Shaun Vrooman
Years of Participation
2024
Born and raised in Oklahoma, Shaun moved to Breckenridge, Colorado just before his 21st birthday to try his hand at being a ski bum, where he found much success. After one ski season he threw a dart at a map and moved to Nashville, TN where he quickly began to discover his love of wine while working with the exceptional Italian focused wine list at Giovanni, the former midtown Manhattan mainstay. Before long Shaun headed west to work a harvest in Amador County, CA at the invitation of a friend. However, as fate would have it, his car broke down in, of all places, Breckenridge. This turned out to be the most fortuitous of delays as he met his now wife, Paige, in the interceding time and began taking online winemaking classes with UC Davis. After two years developing wine programs for multiple restaurants in Colorado and eager to dive into production he finally made it to the west coast for harvest, but this time at Adelsheim Vineyard in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. He has worked harvest in Tasmania making small lot Pinot noir and Chardonnay and earned a degree in Winemaking from Chemeketa College. Shaun joined the winemaking team full time at Adelsheim in 2017 where he has focused on single vineyard expressions of Pinot noir, Chardonnay, and method champenoise sparkling wines from the Chehalem Mountains AVA.