Willakenzie- The People

Winemaker Laurent Montalieu grew up on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, but spent summers in his family's homeland of Bordeaux, where he learned to grow grapes, drink wine and ski. He eventually moved to Bordeaux, where he immersed himself in studies of grape growing and winemaking, drinking wine and skiing, all leading up to his graduation from the Institute of Oenology of Bordeaux. After leaving the Institute, he worked for Chateau La Tour Blanche near Sauterne, France and Domaine Mumm in California, before moving to Oregon. After seven successful vintages at Bridgeview Vineyards in Cave Junction, Oregon, Laurent joined Willakenzie Estate as a partner and winemaker, sharing with the Lacroutes a commitment to top quality in the vineyard and a philosophy of minimal intervention in the production of handcrafted wines. He still spends his time making and drinking wine, but instead of skiing he has taken up snowboarding, which will help preserve his youthfulness. He is engaged to be married to Danielle Andrus, daughter of Gary Andrus, owner of Archery Summit and Pine Ridge Wineries.

Ronni Lacroute grew up in the suburbs of New York City and Washington DC, then finished high school in Switzerland, which is how she came to learn to ski and to think in French. After earning a BA in French at Cornell University, she went on to graduate school at the University of Michigan where she improved her French enormously by meeting and marrying Bernard Lacroute, a native of Burgundy with a contagious passion for Pinot Noir. Several subsequent years in France included graduate degrees at the Sorbonne, much thinking in French, some skiing, and some wine f\drinking. This followed a return to the United States with husband and young son in tow, 14 years of French teaching in Massachusetts (the birth of a daughter, much thinking in French, much skiing, occasional wine drinking), and then a momentous move to the West Coast. Next there were 14 years in Silicon Valley, California, with occasional teaching, some thinking in French, but much skiing and wine drinking. In California, Ronni began to share Bernard's passion for wine and his dream of creating a Burgundian style wine estate. It was also in California that Ronni became devoted to yoga, organic gardening, and the growing of fruit trees (while sometimes thinking in French). In 1997, Ronni became an Oregonian and is proud to reveal that she now can think in Oregonian as well as in French.

Bernard Lacroute grew up in a small village on the eastern edge of Burgundy, France, where he developed an early taste for Pinot Noir, instead of milk. After a classical education with much Latin, mathematics, some Shakespearean English and vast quantities of bad Pinot Noir, he graduated with Masters Degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering from the French school system. Committed to more esoteric stuff and more bad wine, he went off to study Plasma Physics with a NASA fellowship at the University of Michigan, where he met his wife, Ronni, improving his skills in spoken English (no more Shakespeare), and surviving more bad jug wines. After a successful and still ongoing career building computers, then computer companies (Sun Microsystems), and with a taste for progressively better Pinot Noir, Bernard decided to close the loop and go back to his source. Willakenzie is his dream to make great Pinot Noir in an environment relatively unencumbered by bureaucracy, where tradition can be blended with innovation. Today Bernard spends his time between high tech ventures in California (progressively less), his Oregon vineyard and winery, drinking much better Pinot Noir, roaming the ranch with his grape loving Doberman Pinscher and driving his bulldozer where no other tractor can go.

Daniel Fey grew up on his family's vineyard in Weinfelden, Switzerland, where he learned to grow grapes, eat chocolate, and speak many tongues. After learning strong work ethics from his family, Daniel earned a Masters Degree from the Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland, then served in the Swiss Army. During and internship at the University of California at Davis, he became acquainted with his future wife, who shared the next five years with him in Switzerland where Daniel had a teaching post at the Agricultural College of Canton Thurgau. Fueled by the Irish saying, "The safest place for a ship is in the haven, but that is not what it's built for...", Daniel collected his belongings and his wife and changed his base of operations to Oregon to pursue his dream of growing grapes, eating chocolate, and raising buffalo. He joined the management team of Willakenzie Vineyards in September 1998 and began to contribute his experience with European viticulture to the growing of Oregon vines. Daniel hopes that by his active participation in the NBA (National Bison Association) he will one day raise buffalo among vines while actively pursuing his quest for chocolate.