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Stephen Test is a veteran of nearly three decades of winemaking in Sonoma and Napa. Entering the business in 1980, in the early years of a north coast wine boom, Steve was one of many colleagues who came out of U.C. Davis and had to learn by trial and experimentation how to use traditional, old-world winemaking methods that have proven essential to many of the great wines of California today. From the vineyard, where site, clone and careful attention to viticultural details have made huge advances in wine quality, to the cellar, where techniques like native yeast fermentation and careful handling without filtration have elevated complexity and concentration, Steve has been learning and practicing his craft. He has explored the subtleties of the production of many wine types, not just table wines but sparkling and fortified wines also, and made countless lots of most of the main grape varieties and some of the obscure ones, too. Every new wine type and grape variety has been an opportunity to refine his skills. With the launch of Stephen Test Wines he is using his years of experience to make with his own hands small lots of wines from outstanding sites that will be the best he can do with those grapes in that year. Steve has always claimed to just make wines that taste good to him, and hope the wines then find an appreciative audience. He is also serving as consulting winemaker for several new Napa Valley and Sonoma County wine projects.
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Steve was raised
on the San Francisco peninsula and received a degree in Biological
Sciences in 1973 from Stanford University. An interest in food, wine
and agriculture led to his enrollment as a graduate student in the
Department of Viticulture and Enology in 1978.
In 1980 he began
as winemaker at Domaine Laurier in Forestville, Sonoma County, in the
heart of the Russian River Valley. He spent the next seven years there
specializing in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, experimenting and learning.
His last crush in 1987 was completed in the first phase of a new winery
building, now expanded and remodeled into Hartford Court.
In
January 1988 he was named winemaker at Stephen Zellerbach Vineyard in
Sonoma County's Alexander Valley and assumed responsibility for
managing the winery and sixty-five acre Merlot and Cabernet vineyard.
He stayed on as winemaker and general manager when Jess Jackson
purchased the property in August 1989 and re-named it J. Stonestreet
and Sons Vineyard and Winery. Over the next decade he headed a team
that established Stonestreet as a leader in wine quality and style in
the Alexander Valley.
In 1998 Steve was offered the position of
director of winemaking at Merryvale in the Napa Valley. He was
responsible for acquiring grapes and supervising wine production as the
winery doubled in size and added new facilities over the next few
years.
Steve's wines have received substantial acclaim and
recognition from critics and publications. Under Steve, Stonestreet and
Merryvale were both recognized as Wineries of the Year multiple times
by Wine and Spirits magazine. He has been the subject of numerous
articles and interviews over the years, as well as a panelist and
presenter on technical subjects at many tastings and seminars.
Steve
and Carol, now partners in Stephen Test Wines, have been married for
nearly thirty years, and are the parents of two grown sons. When he isn't working
Steve likes to garden, tend his fruit trees, cook and play golf.
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