“Like my father’s ability to tell amazing stories through his photography,
My greatest joy is bringing together and interweaving the intricacies of space, place, and time that make an exceptional bottle of wine.”
-Jesse Katz
For a boy from Colorado, the seeds for Jesse Katz’s unlikely path to winemaking began while accompanying his father,
celebrated photographer Andy Katz, on several fortuitous visits to the Burgundy estate of legendary vintners while Jesse was still in his teens. While there, he developed a profound respect for the scents, flavors, and culture of wine. After all, most of his time was spent playing amid Grand Cru vines and as a young guest at the dinner table of old world greats.
Over two decades plus of harvests, Katz learned the craft of winegrowing from the very best wineries in the world, including Pétrus in Bordeaux; Viña Cobos and Bodega Noemia in Argentina; and Screaming Eagle Winery and Robert Foley Winery in Napa.
Only after gaining considerable global experience, Katz went on to establish the critically lauded Aperture Cellars.
He’s acquired significant accolades over the course of his career, including being named a “40 Under 40 Tastemaker” by Wine Enthusiast, making history as the first winemaker on the Forbes “30 Under 30” list, and having Aperture Cellars selected as a “rising star” by Wine Spectator while under his leadership.
Katz has also served as the wine consultant to such notable celebrities as Von Miller, Tony Hawk, and Justin Timberlake, and each of his wines has received 90+ ratings from the wine world’s top critics, particularly Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate.
In 2021, a six-liter bottle of his The Setting Glass Slipper Cabernet Sauvignon, a collaboration with Paul and Suzie Frank’s Glass Slipper Vineyard in Coombsville, broke the world record for the most expensive single bottle of wine ever sold at auction (earning a cool $1 million at Emeril Lagasse’s annual charity event).
Devil Proof, a collaborative effort with his father, is the culmination of Katz’s experience learning about the growing and crafting of world-class Malbec from his time in Argentina.
These days, Katz is settled in Sonoma at the Aperture Cellars site just south of Healdsburg with its world-class, state-of-the-art winery and home designed by Signum Architecture. From here, he revels in his connections and extended family of vintners, farmers, and talented chefs that, like Katz, ignite the passions of the wine-loving community.