Meet The Family
Kevin | Barbara | Ivan | Ryan | Ajax | Kristin | Nourredine | Dan | Rick | Charlie | John
Kevin Brown is a 30+ year veteran of the wine industry, and has handled all aspects of the business including, winemaking, sales, marketing, distribution strategies and brand-building/promotion. In keeping with the R&B Cellars philosophy, Kevin believes that drinking wine should be fun, and like music, is a creative pursuit. He is the winemaker for R&B Cellars, and is a frequent educator and lecturer on winemaking and brand strategies in the industry. His passion and respect for winemaking as an art are but one of the many drivers that feed his consistent success in the industry.
An accomplished jazz musician hailing from Manhattan, Kevin's love of wine brought him into the industry where he successfully grew such brands as Rosenblum Cellars, Marques de Murrietta and Codorinu. In 1990, Kevin created California Classics, a New Hampshire-based distribution and marketing firm that helped bring Rosenblum Cellars from 7,000 to 130,000 cases annually.
In 2004, seeing a nitch in the marketplace for value-oriented wines of high quality, he and his wife Barbara moved from the east coast to California and expanded the breadth and scope of the winery to include several new varietals to the brand. R&B Cellars now has twelve different wines and distributes throughout the US and exports to several countries around the world.
Barbara is managing partner and assistant wine maker for R&B Cellars as well as director of advertising and PR. Both Barbara and Kevin work the wholesale marketplace and industry tasting events. Barbara maintains the website and plans and coordinates winery events that the family holds at their Alameda home and at their tasting room, Alameda Vintners Club. The husband and wife team often travel together doing winemaker dinners and wine tasting events where the two often perform jazz standards together, Kevin on piano and Barbara on vocals.
Prior to 2004, Barbara lived in New York City. She was an accomplished flutist, music educator and choral director. She continues to sing in the San Francisco Bay Area Chamber Choir, and with Kevin doing jazz standards. Her artistic talents also include making jewelry and in her limited free time, Barbara enjoys working in the metal clay medium and runs her own artisan jewelry company, Barbara Brown Designs. Currently she works on commission base only. Please visit her website
Barbara Brown Designs.
Kevin and Barbara's Sons
Ivan serves on the Board of Directors of R&B Cellars. When not working in finance, Ivan visits local markets to support wholesalers, manages the winery's ecommerce, and conducts tastings and winemaker dinners. As a wine enthusiast, Ivan enjoys working with his father Kevin in the creation and blending of new vintages.
Ivan's musical contribution to the family is through alto saxophone. Having played for 15 years, the majority of Ivan's training and experience is in Jazz, particularly Bebop. When at winemaker events, Ivan sits in with the family ensemble, performing a variety of standards and Bebop charts. Despite a hectic work schedule, Ivan still studies saxophone regularly in New York and attempts to get in some practicing every day.
Ryan Hart
Ryan is the one in the family with a real sense for adventure. He is an enthusiastic cook (his cooking skills have been applied to several R&B functions, including the East Bay Vintners Alliance Passport event), photographer and animal lover, and he simply loves to dance! Ryan lives in Berkeley, California and is currently working in security at local Rave productions.
Ajax Brown
Ajax, a Flat-Coated Retriever and "furry" son, is the beloved R&B Cellars winery dog. Ajax serves as Marketing and Winemaker Consultant, and Chief Officer of Chaos & Commotion when in a frisky mood. His specialty is his own canine varietal: "Tug of War Red"
Ajax spent some time being a show dog and became a Champion in 2008! Since then, Ajax's handsome mug has become famous and is in the third release of the book: Winery Dogs USA, Vol. 3. Available at our tasting room or office. You can view some of Ajax's photos on our gallery page.
Sorry, Ajax refuses to communicate via email. Bribing with bones does work nicely, however.
R&B Cellars Extended Family
Kristin Dvirnak
Kristin Dvirnak, Executive Office Manager.
Kristin has worked for years in the restaurant and wine business. In January 2010 she joined forces with R&B as the office manager, and wears many different hats to keep the office running smoothly. Her assistant Reah (of the canine variety) comes everyday to help Ajax (the R&B winery dog) with the very important task of greeting visitors. Kristin's husband David helps with wine tasting events. The two of them live in Vallejo.
Contact Kristin via email.
Dan Kanuk
Daniel F. Kanuk, National Sales Manager.
Dan has recently joined the R&B Cellars family as National Sales Manager. He will work with all of R&B's existing distributors in the national market to help improve sales, and will be the winery's contact person for bringing interested, new distributors into our sales network around the country.
