Sonoe Hirabayashi was born in Japan to a family whose ancestors had been making sake, soy sauce and miso for generations. She continued the ancestral tradition by becoming a California winemaker, a second career for her.

She was working in New York City for a Japanese import/export company when she became enamored of wine and was thinking of a career change. Sonoe’s thinking at the time was to become a Certified Public Accountant, but, in her own words, “I realized that I would be more satisfied in a career where I made something, rather than being on a computer all day and not creating anything. I believed I could do something with wine. I was confident that I had a pretty decent, sensitive palate. I thought about pursuing the path of a wine critic or a sommelier, but criticizing someone else's wine is as easy as it gets. Doing that doesn't create anything. I wouldn't leave a legacy with those jobs.” Serendipitously, she spotted an article in Wine Spectator about the wine program at the University of California, Davis, and realized that this was an opportunity to combine the science of winemaking with its art.

After earning a B.S. degree in Viticulture & Enology in 2011, Sonoe embarked on a series of harvest internships, both in California and abroad. She first worked in New Zealand (Kusuda Wines, Spring 2012), followed by the Sonoma County (Gary Farrell Vineyards and Winery, Fall 2012), Chile (Montsecano, Spring 2013), and Sonoma Coast (Littorai, Fall/Spring 2013/2014). She chose her internships carefully, with the purpose of working with highly acclaimed winemakers such as Steve Matthiasson and Ted Lemon in order to deepen her wine knowledge with them. In early 2015, Sonoe joined DRNK Wines in Sebastopol as their enologist before taking a similar position with Sebastiani Vineyards in mid-2016.

Sonoe founded Six Cloves Wines LLC in 2017 to produce and market wine to Japanese and US consumers. She sources her grapes from several vineyards, including Benguerel Family Vineyard (Primitivo), Millen Vineyard (Cabernet Sauvignon), and Pyaleh Vineyard (Merlot) in the Sonoma County, and Linda Vista Vineyard (Chardonnay) in the Napa Valley. Her winemaking philosophy is as follows: “My winemaking is all centered on making the grapes shine. Winemakers have a tendency to try to manipulate things. That's part of a winemaker's skills. Some people think that has to be shown in the wine. Heavily manipulated wine doesn't show the quality of grapes and their growers. I keep that in mind at all times. Technically speaking, I do know how to manipulate. My goal is to not do that. I want to be a mediator for the grapes and their growers. I want consumers to know that I just play a part in making wine from great grapes. I deliver the final product to my consumers, but it all starts with the growers.”

When not producing and marketing her wines, Sonoe participates in a group of Japanese women who play Japanese Taiko drums, focusing on modern Taiko and traditional Japanese music. It provides an opportunity for her to share her heritage at local and Bay Area Japanese cultural events.