All Walks of Life: An Interview with the 2025 Harvest Interns

By Ian Consoli

Every year, we sit down to meet the Tablas Creek harvest interns. These individuals come to us with a fresh jolt of energy and excitement, both for the harvest season and for the opportunity to work at Tablas Creek. One can feel that excitement as they answer questions regarding how they heard about us and how they came to work in our cellar. This year’s harvest interns are no exception.

This year, we increased the number of interns we invited to join us for #harvest2025 to four, and they come from all walks of life. There’s Ashley, who studied wine and viticulture; Courtney, who is fresh off completing her thesis for a Master’s program in France; Jordyn, who grew up in the area and always wanted to work in wine; and Megan, who studied environmental management and protection.

They all share a love for wine, the environment, and discovering the next thing, whatever that may be. We broke this interview down by individual so you can meet them all separately. They’re awesome, and I can’t wait for you to meet them.

Ashely Tomlin

 Who are you?

I am Ashley Tomlin. I’m from Riverside, California. I am a fun, little goofy girl, and I love wine. All things wine. I love growing grapes and drinking wine. All the above.

What are you doing here?

I am trying to learn all about regenerative biodynamics and wine making.

How did you get into wine?

I got into wine when I moved from Riverside to SLO to go to school at Cal Poly. I knew I wanted to do something with farming and food, and I had a friend who was in the Wine and Vit program who told me all about her major, and I thought that sounds super sick. I took intro to viticulture, absolutely fell in love, and now I’m here.

How many great harvests have you done?

This is my fourth. I did three years at Steven Ross in SLO County.

How’s harvest going?

It’s going great. I feel like it’s looking like to be a great year. It’s been super cool. It’s looking to be a great vintage.

Has anything happened that’s new to you or that you didn’t expect?

Native ferments are new for me, which has been cool to see. The whole regenerative thing, too. I’ve learned a lot of new stuff with all the animals and how you integrate them into the vineyard, which I’ve really appreciated.

What’s your ultimate goal in cellar work?

My ultimate goal is to become a forklift master and a wine master [laughs]. I want to keep learning everything that I can learn and take it all in.

What’s the best bottle of wine you ever had?

 A champagne from Champagne. One of my classes at Cal Poly took everyone to the west side of Paso to the top of a vineyard, where you could see almost all of West Side Paso. While we were up there, someone sabered a bottle of Champagne and poured it for everyone. The people who were there and the whole experience made it one of the best wines that I’ve ever had.

Would you rather:

Cake or Pie? Cake

Breathe underwater or fly? Fly.

New World Wine or Old World wine? Old world

Winemaker or Viticulturist? A viticulturist. My concentration was viticulture.

Anything else you want to share with the Tablas Creek audience?

Go Tablas Creek! Go Esprit!

Courtney Carroll

Who are you?

Hi, I am Courtney. I am from California originally, but have been living in France for the past six years, where I did a master’s thesis on agroecology and regenerative viticulture. I also work with the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation (RVF), which brought me to Tablas.

What are you doing here?

I became interested in regenerative viticulture probably around 2020, and in 2023, I went back to school for a Master’s of Viticulture and Enology at Plumpton College in the UK. I completed my thesis and came to Tablas to get a little bit more hands-on work during my first vintage in California.

How did you get into wine?

I started visiting wineries when I was much younger and fell in love with everything about the industry. I came to it professionally through a bit of a roundabout way. I worked in product development for a tequila company, then a whiskey company, and eventually a champagne company, and that brought me to wine.

How many great harvesters have you done?

This is my seventh.

How’s it going?

It’s great! No, it’s fantastic. I love being back home in California, and I love the property here. Everybody has been wonderful, so it’s a great experience.

What is your ultimate goal in cellar work?

In cellar work, it’s just to make it through the day [laughs]. No, I’m most interested in working with some of the different varieties here. We work with a lot of different Rhone varieties that I don’t have much experience with. So I’m here for the experience in a new region with some new grape varieties.

What’s the best bottle of wine you ever had?

That’s a hard one, and I’d have to think about it, which I was not prepared for. But I can tell you the first bottle of wine that got me interested in working in wine. It was a 1989 Chateau Pichon Lalande from Bordeaux. That was a phenomenal wine that set me off on my journey.

What’s next for you?

