Genevieve Jannsens, Director of Winemaking, Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley Ca.

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  Genevieve Janssens, Director of Winemaking for Robert Mondavi Winery in the Napa Valley, has received one of the industry’s highest honors, being named Wine Enthusiast’s 2010 Winemaker of the Year. These awards recognize excellence in the wine industry, honoring the most notable figures, with a special emphasis on achievements made over the past year.

  Born to a French family in Morocco and raised in France, Genevieve’s formal wine education began under the tutelage of the legendary “three fathers” of modern enology—Jean Ribereau-Gayon; his son, Pascal Ribereau-Gayon; and Emile Peynaud—with whom she studied at the University of Bordeaux, France.  After receiving her National Diploma of Enology 1974, she returned to her family’s vineyards in Corsica and France, which she managed from 1974 to 1977.  Concurrently, she also owned and operated her own enology laboratory in Provence and served as consulting enologist to many French chateaux in the mid-seventies.

  Drawn to the Robert Mondavi Winery’s philosophy in winemaking and winegrowing, Genevieve moved to the Napa Valley in 1978.  She became Director of Production at Opus One Winery.  Then, in 1997, she came full circle as the Director of Winemaking at the Robert Mondavi Winery.  In 2000, she helped implement the To Kalon Project, the winery’s first major renovation since it was founded in 1966.  The new To Kalon Fermentation Cellar allows Robert Mondavi Winery to make Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve and Oakville District Cabernet Sauvignon in a winemaking facility equal to its surrounding historic To Kalon Vineyard.

  In 2009, the French government honored Genevieve as an “Officier” of the The Ordre National du Mérite Agricole, which was established in France in 1883 by Minister of Agriculture Jules Meline to reward services to agriculture.