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Growing up in Sonoma County, Dana was always intrigued by vineyards even though she didn’t have a family connection to the wine business. While working on her biology degree, she was hired to run the vineyard office for Hoot Owl Creek and Alexander Valley Vineyards in 1994.
At harvest time, she quickly realized that the real action was in the vineyard and learned how to drive a forklift—while wearing sandals and a sundress.
Her enthusiasm for vineyard work led to additional duties, such as monitoring vineyards for pests, disease, irrigation problems and uniformity issues. Dana soon enrolled in extension classes at the University of California, Davis, and she advanced to the role of viticulturist at work.
She joined Jordan for the first time in 1999 as estate viticulturist, working to ensure precision farming techniques and sustainable farming practices were applied in harmony. She served as viticulturist until 2008 when she was promoted to vineyard manager and her cousin, Brent Young, joined Jordan to lead viticulture experiments. After 13 harvests at Jordan Estate, she moved to Ferrari-Carano Winery to be grower relations manager—a position that longtime winemaker Rob Davis always handled at Jordan. After his retirement in 2019, Winemaker Maggie Kruse approached Dana about returning to the Jordan family in this newly created role—and the rest is history.
Dana works closely with more than a dozen cabernet sauvignon grape growers and about a half-dozen chardonnay grape growers for Jordan’s two singular wines. Her long relationship with our winemaker, her intimate knowledge of microclimates and soils throughout Northern Sonoma County and her expertise in viticulture are utilized to advise growers on how best to optimize their practices to produce grapes for Jordan’s balanced style of wine.
She has two daughters, and her husband also works in the wine business. They reside in Healdsburg.