Meet Jordan Winery’s Winemaking Team

This spring, Winemaker Maggie Kruse has been busy filling the shoes of John Duckett, our long-time assistant winemaker, who left the winery earlier this year. The new Jordan winemaking team is now on board—just in time for bottling, reopening and harvesting our 45th vintage. We’d like to introduce you to our very own Fab Four.

Ryan Selby, Production Manager (pictured above, far right): A native of New York, Ryan fell in love with the wine industry working as an assistant winemaker at Robibero Family Vineyards in New Paltz, New York. Ryan decided to pursue his passion for wine and moved to Sonoma County working as a harvest intern at Twomey Cellars, and later became the cellar lead at Dutton Estate Winery. Ryan’s most recent position was as technical director of operations at Mavrik North America, a specialized filtration company–where he worked as Jordan’s point person for all our specialized filtration projects over the last three years. When he’s not working, Ryan enjoys playing bass guitar and hiking with his rescue dog, Dexter. Fun fact about Ryan: while he has never had a Facebook account, he did go to high school with Mark Zuckerberg.

Kari Van Dyk, Assistant Winemaker (pictured above, next to Ryan): Kari was promoted to assistant winemaker this spring. She has been with the Jordan family since 2015 as a bottling intern. After graduating in 2017 from University of California Davis with a B.S. in Viticulture and Enology, Kari returned to Jordan for her first harvest—and is very excited about this upcoming release in August as this will be her first Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon from harvest to bottle. She was mentored by winemaker Maggie Kruse and previous assistant winemaker John Duckett as she was promoted from an intern to enologist in 2018 and 2019. When she isn’t at the winery, you can find Kari working on her aunt and uncle’s vineyard in Russian River Valley where she’s practicing her winegrowing techniques with the guidance of Dana Grande, Jordan’s grower relations manager. Kari also enjoys painting, calligraphy, wood working and hiking.

Maggie Kruse, Winemaker (pictured above, far left): Maggie, who was promoted to head winemaker in 2019, oversees both winemaking and winegrowing at Jordan. Maggie joined Jordan in 2006 as enologist and was mentored by longtime Jordan winemaker and winegrower Rob Davis, who retired in 2019 after his 43rd growing season. She is only the second winemaker in Jordan history. When she’s not at the winery, she enjoys cooking and traveling with her family.

Heriberto Renteria, Cellar Master (pictured above, next to Maggie): Heriberto, also known as “Heri” by his friends, family and coworkers, has been a part of the Jordan cellar team since 1996. He has worked his way up to cellar supervisor and became Jordan’s cellar master in 2016. He has been an integral part of the production team and has helped keep the consistency of Jordan for decades now.