Abigail (Abby) Watt is a native of New Zealand and earned a bachelor’s degree in Viticulture and Enology from Lincoln University in Canterbury, NZ, in 2010. After graduating, she immediately embarked on a career in the wine industry by working as an intern for the 2010 harvest at Hartford Family Winery in Sonoma County, California.

This was followed by a series of harvest internships in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, including Chard Farm Winery (2011, Central Otago, NZ), Gary Farrell Vineyards & Winery (2011, Sonoma County), Agnew Wines Pty., Ltd. (2014, Hunter Valley, Australia), and Domaine Dubreuil Fontaine (2014, Burgundy, France). In addition to a long list of internships, Abby was assistant winemaker at Peay Vineyards on the Sonoma Coast from March 2012 to November 2013, the harvest red winemaker for Maude Wines during the 2016 harvest, and assistant cellar master at Weingut Koehler Ruprecht in Pfalz, Germany, that same year.

By mid-2018, Abby was working as the head brewer for The Shakespeare Hotel and Brewery in Auckland. A year later, she was named assistant winemaker for Kosta Browne, a label of the Duckhorn Wine Company and located in Sonoma County. She then joined Medlock Ames in mid-2020 as associate winemaker and was promoted to winemaker in September 2021. Among her duties is overseeing all activities in the Bell Mountain vineyard owned by Medlock Ames.

When not involved in the multitude of chores associated with the winery, Abby enjoys cooking, baking, traveling, beer, and spending time outdoors, preferably near a beach!