For These 7 Couples, Winemaking Is a Romantic Affair

There’s a longstanding assumption that owning a winery is so romantic, with sweeping vineyard vistas and sumptuous tasting rooms. Sure, those perks are real, but the wine business also requires a ton of hard work. That’s why it’s essential to have a loyal, loving partner by your side. These married winemaking couples undergo it all, together. Learn more about the journeys that led them to one another, the vines and their version of the perfect Valentine’s Day date.

Photography by Katie Lenhart

Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber

Domaine La Garagista, Vermont

This duo fell in love following an improv workshop at Middlebury College, eventually moved to New York and jetted off to Italy the day after their wedding—not for an artistic endeavor.

But the pull of Caleb’s love of cooking (their first year dating, he prepared dinner for Deirdre and another couple before the college’s Winter Ball) and her affinity for the restaurant experience proved to be too strong, and the pair pivoted after indulging their Italian sojourn.

They returned to launch a stateside osteria helmed by Caleb, with the wine program overseen by Deirdre, before Vermont’s nascent wine scene piqued their palates.

Today, Caleb serves as farm manager and Deirdre as winegrower for their two properties. While some of the work is delineated (he handles daily logistics, garden management and cooking for pop-ups, while she makes the viticultural and vinification decisions), others are done in lockstep—and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It can be easy to switch to autopilot and not be as present with each other, but we work hard to see each other with fresh eyes and encourage each other to have individual interests,” Deirdre says.

She’s penning her fourth wine title, while Caleb is percolating a cookbook idea, and she dances while he DJs. “Working in tandem keeps us moving forward together and firmly connected in each other’s world,” she says.

Their Perfect Valentine’s Day Date: An elegant apero, followed by a jazz club, bistro dinner in a beautiful setting and a stroll in a garden or museum.

Sebastian and Colleen Hardy

Living Roots Wine & Co., New York

While working in market research, New York State native Colleen set off in search of a sexier product to promote. An online wine course stirred her to quit her cubicle job in Chicago and head to the vineyards in Australia for a five-month winery gig where she knew no one. One of her housemates and fellow cellar hand told her she knew someone in the industry that would be her perfect match.

As Colleen recalls, “Two days later we’re at the grocery store after a long, sweaty day’s work of scrubbing tanks, and I hear ‘oh my gosh, ‘Hi Seb!’, and the rest is history!”

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She and Sebastian, a sixth-generation winemaker from South Australia with a degree in viticulture and enology who’s worked harvests all over the globe, just clicked. Eventually they married and launched a dual-continental winery operation in the Finger Lakes and Adelaide Hills, with their first harvest nine years ago.

They share the workload while leveraging their respective skill sets, with Sebastian as head winemaker and her handling marketing and business operations. “We purposefully left titles off our business cards because every day is completely different, but that’s what makes it exciting,” Colleen says. “The long days and hectic periods are a lot more enjoyable with each other’s company and support.”

Their Perfect Valentine’s Day Date: A summer evening on the lake around a bonfire, or a winter night in front of the fireplace, with a great glass of wine and rousing game of Scrabble.

Mireia Taribo and Tara Gomez

Camins 2 Dreams Winery, California

Before being blinded by love, this couple was blinded by science.

From the age of four when she got her first microscope to memories of peeking into labs when she accompanied her parents on wine tastings, science connected Tara to the wine industry. She graduated with a degree in enology and held gigs as several brands before launching her own label, Kalawashaq’ Wine Cellars, named for the village her Chumash ancestors once lived.

Catalunya native Mireia, who was imbued with her Spanish family’s winemaking history and culture (she remembers picking and stomping grapes as a kid), studied chemistry and enology and interned in California.

The two met while Mireia was interning at a winery in Paso Robles, but the catalyst for their chain reaction happened when Tara worked two harvests at Castell d’ Encus in the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain where Mireia was a winemaker.

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They developed their careers alongside their budding relationship, traveled the globe and added their new label, with Mireia in the cellar and Tara in the lab. Today, they cherish living out their shared childhood dream of owning a winery. A quote on their label from nineteenth century Italian author Edmondo de Amicis echoes that fantasy turned reality: “wine adds a smile to friendship and a spark to love.”

“It feels so invigorating to be doing it together,” Tara says. “It’s something that we’re building together for us.”

Their Perfect Valentine’s Day Date: Dressing up, cooking and enjoying a candlelit dinner together with a good bottle of wine and their dogs and cats around them.

Dave and Lois Cho

CHO Wines, Oregon

You might say this couple’s journey has hit high and low notes, and music was indeed their initial common bond. They met in college while rehearsing for a church concert, and married a few years later.

