Nate Weis

Winemaker, Twomey

Although he toyed with the idea of becoming a pilot or a
firefighter, Nate Weis’ decision to pursue winemaking seemed almost inevitable. A Napa Valley native whose father is also a winemaker, Nate grew up with wine on the table and a drawer full of t-shirts emblazoned with winery logos. His first job after graduating with honors from UC Santa Barbara with a BS in Biopsychology/Neuroscience was as a “cellar rat” at Groth Vineyards & Winery.

“My dad suggested I make sure I actually liked winemaking before heading down that career path. I loved that first harvest, so I packed my bags, dropped my application for UC Davis grad school in the mail and went off to Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.”

Nate spent the 2003 harvest at two New Zealand wineries – Craggy Range Winery and Sacred Hill Wines – and when he returned home he worked a harvest for Etude Wines before starting grad school. After earning his MS in Viticulture and Enology, he was hired as cellar master at Etude, and then spent two years as assistant winemaker for Patz & Hall Wine Company. In 2008 Nate was hired by Marchese Piero Antinori to be winemaker for Antica Napa Valley, where he made Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot. He also served as winemaker for Aril Wines in Napa, a small ultra-premium producer of Cabernet and Syrah.

Nate, who joined Silver Oak in 2014, has a long list of things he likes about winemaking: “I love the uniform – jeans and boots. I love the physical nature of the work, coming home covered in muck and tired out from working hard. I love the setting and getting to play with heavy equipment; one of my best memories is a harvest spent on a tractor spreading out pomace in the vineyard and watching the sunset. And I’ve grown to love the plant biology part of it – figuring out how to get the vine to do what we want it to do. It’s like unraveling a mystery. And of course I love the end product. I often see people when they’re happiest – at a great meal with a glass of Silver Oak in their hand.??

At Silver Oak, Nate trained under Director of Winemaking Daniel Baron, who retired at the end of 2016. “Daniel has been a great steward of Silver Oak, much like Justin Meyer before him. I hope to continue this tradition, while also putting my stamp on the winery to some extent,” reflects Nate. “At Silver Oak we all think that wine tends to reflect the people and personalities behind it, even in the smallest of ways. I¹m excited to find out what part of me the wines of Silver Oak will ultimately reflect while also maintaining the rigorously high quality standards established here over the last 42 years.”

Nate is responsible for managing Napa Valley and Alexander Valley wine production from grape to bottle and also serving as an ambassador for the brand. Having grown up in Napa Valley where Cabernet is king, Nate is happy to be working exclusively with the varietal he most often pulls out when he wants to really savor a meal or an evening.

Nate earned his Executive MBA in Wine Business from Sonoma State University in 2014. He is married and has four children. What little free time he has is spent playing rugby, running and reading.

Country born: USA

Years in the wine industry: 15-20 years

Erin Miller

Winemaker, Twomey

As Erin Miller was preparing to go into the Peace Corps, she took a detour that would change her life. "I was on my way to Niger, West Africa and I wanted to work down some of my student loan debt before becoming a volunteer for 2 1/2 years. I heard about a harvest job in Napa, and I thought, what better way to earn a little money than by working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week as a harvest cellar rat?" But in working that harvest job Erin discovered "the sheer joy of winemaking," and when she returned from Africa, she pieced together her love of agriculture, the outdoors and winemaking, and determined to make her career in wine.

After earning her Masters of Science from U.C. Davis, Erin headed to France, working as a vineyard and cellar intern at Domaine de Coume del Mas in Banyuls-sur-mer and then Domaine Rene Lequin-Colin in Santenay. In France Erin was taken with the concept of the "vigneron," the idea that the winemaker is also intimately involved in the vineyard. "We tend to separate those two things here in the U.S., but I love the idea of bringing them together, of that seamless transition from vineyard and grapes to wine and ultimately, to the table."

That philosophy has guided Erin throughout her career. Upon her return to the U.S. in 2006 she took a position as Viticultural Enologist for Kendall Jackson's Vinwood Cellars' Bordeaux Program, and in 2007 moved to an enologist position at Hartford Family Winery in Forestville, CA. In 2010 she joined Provingage Wine Associates, managing wines for four luxury wineries and working as the Oregon Assistant Winemaker and California Winemaker for Evening Land Vineyards. Each position afforded Erin the opportunity to work both in the vineyards and the winery, and she worked closely with her vineyard manager counterparts to increase quality through fruit load and canopy management and overall vine monitoring and observation.

In 2014 Erin joined Twomey Cellars as Winemaker, a move that allows her to continue her work with vineyard-driven wines crafted to express a distinct sense of place. She spends much of her time working in Twomey's Pinot Noir vineyards in Sonoma, Mendocino and Santa Barbara counties, as well as its Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc vineyards in Napa Valley.

"At Twomey I'm drawing on the excellence that has been established while refining the wines to develop an even greater sense of place," she says. "For me, wine is an attempt to capture a time and place in the bottle. It is the prism we look through to the past while enjoying the present."

Country born: United States

Education: Erin Miller earned her Masters of Science from U.C. Davis, she then headed to France, working as a vineyard and cellar intern at Domaine de Coume del Mas in Banyuls-sur-mer and then Domaine
Rene Lequin-Colin in Santenay.

Years in the wine industry: 10-15 years

Winemaking Philosophy:
In France Erin Miller was taken with the concept of the "vigneron," the idea that the winemaker is also intimately involved in the vineyard. "We tend to separate those two things here in the U.S., but I love the idea of bringing them together, of that seamless transition from vineyard and grapes to wine and ultimately, to the table." That philosophy has guided Erin throughout her career.