Lorna Kreutz

The Path

Cellar work is the frame of the career here: in 2011, Lorna Kreutz moved from Assistant Winemaker to Director of Winemaking by staying close to the work and learning the vineyards in step with each season. At Firestone Vineyard in Santa Ynez, that approach lands in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, varieties that reward exact handling and punish shortcuts. The through-line is not speed, but accumulation—technical judgment built from repeated contact with fruit, site, and cellar decisions. California State University Fresno provided the training ground before the winery floor did the rest. In 2005, Longoria Wines in Sta. Rita Hills became the first practical test of that base, where daily production work set the pace. By 2008, the work had shifted to Paso Robles, with Summerwood Winery and Niner Wine Estates where Lorna Kreutz served as enologist and Assistant Winemaker through 2011. The return to Sta. Rita Hills in 2011, as Assistant Winemaker at Lincourt Vineyards and Foley Estate, marked another step in the same discipline: more responsibility, same insistence on precision.

The Work Today

Current responsibility spans Firestone, Lincourt, and Foley Estates, with Firestone Vineyard in Santa Ynez as the clearest expression of the role. As Director of Winemaking at Foley Family Wines, Lorna Kreutz works across a wider estate program, where decisions extend beyond one label and into the management of multiple winery voices. The scope reflects a career built from technical support into oversight, with each move widening the field of judgment without leaving cellar fundamentals behind. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay sit at the center of that work, with Pinot Noir identified as a particular focus. Those grapes ask for different kinds of control: Chardonnay can show texture and length through restrained cellar choices, while Pinot Noir depends on timing, delicacy, and a lighter hand. Kreutz’s path through enology, assistant winemaking, and production work matches that emphasis. The craft here is cumulative, not decorative; it is built through repetition, observation, and a steady tolerance for detail. At Firestone Vineyard in Santa Ynez, that discipline has a clear home, but it is not confined to one address. The sequence from Fresno to Sta. Rita Hills, then Paso Robles, and back into estate winemaking under the Foley umbrella keeps the work rooted in the same basics while expanding its reach. Consistency matters here, but so does range, and her career reads as both.

Signature

Lorna's signature wines include Grüner Veltliner, 2019 Willie Mae Pinot Noir, Barrel Select Chardonnay, and Bar Lazy S Ranch Pinot Noir.

In Their Words “I joined the company in 2011 as an Assistant Winemaker, and I progressed up to Director of Winemaking.” “This is a family-run company that fosters promotion from within, and I’m a direct example of that.”

Acclaim

Recognition here shows up less as a trophy case than as a span of responsibility. Lorna Kreutz’s advancement from Assistant Winemaker in 2011 to Director of Winemaking at Foley Family Wines is the clearest marker, because the work itself is the evidence: more labels, more oversight, more trust. In a family-run company, promotion from within is not an abstraction but a structure, and her career is one of its visible outcomes. The pattern is steady and legible. It points to a career shaped by time in the cellar, where leadership is earned by showing up season after season and doing the work well.