Kate Michaud
Winemaker – Covey Run Winery

The daughter of American expatriates, Covey Run winemaker Kate Michaud grew up in England. “I was exposed to wine at a tender age,” she says. “My parents often served wine with family meals and we traveled and dined extensively throughout Europe.”

Reaching college age, Kate decided to pursue a degree in Art History from the University of Oregon. Being in Oregon also allowed her frequently to ski and snowboard, two of the many sports whose physical challenges she relished. After graduation, Kate married her love of wine and enjoyment of strenuous exercise in a profession in which she could prove to be more than just a pretty face: winemaking.

Kate began her career as a cellar worker at Bonny Doon Vineyards in Santa Cruz, California. Simultaneously, she enrolled in the Winemaking Certificate program at the University of California at Davis, one of the world’s premier Viticulture and Enology programs. After a year at Bonny Doon, Kate traveled halfway around the world to work a harvest in the Margaret River region of Western Australia before returning to the Santa Cruz area to become Assistant Enologist at David Bruce Winery. Her next winemaking venture took her to the Pacific Northwest, where she was exposed to the enormous potential of Washington State wines while working at Canoe Ridge Vineyard in Walla Walla.

In 2005, with one young child and another on the way, Kate went on sabbatical to work a harvest in New Zealand, where she further refined her winemaking skills by conducting cold fermentations, which preserve and enhance a wine’s bright fruit characteristics.

Returning from New Zealand, Kate completed the UC Davis Winemaking Certificate program and returned to Canoe Ridge until the summer of 2007, when she joined Covey Run to oversee production of the winery’s popular Quail Series and elite Columbia Valley Reserve wines.

“Covey Run affords me the opportunity to work with world-class Washington State fruit from the Columbia Valley, one of the world’s great winegrowing regions,” Kate says. “My goal is to make wine lovers even more aware of the amazing quality Washington wines have to offer.”

Always the adventurer, Kate remains an avid snowboarder who also enjoys hiking, traveling and spending time with her husband and two young children.