Susan Rodriguez Vasquez (Susy) was born and raised in Cochabamba, Bolivia, the daughter of two professors. Spending her youth in the countryside led to a love of plant physiology and a B.S. in Agronomy, Viticulture, and Enology from the Universidad Mayor de San Simon in 2001. She relocated to California shortly after graduating to pursue an internship at the California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, to focus on organic crops. Susy then joined E. and J. Gallo, serving as its liaison between its winemakers and vineyards from which it sourced fruit. This experience triggered her interest in winemaking and prompted her to complete the Winemaking Certificate Program at the University of California, Davis.

She was appointed as associate research winemaker at Gallo in the Central Valley in mid-2006, followed by joining Constellation Brands in late 2013 as winemaker. Among her other experiences with Constellation was spending the entire 2015 vintage at Kim Crawford, part of the firm’s portfolio in New Zealand. She remained with the company until mid-2016, when she moved to the Peltier Winery in Acampo as its winemaker, continuing there until mid-2022. At that time, she became part of the LangeTwins Family Winery and Vineyards team as its senior winemaker.

In terms of winemaking, Susy’s favorite challenge is working with the natural product and understanding that the vineyards can deliver something different each year. In her opinion, the perfect wine doesn’t exist, as each wine presents its own unique challenge from vintage to vintage. Her most important goal is to craft a wine that leaves the customer desiring a second glass. As part of this, Susy likes to take wines in new directions, attributing this to her time at Gallo, where she was able to do research and trials, activities that come naturally to her. One notable result of these was Peltier’s 2016 Sauvignon Blanc, for which she implemented skin-contact fermentation along with multiple trials with yeasts.