HERITAGE
History records Our Past . . . Heritage determines Our Future
Michael Leo Doyle
My grandfather was my first mentor. As a boy, I followed him through our vineyards and winery. He was a stoic man, working from dawn to dusk, showing little emotion.
But in the cellar, something changed.
He’d pull a bottle from a past vintage and start to talk — about the weather that year, the wine’s character and how it had aged. I listened, struck by how a simple bottle of wine could unlock stories no one else ever heard.
That cellar sparked a lifelong fascination with wine — not just its flavors and history, but the meaning it carries across time and generations. In our family, every bottle holds a story and this is where mine began.
From Spitfires to Silicon
My father was an electrical engineer who flew a Spitfire in World War II. After the war, he moved our family from the country farm to Sydney, where he became one of the early pioneers in computer engineering.
It was an exciting time. He traveled to America for work just as the Apollo 11 team, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked on the moon.
I followed his path into computer science, building my own career in the software industry. Those years taught me the importance of innovation, precision, and the courage to chase big ideas — lessons I carry with me to this day.
Blending Business and Wine
In our business life, my wife Dawn and I built two successful software startups and later consulted for major wineries around the world on wine quality challenges — often over long, memorable dinners.
Wherever we traveled, we sought out local winemakers, walked their vineyards, attended the crush pads at harvest and spent time in their cellars and labs. Along the way, we made a point to taste, listen, and learn — continuously refining our palates and deepening our connection to wine and its culture.
Returning to Our Roots
Then we discovered California wine country and made the decision to shift our family’s path — leaving high tech behind and returning to our roots in wine.
For the past thirty years, we’ve focused on sustainably farming our vineyards across Sonoma and Napa, growing terroir-driven, premium wine grapes and crafting natural, expressive wines without herbicides, chemicals or shortcuts.
A Full Circle Journey
Now, over a century after my grandfather’s first vintage, we’ve blended his legacy with over forty years of our own experience in technology and global wine education.
Fittingly, exactly fifty years after the Apollo 11 landing, we were invited to dinner at NASA with the original Apollo astronauts and engineering team — a remarkable evening made possible by my son Sam and our wines.
