Farm & Family

While growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Grace heard California’s call. Upon graduation, she packed her bags for San Francisco and landed her first wine gig, working in the finance department for a winery in Santa Rosa. She was quickly promoted into sales and marketing, and that’s where she found her passion. Dragging wine bags up and down San Francisco’s hilly streets was no easy task, but as she learned her trade and came to know her clients, she fell in love with the wine business.

Clamoring for more knowledge, she took a position with a South American wine company, which gave Grace her first taste of travel, a passion that has led her around the world. Thirsty for bigger case drops, she set her eyes on landing large chain account deals, and she was quickly promoted to National Account Manager. Her success led her to a new job for the third-largest French wine company in France as Director of Sales. This new environment helped hone her skills in international business. In 2019, Grace joined Hedges Family Estate as the VP of Global Sales.

Reigning from Southern California, Ariana has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a minor in Advertising from Chapman University. In addition she holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Pepperdine University. Prior to obtaining the Western Regional Sales Manager role at Hedges Family Estate, she has worked in the industry for over 9 years in variety of positions. She has worked in many roles from distribution to a regional management position with an importer. Since a child she has been around the wine and restaurant industry and this has influenced her career and passion for the industry.

Kathy was born and raised in Seattle and attended the University of Washington where she received her bachelor's degree in International Studies. Kathy began her management career in Seattle at Allstate Insurance Company working for sixteen years in both Seattle and Ohio. Kathy earned her Master of Business Administration at Kent State University. When presented with the opportunity to move to Europe in 2000, Kathy jumped off the corporate ladder and immersed herself in the culture, living in Belgium and in a small village in the Southwest of France and working in local vineyards, traveling extensively, and becoming a fluent French speaker. Kathy pursued her love of wine and obtained the prestigious D.U.A.D. from the University of Bordeaux, and the Certified Specialist of Wine CSW solidifying her passion for the world of viticulture and wine production. After 16 years in Europe, Kathy returned to the United States to be closer to her family, and especially her two grandsons. She is thrilled to be back in Washington - now a Husky in Cougar territory - and eager to forge her Washington roots with her European experience to serve the Hedges Family Estate.

Karla was born, and grew up on the beautiful West side of Washington State. She immersed herself in many sports, including basketball, golf, volleyball, and softball. While Karla was working as a secretary after school, her sister was working at the restaurant next door. Karla went to visit her sister on her lunch break and saw the hustle and bustle of the restaurant world and was hooked! She started slinging cocktails at Seattle's finest restaurants and eventually moved up to become a full-time bartender. She moved up through the ranks of bartender, then wine buyer and finally manager. She also worked for Noble Wines, LTD. and covered multiple sales routes and did merchandising. This is where she became familiar with Hedges wines. She eventually moved from Seattle to Brooklyn where she bartended and created the cocktails at many prestigious Manhattan restaurants, including Prune.

She made the decision to move back to Washington state, this time on the East side of the state, to be closer to family. After reaching out to an old friend who she worked with at Noble Wines, Karla found her way to Hedges Family Estate where she now manages hospitality at the Chateau and social media.

Only after being in the Seattle area for 2 days, Molly walked into the Hedges tasting room on March 4, 1995 looking to taste the wines that she had heard so much about from her husband. Two days later on March 6th she was hired as the controller and has been with Hedges Family Estate ever since

Originally from south Florida, Molly slowly moved across the country, taking up residence in Missouri, Wyoming and California. Molly moved to Seattle from the Bay area after six years as a Royalty and Severance Tax accountant at Chevron USA. She graduated with a BS in Accounting from CA State University, Sacramento in 1989 and passed the CPA exam in 1990. Molly enjoys running, hiking, biking, traveling, and wine tasting.

With a background in agriculture and a degree from Washington State University in Landscape Architecture Adam applies his varied knowledge to shipping online orders, loading trucks, fixing broken water mains, repairing tractors, and tackling whatever problems Red Mountain can throw at him. When he is not working on the Estate he can be found exploring the trails of eastern Washington in a pair of very dusty running shoes.

