This panel discussion was organized by the General Consulate of Switzerland in San Francisco.
The four panelists are:
— René Schlatter, CEO of Merryvale Family of Wines –
Proprietor & CEO of Merryvale Family of Wines since 2008, René Schlatter has an unyielding commitment to wine quality, customer service, and investment in the community, and continues to uphold his family’s legacy in the wine-growing world.
A native of Switzerland, René has lived in the U.S. since 1987, having attended Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, as undergraduate. Upon completion of his degree, he returned to Europe and worked for several years as a businessman in various industries. In 1994, he moved back to the US.
René and his family are very committed to protecting and preserving Napa Valley for future generations using sustainable practices. Both of Merryvale’s estate vineyards are Napa Green Farm certified.
— Jean Hoefliger, Consultant winemaker –
Jean Hoefliger was born and raised in Switzerland, an artisan inherently driven to push the envelope, continually challenging cognizance of not only winemaking, but life in general. In his winemaking, the essence of his experiences is brought to life through a particular craft: fundamentally balanced by his experiences in Bordeaux, now left unbridled on the frontier of Napa Valley, a delectable intersection between the past and future of wine. In California, he first worked at Michel Schlumberger and Hartford Family in Sonoma, followed by Bordeaux and South Africa. After completing a winemaking and viticulture degree at the Swiss federal school of Changins, Jean returned to Bordeaux making wine at Chateau Lynch-Bages, moving back to California in 2001.
In 2005 Jean started Alpha Omega Winery as the Winemaker and General Manager while concurrently building his consulting business with many projects around the world. In 2019, Jean shifted his career to become a full time Consulting Winemaker. His passion, knowledge, scientific training and innate ability put him in a unique position to take the best grapes around the world and transform them into wines and brands worthy of world-class standing.
— William Metz, Product Manager at Gamaya –
After studying viticulture and enology at California Polytechnic University in California, William relocated to Switzerland to continue his winemaking education at Changins. Along the way, he had winemaking experiences in California, France, New Zealand and Switzerland. Throughout these experiences he became evermore obsessed with how recent advances in remote sensing and computing could augment human observation within vineyards and lead to better decision making in the field and cellar, plus clear a host of communication issues between growers and winemakers.
After leading Precision Vine from 2016 until 2019, William joined the product management organization of Gamaya in 2019, applying what he learned in precision viticulture to other cropping systems. Gamaya is a Swiss digital agronomy company founded in 2015 as a spin-off from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) on a mission to tackle the global challenge of the pressing food scarcity under the motto ‘know your land’. In 2020 Gamaya will adopt and industrialize the product portfolio of Precision Vine to launch an open beta testing program for the Californian market.
— Jodoc Elmiger, Business Development at Aero41 –
Since 2018, Jodoc works for Aero41, a Swiss start-up bringing together a team of experts in the fields of flying robotics, aviation, and advanced applications in the commercial civil drone sector.
European pioneers in the development of drones dedicated to crop protection as well as frames with high carrying capacity, the Aero41 team is committed to constantly improving its products to bring added value in terms of the environment and safety of the users.
Panel Moderated by:
– Dava Guthmiller, Founder of Noise 13
and Co-Founder of In/visible Talks
Dava Guthmiller, Moderator of the Panel, Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Noise 13
Dava is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Noise 13, a branding and design agency that focuses on lifestyle brands. She has over 20 years of experience leading strategy and design projects with clients such as Uber, Tile, Planet, Twitter, Pacific Catch, World Wrapps and Paso Wine.
Dava is also a board member of Slow Food California and advisor for Good Food Awards. She occasionally gets her hands on fine art, and lectures about brand for business. She has been featured in publications such as HOW, Communication Arts, Forbes, Huffington Post, and Print Magazine.
The opening clip is courtesy of Switzerland Tourism; the final clip is courtesy of Presence Switzerland. Music in the drone clip is from bensound.com