In my first career, I negotiated player contracts for the Denver Broncos, one of only three women in the NFL doing it at the time. But when I started making wine in my basement, I became an obsessive student of the science and alchemy of fermentation. I fell deeply in love with it, left pro football, and worked harvests across four countries while seeking great winemakers to mentor me and teach me what they were doing that no one else was.

I landed in the Napa Valley and have been here ever since including time at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Screaming Eagle, a natural wine brand as a partner and co-winemaker, and nearly five years as an Associate Winemaker with a famous wine consultant, managing production of over a dozen coveted brands. I bought a lot of new oak barrels; I made a few 100-point wines. But that really wasn’t why I got into this industry.

Throughout my time in the Napa Valley, I’ve often thought of the harvest I spent in the hills of Piemonte, working for a little winery called Iuli. Fabrizio Iuli’s wines were magical. They were beautiful incantations of fruit and soil. The experience has haunted me ever since.

In 2020 I was offered the position of Winemaker at the historic Napa winery, Burgess Cellars. I’m currently converting all of our vineyards to regenerative and promiscuous farming and making vineyard-focused, low-intervention wines.

2020 was the same year I started my own brand. Here at M. Zobeck Wines, I’m making delicious wines from vineyards I love, farmed by people I believe in. Incantations of a sort.

I have a good idea of where I’m going and I’d love for you to join me. I promise it won’t be boring.