After dropping out of grad school, Dave produced a singer-songwriter album on which Lois sang backup, which led to gigs at Temecula wineries where Dave developed a passion for wine. Armed with just a dream, they moved to Oregon with their ten-month-old daughter, where Dave studied enology and viticulture while Lois paid the bills as a family nurse practitioner.

When Lois’s seasonal and postpartum depression necessitated a brief move to California, they launched CHO Wines during the pandemic as a virtual winery. It quickly blossomed, they moved back to the Willamette Valley and she assumed the role of CEO, handling sales, marketing admin and hospitality, while Dave leads growing, production, operations and finances—roles that the two jokingly nicknamed these “the enabler” and “the dreamer.”

“We love dreaming, executing our ideas, creating community and growing our network of friends together,” Lois says. “Balancing home and family life is always a challenge [the couple now has three children], and we’re in each other’s space so much.”

They say that clear boundaries, setting aside time for one another and understanding their love languages strengthens their harmonious union. It’s a formula that has worked well: CHO received a nod in Wine Enthusiast’s Future 40 list in 2023.

Their Perfect Valentine’s Day Date: Dinner at HanOak in Portland for Korean hot pot with dry-aged beef and caviar with copious amounts of sparkling wine.

Paul and Kathryn Sloan

Small Vines, California

Three decades ago, a mutual friend set up the two for a date scaling Goat Rock on the Sonoma Coast, a meet cute that led to a yearlong climbing sabbatorial—well before “van life” was even a thing, Kathryn jokes.

Paul grew up in Sonoma County and worked as a sommelier for top restos in town. He pursued a viticulture degree after a life-changing sip of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti which made him realize world-class wine is grown, not made.

For Kathryn’s part, she says she “fell for a cute guy who could talk endlessly about wine, so I had to catch up fast,” spending her twenties being schooled by her patient teacher.

Paul’s stint at Dutton Ranch inspired the couple to launch their own venture; a few years later they were married and started making their own wine. In 2017 they transformed a historic building into an estate-grown and -bottled winery and tasting room, with Paul as the vigneron and Kathryn handling the rest.

Mutual empathy is key, from the stress of a busy tasting room to those during frost season. “We truly understand what the other is going through and step in to support each other when it matters most,” Kathryn says. “It’s like a perfect tag team—knowing we’ve got each other’s backs makes all the difference.”

Their Perfect Valentine’s Day Date: A spa day at the Farmhouse Inn, hiking along the rugged Sonoma coast and dinner at a local restaurant with a bottle of Schramsberg Cellars sparkling wine.

Jeff Davis and Grey Brickey, Majuscule Winery — Image Courtesy of Majuscule Winery

Jeff Davis and Greg Brickey

Majuscule Winery, California

Jeff and Greg made their love connection in the age of dial-up, meeting on AOL, feeling instant chemistry and seriously dating shortly afterwards. A few years later during a road trip from Arizona, they popped into some tasting rooms in Sonoma and Napa, and quickly became as hooked on wine as on one another.

They began venturing to wine country each month before buying their neighborhood wine shop in Scottsdale while Greg finished the winemaking program at U.C. Davis. But they decided making their own wine would be infinitely more satisfying than hawking others, so they sold the shop, moved to Napa and got married at the Carneros Inn.

Spurred on by a grower Greg met while cutting his teeth making wine for other labels, who gifted Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc grapes, they made their inaugural vintage in 2009—and still make most of their wines from her grapes. Greg manages winemaking and compliance, while Jeff looks after sales and marketing.

“We anticipate each other’s needs and our different strengths but make a strong, supportive duo,” Jeff says. “Our challenge is balancing all of the professional and personal needs and not losing sight of either.”

Their Perfect Valentine’s Day Date: A quiet dinner at home, with a nice bottle of wine and Jeff cooking boeuf bourguignon.

Laura and Brendan Carter

Unico Zelo Winery, Australia

College sweethearts Laura and Brendan met their very first week at the University of Adelaide, where she was studying agriculture and he oenology and viticulture (he had been interested in the wine industry from an early age).

The two nabbed positions at wineries in McLaren Vale, the Barossa Valley and the Eden Valley, then they set off overseas to glean more experience working vintages—Laura to Condrieu in France’s northern Rhône while Brendan headed to the Italian Piemonte region of Barolo. They eventually returned to Australia to launch their own outlet in 2014 focusing on Italian-inspired and terroir-driven wines, with her as the CEO running the production side and Brendan using his creative streak.

“We love that we get to simply see so much of each other on a daily basis—it’s weird to think of going to separate jobs and only seeing each other at the beginning and end of the day,” Brenhan says. “It’s challenging to switch off though, because we both love what we do and we’re kind of obsessive about it.”

Their Perfect Valentine’s Day Date: Going camping together, running on some trails and enjoying the fresh air.