“Farming is in my heart,” Viramontes says. “I’ve been farming all my life, since I was 3 or 4 years old.”

Viramontes got his first vineyard job in 1989, when he moved to Sonoma County and began working in the wine business. In 1998, he joined Kendall-Jackson as an assistant vineyard manager. A year later, he was promoted to vineyard manager. He became vineyard director for Alexander Mountain Estate in 2005, and was named director of operations, North Coast, in 2010.

“Wine grapes are different from row crops,” Viramontes says. “With peanuts and tomatoes, for example, you grow them and harvest them and they’re gone. With grapes, the vines can be here for 40 or 50 years, and your goals are long-term. I enjoy that.”

He also notes there is always something to learn in viticulture. “Every day you get a different picture,” he says. “There is a new block, new rootstock, new clones. It’s never boring.”

Preserving the land for future generations is important to Viramontes, and he advocates sustainable farming practices: “The best wines always begin in the vineyard.”