The People

Sally was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate with a dual major in French Literature and Biology. While participating in a study abroad program in Paris, she began exploring wine and fell in love with the rich history of the wine industry, its connection to the seasons, and the tangible pleasure of the finished product. Upon returning to the US after studying in France and North Africa, she plunged into the study of winemaking and grape growing.

Packing her life’s belongings into her car, she made the cross-country trek to California and enrolled in UC Davis’s winemaking program, earning a Master's Degree in 1999. She then joined the team at St Francis Winery in the Sonoma Valley, where she took over as winemaker in 2005. During this time she took a brief hiatus to work harvest in the cellar at St Hallett Winery in Australia’s Barossa Valley, returning to California with wine-stained hands, steel-toed Rossi work boots and an appreciation for old vine Shiraz and dry Riesling.

In 2007, Sally joined the team at Pride Mountain Vineyards. Having been a devotee of Pride wines for many years, she is thrilled to be charged with handcrafting our distinctive wines. “Pride has such an incredible site. The diversity of the soil types, our southern exposure and our block-by-block approach to managing 46 individual vineyard blocks within an 83-acre ranch all add up to fruit with awesome potential. My job is to coax out the expressive, extracted wines that are synonymous with ‘Pride Mountain’ – it’s a dream job!”

Happy to dive into every aspect of winemaking, Sally can often be found hiking through the vineyards with her dog, Roxie, tasting in the caves with Romel, or shoveling out tanks in the cellar. She looks forward to a long career as part of the Pride family.