Rob McCormish

Rob’s interest in both wine and winemaking began in earnest when he moved to the Bay Area in 1985. A native Southern Californian, he came back to his home state after attending college in Boston and working for Cargill, Inc., a grain/commodities company, in Memphis and Minneapolis. Learning about agriculture with Cargill set the stage for his fascination in the interplay between farming and winemaking. From 1986 through 2019, he was a builder of, and partner in, two investment management firms specializing in institutional retirement asset investing. He first came to Ovid in May of 2010 with business colleagues on a wine country weekend. He added Ovid to the list of wines he was already acquiring and began making regular visits to Pritchard Hill. When he finished winding down his last company in 2019, he looked to “pre-tire” in a wine job to fulfill both a dream and a passion. Ovid stepped in to offer him that opportunity and he began with them in October 2019.

OVID Napa Valley is a singular, dynamic and continuous experiment in terroir, nestled at an elevation of 1,500 feet on a secluded mountaintop in the western reaches of Pritchard Hill. Here, iron-rich volcanic soils, abundant sunshine, and chaparral flora alchemize to reveal focused, long-lived wines that celebrate their source.

Drawing our name from the Roman poet Ovid, whose seminal work Metamorphoses is a poetic retelling of the Greek myths, our path celebrates the themes of transformation and change. From a classical perspective, Ovid’s epic poem is also steeped in tradition and keeps perfect meter, reminding us that poetry is also the product of discipline, rigor and observation.