Komm replaces Lacey Lybeck, who will now be grape sales manager
Brittany Komm has been named vineyard operations manager at Washington’s Sagemoor Vineyards, one of the state’s premier vineyard groups. Komm takes the reigns from Lacey Lybeck, who will now serve as Sagemoor’s grape sales manager.
“Adding Brittany and having Lacey more involved working with customers strengthens the overall company and our ability to serve customers,” says Kent Waliser, director of wine sales at Sagemoor. “I think it also gives us opportunities to continue to grow.”
At Sagemoor, Komm will oversee management of all of the company’s vineyards, which include sites in the White Bluffs, Wahluke Slope, and Walla Walla Valley. Overall, Sagemoor farms over 1,300 acres of wine grape vines. Komm will also interact with Sagemoor’s 120 winery clients.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity,” Komm says. “I’ve always wanted to be able to oversee an entire team and to work with more winemakers from around the state. It’s a ‘pinch me’ moment for me.”
A native of Wenatchee Valley, Komm graduated from Washington State University (WSU) in 2011 with a degree in horticulture and an emphasis in viticulture. She went on to get a master’s degree from the university as a graduate student of Michelle Moyer.
After graduating in 2013, Komm was hired as a viticulturalist by Precept Wine, one of Washington’s largest wineries. Over subsequent years, she was promoted to vineyard manager for the Waterbrook and Brown Family properties and was senior viticulturalist for the winery’s other estate vineyards. Overall, Komm oversaw 1,500 acres at Precept.
“She’s a seasoned veteran,” Waliser says. “She brings Washington experience, estate vineyard experience, and she’s very research oriented.”
Former vineyard operations manager Lacey Lybeck will now focus on grape sales. Lybeck, who joined the Sagemoor team in 2015, first began assisting Waliser with those responsibilities in 2020.
“I’ve really found a passion for working with winemakers, understanding the wines that they’re envisioning, and pairing the perfect vineyard site, terroir, and what the grapes naturally produce to that wine,” Lybeck says.
A native of La Conner and a graduate of WSU in the same class as Komm, Lybeck started out in the wine industry in 2011 as a viticulture technician at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, the Northwest’s largest winery. From 2013 to 2015, she was senior viticulturalist at Milbrandt Vineyards.
Lybeck, who will work for Sagemoor remotely, will also spend time as a fieldman at her parents’ business, Skagit Seed Services. She will be involved with the company’s production of cabbage, beet, and spinach seed.
“Both grapes and the vegetable seed operation will bring me back to Tri Cities and the surrounding areas often,” Lybeck says.
With plantings in 1972, Sagemoor includes some of Washington’s oldest vineyards. Six of the company’s vineyards are in the White Bluffs, which received appellation status in 2021. The company also owns Weinbau Vineyard on the Wahluke Slope. The company expanded its operations into Walla Walla in 2021, acquiring Southwind Vineyard. Sagemoor was purchased by Allan Brothers in 2014.
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