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Chief Executive Officer & Chief Financial Officer
Andrew and Laurel Quady are the founders, C.E.O. and C.F.O. respectively, of Quady Winery. Their path into the wine world began with an exodus from southern California to pursue their dream: a rural way of life making wine. Formerly working in underwater explosives for the U.S. military, peaceful, plant loving Andrew was looking for a natural redirection. He returned to school at U.C. Davis, graduating at the top of his class with a masters in Food Science-Enology. Laurel went back to school and became a licensed C.P.A., opening her own office and funding the fragile first decade of winery production with her flourishing small town practice. Needless to say, Andrew’s inventive nature keeps them both on their toes: with his pioneering use of rare muscat varietals, and his fascination with aromatic herbs, Quady tends to take the market by surprise. The Quadys are known for an uncommonly energetic zest. When they are not exposing the world to their wines, forecasting sales, responding to emails, or navigating financial statements, they can be found hiking the Sierra Nevadas, or enjoying their garden, friends and family.
Chief Communications & Sustainability Advisor
Allie started as a general winery worker in high school running lab tests and doing all manner of winery work – which mostly meant cleaning equipment! She traveled widely and joined the Peace Corps after college to help farmers integrate agro-forestry techniques on their farms in West Africa. Returning home with a love for sustainable agriculture, she helped to start the family’s second operation in Southern Oregon and then went to school to study public health, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture at Tufts. She’s certified Organic farms for California Certified Organic Farmers and was the former Program Director at The Ecological Farming Association in California. She joined Quady Winery in 2012 as Communications and Marketing Manager and managed the redesign of quadywinery.com, vya.com, and the creation of saltofthearthwine.com. She upgraded Quady Winery’s marketing collateral to reflect the dynamic and visionary company that she knew from the inside. After handing off the communications reigns in 2017 to pursue an entrepreneurial bug of her own as a professional corporate wellness coach, she remained engaged and active at Quady Winery in a strategic role on the Board of Directors and as an advisor to the sales and marketing department. In 2020 she returned with a focus on employee wellbeing and safety. She led the company in updating safety protocols and engaged all employees in the process to become safety leaders themselves. She recently took on a leadership role in the new Communications team, re-igniting the fire for clearly articulating the unique competitive advantages that can only be found at Quady Winery. Allie is also a leader on the sustainability team, working closely with the production team to pursue sustainability certification in 2022.
NW Regional Sales Representative
Herb grew up at Quady Winery with a compulsory love for Muscat, but after an accidental exposure to the world of Rhone varieties at the hand of the infamous Randall Graham, he became obsessed with the idea of making (gasp!) table wines. After earning his winemaking props at Fresno State, he eventually found his way into the great unknown of Southern Oregon. While working as the winemaker for Troon Vineyard, Herb and his wife Meloney founded Quady North in 2006 in collaboration with the Quady family. Herb also runs Applegate Vineyard Management Company. In 2014 Herb took on the role of Northwest Regional Sales Manager for Quady Winery.
Head Winemaker
Darin Peterson has been crafting wine and vermouth at Quady Winery for more than 20 years. He joined the Quady crew from Simpson Meadow Winery in 2005 and worked alongside former Quady director of winemaking Michael Blaylock for more than a decade before taking over as head winemaker in 2017. During his tenure at Quady Winery, Darin has mastered the art of producing award-winning wines of consistent quality and complexity while expanding production efforts and increasing volume to 215,000 cases in 2023. His most recent honors were garnered by the 2020 vintage of Essensia Orange Muscat, which was awarded Top Dessert Wine at the Houston Livestock and Rodeo International Wine Competition, featuring 2,985 entries from 22 countries.
Prior to his career in winemaking, Darin worked as a graphic designer and copywriter in the advertising industry. It was while working with food stylists and attending client dinner meetings that he discovered a passion for food and wine. He briefly considered an alternative career as a chef, but in the end decided to trade the long hours and frenzied pace of the art department for the long hours and frenzied pace of the crush pad.
Darin earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from California State University, Fresno. Several years after graduating, he returned to CSUF to pursue a post-graduate second major in Food Science with an emphasis in Enology.
