by Michelle J. Baker
It’s always been a family affair at ZD Wines. Back in 1969 when Norman de Leuze and a business partner started ZD, every weekend, holiday and vacation Norman and his wife, Rosa Lee, would gather their three children and drive from Sacramento, where they lived and Norman worked as an aerospace engineer, to Sonoma, where the start-up winery operated out of a small rented building in Carneros. With his small children helping as they could, Norman set out the make wines like the great Burgundies from France.
Meanwhile, Rosa Lee was heading the winery’s sales and marketing efforts, hosting new release parties at the winery and selling wine to accounts throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. She also worked hard to keep the family happy while the couple was getting the winery off the ground. The de Leuze’s never missed the opportunity to celebrate, and Rosa Lee was always at the heart of those celebrations. Whether it was a birthday, holiday or harvest party, she always brought the family together to share food, merriment and of course, wine.
Sadly, Norman de Leuze passed away on October 26, 2007 at the age of 75 after a four-year battle with cancer. Norman took great pride in knowing that he created a business that brought his family together, where each member could participate and contribute in their own unique way. Over the years, Norman measured his success through the happiness of his immediate family and his extended family of employees at the winery.
The three de Leuze children are now all partners in the winery. Oldest son Robert joined ZD in 1979, served as winemaker from 1983-2000, and is now CEO and Wine Master. Daughter Julie, who joined the winery in 1980, is now the Administrative Director and the winery’s resident artist. Son Brett joined the winery in 1988 and is now President, focusing on sales and marketing. ZD has already signed up the first member of the third generation of the de Leuze family: grandson Brandon is ZD’s assistant winemaker.

These days ZD’s extended family includes four staffers with more than nine years at the winery, a rarity in Wine Country. The first of the four to join ZD’s staff was Barbie Jamieson, who started at ZD in 1991. Barbie, a native of Scotland, and her husband Will were looking for a “more agreeable climate,” and so in 1982 they visited the Napa Valley to see if it might be the place. Will, a cooper (barrel maker) by training, quickly landed a job and within months he, Barbie and their daughters had all relocated to California.
Barbie initially started as a bookkeeper at ZD, but now 16 years later, she works on the marketing side as Retail Sales Director. Barbie says she has “always favored white wines, and I fell in love with the ZD Chardonnay when we tasted the 1991 vintage right out of the tank at my first ZD Christmas party!”

ZD Winemaker Chris Pisani, a Brooklyn, New York native, joined ZD in 1996. Chris first learned to appreciate food, wine and family as a youngster during his big Italian family’s multi-course holiday celebrations. He went on to study chemistry in college, and while doing laboratory work at a winery in Long Island, “the light bulb went off.” Once Chris realized he wanted to be a winemaker, he moved to California and for two years took classes at Davis, where he met ZD’s Robert de Leuze at a job fair.
Chris’s favorite ZD wine was the 1990 ZD Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, a nine-liter (equal to 12 regular-sized bottles or one case) that the de Leuze family brought along to a staff retreat in 2006. Chris says the wine “by itself would have been sublime, but sitting there sharing it with all of the people that made it happen etched the entire experience in my mind forever.”
Teresa D’Aurizio, the winery’s Vice President of Sales, first discovered ZD’s wines as a sales representative for a wine distributor in Aspen, Colorado. While she didn’t distribute the ZD wines, her husband, then the manager at an Aspen wine shop, would set aside two bottles of the ZD Carneros Pinot Noir for them every time he received an allocation. Soon the lure of Wine Country drew them to Napa Valley, where Teresa became National Sales Manager at ZD in 1998. Teresa’s favorite ZD wine of all time is, of course, a Pinot Noir – the 1996 Library Selection Pinot Noir.
Wine Educator Trent Ghiringhelli was born and raised in St. Helena. Trent jokingly credits his vast wine knowledge to “osmosis” – as a child, he played “hide-and-go-seek” in the vineyards and picked mustard flowers for his mother when he thought he might be in trouble. After graduating from the University of Colorado, Trent came back home, and following a few stints managing retail tobacco shops, he found his calling as Wine Educator at ZD in 1998.
Trent says that when he’s asked which ZD wine is his favorite, it’s hard for him to choose because he enjoys them all. But Trent says his fondest memories are of the 1995 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, because “that vintage was such a challenge yet the resulting wine had amazing balance, elegance and grace.”
Visit the whole extended de Leuze family at 8383 Silverado Trail in Rutherford. You can taste the current releases of all of the staff favorites from 10 a.m. till 4:30 p.m. daily. Some of the older ZD vintages are available for purchase at the winery or online at www.zdwines.com.

Photos: The extended family of ZD Wines in order of appearance: Barbie, Chris, Trent,  and Teresa.