Kristin Scheelar has been named general manager at Succession Wines in the Lake Chelan appellation. Scheelar spent the last seven years as associate winemaker at Columbia Winery in Sunnyside, Washington.
“I was ready to move up,” Scheelar says. “When this opportunity came, I felt like there was some really great synergy.”
Scheelar will oversee all operations at Succession. Succession was founded by Brock and Erica Lindsay. One of the leading wineries in the area, Succession suffered an unimaginable tragedy in August of 2023 when Brock, who also served as winemaker, died in an utility vehicle rollover accident.
“Brock was such a great champion for the area,” Scheelar says. “So many people loved him.”
Scheelar worked in pharmaceutical sales before pausing her career to raise her children. When she returned to the professional world, she decided to pursue a career in wine, taking classes at South Seattle Community College.
“We were on a break, and I looked out the window, and there was Peter [Bos, winemaking instructor] with some foamy, golden liquid. It just looked so magical to me, and I thought ‘I really want to do that.’”
Scheelar started out in the industry as a harvest intern at Patterson Cellars in Woodinville in 2008. “John taught me how to drive a forklift, what a clamp and a gasket hose did, and set me to work,” Scheelar says. “I couldn’t get enough of it.”
While many people have romantic notions about the wine industry, anyone who has worked on the winemaking side of the business knows that it is hard work, particularly starting out. “I worked a lot of hours for no money at all, I mean literally free,” Scheelar says. “But you learn that way.”
Scheelar subsequently spent four years as winemaker at Robert Ramsay Cellars in Seattle. She then transitioned to assistant winemaker at Goose Ridge Vineyards, going from processing 60 tons of fruit per year to 16,000.
“It’s so much fun when you have these 22-ton trucks lined up and going into the hopper and into these giant bladder presses,” Scheelar says.
After nearly three years at Goose Ridge, Scheelar took an associate winemaker position at Columbia Winery. Scheelar worked under winemaker Sean Hails.
“He was a wonderful mentor,” she says.
Now at Succession, Scheelar is charged with continuing the legacy that Brock Lindsay started. “I’m never, ever going to replace Brock Lindsay, and I would never even try,” Scheelar says. “But I want to honor him.”
Image by Richard Duval.
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Welcome to Lake Chelan Kristen, and cheers to some great vintages ahead!