Proprietor/Winemaker/Generalissimo

Josh graduated from Yale in 1966 with a degree in history and subsequently earned a masters degree in Anthropology at Oxford. While at Oxford, he rowed on the team that defeated Cambridge in “The Boat Race” held on the Thames River in London. Josh was in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1968 to 1969 as the heaviest man, at 212 pounds, to ever row in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.

After Oxford, he lived in France for several years, becoming fluent in French and learning about French wines with lengthy visits to Bordeaux, Alsace and Champagne and of course, Burgundy. During that time, he made the decision to turn his love of Burgundian wines into his life’s work. To that end, he worked two harvests in Burgundy: in 1970 at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and in 1971 at Domain Dujac. In 1970, he also worked the two day harvest at Chateau Grillet in the northern Rhone Valley. He returned to California in 1971 to start looking for land and made the first vintage of Calera in 1975 with purchased zinfandel grapes.

Josh has grown Calera Wine Company to include four single vineyard pinot noir sites and viognier and chardonnay plantings in the Mt. Harlan AVA, a total of 75 planted acres, a 30,000 sq. foot winery, and distribution in 47 states and 20 foreign countries.

Married for many years, Josh has now has been single for a number of years. He has three lovely children, Silvie, Duggan, and Chloe. In 1993, he was elected as a member of the Geneva-based Academie Internationale du Vin. He is one of the few American members of this prestigious group, which includes many of the most respected vignerons in Europe. For leisure, Josh enjoys cycling, skiing and playing tennis.

One cannot separate Josh Jensen’s bio from that of the history of Calera Wine Company. For more, please see [History].

Winery Manager

Diana Vita has been at Calera since 1987.

She grew up in Zimbabwe, and then headed to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY with the plan to become a veterinarian. A change of major to food science and a senior year internship at Spring Mountain Winery, in Napa, CA permanently changed her career path. After graduation, she headed west. She worked harvest at Chappelet Winery and as lab supervisor at Beaulieu Vineyard before heading south to settle on the family ranch south of Carmel, CA.

Part-time lab work at Calera turned into a 15 year stint, and promotion to her current position, in which she oversees winery operations. Day-to-day responsibilities include managing the finances, fixing computer problems, participating on the winemaking team with Josh and Corneliu, and making sure Josh is behaving.

Diana shares her home-time with 3 dogs, 3 cats, 10 chickens, 15 sheep, a llama, 30 cows, and oh, husband Greg and 2 kids. Her hobbies include ditch digging, shuffling papers, stopping people from spending money, and commuting to and from work, among other things.

Vineyard Manager

Jim Ryan has been at Calera since 1979.

He initially helped to manage the first vineyards, planted in 1975, then furthered the developments with plantings in 1983, 1984, 1989, 1997, and more in the works.

He says he’ll stick around until the job’s done.

Ryan lives just down the road from the vineyard, so he can keep a close eye on things.

National Sales Manager

Marta Rich is Calera's first non-Josh sales person. She joined Calera in the spring of 2003.

Marta learned about wine and the European lifestyle while she and her family lived abroad during her formative years. When her family returned to the United States, she and her sister always had to try, but not necessarily finish, any wine her parents were sipping, including the wine that her home winemaker father made in the basement. She studied engineering, then math and psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Always the trendsetter, Marta worked in the computer industry before it became fashionable, but left it before it became passé. Like so many wine aficionados before and since, she chucked it all to move to California and get into the wine biz.

She credits Robert Mondavi with 18 years of terrific wine industry education that has included stints in marketing, production, and finally, sales, where she found her calling as Robert Mondavi's Northern California Sales Manager.

At Robert Mondavi, she honed her skills selling a large portfolio of wines to a small, yet sophisticated and demanding market. Her love for exploration and interest in continual growth led her to Calera, where she represents a small portfolio of sophisticated wines to a large and demanding market - the whole country. She is inspired to work with Josh Jensen because of his deep dedication to quality and his passion for making wines that truly reflect the sense of a very special place.

Marta lives in the boonies of Glen Ellen, California with her husband (a winemaker, of course), two cats, and a rooster who is striving for cat status.

She sees herself as a conduit to share Calera's unique story with distributors and accounts nationwide.