Long-time Sequoia Grove Winemaker Leaves

NEWS RELEASE

 

Napa Valley, CA (January 11, 2022)

 

Molly Hill, employed in winemaking at Sequoia Grove since 2003, has left the winery to pursue GRO Wines, her single vineyard, Napa Valley wine brand owned by her and her winemaking husband Lars Bjorkman. Additionally, she plans to work part time at the non-profit Nimbus Arts while she manages pursuing her MBA and raising her two children.

 

“I was blessed to have my time at Sequoia Grove—I am so proud of the wines we made there—but now it is time to spread my wings,” said Hill.

 

While at Sequoia Grove, Hill was responsible for taking the quality of the wines to new heights, by receiving many scores of 90-95 points from key critics for hundreds of thousands of cases of wine, including Top 100 Wines from Wine Spectator in 2018. During her tenure, she assisted in developing, designing, and implementing the construction of a state-of-the-art winery expansion on the original historic site.

 

Says Hill, “After 18 wonderful years at Sequoia Grove, I look forward to putting all my passion behind our own label GRO Wines.”

 

Receiving a bachelor of science in viticulture and enology from UC Davis, Hill worked at Beringer, Domaine Carneros, SeaSmoke, and Vina Isidro in Chile and studied winemaking at Lincoln University in New Zealand.

 

About GRO Wines

 

GRO Wines is the brand of seasoned winemakers Lars Bjorkman and Molly Hill. GRO means ‘to germinate’ in Swedish. The brand ties Lars’ Swedish influence about site—picking blueberries, mushrooms and crayfish from the area his family founded in Sweden had a huge impact on his formative years and how he understood site—to Lars’ knowledge about Napa Valley terroir. Being winemakers, Lars and Molly pull fruit from the best ‘insider’ sites, mini archipelagos within the larger Napa Valley appellation. All wines are from single vineyard locations.