Matt Cline
Matt Cline was born in Inglewood, California in 1961, eight of nine children. Matt graduated from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks in 1979. He continued his education at the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in entomology in June 1984. Then, Matt studied enology at the University of California at Davis in, 1985 and 1986.
Matt Cline was the original winemaker and creative director at Cline Cellars. Over the course of his 16-year career, Matt was responsible for branding Cline Cellars’ unique style of winemaking. Cline Cellars’ wines have won countless awards including the 1998 Sonoma County Harvest Fair Sweepstakes Award for the 1996 Syrah Los Carneros, selected from among 587 wines. Cline Cellars has also had the distinction of being one of Wine & Spirits Magazine’s American Wineries of the Year in both 1999 and 2001. In 2001, Matt started Trinitas Cellars where he concentrated on producing premium, old-vine Zinfandel, Mataro, and Petite Sirah. After building sales to over 9,000 cases, Matt and his wife Erin sold the brand at the end of 2006.
With the 2007 harvest, along with the S3x brand, Matt will continue to produce Zinfandel, Mataro and Petite Sirah from the Contra Costa and Russian River valleys. All of these wines will be produced under the Three label, which will be officially released in 2008.
When Matt is not racking and perfecting his winemaking techniques, Matt enjoys to fly fish and the great outdoors or to relax at home in Sonoma with his wife, Erin and their three children.