PICKET FENCE WINEMAKER:
Alison Crowe

Alison Crowe has been making wine since 1995 and is the Director of Winemaking for Napa-based Plata Wine Partners, LLC.  Crafting lots of wine from such premiere appellations as Russian River, Alexander Valley, Napa Valley and Santa Barbara County, Alison brings the vineyard directly to the client, from large nationally distributed wineries as well as hot start-up brands.

She got her start in the cellars of Chalone Vineyard and Curtis Winery, made wine at Bonny Doon Vineyard for four and a half years and consulted during the 2005 harvest with Michel Rolland at Bodegas Salentein in Mendoza, Argentina.

In addition to her winemaking, which takes her around the state of California, Alison also sits on the steering committees of the Wine Industry Financial Symposium and Central Coast Insights Symposium.

Alison is also a technical wine writer with frequent contributions to Vineyard & Winery Management, WineMaker and Wine Business Monthly magazines. Her first book, The Wine Maker’s Answer Book, was published by Storey Publishing in September 2007. Alison is a graduate of both the Viticulture & Enology and the Spanish departments at UC Davis and received her MBA with the UC Davis Graduate School of Management in June 2010.