Our Winemakers
Twomey's founding winemaker Daniel Baron developed his passion for Merlot during the early 1980s while working in Pomerol and St. Emilion, the Bordeaux districts in which Merlot predominates. Returning to California in 1982, Daniel hoped to make a California Merlot with a French sensibility, but for many years lacked access to fruit with the characteristics that he required. After the Duncan family acquired Soda Canyon Ranch in 1999 and Daniel realized it was planted with top-flight French clones, Daniel’s dream became reality.
Ben Cane joined our winemaking team in 2007. Today, he is the Winemaker for our Pinot Noir Program. He has expanded the Twomey portfolio to include four Pinots, each representing the very best Pinot growing regions and sites in California. Ben has travelled the world to study and hone his winemaking skills, but his passion for Pinot Noir developed while working at Arcadian in Santa Barbara. Ben’s vision for Twomey Pinot Noir is to craft a wine that expresses the uniqueness and terroir of each vineyard site with finesse and balance by blending old world techniques with new world innovation and technology.
