UNFILTERED with Nicole Walsh, Ser Winery

Please join us Thursday, November 6 at Donkey and Goat Winery for a talk and tasting with one of the Bay Area’s most passionate horticulturists and skilled winemakers, Nicole Walsh. Nicole was hand-picked by Randall Graham of Bonny Doon to help scale his access to organic vineyards and she played a critical role in expanding sustainable practices throughout the state. Extensive travel, coupled with deep knowledge, gave Nicole a unique understanding of local terroir–an understanding she now focuses on the coastal range near Santa Cruz.

Ser Winery are not only the expression of an accomplished winemaker, but of an artist in pursuit of connection—between people, place, and the fleeting beauty of being. Join Nicole for an intimate conversation and tasting experience that explores how her life manifests through her wines.

Adrift and on the verge of leaving college, a course in horticulture at Michigan State University gave Nicole Walsh her sense of purpose. It sparked what became a lifelong fascination with vines and viticulture—one that transcends intellectual curiosity to play a deeply metaphysical role in her life.

Growing up surrounded by fruits, vegetables, and the quiet rhythm of her father’s backyard farm, Nicole was immersed early in the magic of fermentation and the soulful process of tending a garden. That garden came to represent home—a place of pure presence. Years later, she found that same grounded state of being in the vineyard. Borrowing wine writer Andrew Jefford’s term “isness,” Nicole describes this awareness as the feeling her wines aim to capture. Even the name of her label, Ser—‘to express identity or origin’ in Spanish—serves as a daily reminder of her purpose and philosophy.

Beneath Nicole’s measured Midwestern calm lies a fiercely curious and experimental spirit. When she discovered that Michigan State had no undergraduate viticulture program, she worked with the graduate department to design her own horticulture and viticulture curriculum. She farmed a university vineyard and used the campus winery to craft her first wine—a Seyval Blanc hybrid. More than the joy of creating, it was her family’s reaction at the dinner table that revealed wine’s power to connect people and place. That moment became the foundation for her career.

Nicole deepened her understanding of organic and biodynamic farming through an internship on an organic farm and coursework at Universidad E.A.R.T.H in Costa Rica. After graduating, she spent 4 years in Vineyard Management and Winemaking at a vineyard in Northern Michigan. When Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyard sought someone to expand access to organic grapes, he looked beyond UC Davis-trained winemakers to Nicole—an organic grower working hands-on with native hybrids in middle America.

Her path was far from easy. Beyond the familiar headwinds facing women in viticulture, Nicole fought and worked hard to express her life through wine. While at Bonny Doon, she traveled the length of California and developed a nuanced understanding of its diverse terroirs. Yet nothing spoke to her quite like the sea-facing slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains. She felt echos of home in these low-ripening rare varietals on the edge of the world, nestled in forests and shrouded in fog. Years of brutal hours and heavy responsibilities eventually drained her passion and triggered a deep questioning of her path—until an invitation from an eccentric vintner led her to New Zealand, where she once again found herself through the act of nurturing vines on a remote, high-elevation slope. Isness.

Rejuvenated and refocused, Nicole returned to California and founded Ser in 2012. Today, she explores the microclimates and rare varietals of the Santa Cruz Mountains and Central Coast, crafting wines that express both precision and soul. When she isn’t in the cellar or among the vines, you can often find her in her other element—paddling into a cresting ocean swell, as it curls and bends its way to shore.

Nicole Walsh is not only an accomplished winemaker, but an artist in pursuit of connection—between people, place, and the fleeting beauty of being.