The Owners

You often ask us if building a vineyard was our lifelong dream.  It was not.  Far from it.  Audrey is a farmer's daughter.  She worked very hard, acquiring multiple university degrees and moved far from her family's California farm to Washington DC and the Big Apple in an attempt to avoid the farm.  Steve was a  big city boy, born and raised in Queens.  He dreamed to be a race car driver - and did - but not of being a tractor jockey!

One day they heard a voice that said "build it and they will come!"  So they "bought the farm" and that changed everything.  They exchanged their Gucci shoes for Carhardt boots, their Porche 911 for a SUV, their dust free house for a farm house with animals coming in and out.  They traded their gym memberships for shovels and pruning shears.  And their subscriptions to Car and Driver and Vogue for monthly editions of the New Jersey Farmer and Wine Business Daily.

And, yes, they love it and have not looked back!

Steve is one of those rare individuals who has mastered many worlds.   He       invented a device for testing batteries before the age of 21.  He built a computer consulting business at the dawn of the computer era.  He raced and won numerous amateur formula racing championships.  He masterminded a corporate training program, Breakthrough Racing, to train companies to operate on the level of high performance race teams. He built a successful residential and commercial finance business, Milagro Associates, that helped hundreds of clients build their own family and business futures.  He started the first BNI Chapter (Business Network Int'l) in New Jersey and today is Executive Director of BNI in northern New Jersey and northeast Pennsylvania.

Wife Audrey, aka Dr. Audrey Cross, is a renowned nutritionist and lawyer who has served as food & nutrition policy advisor to the California State Senate, US Senate and Carter Administration.  She was faculty at Columbia University School of Medicine while simultaneously enjoying a national career on television where she was a regular on the Today Show, CBS this Morning, the Learning Channel and host of her own show on America’s Health Network.  She is a multi-published academic and has written numerous nutrition books for the public.  She holds a PhD in nutrition and public policy from the University of California Berkeley and a law degree from University of California Hastings College of Law.  A farmer’s daughter from California’s verdant Central Valley, creating a vineyard and winery where farming and food come together is what she was meant to do.  She is passionate about food, health and the good life.