Wine Team
Our team does the hard work, behind the scenes. Have you seen a grape press that needs cleaned? A press pad after the crush? Let’s not even talk about the bee stings.
Depending on the season, the team might fill thousands of bottles a day, turn a million clusters of fruit into juice and ultimately into wine, resulting in 225,000 bottles of wine a year.
Add in chemistry, hygiene and monitoring each barrel in order to create the best wine possible, one barrel at a time, because … It’s All About the Wine.
Executive Winemaker – Chris Pearmund
Chris Pearmund is one of Virginia’s most widely recognized and well respected winegrowers and winemakers. He has over 25 years experience as a winemaker, vineyard manager and winery operator. Chris is the "go-to" guy if you want to understand the wine industry from berry to bottle. He has taught and mentored numerous professionals in the industry. A few accomplishments of note:
- President of the Virginia Vineyards Association
- Chairman of the Virginia Wine and Food Society
- Board Member of the Virginia Wineries Association
- 1st mobile wine bottler this side of the Rockies
- 1st winery to use OXO barrel system
– which is the gold standard for barrel rooms - Innovator of the barrel ownership program
- Following Mary Eugene Mulligan (Wine for Dummies), Chris was the 2nd person to teach the Wine Spirit Education Trust (WSET) program in the country –– the standard of wine knowledge
- Initiated the first Virginia Vineyard insurance program and held the first policy
Winemaker - DJ Leffin
DJ has moved up in the world of fermentation. With humble starts in beer production, he moved to winemaking at Pearmund Cellars under the watchful eye of Chris Pearmund.
With Army officer training, a degree in science and a sense of humor from his acting days, DJ is always a charm to work with and a good person from whom to learn. His days as a school teacher and his completion of a program in viticulture and enology from U.C. Davis make him a great asset at Pearmund Cellars.
