Though Chris and I tend to be the outward face of Bedrock one cannot get a real sense of how Bedrock wines are made without a humble bow to the small group who bust their behinds for us almost every single day. Though possessing different personalities and strengths we can say that a golden thread of thoughtfulness, intrepidness and kindness runs through the group as a whole. -MTP
Cody
Assistant Winemaker Cody Rasmussen was born in Arizona and raised in Iowa, places that respectively instilled in him his lifelong loves of collecting rocks and reading (not much else to do in Iowa). He double-majored in political science and economics at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he met his first intellectual nemesis, Chemistry 201—a cruel irony a few years later when he had to self-teach about redox reactions and polar-covalent bonds in the cellar.
Read MoreLuke
Cellarmaster Luke Nio is Bedrock’s human embodiment of a Jeroboam. Born and raised in Northern California, he met the wine world via old vine Alicante Bouschet grown in his uncle’s Sonoma backyard. Wine didn’t become Luke’s career, though, until he started at UC Davis with biology and forensic sciences in mind; fortunately for us, that was derailed when he took Intro to Winemaking freshman year, and Luke is now the proud owner of a Vit & Enology degree. His harvest experience varied from natural wines at Kaz to Russian River Pinot Noirs at Balletto Vineyards, then old vine Syrah at Trinity Hill in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, where he honed his forklift skills and cannon-balled into an open-top fermenter filled with whole cluster Syrah.
Read MoreJake
Cellar Operative and right-hand man in the vineyards, Jake Neustadt grew up in the East Bay and came of age backpacking in the Sierras and annoying his neighbors with an overly loud garage band. His higher education at UC Davis began with a focus on journalism and international relations but, upon realizing the bleak realities of those career paths, quickly gravitated toward agriculture and winemaking.
Read MoreSarah
Sarah Geisse is the newest member of the Bedrock team. She started as a harvest intern in 2016, and none of us were ready to see her go so we offered her a full time job instead; she accepted. Her cellar prowess spans the gamut of tasks from steaming and sanitizing barrels to getting elbows deep in pomace digging out a tank. Sarah has a geology background, which comes particularly in handy when it comes to vineyard work. (This is where we resist making a pun about how much she rocks—oops)
Read MoreCaritas
Morgan’s dog Caritas is a 16th century counter-Reformationist Catholic masked as a 9.5-year-old Great Pyrenees. Her favorite activities are showcasing her divine right of dominance over “zat horrid Huguenot!” Kinley, silently judging the Bedrock team for their innumerable shortcomings, and graciously forgiving said shortcomings when peace offerings of the culinary sort are extended. She is the absolute best. And the homonymic namesake for Cuvée Karatas.
Kinley
Cody’s dog Kinley is a Golden Retriever whose primary goal in life, besides napping, is to greet every person that walks into the winery. His favorite foods are anything stolen from Bedrock harvest interns, whole sticks of butter and/or chunks of Parmigiano; his favorite beverage is beer, especially after a long harvest day. He thinks he is the boss of the winery, which is only true when Caritas isn’t around.