Shaped by Time

David is an American who fell in love with the wines of the Douro Valley. Immediately upon seeing the vineyards of Kimbrel, he knew he had found his spiritual home. He brings Napa Valley production and hospitality know-how to the project along with a passion to always strive to achieve the best. He has studied engineering at Virginia Tech, business at Georgetown, and viticulture and enology at the University of California, Davis. He lives in Kansas City with his wife, two children, and three large dogs.

Isaac brings experience from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Australia, Chile - and of course Portugal and the Douro - to Kimbrel. After bouncing around between hemispheres twice a year Isaac found his permanent home at Kimbrel. Isaac has a chemical engineering degree from the University of Porto and a degree in viticulture and enology from Bordeaux Sciences Agro.

Hugo is a winemaker who truly understands the relationship between farming and winemaking. In fact, his PhD (from University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro) is in viticulture and not enology. Hugo's background has been primarily in making port wines for some of the top port houses, however Kimbrel allows him the freedom to truly express himself as a winemaker.

José Carlos is in charge of all viticultural practices at Kimbrel. His philosophy at Cavea is that proper planning and meticulous attention to detail early in a cycle can help produce superior grapes with limited or minimal vineyard interventions. He has worked exclusively in the Douro his entire career and has an amazing understanding of how to extract the best from our unique terroir.

David comes from a long line of winegrowers and winemakers in the Douro Valley and coordinates all vineyard and construction work at Kimbrel. We saw David in action as the foreman of his family's vineyard construction company and, after years of trying, we were finally able to convince him to join us! He lives in Alijó with his wife and young daughter.

Javiera has spent all of her career until now travelling the globe learning winemaking practices from the best wineries around. She also grew up on a cherry farm and, as such, has contributed a lot to Kimbrel's arboriculture in our groves, orchards, and even our gardens. She met her fiancée while working in a winery in her home country of Chile, and has also worked in Portugal, America, Argentina, and New Zealand (NO IDEA WHERE THOUGH!). She comes to us most recently from Paul Hobbs in Healdsburg, California.

We take environmental stewardship very seriously at Kimbrel and will choose an organic pest control solution to a chemical one every day of the week. When our vet asked if we knew anyone who wanted to adopt two abandoned kittens we jumped at the chance.