Alison Crowe, a native of Santa Barbara’s “Sideways Country”, is an award-winning winemaker based in Napa.  She is the Director of Winemaking for Plata Wine Partners as well as the Winemaker for Garnet Vineyards and Picket Fence Vineyards brands, among others.  Her blog,www.girlandthegrape.com, won “Best New Wine Blog” in the 2014 Wine Blog Awards. 

Her first job was crafting estate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay at the acclaimed Chalone Vineyard and after graduating from UC Davis (Viticulture & Enology and Spanish degrees) Alison spent many years working with Randall Grahm at Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz.  She spent a Harvest in Argentina honing her Spanish and winemaking skills with Michel Rolland at Bodegas Salentein before joining Plata Wine Partners as its founding Director of Winemaking in 2005, a post which she currently holds.

Alison’s slate of projects at Plata Wine Partners include making wine for “Top 100” brands, nationally-distributed wineries, top national retailers, celebrity chefs and hot start-up brands.   Sourced from her company’s wide premium vineyard holdings in Napa, Sonoma and Central Coast AVA’s, her wines consistently earn high scores in wine publications and competitions.

In 2010 she went back to Davis to earn her MBA and today she continues to write winemaking articles in industry publications and speaks at industry conferences.   She enjoys judging wine competitions, blogging (girlandthegrape.com), playing tennis, gardening and cooking for friends.  Alison and her family live in a ranch house in Napa.