Team Anthem

We formed Team Anthem in early 2009 to produce small quantities of handcrafted wines from the most distinctive and promising mountainous vineyards in Napa Valley. The Valley is undergoing tremendous change as many of the families which have made Napa Valley wines world renown are turning over their operations to others. This change has created opportunity and in assembling the team we sought the very best of this next generation. After considering over 100 applicants from around the world we selected Jeff Ames as Anthem’s head winemaker. An explosive talent, Jeff has made some of California’s most acclaimed wines over the last few years and has a long and brilliant career ahead of him. In turning to John Truchard to manage our vineyards we get the rare combination of a skilled viticulturist, sound vineyard manager, successful winery owner and someone with firsthand knowledge of dozens of the area’s top vineyards. John also knows Mt. Veeder – a vastly rewarding yet temperamental AVA. Both Jeff and John are hardworking, no nonsense, low ego professionals – the kind of guys you’d like to sit down with and have a glass of wine. Our kind of people.

As proprietors, we’ve consistently provided the team with very simple yet important guidance: let every decision made be solely guided by its impact on the quality of wine we produce. Quality has trumped quantity at every turn and the team has been free to produce without regard to cost, resources, marketing timetables or other extraneous factors. We’ve left the fruit from entire vineyard blocks on the vine, foregoing harvest completely, because the grapes though serviceable, did not develop to our standards. We’ve bulked off perfectly good wine to other producers simply because it was not great and may well do so again in the future.

This exacting focus on quality means for any given vintage we do not know how much wine we will actually release until several years after harvest. We do know if our wine does find its way into our (beautiful) bottle and pass from our hands to yours we believe it to be outstanding. A wine to be enjoyed with loved ones on special occasions in your life as it is enjoyed in ours.

In vino veritas,
JA⁵

Jeff is an explosive winemaking talent from thoroughly Southern upbringing, spending most of his childhood in Memphis, and his teenage years in Mobile, Alabama. After high school, Jeff went to the University of Alabama, receiving a B.A. in History. While working on his Masters in Education at the University of Memphis, Jeff took a job at a small wine shop to earn extra money. Wine immediately captivated him, and he began applying for harvest positions in wineries all over Oregon and California. He got back two replies, one from Lynn Penner-Ash at Rex Hill in Oregon who immediately hired him to work harvest.

Jeff came to the Napa Valley in 1999, and began learning every aspect of the wine industry from sales, at WineBid.com, to writing, while doing freelance work for Decanter Magazine. In 2001, Jeff was able to return to what he loved the most, winemaking, when he began working as assistant winemaker under Thomas Brown on projects including Schrader, Maybach, Outpost, and Tor. In 2003, he took over as head winemaker for Tor, where he continues to make critically acclaimed wines from some of California’s most notable vineyards. Since then, Jeff has produced some of the most critically acclaimed wines in California, regularly hand-crafting wines rated 93-100 points. Jeff brings Anthem Winery’s dream of producing the highest quality wine from impeccably farmed, environmentally sustainable vineyards to fruition by utilizing minimal interference winemaking techniques, allowing the wine to highlight the unique attributes of the land in which they are grown.

John’s father Tony Truchard began developing vineyard property in the Carneros region in the Napa Valley in 1974 when john was two years old. He spent much of his free time growing up in the vineyards learning about grape-growing first hand from his father as he was learning from other Vintners of that period including the likes of Warren Winiarski, Joe Heitz, and Andre Tchelistcheff. Upon finishing his studies at UC Davis in the mid 1990’s John began a small vineyard management business in the mid 1990’s and began farming for others who were focused on small lot high quality wine growing. Today, John’s vineyard management company, FARM Napa Valley, manages about 25 small high end vineyards and is honored to work with some of the best winemakers in the Napa Valley. An accomplished vintner in his own right, John owns and operates John Anthony Vineyards and JAM Cellars.

Kristen got a jump-start in the wine business working at her family’s winery in Paso Robles, while attending California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She helped formulate marketing strategies and played a key role in building their wholesale and direct-to-consumer network, which soon made her talent and passion for sales and marketing clear. After graduating with a degree in Journalism, she decided to pursue her passion for the wine business and accepted a job as a Sales Representative in Beverly Hills with Epic Wines and Spirits, a top distributor of fine wines. She quickly excelled by routinely exceeding sales goals and was named Sales Person of the Year in 2012. A year later, she accepted a promotion and relocated to the beautiful Napa Valley. Eager to increase her breadth of knowledge in the industry, she left distribution and accepted a supplier role of Northern California Regional Sales Manager for Huneeus Vintners, a family owned portfolio of luxury wines. Armed with distributor and supplier experience and ready for increased responsibility and independence, Kristen accepted the job as Anthem Winery’s Director of Sales and Marketing in 2018. She has been taking the ball and running with it ever since, managing all of Anthem Winery’s wholesale, retail, and direct-to-consumer sales and marketing efforts.

Julie fell in love with Napa Valley when she and her future husband first visited not long after they graduated from UC Berkeley. When they found their Mt. Veeder Estate, they thought it was heaven on earth. An attorney and former federal prosecutor by training, Julie has used her skills to establish a growing wine brand in a heavily regulated industry. She has treasured her time on Mt. Veeder, becoming a nurturing steward of the land and leading Anthem Winery while also raising three children. The vines she and her husband selected and planted now produce some of the most acclaimed Cabernet and Merlot on Mt. Veeder. Julie is a first-generation farmer and vintner, and her ultimate goal is to run Anthem Winery alongside one or more of their children, and to share her passion for wine, family, fitness and a healthy lifestyle with customers, meeting and getting to know amazing people from diverse communities and backgrounds. She looks forward to sharing not only Anthem wines, but also the natural beauty and bounty of Mt. Veeder, Napa Valley when Anthem Winery’s planned tasting room opens.