Kayla was born and raised in Tri Cities, WA. In high school, Kayla developed and cultivated her passion for agriculture as FFA president, an agriculture-based leadership club. She went on to lead her FFA chapter for leadership achievements to nationals.

Kayla’s ancestors derive from generations of farmers in Germany, that migrated to North Dakota, where they owned many acres of farmland. Kayla’s grandparents later settled in Benton City, where she spent much of her time growing up. Her grandparent’s innate ability to cultivate a life living off of their land would go on to inspire her desire of sustainable agriculture.

After high school, Kayla went on to pursue a degree in Psychology from Eastern Washington University. This is where she met her now husband, Erin. Following graduation, her and Erin moved to Hawaii. Kayla landed a job with a non-profit organization that rescued and redistributed excess, unsold food. During her time at this organization, she spent many weekends working with farmers helping to redistribute unsold crops.

Kayla returned to Tri-Cities in 2018 and was determined to seek out a marriage between her charity efforts and sustainable agriculture. After an introduction into wine and viticulture as the Hedges Tasting Room Manager, she went on to accept an internship at Ciel du Cheval Vineyard.

Following a season at Ciel du Cheval, Kayla accepted the position of Assistant Vineyard Manager at Hedges Family Estate. Subsequently, the regenerative farming values Hedges Family Estate holds captivated Kayla’s concentration towards organic and biodynamic farming.

In 2021, the opportunity arose to take on the Vineyard Manager position and continue her education, she happily accepted.

Outside of work, Kayla loves spending time with her husband and their pets, Edgar, the Border Collie and Kona, the tuxedo cat. As a family, they enjoy hiking, biking, and living vicariously through Rick Steves’ travel documentaries.

Kat was born in Santa Ana, CA and grew up in the Portland, OR area. She completed an on-farm internship in 2020 through Rogue Farm corps, with a focus on organic full diet farming in addition to Biodynamic practices. Hedges played a large role in inspiring Kat with biodynamic practices. She previously worked for them in 2018 in their tasting room and they instilled a sense of enthusiasm for wine in addition to environmental awareness and responsibility when it comes to the terroir

She has traveled around the country, learning from various farmers and gardeners, both large and small scale and is committed to improving and building up organic materials in the soil, this involves implementing regenerative methods when it comes to tending to the land. She practices a no till/low till method, cover croping, crop rotation, as well as rotational grazing of animals.

In her free time Kat enjoys painting, illustrating, playing guitar, rock climbing and hiking. She’s had successful art shows in the Portland area but her love of the outdoors and nature’s beauty is what inspires her creative process. She left Portland to pursue her love of working with the land and animals. Her passions are about closing the loops in our food system by recycling nutrients and organic materials in addition to reducing food waste. Composting is important in her methods due to it’s ability to help the land sequester carbon and build nutrient rich soils. Environmentalism plays a large part when it comes to her farming goals. She’s inspired by permaculture designs that incorporate animal rotation with the land and is thrilled to have the chance to implement these practices with Hedges. She is dedicated to saving seeds, composting, land stewardship, and growing the most delicious nutrient rich organic food.

Aislinn was born and raised in Seattle where she graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Marketing. After graduating, she moved to Galway, Ireland where she worked in a modern Irish restaurant and traveled around Europe, volunteering on organic farms, and eating her way through every country she could reach. On return to Seattle, she registered at the Seattle Culinary Academy and began working as a line cook for Tom Douglas Restaurants. After graduating, she traveled to Spain to work at La Botica alongside Chef Miguel Angel de la Cruz, a Michelin star restaurant in Matapazuelos known for its hyper-local menu and gardens. She once again returned to the Pacific Northwest where she joined the team as the sous chef at iconic Seattle restaurant Matt’s in the Market. In 2020, she and her husband, Sebastián, opened a pop-up bakery, Oso Negro, specializing in artisanal alfajores. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, Oso Negro - selling exclusively at farmers markets and online - quickly gained a substantial following and made many of the Seattle area foodie lists.