CREW
Winegrowing Team
Shelby Perkins Winegrower
Shelby hails from upstate New York. Shelby went on to Skidmore College intending to study studio art but instead fell in love with the historical geology class she took for a science requirement - ending up with degrees in business, geology, and environmental studies. Always drawn to the outdoors, Perkins became a river guide and water testing lab assistant in Bend, Oregon after graduation. After a couple of years in the Northwest skiing, boarding, floating and climbing, she studied environmental law at Vermont Law School, eventually earning two law degrees — a Juris Doctor and Master of Studies in Environmental Law — along with a Certificate in European Union Law at the University of Amsterdam. Shelby worked as a nuclear weapons waste cleanup policy assistant and later a nuclear waste attorney-advisor for the U.S. Department of Energy. After traveling to Antarctica in 2006, Shelby was inspired to follow a more creative and peaceful path and found wine amidst the scurry of Washington, D.C. lobbying events and dinners. Wine was a life raft out of conversations about intellectual property and campaign finance. The sommeliers of D.C. threw her a lifejacket and pulled her aboard…so she got paddling. After several stints in the wine cellars of Napa and Sonoma and making a vintages of Old Vine Zinfandel from the R. Teldeschi Vineyard planted in 1889, Shelby dropped out of the MW program and changed course one final time. She flew to Oregon to make Chardonnay from Johan Vineyard after Dan Rinke responded to her “want ad” for biodynamic Chardonnay. In 2018, she founded the Bracken Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills with her husband, Peter Harter. Now focused on growing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Aligoté and Pinot Meunier, the couple looks forward to many years exploring their place in the Eola Hills through the wines they grow.
Peter Harter RESEARCH, HARD LABOR Chainsaw + ESPRESSO
Peter is from Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. His day job requires him to bridge the ecosystems of technology, business, law, venture finance and politics. He builds software and provides advice to management, boards and investors concerning the making of law and policy. His expertise areas include patents, copyrights, open source, cybersecurity, export controls, voting, antitrust, fission and fusion energy, big data, AI, and rural broadband. Peter’s career began in 1993 as an Internet lawyer. He broadened his career in Silicon Valley during the 1990’s as head of global government affairs for Netscape and EMusic.com and in business development and sales for Securify. He deepened his experience in policy in Washington, DC, lobbying on patent reform for Intellectual Ventures. Peter is a graduate of Lehigh University and Villanova Law School. Peter is as adept at stacking cases of wine while devising political and regulatory strategies on conference calls as he is managing a burn pile, digging poison oak and blackberry, weed whacking, removing varmints from traps, wheelbarrowing gravel/dirt/rocks/bark chips, digging pits for biodynamic cow horns, running a chainsaw or pulling shots at the espresso machine.
It took us years to find a vineyard team who have their hearts in the game. Stirling has an incredible wealth of farming and wine experience and Juan is one of the best vineyard managers and problem-solvers out there. We are honored to have Stirling Vineyard Management as part of our winegrowing team.
Stirling Fox, Juan Cruz + TEAM
“Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear.”
