Isadora Frias, born and raised in a small Brazilian town, was attracted to food and drink-related subjects. She had an aptitude for scientific topics such as mathematics and chemistry. This led her to earn a degree in Food Engineering in 2014 from the prestigious Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Her studies there were interrupted by a strike at the school, which prompted her to travel the world in the interim. During this period, she completed a harvest internship in Australia’s Barossa Valley, an experience that convinced her to pursue winemaking as a career. In her own words, “I absolutely loved it [the internship]. It was my first experience in winemaking ever and I got “showered with wine”. I worked 6 days a week for 2 months with almost no days off.

After returning to the university for her degree, she held additional harvest internships throughout the world—Blenheim, New Zealand (Indevin Group), Santa Rosa, California (La CremaWinery), and Colchagua, Chile (LFE Wines)—before enrolling in the M.S. program at the University of California, Davis, in 2017.

After completing her degree in 2019, Isadora joined Jackson Family Wines as harvest enologist for its Carneros Hills Winery. She then moved to Thomas George Estates in Healdsburg as its enologist, before joining ONEHOPE Wine in the Napa Valley in mid-2021. There, she quickly rose from being assistant and then associate winemaker to the role of winemaker in mid-2023. She had demonstrated adaptability, attention to detail, and aptitude to deal with finances and planning during her two-year climb to her current position.