Jessica Tarpy - Assistant Winemaker Growing up in Louisiana shaped my love for food and wine – from everyday occurrences like fishing for brim in our pond and doing homework at the kitchen table while my mom made crawfish éttoufée – to weekend outings like waterskiing in the Atchafalaya Basin and the first inklings of a perfect pairing – flash-fried oysters and Chablis. The sense of family, the dinner table and the elements that bring everyone together remained central to me throughout my education. While studying and working in Italy, my interests attained more focus. My encounters with various Italian winemakers made a great impression on me. The marriage of disciplines seemed poetic and inexhaustible to me: biology, chemistry, botany, geology, geography, linguistics. And the range of scope from finite – think "mannoproteins and mouthfeel" to infinite – the immeasurable enjoyment of a breath-taking pairing. While living in LA, I worked with wine institutions to learn practical applications for wine's enjoyment: the largest wine shop in LA, an amazing neighborhood Italian restaurant, and later, a frank, hands-on enology education at Fresno State. As the assistant winemaker for Favia, I have the opportunity to work with many varietals, develop insightful relationships with growers, and explore the realm of winemaking and viticultural practices with a notion to increasingly simplify the process, while continually making better and better wines.