DEBRA HATCHER
SAM TANNAHILL
CHERYL FRANCIS
WINEMAKING
VINEYARDS
SALES
FINANCE
HUMAN RESOURCES
Rex Hill’s winemaking philosophy is simple: with great integrity and honesty we craft the finest wines we can aiming to truly represent their origins and varietal character. In order to accomplish this philosophy and goal, we farm our own vineyards biodynamically and carefully select growers to work with who share our intentions in the vineyard. We are proud to be among the oldest Oregon wineries and to farm some of the oldest vineyards in the Willamette Valley. We strive to reflect our sense of place in everything we do. At Rex Hill, we respect what the fruit brings to us and then work to produce wines with quiet power, elegance and eloquence, giving true expression of site, vintage and climate.
SAM TANNAHILL: Executive Winemaker. Sam graduated from Washington and Lee with an East Asian Studies degree that he uses on a daily basis in the winery. After traveling through Central Asia for a year he settled down working in the wineries and vineyards of Burgundy for two years and managed to bluff his way to a post-graduate degree in winemaking from the University de Dijon. He reentered the wine industry in the United States by working with Ted Lemon at Littorai, but soon heard the siren song of Yamhill County, Oregon and Archery Summit. 7 years later after laying a foundation as winemaker at Archery Summit he decided the time was ripe and stuck out for further fame, glory and new horizons in the form of A to Z Wineworks with his wife, Cheryl Francis, and Bill and Deb Hatcher. Sam and Cheryl also own Francis Tannahill – a new winery and biodynamic vineyard founded in 2001. As if that wasn’t enough to think about he also is enjoying his 3 1⁄2 year old son, Theo, his 1 1⁄2 year old son, Oliver, and new daughter Stella.
CHERYL FRANCIS: Executive Winemaker. Came to Oregon from Los Angeles to attend Lewis and Clark College in Portland. She took her Biology degree to France where she studied Enology after which she worked in the industry for three years in New Zealand. She returned to Oregon to make wine for Chehalem for eight years and then joined her husband, Sam, and Deb and Bill Hatcher in A to Z Wineworks. She and Sam also own Francis Tannahill winery and their biodynamic vineyard.
MICHAEL DAVIES: Winemaker. Born in a small town of New Zealand, Michael had a relatively normal upbringing, before attending the University of Auckland and completing there a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Scandinavian Studies and Political Science. Then, after a checkered employment history (typical of an Arts graduate) including selling steel products on the wholesale market, managing a bungee-jumping business in the United Kingdom and running a youth hostel (these consecutively being done rather than concurrently) he found the world of wine.
In 1997 he graduated from Lincoln University with a post-graduate diploma in Viticulture & Enology. Prior to joining the A to Z team he was working for 6 years at Chehalem, employed as the Vineyard Manager and Assistant Winemaker. He has also directly experienced winemaking and grape harvests in Burgundy, California, the Hunter Valley of Australia and numerous regions of New Zealand.
His wife, Anna Matzinger, is the winemaker at Archery Summit and most recently they have celebrated the arrival of their son, Otto.
GREG BAUER: Assistant Winemaker, was born in Los Angeles, but spent his twenties in construction management and playing with the Seattle Rock band Myramainz ( a play of words on my remains) before working five years at Wind River Cellars in WA. He came to Oregon and worked two vintages at Torii Mor as Assistant Winemaker before joining Rex Hill in early 2005. He is married to the lovely Rebecca Copenhaver, Philosophy professor at Lewis and Clark.
MAITLAND FINLEY: Assistant Winemaker / Lab Manager, grew up around Seattle, Washington. His childhood was pretty normal; his family moved around a lot, University District, Vashon Island, Snohomish, Kenmore and Bellevue. He developed his superpowers at age 14 (still secret). He was first introduced to the wine industry in the summer of 1990. The next year, his family became involved in the wine industry (Mt Baker Vineyards, Bellingham WA.) The first harvest he was a part of was in 1993 at MBV. Mait graduated from Western Washington University in 1996 and went to work for Columbia Winery. The following year he spent abroad working the 1997 Harvest in France. Upon his return to the NW he spent 1998 and 1999 as the Winemaker at MBV. In 2000, he left the family business and moved south to McMinnville, Oregon and the Eyrie Vineyard as Assistant Winemaker. He came on board at Rex Hill in 2004, just in time to lend his experience to another successful year!
STEFAN HANSEN: Assistant Winemaker. With a post-graduate degree in Oenology and Viticulture from Lincoln University Stefan immersed himself in the wine industries of New Zealand and France before being convinced to import himself permanently to Oregon in 2004. (So much for Mum’s warning about American women!) After working the 2003 harvest with Lynn Penner-Ash, (and meeting his wife), Stefan took a position as the assistant winemaker for Argyle Winery before joining A to Z Wineworks and Rex Hill in January of 2007. Stefan has a keen interest in food and wine which was piqued by the 10 years he spent in Hong Kong as a child. He worked as a sommelier while earning his degrees in Art History and Industrial Design before realizing it was more fun making wine than selling it.
