Episode 133 - Shauna Rosenblum, Winemaker for Ridge Vineyards at Lytton Springs

This episode features Shauna Rosenblum who joined Ridge Vineyards in 2022 as their Lytton Springs Winemaker. She oversees all winemaking at the Lytton Springs facility in Healdsburg, CA, and she brings a lifetime of winemaking experience with her to Ridge. Her father, Kent Rosenblum, of Rosenblum Cellars, introduced his winemaking passion to Shauna at an early age. Kent taught her to read brix on a refractometer at the age of three, she started working on the bottling line at the age of twelve, and by the age of sixteen, she attended blending sessions with the winemaking team. Always enamored with fine art, Shauna received a scholarship to California College of Arts and Crafts, then pursued her Master’s Degree at San Francisco Art Institute. During her ceramics studies, she took chemistry classes where she noticed that the process for creating glaze compositions was the exact same process as blending wine. This led her to the epiphany that winemaking was art. She completed the UC Davis Master’s Wine Executive Program and in 2008, Rosenblum joined Rock Wall Wine Company as Winemaker. Her lifelong wine training coupled with her philosophy of winemaking as fine art led her to seek out treasured old-vine field blend sites and esoteric varieties like tannat, teroldego and ciliegiolo. She directed a portfolio of over fifty grape contracts around California and oversaw all aspects of production on every lot of wine from crush to bottling. During her 14-year tenure at Rock Wall Wine Company, she rose to the rank of President and Chairperson of the Board of Directors. We talk about what it’s been like to like to step into her role as part of the Ridge legacy since 2022, and we open a very special bottle on air together that she sent to Atlanta that hadn't been released yet representing her first vintage in this lead role. You can visit www.ridgewine.com to leard more about Ridge and Shauna's work, and you can follow @ridgevineyards on Instagram.

Recorded July 22, 2024