Andrew Harwood
As a young boy, Andrew dreamed of being on TV. More specifically, on the evening news, as the weatherman. His love of wind patterns and occluded fronts even stayed with him through high school, where he landed a coveted internship at the US Naval Academy’s oceanography department, placing him squarely on the fast track in the meteorology world.
Then life happened, and the realization that he may not be cut out for academia (or TV). But in college, while waiting tables in a fancy restaurant, he caught the wine bug. No coincidence really, given weather’s outsize influence on the grape, but no matter the reason, he was hooked.
With college in the rearview mirror, he moved to New York City and worked in more fancy restaurants until one day, he moved to Hungary. To Tokaj, specifically, home of the nectar they call Aszú. As for why, long story, but he was working in the cellar, in the vineyard, and getting dirty.
He went on to earn a masters degree from Cornell’s Hotel School, followed by a memorable stint at Château Lynch-Bages in Bordeaux, before becoming the assistant winemaker at Limerick Lane Cellars in Healdsburg, California. Here, he would befriend the proprietor, Michael Collins, with whom he remained close, even after moving back to New York City two years later to found NYC Wine Company, a wine school and events company.
Fast forward to 2020, and Andrew moves back to Healdsburg to farm the Collins Vineyard. The fruit he grows becomes the wine he makes for Workshop Cellars, created by Andrew and his wife, Melissa, and inspired by their children, George and Eloise.
Melissa Iacono
Melissa went to college to study marine biology, ditched that, and graduated with a degree in political science, all of which prepared her well to move to New York City, attend culinary school, and begin working sixty hours a week for meager pay in the kitchens of New York.
A few years later, bored with the predictable trajectory of her life, she left the kitchen and took a job in the wholesale department of a New York cheese distributor, allowing her to keep working in the food industry (her first love), and to rediscover what a ‘weekend’ was. She did well, and within a few years, oversaw new business development, and a few years after that, she found herself integrating the company’s multiple technology platforms, and getting them all to talk to each other. No one, including herself, saw a career path in IT coming.
She’s moved on from cheese and is still in technology. She’s good at it, but she’s even better at understanding flavor and food (her first love) and is excited to once again be getting her hands dirty and turning raw ingredients into things that taste good, and make people happy. Starting with her first harvest in 2018, she is involved in everything we do here at Workshop Cellars, and the hardest worker we have.
Anastasio Sanchez Castro
Anastasio Castro has been working at the Collins Vineyard for forty-six years and counting. He is the lifeblood of this ranch; his knowledge and intuition of every row of vines is indispensable to the health and vitality of this vineyard, and we are blessed to have him. (I usually try to avoid such flowery language, but here it is well deserved.)
Born on Christmas Day, 1953 in Michoacán, Mexico, he was one of nine children. He arrived to the states in the mid 1970’s, when work was plentiful, but safeguards for the workers were not. Fortunately, after bouncing around from one vineyard job to the next, he met Michael Collins, who had recently purchased a vineyard in much need of ongoing help, and the rest is history.
He works and lives on the ranch, and brings joy to the whole property. His intuition for vineyards is unparalleled. From pruning to suckering, irrigation to canopy management, he does it all without thinking, and yet thinking all the time. He is vigilant and careful, yet quick to remind that the vineyard, with proper care, largely self sustains. He is a friend to the vineyard, and a friend to us all.