About Van
Van is a California native, born in the north central valley near Redding. Van first attended Chico State as a civil engineering major; while studying there he discovered that his roommates would drink any beer or liquor he brought home, but they wouldn’t touch his wine. Mangrove Bottle Shop was where he purchased his imported beers and they also had a large selection of wine. The manager there shared a lot of his wine knowledge, but it wasn’t until Van’s second year that he finally bought a bottle of wine, a Liberty School Chardonnay that was made with American Oak. The manager wanted him to taste the oak in the wine. From there he held Van’s hand as he tasted through the wines of the world. This tasting culminated in Van’s treating himself to a bottle of red burgundy from Pommard as a reward for a high grade on an exam. Looking back, it must have been a warm vintage: the wine was soft, silky on the palate and had an unusual blue tinge to the ruby red color. That wine inspired Van to take an introduction to wine class at Chico, followed by an advanced tasting class for a semester. His love of cooking from a young age developed an ability to taste the intricacies of wine.
Van had visited the Napa Valley, the Sonoma Valley, the Russian River, the Alexander Valley and the Anderson Valley and loved all of them. Deciding that he wanted to live in the wine country and make wine he enrolled in Enology at Fresno State University.
While at Fresno State, Van worked a harvest at Ficklin Vineyards and a harvest at Fetzer Vineyards, he then spent four years at Chateau Montelena in Calistoga. Van’s love of the outdoors, hunting and fishing, and, in particular, his love for the elusive Steelhead trout brought him to the Anderson Valley to work for Greenwood Ridge Vineyards, where he was for five vintages, 1988-1993. Van’s next stop was at Edmeades Estate in Anderson Valley for the Jackson Family; he was there for the 1994-2009 vintages.
In 2010 Van started Witching Stick Wines. It started with a rough harvest in a cold year with grapes that were not sweet enough after 10 inches of rain to make the contract. Van knew he could do something with the wine and created a most unusual Zinfandel that many mistook in blind tastings for a northern Italian red. Along the way, Van purchased some Pinot noir grapes and was given the chance for some Durell Chardonnay. The tasting room opened in October of 2014.
Van lives outside of Philo on a small ranch with his wife, Anne, and their many dogs. The elusive steelhead has become endangered to the point he has not fished for them in several years but continues to fish for ocean salmon, bottom fish, and tuna. Grows a big garden and likes to know his meat personally.
