Winemakers

Jeremiah Wine Logo

Joel Gilbertson and Gene griffin teamed up with Crushpad winemaker Kian Tavakoli to make ultra-premium wine. The process began by going through a thirty step wine plan for each wine to define the style of wine we were going to make. That wine plan was heavily influenced by the understanding of wine by Joel and Gene in combination with the knowledge that Kian brought to the process.

Joel has a special talent for identifying a wine style that, simply stated, "People like". He also has an approach that focused on flavor steering away from virtually meaningless confusing descriptions of wine "ambience". His focus has always been, as now, not on descriptive adjectives but on the "I know it when I taste it magic "of ultrapremium wine. There is no shortcut to the immediate recognition of those additional levels of complexity and those incredible layers of flavor.

Gene who has many years of traveling throughout Napa and Sonoma tasting wines, talking to folks, getting a familiarity for the best vineyard properties and developing his talent for identifying the best wines and the best methods of making the best wines.

Kian graduated from UC Davis in 1992. He got his start at Opus One winery as their enologist. Four years later, he was hired as one of Clos Du Val's winemakers where he managed their Cabernet wines, including their highly-acclaimed reserve bottling; all the while expanding on his winemaking experience by helping with the production of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Zinfandel. Kian joined Crushpad in 2005 to head up the winery's Bordeaux varietal program. With almost 20 years of winemaking, operations and viticulture experience, Kian brings a stellar combination of sensory and production skills to making ultra-premium wine.