Miguel Luna Named Viticulturist of the Year
Miguel Luna, partner, Silverado Farming Company, was named Viticulturist of the Year
in Wine Enthusiast’s 2020 Wine Star Awards. Luna took classes at Napa Valley College in 2000-2004 and
then again from 2007-2012, graduating with an AS Degree in Natural Science and Math
in 2012.
Excerpted from Wine Enthusiast…
Now 38 and a father himself, Luna worked his first harvest at 14, removing leaves out of bins picked by his father. Once he turned 16, he did vineyard work on weekends and summers.
“And I hated it,” he remembers.
Two years later, out of high school, he says he wasn’t yet mature enough for college so he kept working. He helped his parents put a younger sibling through college, unmoored and unsure of what he wanted to do.
Soccer had always been a passion of his, and that’s how he met his now-wife, Cassandra Grassi, whose family had a small vineyard in Stags Leap District. Grassi encouraged Luna to go back into wine, highlighting classes in the Napa Valley College schedule until he agreed to go.
For five years he attended junior college and worked harvests at Pahlmeyer, Dana Estates and Atelier Melka.
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