Zelma is Head Winemaker for the Vilafonté project.

Zelma is one of America’s best known winemakers with an enviable international reputation. One of the first women to study enology and viticulture at U.C. Davis; she began her winemaking career at Robert Mondavi Winery, rapidly working into the Chief Winemaker position. After 10 years, Zelma was recruited by Simi Winery in Sonoma County. Simi was later acquired by Moet Hennessey, under whom she worked for the next 18 years as both winemaker and CEO.

Zelma has won many awards, among them the prestigious James Beard Award for Wine Professional of the Year, the MASI award for international wine contribution, and the Wine Spectator sponsored Oral History of a California Wine Pioneer. For 25 years, she has overseen the wines of her family winery, Long Vineyards, in the Napa Valley.

Zelma oversees the winemaking and style development of the Vilafonte wines, and is on site in South Africa during harvest, through pressing and barreling, and then again at blending and bottling. Zelma has sometimes been described as ‘fanatical’ in her pursuit of quality in winemaking.