Jason Clark Diefenderfer
Winemaker

A Central Coast native, Jason “JC” Diefenderfer has been on the winemaking team at Treana since 1998. 

No stranger to agriculture, JC grew up on his family’s ranch in the Carrizo Plains east of the Paso Robles region.   He managed farm and ranching operations for King Ranch until 1997 when he began working with the Hope family to design and build their crush facility in Paso Robles.  Recalling exactly when and how he was bitten by the wine bug that would take him down a different path in farming, he says “it was the clear approach to winemaking that intrigued me about Treana:  Wines are made in the vineyard.”

Jason started at Liberty School with no title at all-as a jack of all trades. In 1998 he apprenticed under then-winemaker Chris Phelps. He picked up additional training through classes at UC Davis and seminars with Vinquiry; meanwhile, developing a taste for wines from different regions, and rounding out his own sensory education.

He became assistant winemaker in 1999, and winemaker in 2006. He brings the whole package to the Liberty School table: local, agricultural roots; familiarity with the wines and winemaking of the Old World and the New; and nearly a decade of experience with Liberty School’s growers and wines.