Director of Communications, Rodney Strong Wine Estates
Chris is a wine marketing and communications professional with over 20 years of wine business experience. Growing up in Healdsburg, California, he became enraptured by wine and food at an early age, and he began working as a cellar hand at wineries in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma County.
Following graduation from U.C. Berkeley and a stint as a sports and politics writer, Chris made his way back to the wine business in sales at Scott Street Portfolio, which imported boutique Southern Hemisphere wines with a focus on terroir. After a year, he was managing all of California, the largest wine market in the United States.
In 2002, Chris joined E. & J. Gallo as public relations project manager at their Healdsburg winery. The next five years would be instrumental in learning fine wine public relations and marketing.
In January of 2007, Chris left Gallo for Merryvale Vineyards in the Napa Valley, where he was Director of Marketing and Communications and served on marketing and public relations committees with the Napa Valley Vintners. In 2013 he joined Paul Hobbs Wines to take over marketing and communications for Paul’s various projects domestically and abroad. In 2016 Chris became the Director of Communications for Sonoma County Icon Rodney Strong Wine Estates.
Chris has been judging wine professionally since 2004 at some of the most prestigious wine competitions in the world, including Finger Lakes International, San Francisco Chronicle, Jerry Mead, North of the Gate, Great American International, and Bacchus of Spain.
Chris lives in Cloverdale, Northern Sonoma County with his wife Alexandra, son Liam, and daughter Sophia Jane. In their free time, they enjoy raucous dinner parties, tennis, travel, and living a blessed life in wine country.