We’ll see! I’ll be moving back to California, and we’ll see where this harvest takes me. I just want to see where I fall into the California wine scene. There are so many aspects. Everything is just interesting to me, and I want to learn as much as I can. I don’t know where I’m going to be at all. We’ll find out.

Would you rather:

Cake or Pie? Cake.

Would you rather breathe underwater or fly? Fly.

Would you rather drink New World wine or Old World wine? Old world. 

Winemaker or a viticulturist? I love them both, and I’m inspired by them both. But I still prefer wine making.

Jordyn Reef

Who are you?

Hello, my name is Jordyn Reef, and I’m from Atascadero, California.

What are you doing here?

I’m a Harvest intern for the 2025 Vintage.

How did you get into wine?

Growing up in the area, you’re very influenced by wine from an early age. I’ve always had my eye on working in ag and staying in this area somehow. Wine is so accessible. I’ve just always wanted to work in wine, and now I am doing it, and my 10-year-old self would be so stoked.

How many great harvests have you done?

This is my first one.

How’s harvest going?

I love it. The crew here is so awesome, and I really love the other Harvest interns. I feel like it makes a world of difference working with people who are just as amped as you are. It is such a fun place to be.

Has anything happened that’s new to you or that you didn’t expect?

Everything I’m learning is new, and it’s very exciting. I find myself on Sunday nights never dreading coming to work, which is super cool. I’m just really stoked to be here and soak up all of the knowledge that I can.

What’s your ultimate goal in cellar work?

To learn all that I can, and hopefully one day I’ll be able to make a career out of it and work in the cellar for the rest of my life. It sounds like the perfect place to be.

What’s the best bottle of wine you ever had?

I like the Grenache Blanc by Epiphany. It’s so yummy and so refreshing.

Would you rather:

Cake or Pie? Pie?

Breathe underwater or fly? Fly?

New World Wine or Old World wine? Old world wine

Winemaker or Viticulturist? Viticulturist.

Anything else you want to share with the Tablas Creek audience?

I’ll see you on the water truck!

Megan Schnarr

Who are you?

My name is Megan. I have lived in the SLO area for about five years now. I went to Cal Poly and received a B.S. in environmental management and protection, with minors in sustainable agriculture and sociology. Now I’m just trying to figure out what I like and what kind of sustainable ag field I’d like to go into, and right now, I’m exploring wine.

What are you doing here?

I was interested in working here for about a year or so. I did my senior project with a group of other students at Cal Poly on biochar economies, and we were assigned vineyard systems. I stumbled upon Tablas and became interested in the winery because Tablas makes its own biochar. In this project, we were looking for a viable biochar economy on the central coast and in California. That experience, and learning about vineyard systems, inspired me to want to work for a winery. I figured I like wine, so I might as well work at a sustainable winery and see where that takes me.

How did you get into wine?

Probably my dad. He was a big wino. Same with my mom. My parents and some of their friends with kids would take me to wineries when I was younger, and we would roam around the vineyards and have fun. I remember stomping grapes when I was younger, and that was pretty cool. I remember hating wine when I was younger. My dad made me taste wine, and I thought it was disgusting. Now I love it.

How many great harvesters have you done?

This is my first.

How’s it going?

It’s going great. I’m loving it. I’m loving working with my hands and constantly learning something new every day.

What is your ultimate goal in cellar work?

I wanted to try something new, and I wanted to be at a place where sustainability and environmental science are a focus. That’s what I studied, and I want to ask questions to people who work here on how they keep sustainability forward in the cellar and vineyard.

What’s the best bottle of wine you ever had?

It’s Virtú from St. Supéry Estate Vineyards and Winery in Napa. I love it. I did some wine tasting last year with my partner and family up in Napa around the time when I was seriously considering getting into wine. The wine just tasted really good, and I love a good white wine.

What’s next for you?

Honestly, just seeing where it takes me as well.

Would you rather:

Cake or Pie? Cake. I like cake a lot more than Pie. Strawberry cake’s my favorite.

Would you rather breathe underwater or fly? Oh, fly for sure.

Would you rather drink New World wine or Old World wine? Old world? I think that would be cool.

Winemaker or a viticulturist? I don’t know. I like being in the cellar, but then also, I love being in nature. I think it would be cool to be a winemaker, though.