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Born and raised in Milwaukee, where her father spent much of his career working in production at Miller Brewery Company, Maggie was fascinated by fermentation science at an early age. Before becoming a brewer, he served as a U.S. Navy officer in the San Francisco area and fell in love with Napa and Sonoma wine country’s climate and lifestyle. His daughter grew up watching her parents enjoy a good bottle of wine with dinner, and frequent family vacations to wine country piqued Maggie’s interest in a winemaking career.
Maggie moved to the Napa Valley after high school graduation and studied at Napa Valley College while awaiting acceptance into the University of California, Davis. She tackled wine internships between semesters at UC-Davis, and her first harvest at Clos LaChance reaffirmed her belief that she was destined to make wine. At UC-Davis, Maggie worked in the laboratory of respected sensory scientist, Dr. Hildegarde Heymann, helping develop her sensory analysis skills.
After graduating from UC-Davis in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in viticulture and enology, Maggie worked for J Vineyards & Winery in the Russian River Valley, before transitioning to the laboratory at Jordan. She worked closely with long-time Winemaker Rob Davis on wine quality improvement programs initiated by John Jordan, fine-tuning barrel sourcing, cork selections and the bottling process while Davis focused on locating even better vineyards for grapes. After being promoted to assistant winemaker in 2009, she began overseeing all aspects of barrel ordering, cork quality control and bottling, as well as managing the cellar work.
She was promoted to associate winemaker in 2016 as recognition for her strong work ethic and diverse skill set.
As winemaker at Jordan, Maggie oversees all aspects of managing the day-to-day operations in the cellars, including quality control experiments, fermentation monitoring, tank and lot organizing, selecting and inspecting barrels, blending, batonnage, selecting corks and bottles, bottling and labeling. She works closely with Dana Grande and Brent Young on guiding the grapes from the vineyard to the winery. Maggie’s dedication to quality has taken her to Portugal several times to learn about cork-making and to the forests of France to study barrel-crafting.
She resides in Windsor with her husband and daughter. When she’s not at the winery, she enjoys cooking and traveling with her family.