{"id":2681,"date":"2024-10-23T16:54:45","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T16:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/?p=2681"},"modified":"2024-10-23T16:54:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T16:54:46","slug":"meet-frank-familys-new-winemaker-alicia-sylvester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/meet-frank-familys-new-winemaker-alicia-sylvester\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Frank Family’s New Winemaker Alicia Sylvester"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Todd Graff, Senior Winemaker and General Manager, is pleased to announce the addition of Alicia Sylvester to the Frank Family team as Winemaker. In her role, Alicia will help Graff oversee all aspects of wine production at Frank Family Vineyards, from the vineyards to the cellar and the lab. Alicia will support Frank Family’s goal of producing estate driven wines from some of Napa Valley’s finest vineyard sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlicia joins Frank Family Vineyards with more than a decade of global winemaking experience working across a broad array of vineyards and wine styles,\u201d says Graff. \u201cShe brings an immense passion for winemaking and an infectious \u2018can-do anything\u2019 attitude to our team and we\u2019re lucky to have her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to joining Frank Family Vineyards, Alicia spent nearly 10 years at Foley Family Wines. She was an Assistant Winemaker at Lancaster Estate in Sonoma\u2019s Alexander Valley, then Head Winemaker at Merus Wines based in St. Helena, Napa Valley. Both of these roles honed her skills and knowledge of working with Cabernet Sauvignon. Most recently, she was Head Winemaker at Banshee Wines in Sonoma, where she worked with site-specific cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have long admired Frank Family Vineyards and am excited to have the mentorship of longtime winemaker Todd Graff,\u201d says Sylvester. \u201cHis dedication over the past two decades has been instrumental in shaping Frank Family’s reputation as a world-class producer and I look forward to working alongside him for many vintages to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
From left: Cellar Master, Armando Padilla, Winemaker, Alicia Sylvester, Senior Winemaker and General Manager, Todd Graff, and Enologist, Katie Sears<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Alicia earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in agriculture business with a minor in wine and viticulture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Upon graduation, inspired by the diverse wine regions around the world, she worked harvests internationally, gaining invaluable knowledge from her experience in regions such as Australia, Italy, South Africa and Argentina. In 2013, Alicia returned to the U.S. and eagerly jumped into harvest at Chateau Montelena, where she proudly became the first woman to receive the \u201cgolden shovel\u201d award since 1975, shoveling a total of 165 tons of grape must throughout harvest. The following year, she became a Chardonnay harvest enologist at Sonoma-Cutrer, focusing on crafting high-quality, terroir-driven Chardonnays. She later joined Foley Family Wines while simultaneously earning her wine certificate from University of California, Davis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born and raised in California, Alicia\u2019s love for the state\u2019s agriculture is rooted in her upbringing on her family\u2019s almond farm and 20-acre Zinfandel vineyard in the Central Valley. Her early exposure to farming and involvement in 4-H fostered a strong work ethic and helped shape her career path to where she is now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Todd Graff, Senior Winemaker and General Manager, is pleased to announce the addition of Alicia Sylvester to the Frank Family team as Winemaker. In her role, Alicia will help Graff oversee all aspects of wine production at Frank Family Vineyards, from the vineyards to the cellar and the lab. Alicia will support Frank Family’s goal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[18,14,101,103],"class_list":["post-2681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","tag-napa-valley","tag-wine","tag-winemaker","tag-women-in-wine"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/1500X1000-13.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/parYsd-Hf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankfamilyvineyards.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}