Our Team
Madeline Nossiter
Direct to Consumer & Wine Club Manager
With an uncle who’s a sommelier and a world-traveling father who taught her about the world’s great wine regions, Madeline’s pursuit of a career in wine was almost destiny. After earning her BA in English at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Madeline returned to her native San Francisco and immediately jumped into the restaurant business, quickly working her way up to become an assistant manager. She then moved to a well-known San Francisco wine retailer where she held successive positions as wine merchant, assistant general manager and manager of a 1,200-member wine club. Prior to moving to Napa to join Flora Springs, she worked as a retail wine buyer and bar manager at a gourmet food hall and market, creating wine lists and managing inventory of over 500 small-production wines. “Flora Springs was on our list from Day One,” she says.
Madeline’s extensive experience in retail gives her a laser-like focus on customer service, a quality that serves her well as Flora Springs’ Wine Club Manager. “Even with a great product my goal is to exceed customers’ expectations in terms of service,” she says, noting that working for a family-owned business like Flora Springs was a big factor in her move to Napa Valley. “I’m very grateful for our Wine Club Members. So many folks have been members for a long time, which says a lot for how connected they feel to the family and winery.”
Madeline is an avid traveler who participated in no less than three exchange programs during college, including France and Tahiti. She is fluent in French and conversational in German. Of course she is also passionate about wine and food and loves to explore the Napa Valley dining scene. Need a restaurant recommendation? Ask Madeline!
Catlin Schneider
Winery Ambassador
Flora Springs was the first tasting room Catlin visited when she came to Napa Valley, brought to the winery by her sister who happens to be a long time Flora Springs wine club member. “I immediately liked the casual, relaxed atmosphere of Flora Springs’ tasting room. It was so welcoming and unpretentious.” Catlin knows a little bit about hospitality having worked for over sixteen years in restaurants, clubs, resorts, breweries and bars in roles ranging from hostess and server to manager and bartender. She split her time between southern California, where she was born, and Montana, before moving to Napa Valley in 2014.
While working at one of the valley’s most popular restaurants helping to build its guest services department, Catlin learned about wine and often served Flora Springs. When she heard of an opening at the winery, she knew it was the job for her. As Winery Ambassador, Catlin hosts guests, conducts networking and outreach, and builds partnerships with local hotels and neighbor wineries.
John Schulz
National Sales Manager/Western Region
A native of Iowa, John Schulz didn’t expect to have a career in the California wine industry. But when he came here in the 1980s and started working in the tasting room and cellar of a prominent winery, he decided to make California – and its signature industry – his home. Ultimately it was the sales side of wine that interested John most, and he’s spent nearly three decades in regional and national sales both at a wholesaler and as a representative of notable wineries throughout the state.
For John, working at Flora Springs is a bit of a homecoming, as he often visited the winery in the first part of his career when he came to Napa Valley. He remembers the early days of Trilogy, when it came on the scene as one of first Bordeaux red blends of Napa Valley. “This estate is a gem, an iconic Napa Valley winery,” says John. “Plus, there are very few wineries that have successfully made the transition to the third generation. It’s a legacy property.” As Flora Springs’ National Sales Director and a self-described streets-focused sales representative, John relishes the opportunity to work closely with distributor partners and key trade accounts to build strong winery relationships and communicate the Komes-Garvey story.
In addition to overseeing national sales for Flora Springs, John personally covers the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. John lives in Sonoma and enjoys playing guitar, camping, skiing and cooking.
Richard Tiedemann
Director of Winery Relations
Richard Tiedemann is a fifth-generation Napa Valley native whose family has been growing grapes in the Stags Leap District since the late 1880s. Although he grew up picking prunes and walnuts, he also worked in his uncle’s vineyard, a seven-acre plot — now planted to Zinfandel — of French Colombard and Chardonnay. “At the time there were only six or seven large wineries in Napa Valley,” he says. “Small growers like my uncle sold their grapes to Mondavi, Inglenook, or sometimes the Napa Valley Co-Op.”
Richard took a circuitous route to Flora Springs, spending the better part of the 1990s as a crab and salmon fisherman in Alaska. When he returned to Napa Valley in 2000 to work in the Flora Springs tasting room full-time, his love and knowledge of wine, his ability to relate to people and his passion for sharing the story of the Komes-Garvey family was apparent. He says it was Flora Springs’ vineyards that attracted him to the winery in the first place. “I knew the family had great vineyards throughout Napa Valley, and I knew that was essential to making great wine. I also was intrigued that they only kept 20% of the fruit for their own wines. I thought that was amazing."
From the tasting room Richard quickly moved into a series of sales roles, with responsibility at various times for California, the northeast, the Midwest and western regions. Now, as Director of Winery Relations, Richard travels extensively throughout the U.S. as an ambassador for Flora Springs, hosting lively, interactive wine dinners and building lasting relationships with customers and fans.
Richard has studied enology and viticulture at Napa Valley College and is a Level 1 Sommelier. He continues to make small amounts of Zinfandel from his uncle’s vineyard each year.