The Celebrity Winemaker: How Jesse Katz Became Hollywood’s Go-To Vintner

As founder of Aperture Cellars, the award-winning winery in Healdsburg, Calif., Jesse has quietly developed a reputation as the go-to winemaker for athletes, actors and high-profile entertainers. His polished, age-worthy wines now appear at celebrity weddings, star-studded galas and private dinners from Napa to New York. Yet, despite his high-profile clientele and multiple 100-point scores, Jesse quickly redirects attention back to the vines and the deeper inspiration behind the bottle.

That dual devotion to craft and composition is evident across the entire Aperture experience. Each label features a photograph taken by Andy. Every wine is made with an eye toward structure and longevity. Even the winery’s stunning design—a soaring 24,000-square-foot production facility and adjoining 4,000-square-foot hospitality center—is inspired by the physical aperture of a camera, with dramatic skylights and lens-like forms drawing natural light deep into the space.

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“I think the story starts with the label but continues into the bottle,” Jesse notes. “Like any great collaboration or work of art, small, intentional details that unfold with time are the ones that grow on you and evoke a real connection.”

The estate vineyard sits on 40 acres just outside downtown Healdsburg, on historic Ponzo Ranch land first planted in 1912. Acquired by Jesse in 2016, it now forms the heart of Aperture’s portfolio, which includes Bordeaux-style reds, single-vineyard cabernets, a barrel-fermented sauvignon blanc and a delicate new chenin blanc. Sourced from more than 200 acres of cool-climate sites across Sonoma, Aperture wines are defined by freshness, layered complexity and Jesse’s insistence on precision farming. His flagship Cabernet Sauvignon has earned some of the highest scores in Alexander Valley history—including the first perfect 100-point rating ever awarded to a Cabernet from the region. The same goes for his Malbec-focused label, Devil Proof, which holds the distinction of being the highest-rated California Malbec among top critics.

Though much of Jesse’s technique comes from experience (he’s completed more than 25 harvests across the globe), his resume reads like a who’s who of elite winemaking. He trained at Château Pétrus in Bordeaux, Viña Cobos and Bodega Noemia in Argentina, and served on the winemaking teams at Napa Valley’s Screaming Eagle and Robert Foley. In 2010, he became the youngest head winemaker in the U.S. at Lancaster Estate, where he helped build the Roth winery from the ground up and grew the brand by more than 800 percent, all while earning consistent 90+ scores from Wine Advocate and inclusion on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list.

“I have not made the best wine of my career yet,” says Jesse. “I continue to obsess with fine-tuning my craft with every vintage … I think, and hope, that I get better each year.” For him, progress is less about accolades and more about capturing “a sense of place and time in every bottle in the most expressive and focused way.”

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The sense of connection extends beyond the glass. Jesse is a committed philanthropist, raising more than $7 million for charities and non-profits through wine donations, custom experiences and fundraising auctions. He recently joined the board of SommFoundation, which supports education and mentorship in the wine and spirits industry.

For all the buzz around his celebrity collaborations and dozens of 100-point scores, Jesse remains rooted in the quiet rigor of winemaking. He’s more interested in soil maps than red carpets, and more likely to cite volcanic minerals than magazine mentions. Still, there’s something undeniably cinematic about his trajectory: a young winemaker shaped by world travels, grounded in Sonoma soil, and producing wines that command both attention and acclaim.