Our Winemaker-

We were fortunate to enough to recruit Mark Cummins to help lead us into the new decade. Part chemist, and part artist, Mark is a great guy with an amazing talent when it comes to making wine.

With almost 20 years experience in the wine industry, Mark started off his education at Davis, eventually doing some internships in Napa and Sonoma, hearing the call of the relaxed lifestyle and vibes of the Central Coast, he packed up his VW bus to head out to the Central Coast, got his band back together and played rugby in his freetime. While here he worked over at Byron in Santa Maria, eventually moving on to work over at Wild Horse with the renowned Ken Volk. After he left Wild Horse he moved on to The Center of Effort and opened his own amazing label Drake, eventually joining our team.

"The craft of winemaking requires use of both sides of the brain, lying in the crossroads of art  and science," Mark says, "I enjoy how wines are an integral part of celebrating life."

"I've always had a creatinve side and an anayltical side, that is why I was really attracted to enology and winemaking and the lifestyle that surrounds it. I have a firm root in chemstry and bio-chemistry and all of the left brain disciplines, but at the same time you need to taste and sip and learn about barrels and develop the artistic side that goes along with, which really teases my right brain."