East Coast in wine sales and distributor management before moving into wine production, working harvests around the world. Formative experiences—with Brooks Winery in Oregon; Leo Erazo in Itata, Chile; Prager in Austria’s Wachau; Mullineux in South Africa; and Sonoma County neighbors Bedrock Wine Co.—have given Jimmy the opportunity to work under world-class winemakers in manifold climates and terroirs.
Rob Busson
Hospitality & Sales Manager
Born and raised in Nebraska, Rob embarked on the journey to becoming a sommelier in a wine bar in the Old Market neighborhood of Omaha with a bottle of Pinot Noir. Since then, he has racked up more than 25 years of experience in hospitality and wine, working at Sonoma County wineries such as Three Sticks and Gloria Ferrer. He and his husband enjoy hiking, cooking fresh veggies from the garden, and spending time with pets.
Lindley Foss
Private Client Sales Associate
Born and raised in the wine industry, Lindley brings four decades of wine experience to the Hirsch team. The great-granddaughter of a Russian River Pinot Noir pioneer, she jumped at the opportunity to join Hirsch Vineyards. A self-proclaimed foodie, when she isn’t spending time creating culinary masterpieces (also self-proclaimed) with friends and family, Lindley gets away to Lake Tahoe.
Dave Jewell
Controller
A Nor Cal native, Dave has spent more than fifteen years in finance and operations roles, working in both the wine and beer worlds along the way. At Constellation Brands, he worked his way up from Finance Analyst to a role as a Senior Director of Operations. When not tenderly gazing at Excel spreadsheets, Dave likes to work in his garden, hike, and travel with his wife and children.
Joel Kellum
Farm Manager
An organic farmer for more than twenty years, Joel has a passion for regenerative and restorative agriculture. After farming most of his career in the Midwest, he moved to Northern California to continue to plant the seeds of his life’s journey. Deeply connected to the Earth, biological systems and all they have to teach us, Joel feels fortunate to collaborate with the like-minded community upon this sacred land.
Kelly Kellum
Wine Educator
Kelly was born and brought up outside Chicago, then traded the suburbs for the farm in 2012, when she joined an organic vegetable farming internship in rural Wisconsin. There she fell in love with growing and cooking food from the land, as well as her future husband: Hirsch farm manager Joel Kellum. Joel and Kelly rooted down at Hirsch Vineyards in 2018; today, Kelly continually enjoys connecting enthusiasts with the wines.
Toby Oshiro
National Sales Manager
Hawaii-born and raised, Toby resides in sunny Southern California, where he expresses his love of food and wine, oceans and mountains, words and music. After many years working for wineries, distributors, and importers, Toby joined Hirsch in 2018 to travel the country and tell the stories of this place and its people. A surfer and snowboarder, Toby is the team member most likely to be assigned punchdowns during harvest.
Chris Paul
Private Client Sales & Marketing Manager
Chris joined the Hirsch team after nearly ten years at neighboring Copain Wines. Raised in Sonoma County and educated at UCLA, Chris spent the first years of his professional career managing live theatre in Los Angeles and New York before returning to California and his love of wine. In addition to working with the Hirsch team, Chris most enjoys getting to meet and connect with our Hirsch collectors.
Susan Peters
Accountant
Born and raised in northern California, Susan brings more than a decade of experience in the wine industry to the Hirsch team. From vine to bottle she believes that understanding the winemaking process is necessary to appreciating the industry’s unique accounting system. Each vintage has a story to tell, as Susan likes to tell friends and family over meals and lots of laughter. Susan spends her spare time gardening and camping with her husband.
Seph Scheid
Vineyard & Winery Tech
Originally from Wisconsin, Seph studied in Colorado before seasonal guide work took him to Alaska, Argentina, and eventually California, where he entered the wine industry in 2015. He’s passionate about the human and environmental factors that shape wine, with international harvests in Stellenbosch, Barossa, Steiermark, and the Mosel deepening his respect for place and people. When he’s not among the vines, Seph and his partner Sarah are often off exploring remote corners of the map.