- Pema Chödrön
Label ArtISts
Mara G. Haseltine
V2022
Mara G. Haseltine is an international artist, a pioneer in the field of SciArt, and an environmental activist and educator. Haseltine collaborates with scientists and engineers to create work that addresses the link between our cultural and biological evolution. Her work takes place in the studio, lab and field, infusing scientific inquiry with poetry. She was a pioneer in the translation of scientific data and bioinformatics into three-dimensional sculptures and became known for her outsized renditions of microscopic and sub-microscopic life. She created the first solar-powered oyster reef in NYC and has extensively studied sustainable reef restoration methods for the past 15 years, fusing art with sustainable solutions for ‘SIDS,’ Small Island Developing States at the United Nations. Haseltine has been a contributing member of the Explorers Club since 2008. She was awarded Return of the Flag with Honors for her work on the high seas with Tara Expeditions studying atmospheric climate change and its relationship to planktonic ecosystems. Haseltine’s work is refreshing in the world of environmental and biomedical art because of its surreal, often-playful and witty nature, as well as her intense devotion to ascetics and sensuality. www.calamara.com
Erin Currier
V2021
Erin Currier is not only a phenomenal painter, but a humanist, a world-traveler - and an absolute joy of a friend. She explores how the commonalities of human beings far outweigh our differences. She notes that our divisions are often either superficial or artificially created based on racial, economic, and national ideologies - because where we are similar is of a more profound metaphysical caliber: the bond between brothers, the love between mother and child, the kinship shared through creative endeavors; these run like threads in the great fabric of generations. The reasons behind her use of recycled material are multilayered. First, she believes that artists have always used materials close-at-hand. She uses what is most readily available at the time - waste from our globalized consumer culture. Secondly, her use of trash is a spiritual practice in the sense that it is transfigured into something of beauty. Finally, using post-consumer waste is a socio-political act: it is both a form of recycling, and it expresses our interconnectedness and commonalities as human beings - in what we value, consume, and cast away. www.erincurrierfineart.com
Kara Maria
V2019
Kara Maria produces paintings and works on paper that reflect on political themes such as feminism, war, and the environment. She borrows from the broad vocabulary of contemporary painting; blending geometric shapes, vivid hues, and abstract marks, with representational elements. Maria received her BA and MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States. Both Kara and I grew up in Binghamton, New York…our mothers were in book club together and in Kara I find a a kindred spirit, a comrade. We have corresponded for several years but have never met in person. I look forward to the day we finally hug in greeting. www.karamaria.com
Ellen G. Harter
V2018
Ellen Grim Harter grew up sketching with her grandfather, painter Walter Emerson Baum. Baum was one of the foremost Pennsylvania impressionist painters of the early 20th Century, a founder of the Baum School of Art, and the Allentown Art Museum. After preparation with her grandfather, Ellen entered the Yale Art School in 1956. To gain admittance, she interviewed with the color theorist and Bauhaus master Josef Albers, who admitted her. When she ran outside to tell her parents the good news they were in disbelief - so she ran inside and asked Albers again whether she, as a young woman, had truly had been admitted to the Yale Art School. Albers confirmed the good news and it was in his class where she met Peter’s father, Michael Harter. A love story immersed in art.
Pierre Toutain-Dorbec
V2016-17
I met Pierre Toutain-Dorbec in Truchas, New Mexico in the summer of 2008 after driving past his gallery. I backed up my car and pulled into the gallery driveway to meet this other rust-loving artist. Together with our better halves, we became fast friends and spent the rest of the summer taking in art adventures in Southwest. Pierre is a Franco-American photographer, artist, author, and publisher whose work emphasizes a humanist perspective. He and Claudia Toutain-Dorbec are two of our favorite humans on Earth. www.pierretoutain.com
Randy Pijoan
V2012-2015
Well known for his landscape, "nightscape," "phrasist" paintings, as well as his book illustrations, Randy is an amazing artist with a big heart. Randy's roots and heart are in Northern New Mexico and Central Colorado, but he has explored many corners of our contemporary world. Randy’s wife Evy McLean is also a very talented painter and printmaker. Her work is inspired by the natural world - zooming in on the intricate details of small, curious forms, she enlarges the images to exponential sizes.
DoG TEAM
Pork Chop Vineyard Research (EMeritus)
A well-traveled and adventure-seeking canine with a discerning palate, this quick-decision maker is a integral part of the Perkins Harter team when not herding grapes, sipping martinis or napping. Born in 2010, Chops is the Elder Statesman of the dog pack and is primarily focused on home security.
Tater Tot Gopher Patrol
He’s feisty: he whines, he won’t come, he jumps up and eats bees. Some might consider him a terrible misbehaving dog with bad breath - but this snuggle hound is a masterful gopher hunter, so we might just keep him. Born in 2019, Deputy Tater represents the second generation of our ranch security force and is primarily focused on winegrower security and project supervision throughout the vineyard.
“The future of humanity lies in the hearts and minds of people that pursue frontiers with curiosity and perseverance and passion.”
— Kathy Sullivan, Astronaut