Meet The Winemakers, The Cellar Angels Podcast

He never thought this silly idea would lead them to launch a wine brand. He never imagined they would make another wine beyond these first two barrels. He just wanted to create a beautiful reminder of welcoming their first-born into the world.

But then they made their daughter another wine… and then they made her a brother, who would clearly need two wines of his own! Then they realized something else: this was becoming more than a grand gesture.

This was a new tradition. Chris and Dee continue to celebrate special moments and people with new wine releases ever since.

Elaine Sale, owner of Elaine Wines always associated her best memories with wine tasting trips to Napa Valley and Sonoma. Reluctant to move to California while her children were still young, Elaine and her husband Mark waited until they were empty nesters to finally realize Elaine’s dream to live on a vineyard and make wine.

While still living in North Carolina, Elaine and Mark spent a year searching for land in Sonoma. They were drawn to the natural beauty and wonderful climate of the Russian River Valley, its welcoming community, supportive grape growers and winemakers and its renowned Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays.

They found a breathtakingly beautiful 3-acre vineyard on a steep, rugged site in the Russian River Valley, planted in 1998 (the same year their son Matt was born) to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Elaine and Mark built their house on the land and planned to continue farming the grapes and selling them – like the previous owners. But the winemaking bug bit her and she made two barrels of wine in 2017 – one barrel of Chardonnay and one Pinot Noir.

Read more on https://cellarangels.com/wineries/elaine-wines/

Natalie Coughlin Hall is most known for her athletic successes after earning 12 Olympic medals for USA Swimming. Throughout her professional athletic career, Natalie has maintained a love for food and wine. She grew up just outside Napa Valley and has always had an interest in the wine industry. She wrote a cookbook “Cook To Thrive,” and is passionate about pairing her recipes with wine. She is eagerly learning the winemaking process through Shaina’s tutelage and is looking forward to pairing her recipes with Gaderian Wine’s Pinot Noir, Chenin Blanc, and Chardonnay.  

Shaina Harding is a Florida transplant who misses the beach, but wouldn’t trade her vines for the world. She is a graduate of the UC Davis Viticulture & Enology Program who has been living and making wine in the Napa Valley since 2008. She has had the great fortune of being able to work with many of Napa’s most creative and influential winemakers as well as touch all of their grapes. She loves being among the vines and working in the vineyards, but her heart lies in the cellar, gently guiding her wines from juice and must to bottled joy.

Established in 1866 by Italian immigrant Giacomo Migliavacca, Migliavacca Wine Company was born out of aspiration and tradition in Napa City.

This downtown winery ruled its proliferation for the next five decades: the city’s first self-made millionaire, the county’s first patent holder, the state’s largest wine producer. In 1869 Giacomo became the first Napa County resident to receive a U.S. patent for his “Wine Bottling and Corking Apparatus”. In a few short years, Migliavacca Wine Co. became an award winning winery, a household name, and was considered one of the largest and most extensive manufacturing enterprises in California. 

Nearly a century after its disappearance at Prohibition, over 150 years since its founding, the Migliavacca family offers this revival of Napa’s history. Giacomo’s great-great-granddaughter Katie Migliavacca is writing a new chapter by resurrecting this once-prolific business to carry on a family legacy.

With the help of business partner and Winemaker Vincent Traverso these two young entrepreneurs strive to make wines that reflect the passion and creativity that fueled Giacomo’s original vision: to produce wines of excellence and value, with reverence to the importance of family and community.

These principles served as the foundation for this pioneering wine brand, and we hope they will be continued with each bottle shared around the family table by a new generation of wine drinkers.