Winemaking Team

Kris Curran, Winemaker

Winemaker Kris Curran grew up in the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County, California. While growing up in the “Valley” Kris had the opportunity to raise many animals and was a member of Pony Club, 4-H and FFA. After completing a degree in Animal Science at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Kris became fascinated with the wine industry and pursued a winemaking degree at Fresno State University.

Shortly after graduating, Kris became the Assistant Winemaker at Cambria Winery in Santa Maria, where she worked directly with Cambria's winemaker to create some award-winning Cambria wines. This experience led to an offer to be the winemaker and general manager for Koehler Winery, located in Los Olivos. In addition to crafting Koehler's first vintage of both red and white wines, Kris was responsible for overseeing the winery’s development from its inception.

In 2000, Kris was tapped by Sea Smoke Cellars to set up their winery and head the winemaking team. At Sea Smoke she focused solely on Pinot Noir produced from their estate grown vineyards in the Santa Rita Hills appellation.

From there, Kris was appointed Director of Winemaking at Lincourt Vineyards. Currently, Kris oversees all winemaking at Lincourt Vineyards, and is also instrumental in guiding the focus of the estate vineyard, from which Kris intends to grow and translate the best fruit possible from this outstanding appellation.

Winemaking Team

Kris Curran is joined in the cellar by Assistant Winemaker Maurice Boyd and Enologist Colin Murphy.  Assistant Winemaker Maurice Boyd is a 20-year veteran of the Santa Barbara County wine industry, while Colin is also an industry veteran and brings a wealth of knowledge to the winemaking team.  Working as a team, Kris, Maurice, Colin and the rest of the production team continually strive to coax the greatest complexity out of the grapes.