Ashley Herzberg
Ashley Herzberg, believes that creative explorations in traditional, as well as novel, wines promote connections between classic and emerging wine enthusiasts. Leveraging her chemical engineering background and more than 15 years of winemaking experience, she encourages new techniques that explore the variety of world-class fruit available here in Sonoma County.
Ashley graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno with a degree in Chemical Engineering and the intention to go to medical school. After discovering that her passion was not in medicine, she decided to come to Sonoma County and work a harvest in a winery lab. One harvest quickly turned into an all-encompassing passion and love of winemaking with all the science, art, chemistry, engineering and fun behind it!
She started as a Lab Technician at Owl Ridge and then moved to Lab Manager, benefiting from valuable mentoring by some of the top Pinot Noir vintners in California such as Merry Edwards, Greg Lafollette, Anthony Austin and Scot Covington. Because it was a custom-crush facility with over 40 clients at the time, Owl Ridge provided her with the opportunity to gain the perspective and knowledge that would prove invaluable in her career.
In 2007 she became Enologist and then Assistant Winemaker at Mauritson Winery. She branched out on her own as a consulting winemaker in 2011, making wine for small family owned wineries in Sonoma County. Winemaking isn’t just a job for her; it’s her life. Her two young children are generally traipsing right behind her as she samples vineyard blocks. She loves to garden, cook and travel to wine regions all over the world in her spare time.