"'I'd been offered a winemaking job at Buena Vista Winery and thought, why would anybody want to live in California?' he said. The earth looked dead. I just couldn't do it."
"Ullom, who'd braved the coup for a chance to ski in the Andes, was disappointed to learn his skiing would have to wait not because of the coup, but because a recent volcanic eruption had made the journey impossible."
"Randy Ullom is retiring as head winemaker for Kendall-Jackson Wines and senior vice president for Jackson Family Wines."
Randy Ullom first found California unappealing during a five-year drought, describing the landscape as dusty, brown and dead. He was born in Michigan and raised in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. He spent his late teens and early twenties in Chile during the early 1970s amid political upheaval and a military coup. He braved the coup to ski in the Andes but was delayed by a volcanic eruption and chose to stay in Chile, a decision that led him toward winemaking and contact with Sonoma vintner Jess Jackson. Ullom developed an interest in winemaking in Chile, returned to the U.S. to pursue education in the field, and built a 32-plus year career at Kendall-Jackson, retiring as head winemaker and senior vice president after his 33rd harvest.
Read at www.pressdemocrat.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]