Winemaker: Alison Green-Doran
Alison Green-Doran is a veteran winemaker with more than 40 years of experience. She was among the first woman winemakers in California, graduating from UC-Davis in 1976.
Raised in Palos Verdes, California, with plenty of horses and surfing, Alison was drawn into winemaking in 1973. Her father, Russell Green, was an oil man and a long-time Alexander Valley vineyard owner. He bought Simi Winery in 1969 and brought in André Tchelistcheff as a consultant soon thereafter.
Alison worked as a harvest intern beside Andre for six months at Simi in 1973, and that is where she found both her life’s work as well as her mentor. Andre found her a five-month “cellar rat” position in Alsace for the crush of 1975, and then moved to an enologist position with a start-up winery in Paso Robles.
Alison Describes Her Start
“I started at UC Davis in Animal Science – I wanted any kind of science, just to get the prerequisites started, but in 1973, my Dad brought to Simi, Mary Ann Graff, the first woman winemaker anywhere to be hired from outside a family. With her, he brought in as consultant, the great Andre Tchellistcheff. This five foot two inch Russian with the thick accent, shrewd eyes, and a searching mind, had been the winemaker at Beaulieu Vineyards for 35 years. He told me to take a quarter off from University and to learn some winemaking from him. It was quite the formative experience, and I never looked back. I changed my major at Davis to Fermentation Science, received some crush experience in Alsace, and some more in Paso Robles, finally finished my BS, and took a job at The Firestone Vineyard down in Santa Barbara County.”
“After becoming winemaker there in 1981, the fourth woman winemaker ever, I think, I stayed on, playing polo and singing in the church choir, for another 20 years. In 1994, I married my cellar master – now there is another story! And in 2000, with 2 little boys, we moved up to the family ranch in Alexander Valley. I am now a winemaking consultant, with six clients in Napa. We have started our own family label called Hoot Owl Creek Vineyards, and we have done nicely with awards and such so far.”
After finishing her Fermentation Science degree at the University of California, Davis, Alison began working for the Firestone Vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley in 1976. Starting as lab technician, she worked her way up to bottling supervisor and then to cellar master, and finally in 1981, to winemaker. The pioneering spirit of the Firestone Winery, its commitment to quality, and the ideal climate and soils around the vineyard, resulted in many award-winning wines during her tenure. Alison became well acquainted with how to extract maximum potential for wine quality from a vineyard site.
In 2000, Alison moved back to the family ranch and vineyards in Alexander Valley with her husband, Mark Doran, and their two sons. She works with several select clients in Napa and in Sonoma who want to approach site-specific winemaking with exuberance and intensity. Alison makes their own Hoot Owl Creek Vineyards micro-lot Cabernet each year, while also maintaining her work as a consulting winemaker for several producers in Napa and Sonoma. She has been featured on “Real Housewives of New Jersey” when the group wanted to learn about wine, and says filming the episode was “a little crazy’. Brother Clay grows the grapes for their brand, and husband Mark takes care of the sales and marketing, as well as host private tasting groups in their beautiful Alexander Valley location.
Wineries that Alison creates wine for in Napa & Sonoma:
Crane Family Vineyards
Hill Family Estate
LJ Crafted Wines
Levendi Winery
Nelson Estate
Romeo Vineyards & Cellars
