"What's interesting about Elke is that we have a variety of winemakers who make our wines. As a farmer I give them the best grapes I can." Mary Elke

Elke Vineyards Blue Diamond label winemaker
Tom Farella
Since 1997 Tom Farella has been the winemaker for Elke Pinot Noir Blue Diamond label and he is responsible for our classic Burgandy-style vintages.Tom Farella has always had a passion for making Pinot Noir. His genius in making elegantly-styled Pinot is to allow the fruit characteristics to emerge from the grape. His wine making philosophy is “less is more,” which translates to starting with excellent grapes and then allowing the fruit to become wine with a minimum of manipulation or intervention. (It isn’t as easy as it sounds.) Tom's skills and patience are applied as each clone is fermented and barrel-aged separately in French oak. The wine is racked once, then blended and returned to the barrels for a few more months of aging. Tom studied enology at UC Davis and worked at wineries in Napa, Sonoma, Oregon, and Burgundy, and is the winemaker for Farella Vineyard. www.farella.com

Mary Elke labels

Ryan Hodgins is the Consulting Winemaker at Breggo Cellars, where our 2005 and 2006 Mary Elke Pinot Noir were made. Ryan enrolled in the Master’s program in Viticulture and Enology at the University of California at Davis where worked a harvest in Oregon while collecting samples for his thesis on Pinot Noir tannins in the wines of the Willamette Valley. After working harvests in Oregon, Napa, and India, Ryan and Molly have settled in the town of Sonoma where the live with their little daughter Maggie. Ryan splits his time between Hanzell Vineyards and Breggo Cellars.

Phyllis Zouzounis at Mazzocco Winery, in Sonoma Valley, created our Elke 2004 Chardonnay from fruit delivered to her from Rafael Vineyard in Napa Valley. The amazingly talented Phyllis went from cellar master to winemaker at Dry Creek Winery, and then became the winemaker at Mazzocco Winery in Dry Creek where she's been since 1993. She is also the owner and winemaker at Deux Amis Winery.

In 2002, winemaker Greg Lafollette worked with a portion of the harvest, resulting in the 2002 Elke Gold Label Pinot Noir. He was born in Europe and grew up with an old-world view that wine is raised rather than made. After studying ancient Burgundian techniques at UC Davis, he continued “on the job” at Beaulieu Vineyard with winemaster, André Tchelistcheff. From BV, Greg went to work at Kendall-Jackson where he was responsible for gathering and disseminating the best and latest thoughts on vine and wine quality. LaFollette then turned his talents to Flowers Vineyard & Winery where he was the winemaker and general manager.