By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor

Jerol

The Lenz Winery in Peconic has a new tasting room manager. His name is Jerol Rickard and he brings experience in project management, market research and litigation to the job — experience that should serve him well running the tasting room at one of the North Forks classic wineries. 

He brings a unique perspective on wine as well, having grown up in California wine country. A member Lenz wine club before joining the company, he's also keenly familiar with the portfolio and in local wine in general.

And now, he answers our set of seven questions…

What event/bottle/etc made you decide that you wanted to be in the wine industry?

I grew up in Northern California, in the Bay Area, and Napa and Sonoma were right in my backyard. On weekends, visiting wineries was always a choice on the list of activities.

On a trip to Napa for a friends 30th birthday we visited Andretti Winery. As we were all gathered on the terrace with our wine glasses in hand, toasting to his birthday with a glass of 2001 sangiovese, I was taking in the scenery, the rolling hills, and the vines in the distance and thought