WINEMAKER CHRIS LEONARD
Chris Leonard farming 50 year old Zinfandel vines at the Rustridge Vineyard in Napa Valley during the 2016 growing season.
Born and raised in St. Louis, MO, Chris Leonard experienced childhood family dinners paired with crisp Pinot Grigio from Italy, lean Chardonnay from Chablis, earthy Pinot Noir from Burgundy, or a variety of hearty red wines from Italy. Discovering the synergy created between structured wine and cuisine led Chris to pursue a career in fine winemaking.
While earning a B.S. in Hospitality Management at Colorado State University in Fort Collins by day, Chris simultaneously began his winemaking career by travelling to Denver, CO by night to study the geography, sensory analysis, and service of wine and spirits under a Master Sommelier throughout the entirety of 2006. This teacher instilled upon Chris that quality grape growing is the fundamental vector for fine wine production. As a result, Chris jumped on his next opportunity and returned home to Missouri during a summer break from college in 2007 to work on a quality vineyard.
Having experienced powerful teachings from a Master Somm and a growing season devoted to vineyard labor, Chris decided the final step to become a skilled winemaker would be to spend years inside wineries gaining ‘hands on’ training and mentorship from seasoned winemakers throughout California and abroad. Learning a wide range of winemaking styles and working with numerous varietals grown in various climates and soils throughout the world would result in an enlightened winemaking skill set.
To produce the nuts and bolts of a vintage of wine, three months of heavy labor, strategy, and magic occur at wineries as cohesive units of full-time winemaking teams and enlisted harvest interns passionately harvest and ferment that vintage’s fruit. Exact harvest dates are moving targets due to the variability of each growing season and the subjective influence of the winemaker deciding when their fruit is ripe, however the harvest period of the vintage generally takes place from mid-August through mid-November in the Northern Hemisphere and early February through early May in the Southern Hemisphere.
Chris working the 2010 harvest alongside an Italian and Romanian production team at Ceretto winery in Piedmont, Italy.
Barolo, located in Piedmont, Italy, grows some of the finest Nebbiolo in the world.
Chasing harvests, Chris took the 2007, 2008, and 2009 Fall semesters off from college to work with world-renowned Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon producers as well as for an elegant Pinot Noir producer in California’s Central Coast. Following graduation, Chris traveled abroad in 2010 working consecutive harvests first in the North Island of New Zealand and then in the Piedmont region of Italy.
Returning to America in 2011, Chris planted roots in Napa Valley and began working full-time on highly skilled winemaking teams. After managing the busy harvest season, the full-time winemaking team must then age, blend, and bottle the resulting inventory. Although Chris continues to pursue mentorship under select Napa Valley colleagues, he left their employment in 2014 when Tom and Chris Leonard executed their own business plan and launched Leonard Wine Company to supply niche products to the wine industry; the elegant, vineyard designate luxury wine brands Muddy Arch Roussanne and Leonard Zinfandel.
Intuition must be part of the entrepreneurial spirit, however Chris attributes his beliefs in differentiated products and customer service to growing up in an ethical Midwestern business family. To receive the highest caliber ‘hands on’ training possible throughout his winemaking career, Chris strategically found mentorship under seasoned winemakers at the following world-class wineries; Joseph Phelps, Spottswoode, Claiborne & Churchill, Vidal, Ceretto, Cakebread, Rustridge, Anomaly, Zeitgeist, Keever, and Vellum.
Chris and Tom producing a barrel of the Rustridge Vineyard Zinfandel for fun, in Chris’ Napa garage circa 2011, prior to the inception of Leonard Wine Company.
CHRIS LEONARD, WINEMAKER
Chris Leonard farming 50 year old Zinfandel vines at the Rustridge Vineyard in Napa Valley during the 2016 growing season.
Born and raised in St. Louis, MO, Chris Leonard experienced childhood family dinners paired with crisp Pinot Grigio from Italy, lean Chardonnay from Chablis, earthy Pinot Noir from Burgundy, or a variety of hearty red wines from Italy. Discovering the synergy created between structured wine and cuisine led Chris to pursue a career in fine winemaking.
While earning a B.S. in Hospitality Management at Colorado State University in Fort Collins by day, Chris simultaneously began his winemaking career by travelling to Denver, CO by night to study the geography, sensory analysis, and service of wine and spirits under a Master Sommelier throughout the entirety of 2006. This teacher instilled upon Chris that quality grape growing is the fundamental vector for fine wine production. As a result, Chris jumped on his next opportunity and returned home to Missouri during a summer break from college in 2007 to work on a quality vineyard.
Having experienced powerful teachings from a Master Somm and a growing season devoted to vineyard labor, Chris decided the final step to become a skilled winemaker would be to spend years inside wineries gaining ‘hands on’ training and mentorship from seasoned winemakers throughout California and abroad. Learning a wide range of winemaking styles and working with numerous varietals grown in various climates and soils throughout the world would result in an enlightened winemaking skill set.
Chris working the 2010 harvest alongside an Italian and Romanian production team at Ceretto winery in Piedmont, Italy.
To produce the nuts and bolts of a vintage of wine, three months of heavy labor, strategy, and magic occur at wineries as cohesive units of full-time winemaking teams and enlisted harvest interns passionately harvest and ferment that vintage’s fruit. Exact harvest dates are moving targets due to the variability of each growing season and the subjective influence of the winemaker deciding when their fruit is ripe, however the harvest period of the vintage generally takes place from mid-August through mid-November in the Northern Hemisphere and early February through early May in the Southern Hemisphere.
Chasing harvests, Chris took the 2007, 2008, and 2009 Fall semesters off from college to work with world-renowned Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon producers as well as for an elegant Pinot Noir producer in California’s Central Coast. Following graduation, Chris traveled abroad in 2010 working consecutive harvests first in the North Island of New Zealand and then in the Piedmont region of Italy.
Barolo, located in Piedmont, Italy, grows some of the finest Nebbiolo in the world.
Returning to America in 2011, Chris planted roots in Napa Valley and began working full-time on highly skilled winemaking teams. After managing the busy harvest season, the full-time winemaking team must then age, blend, and bottle the resulting inventory. Although Chris continues to pursue mentorship under select Napa Valley colleagues, he left their employment in 2014 when Tom and Chris Leonard executed their own business plan and launched Leonard Wine Company to supply niche products to the wine industry; the elegant, vineyard designate luxury wine brands Muddy Arch Roussanne and Leonard Zinfandel.
Intuition must be part of the entrepreneurial spirit, however Chris attributes his beliefs in differentiated products and customer service to growing up in an ethical Midwestern business family. To receive the highest caliber ‘hands on’ training possible throughout his winemaking career, Chris strategically found mentorship under seasoned winemakers at the following world-class wineries; Joseph Phelps, Spottswoode, Claiborne & Churchill, Vidal, Ceretto, Cakebread, Rustridge, Anomaly, Zeitgeist, Keever, and Vellum.
Chris and Tom producing a barrel of the Rustridge Vineyard Zinfandel for fun, in Chris’ Napa garage circa 2011, prior to the inception of Leonard Wine Company.