About Me

I am Steve Lutz, a Pinot Noir producer in Oregon. I have been connected to the Oregon wine business for the last five years, both as a vineyard owner and a marketing professional.
Until recently, I was part of a three person management team as the Marketing Director at Anne Amie Vineyards.

Prior to Anne Amie, I took a year away from wine and went to England with my wife who is from a small village called Wokingham, down the M4, west of London. It was a great year and included a memorable trip to the Loire and Ireland in addition to England.

Before England I owned a small gourmet pizza restaurant in northern California. It was a five year hiatus away from the wine business. Great pizza is a sub-passion of mine after wine. In fact, I was inspired to get into pizza after a long conversation with a customer in the tasting room at Vichon. Remember Vichon? I don't mean the brand, the actual winery, 2 point if you remember Chevrignon. Well I managed the hospitality department in the late 80's at Vichon.

As far as pizza goes, I did love the 5 years I spent in the pizza business. I still believe I invented cilantro pesto, but maybe someone had it before 1991 and will prove me wrong. I also believe I hold the guiness book for world records for the amount of pizza eaten in a 5 year period, but maybe most pizza guys would say the same. I think it was a testament to my product that I never tired of it and I couldn't have missed more than a couple days in 5 years. I hope I am not revealing more about my personality type than the pizza, but the product really was good. I am sure there are one or two wine geeks in Santa Rosa, California that remember Borolo's Gourmet pizza. I named it after Barolo, but the a didn't fit into the logo so I improvised.

Before my life of pizza, I managed direct sales at Merryvale Vineyards in Napa Valley. I worked for Bill Harlan of Harlan Estate which has to be one of the more interesting people I have ever encountered. Here was a guy who could reduce you to ashes in less than a minute, not afraid to do it in front of people, but an interesting guy, nonetheless. He knew...sure he still knows...how to generate revenue. He also understood how to read a spread sheet, to look at a business and see immediately where it was headed and suggest, rather strongly, that you turn it and head it in his direction. Sounds simple, but you would be suprised how many people, and I mean people that own companies, are more influenced by people talking in their ear than facts.

Before Merryvale I worked for Tim Mondavi at Vichon Winery, starting in 1986. I managed the tasting room and all aspects of event production. In 1984, the hot Napa Vintage, I also helped manage the Inglenook Napa Valley hospitality department and started my career in wine working crush at Beringer Vineyards and in the hospitality department at Franciscan Winery.

You can check out the consulting side of my web site if you want all the dirty details-www.lenneestate.com/html/lenez.html