Our Story
Kevin & Nichole
We’re Nichole and Kevin – partners, parents to two little girls, and owners of Lincoln Peak Vineyard. We farm eight acres of wine grapes on a beautiful hillside in the Champlain Valley, and we are proud to be a part of Vermont’s nascent winemaking story. Our own story is one that started on opposite coasts, until one fateful harvest united us out west and brought wine into our lives for good.
Nichole grew up on a ten-acre peach farm in the Central Valley of California and attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo where she earned a degree in biochemistry. Captivated by the diversity of the wine industry that surrounded her on the Central Coast, she soon found herself working her first vintage at E. & J. Gallo Winery. Kevin was born and raised in Vermont, and has always been enamored by his home state’s natural beauty and its culture’s profound connection with the land. After pursuing a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, during which he spent semesters in Chile and Spain and went on an eye-opening family trip to Tuscany, the possibility of a winemaking career came into focus. He, too, found himself working his first vintage at E. & J. Gallo Winery.
It was there, at the largest winery in the world, that our shared story started. Over the next few years, we took in all we could from the endless pool of resources, knowledge, and expertise offered by Gallo. We were hungry for more, and while making wine in Vermont always lived in the back of Kevin’s mind, the world beckoned. We set off, first to Hardys Tintara in Australia, then Martinborough Vineyard in New Zealand, and finally Weingut Bründlmayer in Austria, learning from the masters before us.
Back in the U.S., we were ready for our own project and found it leading the winemaking teams at two wineries in the Outer Coastal Plain AVA of New Jersey: Nichole at Sharrott Winery and Kevin at William Heritage Winery. During this time, we learned invaluable lessons about farming grapes on the east coast, pushed the envelope of wine quality and style in an emerging region, and welcomed our first daughter, Rosie.
Being back on the east coast made the idea of starting that Vermont winery all the more possible. When the perfect opportunity finally knocked, we were ready. We took over Lincoln Peak Vineyard in April of 2024, just one month before our second daughter, Ella was born. One year later, we released our first vintage of wines made with fruit that we grew.
Our focus at Lincoln Peak is to make delicious and distinctive wines that are authentic expressions of place and time. In Vermont’s cold climate, hybrid varieties allow us to farm far more sustainably than Vitis vinifera, conveying an honest sense of place into our wines. Vermont is known for its pioneering spirit in farm-to-table food and craft beer, and we are immensely proud to be among its relatively new cohort of trailblazing winemakers, telling the story of this Brave Little State through wine. In the words of Chris Granstrom, who founded the vineyard and tended its vines for over two decades, “We like to think that we’re helping to turn a new page in Vermont’s long and varied agricultural history.”
Cody
Cody is our right hand man, jack of all trades, and best friend. He splits his time between the vineyard and the tasting room, bringing unmatched energy and passion to everything he does. With a decade of experience in viticulture and specialty crop farming, Cody’s judgment and hard work are essential to the quality of our wines, and his knowledgeable and gregarious presence sets the tone in the tasting room. He also happens to be among the most genuine, compassionate, and thoughtful people you’ll ever meet, and the best funcle to our girls.
Cody grew up one town over from Kevin and the two went to rival high schools, but it wasn’t until they started working together at a vineyard in California that they really connected. Armed with a Master’s in Geography, Cody found his love for vineyards as a member of Gallo’s Viticulture Research team. Leveraging his mapping skillset, he was able to develop a deeper understanding of the financial and operational sides of agriculture as a part of Harvard Management Company’s Natural Resources Portfolio before moving back home to manage a diversified berry farm.
After four years of growing berries, grapes, and cannabis in Vermont, and plenty of free labor at the vineyard, Cody finally joined us full-time this spring. It’s a long-awaited dream come true for these three friends.
