Accountant and sommelier.

• Position: Final entry - Interview

CalCPA member Crickett Nicole has taken up a hobby most all of us can be merry about: wine. California CPA talked to her about her love of wine and how she goes about making the well-known truth serum from the all-mighty grape.

How and why did you get in to wine?

My family hails from California, and resided in Sonoma County during my formative years. As a youngster, I would watch the magic of the harvest. I started working in hospitality in my teens. I eventually became mesmerized by the mystique of wine and the ability to travel the world and move through time with just a taste.

How did things start out?

In college I worked for Robert Mondavi, and with an amazing cast of talented individuals that were passionate about the wine industry. Enthusiasm is contagious, and my strong work ethic was a good fit with the winery's culture. I experienced wine making from the ground up as a humble intern that did whatever work was assigned, from vineyard sampling to cellar cleaning, to racking and bottling, to pouring tasting's and giving tours, to working in the accounting department. When Constellation Brands acquired the Robert Mondavi Winery, I moved into public accounting and participated in the external audits of many wineries, both large and small. A number of years later after working with KPMG in their San Francisco office, I applied and was accepted to the MBA programs at several Northern California schools. Sonoma State offers well-rounded MBA curriculums and has options that allow students to focus on various industries, including aspects of the wine industry. In 2013 my dream of earning an MBA came to fruition and I graduated with the first Napa Cohort. The insights shared during our coursework enabled me to take a chance and launch my own wine brand, under the label Crickett Creek Wines. It is a lot of hard work, but it is also a lot of fun. It is a wonderful hobby that I thoroughly enjoy.

What sort of varietals and blends have you tackled?

During the Sonoma State program, our cohort traveled to New Zealand as part of an economics course that covered topics such as international import and export. While there I fell in love with the bright, crisp Sauvignon Blancs. For our first commercial vintage I felt pulled that direction, and was lucky enough to find a fantastic fruit source in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley.

What's the favorite batch so far?

The 2013 vintage had high yields of rich, ripe and incredibly balanced fruit. We will be...