Dan brings 20 years of experience in the wine industry to R&B Cellars. He was President and Co-owner of Stateside Distributing in Ohio for ten very successful years. Dan was instrumental with Kevin Brown in introducing R&B Cellars' wines to the Ohio market, beginning with the 1997 vintage of the Reserve Cabernet, and sold all subsequent wines and vintages as well. He travelled extensively during that time to major wine-producing countries to study production methods and wine-growing practices. Dan later sold his company and completed his 17 years in wine distribution with Superior Beverage Group of Glenwillow, Ohio, as a Fine Wine On-Premise Sales Manager. For the past three years, he has worked as Director of National Sales for Oak Knoll Winery, a family-run winery in Oregon. Dan has a BBA degree in Accounting and an MBA from Cleveland State University. He and his wife Kathi, a registered nurse, have 5 grown children who are leading successful careers in law, dentistry, fashion design and the culinary arts.
Contact Dan via email.
Rigo Ruiz
Rigo Ruiz, Cellar Master
Hello! My name is Rigo, short for Rigoberto. I am the Cellar Master for R&B Cellars and have worked at the winery for two years. A little about myself...I am currently in college working towards a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management. Some of my major courses in school are math and history. I dislike literature unless it is poetry or a good story. People say I am a man of many words, but more a man of action. Just like my passion for music, I have a passion for working and enjoying life. So, come down and join us at R&B Cellars. I promise you won't regret it!
You may contact Rigo via email
Nourredine Azouaou
Dr. Nourredine Azouaou, Board Member, SF Sales Manager: a veteranarian, is a long-time friend of both Kevin and Barbara. Nourredine has been involved with the winery since it's creation in 1997. Currently he assists in distributing R&B's wines in the greater San Francisco Bay area and participates in tasting events including open houses.
Nourredine is a laboratory animal veterinarian in the Department of Neurology-Gallo Center at UCSF. However, his passion for wine and his experience in the wine industry started when he was a teenager harvesting grapes in Languedoc-Roussillon where he learned about France's wine growing regions and their unique terroirs. Nourredine moved to California in 1984, where he worked at Providence Veterinary Medical Facilities in Alameda with Drs. Kent Rosenblum and Wayne Sparks.
He is also a long-time friend of Kent and Kathy Rosenblum and had a long association with Rosenblum Cellars as well. For several years he worked part-time at Rosenblum Cellars as the tasting room manager and was involved in the winery in many capacities. His unique position allowed him to become familiar with the California wine industry and essentially befriend winery owners, winemakers, vineyard owners and growers as well as wine organizations, distributors, restaurants and hotel managers among others. He has a sound knowledge of the California wine industry and history.
Contact Nourredine via email.
Barbara Wilson
Barbara Wilson: Director of the Blue Note Wine Club. Dirctor of production purchasing.
Barbara wears many hats at R&B Cellars. She is an R&B Shareholder, she runs the Blue Note Wine Club, and is in charge of purchasing all the bottling and production materials for R&B; she poessesses an eagle eye for quality products at reasonable prices, which adds up to savings for R&B! Barbara also works wine tasting events throughout the year and has helped with crush for several years. When not at R&B, Barbara is a realtor at Coldwell Banker.
Contact Barbara via email.
Rick Curotto
Rick Curotto, Board Member
Rick was born and raised in Oakland CA: a true Bay area native. He attended St. Mary's College High School in Berkeley, then proceeded to spend 4 years at St. Mary's College in Moraga graduationg with a Bachelor of Science in biology. From there Rick was accepted to the prestigious Arthur D. Dugoni, University of the Pacific School of Dentistry in San Francisco. Graduating in 1976, Rick has maintained a private practice in Oakland for 35 years. He holds several advanced degrees specializing in cosmetics, implants, and highly specialized technology. He was elected to the Board of Directors of R&B Cellars in 2005. Rick's Italian heritage is a perfect fit for the socialization and appreciation for all wine has to offer. He appreciates the confidence to serve his fellow investors. Having run his own business for all these years, Rick feels he brings common sense and sound business principles as assets to your Board. Rick enjoys family, making friends, drinking fine wine (R&B of course), playing golf, and he especially enjoys the contined pursuit of learing, in both dentistry and the wine industry.
You may contact Rick via email
John & Gail King
John King, Board Member, Director of Investor Relations at R&B Cellars.
John spent 35 years as a Stock Broker, a Branch Manager & Consultant with Dean Witter & Morgan Stanley. He is currently a partner in Quacera Capital Management, an independent Investment Advisory Firm.
For investor materials and information, contact John via email.
Charles Simkins
Charles Simkins, Board Member
Charles is R&B's resident Okie! He was late in immigrating to California, 1963, as he missed the rush. With zero experience in the wine industry, he has learned to appreciate fine wines with a previous investment in Rosenblum Cellars where he helped novices like himself to understand a little about what they were drinking, and why great winemakers, like Kevin Brown, are worth owning and enjoying. Charles is a retired professional mechanical engineer, go Bears, which has no bearing on anything. He and his wife Joyce enjoy living in the Bay Area and being a part of the R&B family. They are also fans of St. Mary's College athletics, with Rick and Carol Curotto, and the Moraga Community Library. Learning to enjoy great wines can be within the reach of everyone if they try R&B Cellars wines.
You may contact Charles via email