You can’t begin to discuss the beginnings of Benziger Family Winery without delving into the family members themselves. The Benzigers — California’s largest wine family in one of California’s smallest appellations has created from the ground up a nationally acclaimed Sonoma winery. From the start, the vision was quite simple; grow grapes that produce wines of uncompromised character and quality inspired by Sonoma County’s unrivaled diversity.

The youngest of Bruno and Helen's seven children, Kathy first came to work at the winery when she was a high school freshman. She soon graduated to pruning, picking, bottling and working in the tasting room. Learning about the wine industry from the ground up, she decided to make her mark in the business end of the operation and earned a degree in management from Sonoma State University. Sales positions at ADP in New York and Hoffman Distributing in New Jersey prepared her for a move back East, where she became the Benziger eastern region sales manager. Kathy now lives in Colorado, where she is the central region sales manager for Benziger.

A native of the Chicago area, Steve discovered an interest in wine while working in the restaurant business and pursuing a degree in business from the University of Illinois. During a 15 year restaurant career which took him from Illinois to Wisconsin and then Kansas City and St. Louis Missouri, he was the general manager of two Mobil 4 star restaurants, and a food and beverage director for a major hotel company, also directing the company’s corporate wine program.

Steve’s food and beverage career began to take an increasing shift toward wine, and the opportunity to work to help startup a top wine wholesale company came along. From 1991 to 1998 Steve worked for Griesedieck Imports in Missouri, first as a wine sales manager mentored by Doug Frost MW, MS, and then as General Sales Manager. Eventually Greisedieck Imports became part of the Glazer’s Family of Companies. In 1999 Steve had the opportunity to become the Southeast Regional Manager for King Estate which he had sold as a wholesaler since its inception. Relocating to Atlanta, he managed 19 state markets for the winery.

As Vice President, Steve manages all domestic and international sales from the winery and in the field. He believes in focusing not just on cultivating new sales, but on developing and maintaining great relationships throughout the King Estate trade channel–from the wholesale distributor to retailer to consumer.

As Masi’s Director of Marketing and Sales for the United States, Tony makes regular trips to Valpolicella, Italy and spends a good deal of time with the Boscaini family and Masi Technical Group to remain entrenched in their winemaking techniques and global strategy.

Born into a rich tradition of winemaking, Tony’s family owned vineyards in Sparta, Greece dating back to the early 1900’s before his family immigrated to Montreal, Canada. Tony earned a business degree with a major in Finance at the University of Alberta and has over 20 years of experience in the alcohol beverage industry which he started as a restaurant owner.

It was in Canada where Tony was first introduced to Masi in 1999 as he sold their wine in his market for over six years. His innate knowledge of the Masi wine portfolio and family traditions, Tony was presented with the opportunity to work directly for the esteemed winery in the United States as the regional sales director and immediately relocated.

Today, when Tony is not traveling to local markets on behalf of Masi, he resides in Boulder, Colorado.

Michaela Rodeno, St. Supéry's dynamic CEO, is responsible for managing all the winery's activities, from strategic planning, grape growing and wine production, to finance, new product development and marketing and sales.  As one of the leading women in the California wine industry and a passionate advocate of California wine issues, Michaela is often invited to speak at domestic and international conferences.

In 1973, six months after Michaela arrived in Napa, the Valley was abuzz with the news of Moët-Hennessey’s (now LVMH) plans to invest $8 million in building a new winery in the county… Domaine Chandon.  “Moët-Hennessey was the first French company to invest in California and it sent a message to the industry that Napa Valley was an important wine region,” says Michaela. “With my fluent French and desire to learn more about wine, I knew that I had to get involved with this venture.”  Through persistence and a mutual acquaintance, Michaela was introduced to John Wright, Domaine Chandon’s president who was impressed with her drive and willingness to learn and hired her to be his assistant and employee number two at the new winery.   Michaela learned important lessons from him that inform her successful management style today.

Michaela's life is as wine-focused as her career.  As co-founder of Women for WineSense, a national organization promoting wine as part of a healthy, balanced lifestyle, Michaela continues a long history of involvement in industry-wide issues. She is a founding director of the Wine Market Council, an initiative to create a national generic marketing campaign for wine, and she chaired the 1998 Napa Valley Wine Auction, the nation’s largest charity wine auction, which raised a record $3.8 million for local health care organizations.

Today, Michaela lives on her family’s 25-acre vineyard near the town of Oakville in the Napa Valley with her attorney husband Gregory; their daughter Kate (22) graduated from SDSU and son John (19) is a student at USD.  The family also owns 40 acres in Pope Valley in the Napa Valley appellation.  Although most of the family grapes are sold to Napa wineries, the Rodenos produce a tiny amount of Sangiovese (about 150 cases annually) under their Villa Ragazzi label.