Courtney manages the importing, sales, and marketing for our family's wine business. She graduated from Princeton University, and wrote the business plan to plant pinot noir in the hills of Casablanca while in graduate school at Stanford. Courtney lives near San Francisco with her husband Andy Pflaum and their daughters Annie, Louisa and Caroline.
Michael was born and raised on the farm in Casablanca during the 1940's and 50's, where he learned to be an entrepreneur. Michael saved for his college education at Princeton with his start-up pig business, which began with one very pregnant sow and peaked at 1,000 piglets. After retiring from a 38-year international career at Citibank, Michael lives in New Jersey with his wife Louise, traveling back & forth to Chile several times a year.
Byron has specialized in California Pinot Noir since 1987, spending 14 years at Saintsbury in Napa before venturing out on his own in 2001. He now consults and makes wine for a handful of small brands, including his own, B Kosuge Wines, Miura Vineyards, and Kingston Family. Byron was trained both as a winemaker and a literary scholar at UCDavis, and laments that he does not have much time to read books these days. He lives in Napa with his wife Mary and daughter Audrey.
Evelyn, our winemaker, joined us in 2005 when we were so small that we didn't even have our own winery. Before Kingston, Evelyn worked three harvests in Napa and Sonoma in California and studied at the Universidad de Chile. Evelyn met Byron in 2003 when she was working harvest at MacRostie in Sonoma. Evelyn is a rising star among Chilean winemakers and has been featured in several articles on the emergence of women winemakers in Chile. She lives with her husband Cristián and their daughter Josefina in Santiago.
Enrique leads the Chilean contingent of the extended Kingston family. He is our gerente general in Chile, and brings over 30 years of experience in Chilean agriculture to our small team. Enrique and his wife, Sally Kingston, met at a Chilean rodeo in the 1970's. Enrique, Sally, their daughters and grandchildren share their time between their homes in Santiago and Casablanca.
Alejandra joined us in January 2010 as our assistant winemaker. She studied winemaking at the Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile, and worked harvests in Spain and New Zealand before joining us in Casablanca. Alejandra loves being involved in all aspects of winemaking from the vineyard to the bottle. She hosts most visits to our winery, and particularly enjoys sharing a glass of Cariblanco out on our terraza with our guests.
Years ago, Barbara traded a career in software development at IBM to join us at our Northern California office. She manages our US import and sales operations, handles all wine orders, and ensures your Kingston wines arrive on your doorstep without a hitch. Barbara lives in Portola Valley with her husband Austen and a teenaged Korean Jindo dog named Hope.
