Laurence Donald’s love affair with grapes and wine started when as a child his family drove up to the Napa Valley from San Francisco to go camping. As they drove North he experienced the heady smell of grapes fermenting that permeated the whole valley. After some foolish deviations into the world of finance and pharmaceutical sales he made his way back to the world of wine. He jumped in whole heartedly with 4 years of back-to-back Northern and Southern Hemisphere vintages at some well known operations like Thomas Brown’s Outpost, Merry Edwards, Felton Road, Leeuwin Estate Winery. Eventually, he ended up at Gary Farrell Winery under Theresa Heredia’s guiding hand. Along the way he earned an Enology and Viticulture diploma from New Zealand’s Lincoln University to boost his ever-expanding hands on knowledge with some book learning. At Felton Road he was a vineyard Foreman under Gareth King, a huge proponent of Biodynamic farming in New Zealand. It was there he came to truly appreciate the bond between the grapes, the place they come from, and the people who put the sweat equity into getting the grapes to the winery.