FOUNDER & WINEGROWER

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Bob Mueller has been growing grapes since he was a young boy, and making wine in the Napa Valley for over 50 years. His passion for farming was cultivated first;  Bob helped his family farm an assortment of crops including cattle, hay, and grapes at their Rutherford district farm. As a teenager, Bob would take and sell his family's fruit at the Napa CoOp. Eventually his incredible work ethic caught the eye of the Mondavis and they hired him to travel between locations to check on fruit and do barrel topping. Eventually he was promoted to Director of Oenology at Mondavi where he would directly influence the creation of some of Napa's most inspirational wines.  Bob stayed on to be a consultant winemaker for Mondavi and Opus One while he and his wife Karen established McKenzie-Mueller Vineyards & Winery in 1989. 

FOUNDER & CFO

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Karen McKenzie was raised in Monticello, the mythical city that now sits under forty feet of water at the bottom of Lake Berryessa. The two Napa County locals met while attending an art class in San Jose. They shared similar passion for working with the land, and creating something that would be an authentic representation of the land they chose to raise a family on. While setting the foundation for McKenzie-Mueller, Karen took a third job at Napa High School where she would teach, ceramics, photography, and drawing. McKenzie-Mueller Vineyards & Winery unmeasureably benefitted from Karen's persistence, creativity, and dedication.