Les Behrens wore many hats prior to donning his floppy winemakers chapeau. One of his early career moves was digging graves in the cemeteries of Los Angeles and Eureka. As a skilled and imaginative woodworker, he spent many years building hot tubs, decks and cabinets, where he became known as “The Wood Wizard”. It was his stint as a restauranteur that led to an obsession with wine and the pursuit of winemaking. Les has been the Winemaker at Behrens & Hitchcock since its inception and continues the adventure with Behrens Family Winery.

Lisa Drinkward started working at the Vineyard Wine and Cheese Deli in Southern California at the age of 16. This set the course for a career in food and wine. Working in restaurants throughout college led to Lisa’s desire for her own restaurant, which became a reality when Lisa and Les opened Folie Douce in 1991. Upon moving to St Helena, Lisa took viticulture courses at the Napa Valley College and is now the vineyard liason, spending much of harvest roaming the vineyards and eating a lot of grapes. In her spare time, Lisa makes a Napa Cab of her own - Drinkward Peschon - with friend and fellow winemaker Francoise Peschon.

Schatzi Throckmorton came to work for us in 2000. As Bob edged towards retirement, Schatzi took over the business management of Behrens & Hitchcock. The winery General Manager since 2004, she now runs the show at Behrens Family Winery and also has her own winery, Relic Wine Cellars.

Robin Cooper worked for us first in 2003 as our harvest intern, and after that life-changing experience decided to relocate from New York to St. Helena. Once here, she went on to work for a number of other small wineries, but we were ecstatic to be able to woo her back in 2006 to take over as our Director of Hospitality & Customer Relations. Robin is best reached at robin@behrensfamilywinery.com