Couloir Wines - About Us

Couloir Wines Founder and Winemaker Jon Grant is also the Assistant Winemaker at Turley Wine Cellars and has worked in the cellars of Napa Valley's top wineries, including PlumpJack Winery, Corison Winery and Robert Mondavi Winery. Jon fervently believes different vineyard sites create different wines, each expressing its own nuance and character. This project allows him to explore this notion in-depth through the production of single-vineyard Pinot noir.

Jon's love for and appreciation of fine wine developed out of his passion for great skiing. While managing the wine store at Snowbird in Utah he discovered his true maître and began maintaining the wine programs for Snowbird's six fine-dining rooms.

This led to Jon's education about, and hands-on involvement in, winemaking. He established Napa Valley as his home and began working at several top wineries. Jon was appointed Wine Educator and Direct Marketing Coordinator for the Robert Mondavi Winery, where he trained in Viticultural Research and Winemaking. During this time, he honed his palate by continuously tasting wines from around the globe, believing in the importance of being intimately knowledgeable about all of wine's potentials and complexities.

Cathy Corison of Corison Winery hired Jon as Winemaking Assistant, producing red Bordeaux varietals from select vineyards in the Napa Valley, as well as performing various vineyard operations. He then ventured to Plumpjack Winery in Oakville to help produce Estate and Reserve Cabernet Sauvignons under the tutelage of winemaker Nils Venge. Jon worked harvests and gained experience with small-lot fermentations, the knowledge of which has served him well and helped lay the groundwork for Couloir Wines.

Jon's well-rounded background allows him to fully understand the intricate correlation between the vineyard and the final bottle of wine. With this knowledge, Jon's winemaking procedures are deliberately minimal, recognizing that the right grape in the right vineyard can produce wines of great character and expression. Through the wines he produces, Jon's devotion to quality sets his work apart in all of his winemaking endeavors.

Couloir, meaning a steep mountainside gorge, appeals to Jon's predilection for ski mountaineering. Couloir Wines delivers handcrafted wines with a sense of place and time, demonstrating true varietal character and appeal.

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