Andrew and Laurel Quady are the founders, C.E.O. and C.F.O. respectively, of Quady Winery. Their path into the wine world began with an exodus from southern California to pursue their dream: a rural way of life making wine. Formerly working in underwater explosives for the U.S. military, peaceful, plant loving Andrew was looking for a natural redirection. He returned to school at U.C. Davis, graduating at the top of his class with a masters in Food Science-Enology. Laurel went back to school and became a licensed C.P.A., opening her own office and funding the fragile first decade of winery production with her flourishing small town practice. Needless to say, Andrew's inventive nature keeps them both on their toes: with his pioneering use of rare muscat varietals, and his fascination with aromatic herbs, Quady tends to take the market by surprise. The Quadys are known for an uncommonly energetic zest. When they are not exposing the world to their wines, forecasting sales, responding to emails, or navigating financial statements, they can be found hiking the Sierra Nevadas, or enjoying their garden, friends and family.

When Andrew Quady and his wife Laurel moved to the San Joaquin Valley to pursue a rural lifestyle and an enology degree at U.C. Davis for Andy, an earlier career producing explosives transformed into a more sensitive, but still dramatic life crafting intense muscat wines. 1600 cases of Zinfandel port started the Quadys off on sweet feet in 1975. In 1979, In a small San Joaquin valley town, Andrew Quady discovered an unused patch of the rare Orange Muscat grape varietal, known in Italy as Moscato Fior d'Arancio. These grapes became the first Essensia. This marked the birth of Quady Winery's muscat expertise - where the rich flavors of rare muscat varietals are celebrated and intensified rather than blended and softened.