Bruce Scotland may not have started off with a career in the wine business, but his multi-venue life provided unique training for his new winery venture, Cornerstone Cellars.
Scotland, 42, holds a Grand Diplome from the Cordon Bleu culinary academy in Paris, the highest honor bestowed by the school. He worked in restaurants such as L'Hermitage in Los Angeles and eventually came to Napa Valley. Long a passionate enophile, he worked in a wine shop, did a part-time stint at Acacia, worked at Bouchaine Vineyards and took all the University of California at Davis extension courses he could fit in.
In 1990, he left a job with St. Helena Wine Merchants to start his own business, the Highlands Wine Company, which specializes in rare, small-production wines.
A friendship with Randy Dunn even-tually led him to make his own Cabernet. Along with two partners, Scotland worked out a deal with Dunn to be allowed to buy 15 tons of grapes from the Beatty Ranch, one of the sources for Dunn's Howell Mountain Cabernet. The ranch is owned by Mike Beatty, but Dunn's long-term lease gives him exclusive rights to a specific old block of Cabernet.