Winemaker
Crystal Weaver-Kiessling joined the Quady crew in 2022 as Quady Winery’s first female winemaker. Prior to her time at Quady Winery, she worked for 10 years as a winemaker for The Wine Group.
Crystal knew she wanted to make wine the moment she toured the winery at California State University, Fresno. She started as an Enology major but halfway through her classes, wasn’t feeling the connection she hoped for. A class trip exploring vineyards in Santa Barbara shed light on vineyard practices like sustainability and biodynamics; Crystal saw that to make good wine, you need good grapes. So she changed her major to Viticulture and discovered the connection she was looking for. Right before graduating in 2013, Crystal wanted to better understand what winemakers look for from the vineyard, so she began a winemaking internship with The Wine Group. After her internship, Crystal decided she wanted to learn more and accepted the full-time position that was offered to her.
For the next 10 years, Crystal made millions of gallons of domestic and import wines, and even did a vintage in Australia. She worked on notable brands like Cupcake, Cupcake Lighthearted, Love Noir, Ava Grace, Franzia, and 7 Deadly Zins. And when she was ready to try something different, Crystal found Quady Winery to be a sweet shift in her career.
Cellar Master
Juan came to Quady Winery as no stranger to the wine industry. He started working for Central Valley wineries at the age of 18 and became enamored with the frenetic pace and endless work during the Harvest season. Just two short years later, and at the age of only 20, he was granted a leadership position at the winery he was working for at the time and was hooked for life. “Being by far the youngest person on the shift while being the boss filled me with a sense of urgency, motivation and gratitude. I owed it to my crew to be the best leader possible regardless of my age.” 25 Harvest seasons and three wineries later, Juan is now driven most by what he can give back to the Central Valley wine industry. “My priorities will always the same: Keeping our workers safe while delivering the highest quality product for our customers in the most efficient manner possible.” And he’s doing just that!
Bottling & Labeling Operations Manager
Dan began his career at Quady Winery in July 1985. His first tasks involved working with 500 or so barrels of wine in the aging process and assisting with bottling and labeling. Bottling was done by hand and labeling with a New Jersey Pony Labeler. As the winery grew so did his responsibilities. When Dan started working at Quady we were producing about 5,000 cases of wine. Today he manages a production crew that produces up to 200,000 cases of wine; bottles and labels all year long, crushes over 1,000 tons of grapes, and produces 15 different wines. Dan manages and supervises the bottling and labeling of our wines on a 16 head filler corker and a pressure sensitive labeler. He supervises a crew ranging from 2-10 people at any given time.
Logistics Supervisor and Compliance Specialist
Ray has been contributing to the Quady team since 2008, and became a full-time Quady crew member in 2013. He studied computer engineering at Fresno State after a five year career in the United States Marine Corps. Initially he worked at Quady part-time, but over time decided to put education on hold to learn more about the winemaking process. Ray has assisted with many facets of operations during his time, including compliance, data entry and logistics coordination. He enjoys the pace and challenge presented by Quady Winery’s rapid growth. In his spare time, he enjoys a nice board game or video game with friends and family.
Production Line Supervisor
Assistant Production Line Supervisor
Maintenance Supervisor
Shipping & Receiving Clerk
Data Entry Specialist
Cellar Foreman
Winery Safety Coordinator
General Winery Worker
General Winery Worker
General Winery Worker
General Winery Worker
General Winery Worker
General Winery Worker
General Manager
Dave’s journey with Quady Winery began in 2002, when Laurel Quady’s computer hard drive crashed and he, then an IT consultant, was brought in to save the day. He successfully recovered the data and restored everything to full working order.
While in the office, Dave noticed the team sharing a single dial‑up phone cord to check email and browse the internet. Knowing a friend who had just built a new wireless broadband tower and needed a test site, Dave insisted that Quady become the first location in Madera to try this new technology. That collaboration sparked an exciting partnership, and in 2003 Dave officially joined the Quady team full time.
Over the next 20 years, Dave’s role has grew far beyond IT. He has poured at wine tastings, managed exports, supervised office and tasting room teams, planned wine trail events and club parties, provided backup bookkeeping, and supported finance and operations. He has also worked closely with the winemakers, production team, and sales team, gaining a deep, hands-on understanding of nearly every part of the winery.
