Winemaker

Adam Spiegel

Discipline: Winemaker
Venue: Sonoma County Distilling Company · Distillery

Portrait of Adam Spiegel

i. Biography

The Path

Whiskey appealed here as a form of work you can build, measure, and own end to end. Adam Spiegel framed the change plainly: “I really wanted to do something different. I wanted to create a business from my own two hands.” Dickinson College sits at the start of that path, before finance became the first trade. In New York City, Adam Spiegel worked as a financial sales employee at Unnamed financial sales firm in New York City (2006–2008), then moved west to become an employee at a firm managing money for foundations and endowments at Unnamed firm in Bay Area (until 2008). Both roles kept him inside finance, but they also clarified the distance between managing assets and making something tangible. That break with finance led to Sonoma Distilling Company (since 2010), where Adam Spiegel became founder and whiskeymaker. The move was not a reset so much as a transfer of responsibility: from handling other people’s money to building a distilling business and making the whiskey itself.

The Sunday letter

Read Made By's new profiles every Sunday.

Meet the chefs, winemakers and sommeliers behind the places we cover. See a sample below before you subscribe.

See a sample of the Sunday email

One email a week. Unsubscribe from any issue.

The Work Today

At Sonoma Distilling Company (since 2010), the work is defined by hands-on control. As founder and whiskeymaker, Adam Spiegel carries both the business side and the making side, which puts process and decision-making in the same frame. The craft here is not separated from the company structure; it is the structure. The stated mission keeps that standard explicit: “Our mission statement is to make high-quality whiskeys for discerning whiskey drinker.” For a distiller, that language points to exacting production and an audience that reads detail in the glass.

In Their Words “I really wanted to do something different. I wanted to create a business from my own two hands.” “Our mission statement is to make high-quality whiskeys for discerning whiskey drinker.”

Career - Founder and whiskeymaker — Sonoma Distilling Company, Rohnert Park, California (2010–present) - Financial sales employee — New York City (2006–2008) - Employee at a firm managing money for foundations and endowments — Bay Area (until 2008) Education: Dickinson College

FAQ Where did Adam Spiegel train or study? Adam Spiegel trained at Dickinson College.