Joel Gott was the quintessential winery brat.  A fifth generation west coast winemaker and restaurateur, he grew up accompanying his winemaking family to one winery after another.  After high school, he apprenticed to Mike Lee, wine master at Kenwood Vineyards in Sonoma County.  In 1993 he indulged his passion for food, joining his brother to purchase Palisades Market in Calistoga.  The brothers went on to revitalize Taylor’s Refresher, a St. Helena burger joint, revamping it as a destination eatery now operating in three locations. 

Joel took his first stab at winemaking in 1996, introducing a $15 Zinfandel from Amador County that – due in part to amazing reviews – put Joel Gott Wines on the map.  Joel brings a do-it-yourself streak, a keen sense of where the wine market is headed, and an uncanny knack for finding good grapes that don't cost a fortune to the Three Thieves.

Serial entrepreneur, connoisseur, grape grower and hotelier Roger Scommegna was born to an American mother and immigrant Italian father, learning childhood lessons about hard work and creativity that have shaped his career to this day.  Roger started more businesses prior to adulthood than most people do in a lifetime.  At age 11, when most boys his age were busy playing baseball and riding bikes, Roger formed a company with his friends to make money shoveling snow and mowing lawns and grew it into a neighborhood powerhouse.  In high school, seeing the growing popularity of skateboarding, he was instrumental in opening one of the Chicago area’s first skate shops.  In college, he opened a multi-state chain of video arcades.

In 1983, looking to buy his first home and frustrated by the difficulty of finding available houses, Roger started a marketing company that ultimately became Realtor.com, the world’s most trafficked real estate website and the vehicle that brought home shopping to the Internet.  He began a new chapter as a winemaker and hotelier in 1999, becoming a partner in the Boonville Hotel and building a vineyard in Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley.  Other recent projects include up-start beverage companies, Black Dot Vodka and Bite Hard hard apple cider.

A wine innovator, explorer, marathon runner and New York hipster, Charles Bieler has an eye for the creative opportunity, an ability to spot an opening before it materializes, and a knack for combining outrageous propositions into a winner. Charles spent his formative wine business years in Provence, France, including several years at Chateau Routas.  At a time when rosé was considered gauche, he travelled the U.S. in a pink Cadillac to promote the Routas rosé and helped light a fire under what is now a highly respected category.

Charles continues to beat the pink drum, turning out Bieler Père et Fils, a Coteaux d’Aix en Provence rosé with his father, and the eponymous Charles & Charles, produced with Charles Smith of Washington’s K Vintners & Charles Smith Wines.  Recent projects include Sombra, a highly lauded, artisanal Oaxacan mezcal made in partnership with Master Sommelier Richard Betts, and the Gotham Project, making Riesling exclusively packed in kegs for wine on tap.  Charles lives in Harlem, New York City.