WineInk: Debra Eagle’s wine flight
The best thing about writing a wine column is the people you meet. And one of those special people has put a period on an illustrious 30-year career in wine.
Debra Eagle, who made her mark on myriad wineries in California over three decades, is embarking on a new chapter. She closed 2024 with her retirement as general manager of the acclaimed Alma Rosa Winery in the Sta. Rita Hills of Central California. It signals the end of a brilliant career in wine sales and marketing that has seen her make significant contributions to the growth of the California wine industry in general and some of the most significant wineries in the state.
I first met Debra in Solvang, California, at an Alma Rosa tasting event and was immediately taken by her engaging demeanor, her passion for wine, and her vast knowledge of the industry. She joined Alma Rosa in 2018 as an experienced wine professional to help build a brand that had been purchased four years before by Bob and Barbara Zorich from the Sanford family.
“I was ready for a change from hill-top cabernet,” Debra laughed when asked about why an established general manager from Napa and Sonoma would move from the pinnacle of California wine country to an emerging region best known for producing high-quality pinot noir. And over the past seven years, she has made changes that helped make Alma Rosa one of the most respected producers in the Sta. Rita Hills.
“I think the hiring of Tony Biagi (consulting winemaker) and Samra Morris (winemaker), introducing new packaging, and hiring our public relations firm (Jarvis Communications) may have been the most important steps in the repositioning of Alma Rosa in the wine industry during my time,” she said about her final job and tenure with the Zorichs.
Indeed, the decision to employ Biagi, a longtime Napa Valley winemaker and consultant, brought a dose of experience. But it took a courageous leap of faith and a bit of luck to bring Samra Morris — a young, then-unknown, female winemaker who had been born and raised in Bosnia and Herzegovina — into the mix.
“I had known Samra since she first came to Hestan Vineyards. I gave her a job in the tasting room when I was general manager,” said Debra with near parental pride. Morris had gone on to make a rapid rise in the wine world, working three harvests under acclaimed winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown.
“We hired Samra as our assistant winemaker at Alma Rosa in 2019, and then, just before the 2020 harvest, our winemaker quit,” Debra remembers. It was Morris who stepped up to the plate and completed the harvest.
Debra, a Northern California native, began her business career in stones, not wines, as she was in the diamond industry in Germany and Belgium. Upon her return to the U.S. in the early 1990s, she began looking for a gig.
“I was living in Sonoma, so I thought, maybe I’ll get into the wine business,” she said.
Her first job was a three-month project at the Meadowood Napa Valley resort which was owned by Napa Valley wine legend Bill Harlan.
“I don’t think he remembered that he hired me,” she laughs looking back three decades at her initial introduction to the wine world. Her next stop was at Kenwood Vineyards where her previous experience in Europe led to her taking over international sales for the Sonoma-based producer.
In 1997, Debra was hired by the Robert Mondavi Winery as director of marketing, a prestigious position at what was perhaps the most significant winery in Napa Valley.
“I learned about the wine business at Kenwood, but I learned about the fine wine business at Mondavi,” she notes.
Indeed, she worked with Napa Valley wine legends Robert (Bob) Mondavi, Tim, Mondavi, and Clay Gregory.
“We did everything from national and international sales to working with Margrit (Robert’s wife) on the ‘Great Chefs at Robert Mondavi Winery'” — a prestigious culinary program in the Napa Valley.
In the mid-2000s, she had a second stint with the Harlans as she spent five years working closely with Bill Harlan on BOND, the second brand launched under the Harlan Estate portfolio.
“We worked hard for four years to get the collection right,” she said about the experience. “We would have a team meeting every week, and Bill would ‘blue sky’ ideas. I’d never seen a team work like that.”
Other stops included stints at Sutter Home and Bruce Cohn’s B.R. Cohn Winery.
It has been a heady career.
This past summer, Debra came to Aspen to pour wines from Alma Rosa at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen alongside winemaker Samra Morris.
“It was the first time in my entire career that I actually had the opportunity to come to Food & Wine. From afar, I have been involved in planning events for the Classic; but every year, it seemed that one of my kids was having a graduation or something, so I just couldn’t make it.”
Fortunately for us, the wines she poured perfectly reflected the region and the evolution of Alama Rosa since it was founded by Santa Barbara winemaking pioneer Richard Sanford in 2005.
While Debra is retired, she will keep her hand in the mix at Alma Rosa at least until May to make certain that the winery’s annual “Peace of Mind: 10,000 Steps in the Right Direction” event gets a proper start. Founded in 2020, the community fundraising walk amongst the vines has raised over $955,000 for two mental health organizations: Santa Barbara County’s Mental Wellness Center and OneMind.
It is a fitting end to a long flight.
