David Munksgard, Winemaker

David Munksgard is Iron Horse Vineyards’ winemaker. He joined Iron Horse in February 1996, bringing with him 16 years of experience in producing premium sparkling and still wine in California's Russian River Valley and New York's Finger Lakes region.

Now in 2010, after 14 years serving as winemaker for Iron Horse, David still sees his position here as evolving much as he sees the wines. “Our goal here is to make better wines each year. That really keeps you on your toes, forces you to re-think everything, nothing is sacred, nothing is cast in stone.” Believing that great wines start with great grapes, David has further involved himself with the details of the vineyard.  “Here I am 30 years into my career when most would be contemplating retirement and I’m so excited about our future wines I can hardly be contained.”

David is a 1980 graduate of the Enology/Viticulture program at California State University, Fresno.  David and Page, his wife of 38 years, have two sons: Vincent, a teacher who is married and has two sons, and Sterling, who is pursuing a career in law enforcement. Page is registrar at the local Junior College Public Safety Training Center.

Of his winemaker position at Iron Horse, "I'm doing everything I've always wanted to do. I'm working with estate-grown grapes; I'm making still and sparkling wines; I'm working for and with some very fine people all of whom are driven by one single goal--to make wonderful wines that we can all be proud of.  

Summing up his feelings about winemaking, David concludes with: “For those of us who are fortunate enough to have found ourselves in winemaking, it is not that we should be winemakers, we simply MUST BE winemakers. Nothing else will satisfy that need to craft; to imprint onto and into our wines what we feel and see when we walk the vineyard and dream of what it might be.”

Read David's latest issue of "Cellar Chat"