Shaina Harding is a native Floridian and earned a B.S. in International Relations and Affairs from Florida State University in 2005. After graduating, she moved to New York City to pursue a career in music and supported herself through a variety of jobs, including waiting tables and bartending. Because of a stint with BR Guest Hospitality restaurant group, she attended the firm’s “wine college” and completed some courses at New York University in sensory analysis.

Shaina ended up working for Standard and Poor’s in NYC and continued to do so upon moving to the Bay Area. Her wine epiphany occurred when she became disillusioned with the world of finance. In her own words, ”[I was] working in finance [in San Francisco] during the crash of ’08,” Harding recalls. “I was so miserable. What is something I could do that’s not this? I was so close to wine country … I went to a job fair at Domaine Chandon. The cellarmaster hired me to be a weighmaster, and I worked the 2008 harvest and I just fell in love. They let me get inside this 21-ton press and dismantle all of the pieces inside so we could sanitize it. I loved it!”

She moved on to Clos Pegase Winery for a stint as its wine club coordinator before joining Flora Springs Winery & Vineyards in early 2010 as its hospitality coordinator. Deeply committed to a career in the wine industry by now, Shaina took courses at Napa Valley College to bolster her academic credentials in mathematics, chemistry, and biochemistry before entering the Viticulture and Enology program at the University of California, Davis, in 2011, all the while continuing to work at Flora Springs, being named its enologist in 2012. She completed her B.S. degree in 2013 and remained at Flora Springs until January 2015, at which time she became the associate winemaker at HUNNICUTT, a family winery in the Napa Valley. Shaina is also the winemaker for Holy High Wines and the owner/winemaker for HardMan Wine Consulting.

In March 2017, Shaina co-founded Gaderian Wines with Natalie Coughlin Hall and is the winemaker there. She currently is crafting a variety of wines, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, and Rosé. The fruit is sourced from several different vineyards, and Shaina has this to say about them: “. . . we want to make sure that all the vineyards we source from are sustainably farmed [and] everything is hand-worked. I only work with growers that I know.”

When it comes to her winemaking philosophy, she likes to let the wines do their thing, at least until she thinks they need a course correction. As she says, “I’m a nurturer. I’m not totally laissez-faire, but I want [my wine] to grow up to be the best thing that it can be. If you just do gentle things to help it along, it will tend to turn into its best self.” Shaina loves being among the vines and working in the vineyards, but her heart lies in the cellar, gently guiding her wines from juice and must to bottled joy.