For These 7 Couples, Winemaking Is a Romantic Affair

There’s a longstanding assumption that owning a winery is so romantic, with sweeping vineyard vistas and sumptuous tasting rooms. Sure, those perks are real, but the wine business also requires a ton of hard work. That’s why it’s essential to have a loyal, loving partner by your side. These married winemaking couples undergo it all, together. Learn more about the journeys that led them to one another, the vines and their version of the perfect Valentine’s Day date.

Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber

Domaine La Garagista, Vermont 

This duo fell in love following an improv workshop at Middlebury College, eventually moved to New York and jetted off to Italy the day after their wedding—not for an artistic endeavor. 

But the pull of Caleb’s love of cooking (their first year dating, he prepared dinner for Deirdre and another couple before the college’s Winter Ball) and her affinity for the restaurant experience proved to be too strong, and the pair pivoted after indulging their Italian sojourn. 

They returned to launch a stateside osteria helmed by Caleb, with the wine program overseen by Deirdre, before Vermont’s nascent wine scene piqued their palates. 

Today, Caleb serves as farm manager and Deirdre as winegrower for their two properties. While some of the work is delineated (he handles daily logistics, garden management and cooking for pop-ups, while she makes the viticultural and vinification decisions), others are done in lockstep—and they wouldn’t have it any other way. 

“It can be easy to switch to autopilot and not be as present with each other, but we work hard to see each other with fresh eyes and encourage each other to have individual interests,” Deirdre says. 

She’s penning her fourth wine title, while Caleb is percolating a cookbook idea, and she dances while he DJs. “Working in tandem keeps us moving forward together and firmly connected in each other’s world,” she says.

Their Perfect Valentine’s Day Date: An elegant apero, followed by a jazz club, bistro dinner in a beautiful setting and a stroll in a garden or museum. 

Sebastian and Colleen Hardy

Living Roots Wine & Co., New York

While working in market research, New York State native Colleen set off in search of a sexier product to promote. An online wine course stirred her to quit her cubicle job in Chicago and head to the vineyards in Australia for a five-month winery gig where she knew no one. One of her housemates and fellow cellar hand told her she knew someone in the industry that would be her perfect match. 

As Colleen recalls, “Two days later we’re at the grocery store after a long, sweaty day’s work of scrubbing tanks, and I hear ‘oh my gosh, ‘Hi Seb!’, and the rest is history!”