Background

Andrea was born in Memphis, Tennessee.  Her family then moved to Arkansas where they owned a farm property and where she developed a fondness for the land and all things growing.  Later on, the family picked up and moved to urban Texas where she missed the country life (although she did get to go to a Janis Joplin concert!).  Although she is a CPA by training (UT Austin), she's equally at ease handling a chainsaw or a hoe as she is handling a calculator or financial software.  Planting and caring for a vineyard allowed her to reconnect with the land.

Jacques was born in Quebec City, Canada.  Later on, his family moved to the big city (Montréal) where he spent his formative years.  French is his native language and he did not learn to speak English until he was 12 years old when his parents wisely started to send him to summer camp in New Hampshire, where he was the only French speaking kid in camp.  Before California, he has also lived in Berlin (Germany), Ithaca (NY), Ottawa (Canada) and Arlington (TX).  He is an engineer and a scientist by trade (Ph.D. in Applied & Engineering Physics and Physical Chemistry, Cornell University) and spent most of his "day-job" career in the Semiconductor Manufacturing industry, which he enjoyed very much.  The same combination of curiosity, thirst for learning and wanting to know how things work which sent him in that direction in the first place (plus the fact that wine is a much more interesting end product than computer chips) also drove his interest for wine later on in life.

Unbeknownst to either of them, a very special winegrowing team was in the works. All they had to do is cross paths.