Winemaker & Founder John Kasimor
John started his fermentation interest in the kitchen of his Liverpool-born mum who was a prolific baker. At the age of 10, John’s father decided to follow in the footsteps of his father in making homemade dandelion and rhubarb wine in a family heirloom, a 5-gallon Red Wing Pottery crock. That crock still sits in John’s home in Napa and is a treasured memory of his father and grandfather. Needless to say, the dandelion and rhubarb wine did not hold John’s interest, but the fermentation process kept him fascinated. He made use of the Red Wing crock to make apple wine to distill into brandy using his chemistry set. And there the fermentation fascination remained on hold while John went to college and started out his work career.

Moving out of the Kitchen to the Garage
The wine bug bit John again when he moved to California in 1989 and again when he accepted a position with a Swiss company in Zurich in the mid-90s. Now he was within three hours’ drive to some of the most famous Winelands of Europe; Alsace, Burgundy, the Rhone Valley, Northern Italy, and Germany. Several years after returning to San Francisco, John decided to become a home winemaker in the garage of his home in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco. He enlisted the support and partnership of his neighbor. They made wine together until 2018 when John decided to move to Napa. During the home winemaking period, John and Steve produced many award-winning wines including a Double Gold at the Orange County Fair. They specialized in crafting Bordeaux and Rhone-style wines.

Move to Napa and Commercial Beginnings
With John’s move to Napa, he decided to make wines commercially in the Grebennikof Winery in Sonoma Valley. The first vintage to be released was a 2019 organic Merlot from Grebennikof Vineyard and a 2019 Grenache from Fore Family Vineyards on Cobb Mountain in Lake County. In 2021, John moved his winery operations to Bell Wines in Napa and crafted his first Pinot Noir. The 2021 harvest also included Fore Family Vineyards Grenache and Horn Vineyards Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 6.

Natural Winemaking in Sonoma
Kazi Cellars has since moved to Heirs of my Dream winery in Sonoma where 2023 crush is underway with Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon on the menu. John’s winemaking philosophy encompasses natural fermentation, minimal sulfite addition, and no fining or filtration. His grape sourcing is from organic or minimal chemical addition vineyards. The wine style John strives to achieve is a hybrid between French and California styles with lower alcohol and less extraction but with the ripe fruit of California. It is difficult to achieve this delicate balance due to the effects of the sun and heat on California vineyards compared to some French grape-growing regions.