Discover the brilliant individuals behind the Wine and Food Festival event. Find out how these people have honed their craft into an art.
Jack Stuart
Winemaker
Benessere Vineyards, Ltd., St. Helena, California
Jack Stuart has made wine in every California vintage since 1975. He is recipient of the Robert Mondavi Trophy for Winemaker of the Year of the International Wine and Spirit Competition, as well as accolades from the Wine Spectator, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, and numerous other publications.
Before coming to Benessere, Stuart helped establish Silverado Vineyards, a Napa Valley estate known for the quality of its wines. In his long career, he has overseen vineyard development, building projects, wine production, marketing, and winery management.
Active in industry affairs, Jack Stuart is past president of both the Napa Valley Vintners and the Stags Leap District Winegrowers Association. He sits on the Enology Committee of the American Vineyard Foundation and chairs the Projects Committee of the Land Trust of Napa County.
Stuart is a fifth-generation Californian who grew up among Santa Clara Valley orchards. He received a bachelor’s degree from Stanford and took his graduate study in viticulture and enology at the University of California at Davis. He lives in St. Helena with his wife, Loraine, a director of St. Helena Family Center.
Bob Iantosca
Winemaker
Gloria Ferrer Caves and Vineyards
Bob Iantosca has created more award-winning California sparkling wines than any other single winemaker. His vision and desire for challenge were revealed to the Ferrer family in the 1980s, when searching for available Pinot Noir clones led him initially to clonal trails on the estate vineyard with VP Production Mike Crumly, and eventually to visits to Champagne for greater research. Twenty years later, he is an undisputed expert in heritage vine selections. With the support of the Ferrer family and their Old World approach to winemaking, complemented by his close collaboration with Mike Crumly, Bob has cultivated Gloria Ferrer’s estate vineyards from 20 to 335 acres, experimented with some 20 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir selections, and led the winery to expand its repertoire to include intensely flavorful cool-climate estate varietal wines.
Iantosca is painstaking in the practice of winemaking. “I love what I do because there is always something new to learn about the land and the grapes,” says Iantosca, who has devoted most of his professional life to capturing the distinctive Carneros terroir in wines, richly expressive of their birthplace, that are made to pair perfectly with food.
“Working at Gloria Ferrer from the winery’s beginning has been a tremendous opportunity,” says Iantosca. His almost 25-year working relationship with Mike Crumly, who shares his attention to detail and love of the land, has made all the difference in the quality of the sparkling and estate varietal wines they create. “The synergy between the winemaking and winegrowing teams is one of our greatest benefits, particularly when it comes to Pinot Noir,” says Bob. “Mike and I have studied every block, year after year, with the ability to choose the rootstocks, clones, trellising, vine spacing — everything we need to make the best sparkling and estate varietal wines from these Carneros vineyard sites.”
Bob Iantosca’s wife, Julia, is also a winemaker. They live in Santa Rosa, where their professions extend into their personal lives with the cultivation of more than six acres of Pinot Noir. When not making wine, Iantosca enjoys spending time with their daughters, Catherine and Elizabeth, mountain biking, steelhead fishing, and outdoor cooking.