Napa Wine Co. (Emerita Director of Winemaking)

Kristi Koford was born in Berkeley, California, but she was raised primarily outside of the U.S. as her father traveled the world studying the behavior of wild animals. Her intention when studying biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz was to follow in her father’s footsteps. Instead, she found herself attempting to grow wild mushrooms on a farm in Lodi. When not mushrooming, she worked in the vineyard, pruning, picking, driving farm machinery, and making wine. This led to her first real job in the wine industry as a microbiologist for Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville. Under the tutelage of Zelma Long, she became senior enologist, directing the work in the cellar and laboratory. To supplement her education, Kristi also took many wine-related courses and seminars at UC Davis.

After 10 years at Mondavi, Kristi took four years off and, with her husband, hand-built a timber frame house in the Oakville hills. She returned to wine work as assistant winemaker when St. Supery Winery opened in 1988. In 1997, she became winemaker at Alderbrook Winery and subsequently joined Napa Wine Company in 2001 as production winemaker. She became the company’s Director of Winemaking and the winemaker for Ghost Block Estate Wines and was named Emerita for both of these roles in May 2025. In her new capacity, she will be working closely with Priyanka Dhar French, her replacement as Director of Winemaking and winemaker for Ghost Block.

Kristi has said, “Napa Wine Company’s unique mission and client base gives me the opportunity to exercise my technical knowledge and resource management skills in a mutually beneficial and fulfilling way. I am also using my early multicultural experiences and behavioral studies in ways I never envisioned. Life, like wine, proceeds in mysterious ways.”