Rob Wyngard is a professional booze hound, that met his Old Friend Brian Mounts, while attending college in San Diego. After school Rob promptly started his career as a bartender and bouncer. He landed a job at an up and coming wine retail and tasting bar in San Diego, where he soon found his way into management. Along the way he became a Cicerone Beer Server, Certified Sommelier, and a Certified Specialist of Wine.
After 6 years in restaurants he was ready for a change of scenery and career, so he packed up his family and headed North to Santa Barbara County, where they landed in the agricultural center of Santa Maria. Rob went to Allan Hancock Community College for the viticulture program while working as a tasting room manager for Qupe, a pioneering Rhone Varietal producer located in the small town of Los Olivos. His first harvest was 2010, and he would remain in wine production for the next 6 years. In between harvests Rob would jump back to restaurants, where he helped earn Ember Woodfired in Arroyo Grande earn a Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Wine Restaurant. He also had the opportunity to work on cider, making his own vintage of barrel fermented and bottle conditioned cider called Bea’s Knees.
Time came when full time employment as a winemaker was getting harder and harder to see happening, and looking for some more stability after the birth of his daughter, Rob shifted gears a bit, and took the cellar skills he had learned in wine making and got into commercial brewing. With brewing opportunities being better back in San Diego, he and his family returned to Southern Califonia in 2018, where he now works as the Cellar Manager for Modern Times brewing, a brewery known for its extensive barrel program. He keeps up his wine skills with regular trips to the wine store, and is currently enjoying Bonny Doon’s Picpoul very much.