Today, Dave serves as General Manager, continuing to support the team and processes that keep Quady Winery moving.
Controller
Andrea comes to us all the way from Long Island, NY. She moved to Fresno in 1991 when her father began working in the Central Valley. She earned her business degree with an emphasis in accounting through our local CSU Fresno and finished at Chapman University in Irvine. Andrea’s path led her to Quady Winery after personal desires to grow and succeed through new opportunities, and she seems to be enjoying it! “It seems that from my brief time here that we all have a lot in common and get along wonderfully. Accounting is in my blood and I’m excited to follow in many of my family members’ footsteps.” Although, Andrea has confessed to us that she has an intense Lego problem, and she’s quite the book worm. She’s also a loyal yogi to one of the best yoga studios in the Valley and now attends classes 3 to 5 times a week not only for mental clarity and focus but increased energy and strength.
Bookkeeper
Nora joined the Quady team in 2021 after graduating from Fresno State earlier that year. Although a recent graduate, she had previously been working in the accounting field for 14 years. “Quady has given me so much more opportunity and growth. It has allowed me to welcome new challenges, while also allowing me to have a better understanding of the wine industry. It’s been fun! Everyone is so nice and they never complain about my constant music playing.” Aside from work, she enjoys spending her time with her husband and three kids, taking trips whenever possible and spending A LOT of time on a soccer field. She enjoys reading, running, and cleaning, a life her kids like to remind her is “quite boring,” but a life she feels is well lived as long as there’s also cookies.
Senior Director of Sales and Marketing
Jim joined Quady Winery in 2015 to lead Quady Winery’s transition to handling the responsibility of all aspects of sales internally. He has a strong distributor management and sales background developed with over 20 years of industry experience working with large and midsized wineries. He was excited to join a growing company with such a strong family based culture with great wines. When not flying around the country, Jim helps coach his kids’ hockey, baseball, and softball teams while also rooting for his Wisconsin hometown sports teams including Wisconsin, Marquette, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Green Bay Packers.
Southeast Regional Manager
With over 20 years of experience in the wine and beverage industry, Laura has developed a deep expertise in sales, profound understanding of the industry and of distributor management, particularly across the East Coast. She is dedicated to supporting the family legacy of Quady Winery, ensuring its continued growth and strong presence in the market. She excels at building strong, personal relationships—qualities that resonate with the values of a family-owned business like Quady Winery. When she’s not traveling for work, Laura cherishes time with her family and friends. A native Floridian, she enjoys all water activities and is an avid supporter of Florida college football teams. Laura is also passionate about giving back to her community, actively supporting local dog rescue nonprofits, and participating in community-based activities.
Communications Manager
A self-professed “wino,” Chloë was elated to join the Quady crew in 2021 after a 13-year career as a professional writer specializing in brand identity, packaging, marketing, and website and SEO content. She brought these skillsets to Quady Winery and in 2024 was promoted to Communications Manager. In addition to handling company communications, creative output and events, Chloë manages direct-to-consumer sales (online and tasting room) and tasting room operations. Her goal is to provide Quady customers with unparalleled service and wine tasting experiences. When she’s not at the winery, Chloë loves painting, art photoshoots and spending time with her two rescue dogs, Hendrix and Stella.
Direct-to-Consumer Operations Specialist
Sales Support Admin
Cynthia has been with Quady Winery for more than 20 years. For many years, she was the warm face that welcomed customers like family every time they walked through the doors to taste, and few can take you through a proper tasting quite like Cynthia can! She also coordinates out of town events and logistics for the Quady team. With her breadth of knowledge and experience, Cynthia helps mentor newer staff while successfully managing the variety in her role. She appreciates that, “at Quady Winery, it’s like a family.” Cynthia especially enjoys meeting new people and introducing newcomers to Quady wines. She has been married for more than 30 years to her loving husband Paul (her high school sweetheart) and she has a wonderful family of beautiful daughters and grandchildren.
Tasting Room Associate
Tasting Room Associate