Gardens, Cooking and Downhill Skiing
Growing up in Boise, Idaho I spent most of my time in the garden, the kitchen or up on the ski hill. My parents, Gary and Liddy, have a huge garden that I worked on with my brothers, Rory and Kelsey. Then we’d take all those lovely ingredients and under the guidance of my mother cook and preserve most of our food.  I fell in love with cooking using this huge variety of homegrown (and organic!) ingredients from our garden.  The garden also included a collection of 40+ varieties of grapes!  If I wasn’t in the garden or the kitchen then I was hurtling down the ski hills of the Northwest, as a member of the Bogus Basin Ski racing team. I still love to ski…although I’ve even gone over to the “dark side” and snowboard with my husband…but my parents still love me.

Talking to the Plants
I attended Washington State University and since I loved plants I started working in wheat genetics and breeding. Besides taking classes and talking to the plants in the greenhouse, I cycled for our school team, raced in triathlons and one day I met this rugby player named Joe, who I later married… I graduated from WSU in 2000 with bachelor degrees in Biology and Spanish.

Farmer's Tan
After some travels in Asia, I returned to the Northwest and landed a job working for Stimson Lane in Washington as a vineyard technician in 2001. This translates into riding an ATV for 10 hours a day looking for bugs, checking on irrigation, and getting a tremendously sexy farmer’s tan. I enjoyed it immensely and learned a lot from the people I worked with who are incredibly knowledgeable in viticulture. This is important because great winemaking starts in the vineyard…

The Apprentice
During this time I started making “homemade” wine, which wasn’t very homemade since I made it with advice from Chateau Ste. Michelle and Northstar winemakers. I also began reading the books required for the UC Davis curriculum and thought winemaking would be a great fit for my interests. Eventually I got a job as an enologist at Chateau Ste. Michelle’s Canoe Ridge Estate Winery. I was promoted to Assistant Winemaker in 2003. I helped make 400,000 cases of wine each year for Chateau Ste. Michelle. I studied under three great winemakers: Bob Bertheau, Ron Bunnell and Kendall Mix.

Taking the Plunge!
In 2006 I married Joe and moved back to Boise where he works at Micron as a Chemist. I started a winery consulting business, Krause Consulting, LLC. This enabled me to visit the vineyards and taste through the cellars of most of the producers in Idaho. I made a small amount of Syrah and Viognier in 2006. Based on what I had seen of the vineyards and the wine I made in 2006, I decided to start my own brand, called Cinder, after the layers of volcanic remnants found under the vineyards in Idaho. It has meant a lot of hard work but when I taste the wines I know that it was the right decision.