Last updated on March 28, 2008

Thursday, June 19
9:00 am–9:45 am

Farm Boy to Winegrower, a Perspective of the Past Forty Years and the Challenges of the Future

bobsteinhauermeritaward.jpgMr. Robert Steinhauer
Wineland Consulting LLC, California

We are pleased to honor Robert Steinhauer with the Merit Award based on his many accomplishments and contributions to the industry and ASEV.

For more than 40 years, Robert Steinhauer has played a key and influential role in shaping the American wine industry. His expertise in labor relations, technical practices, and coordinating harvests in some of the California’s finest winegrape growing regions makes him a consummate expert in virtually every aspect of winegrape production. Far from the raisin farm of his early adulthood, Steinhauer’s knowledge and expertise of California winegrape vineyards has made him an invaluable asset to the industry.

Currently the president and part owner of Wineland Consulting, LLC, Steinhauer’s credentials include a 25-year tenure at Beringer Blass Wine Estates, where he retired as senior vice president. Along with his colleague Ed Sbragia, Steinhauer was recognized by the San Francisco Chronicle as Winemaker of the Year in 2001 and was named Copia’s Winegrower of the Year in 2004.

Steinhauer has served on many committees, including program committee chair from 2006 through 2008 for the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium; appointed member of the Watershed Information Center and Conservancy of Napa County; chairman for the Pierce’s Disease and Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Board; board member for the Wine Institute and member of its Research and Education Committee; president of the Board of the Napa Valley Vintners in 2004 and chairman of the Wine Appellation Committee and president of the board of ASEV in 1985–1986. During the reorganization of the American Vineyard Foundation (AVF) in 2006–2007, Steinhauer offered his expertise to manage AVF’s day-to-day activities.

Widely respected and recognized in the wine industry, Steinhauer is the recipient of several prestigious honors including the 2006 Outstanding Alumnus Award from California State University, Fresno; the 2005 Wine Integrity Award; the 1983 Foremost McKesson California Vintner Award, and the Viticulture Alumni Award presented by California State University, Fresno.

Steinhauer earned his bachelor’s degree in viticulture in 1965 and his master’s degree in plant science in 1967 at Fresno State College, known today as  California State University, Fresno.