Bill Kimmerly was born in Detroit, MI although his family moved when he was a young boy to Vancouver, British Columbia where he spent most of his childhood and teen years. Bill had his first wine experience during the summer of ’77 with a local carbonated fruit wine-like beverage called Lonesome Charlie. That first experience didn’t turn out so well. Bill recovered from this experience enough to graduate from Queen Elizabeth Senior Secondary High School Surrey, BC in June 1978. Later that year he began attending the University of British Columbia, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry in 1982. He then moved to the Bay Area to attend graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1988. Although a bona fide doctor, Bill insists he knows only enough to be dangerous. He will permit you to address him as Dr. Kimmerly, but he really prefers to be called Bill. Much of his scientific career has been spent as part of the Human Genome Project. In fact, Bill was the Assistant Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Human Genome Center during the years of 1998-1999. He has also held research positions in the pharmaceutical and agricultural biotechnology companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Ceres. His love of music pushed him to tour the country and the world with the Grateful Dead and Phish. For a brief time he was a DJ on college radio, and also served as music director for WXDU FM 88.7 in Durham, NC, Duke University’s college radio station. An avid homebrewer since 1985, Bill began making wine in 1999, and professionally since 2004. His interests other than fermentation include his dogs, travel, fishing, scuba diving, and gourmet cooking. His favorite city is London, and he speaks French well enough to get himself into trouble.

Jennifer Kimmerly was born in Coronado, CA and raised along the beaches of San Diego County. She was an avid horse enthusiast as a child and still owns a horse today, an Arabian gelding named Architect. After getting rid of the evil pony when she was a small girl, she got a real horse and became interested in the English riding style. She competed in this style for many years. She also worked as a riding trainer and in horse sales. She also spent a lot of time at the Del Mar Racetrack handicapping thoroughbred horses. This work occasionally led to financial reward. Her fondest memories are ditching school and going to the beach, and riding her horse through the trails of Rancho Santa Fe. She graduated from Torrey Pines High School in San Diego in 1990. She attended Mira Costa Junior College in the San Diego area then a few years later enrolled at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, affectionately knows as SLO. She graduated in 1998 with a BS in Agricultural Business. She attributes her years at SLO with her first introduction to wine, and to finding out that AP did not stand for “advanced placement”. Jennifer has worked in many aspects of the wine industry before starting Masquerade, including wine bars, sales and marketing, distribution, and tasting room hospitality. She has travelled the world extensively and loves France and Spain the most.

Bill & Jennifer currently live in Birch Bay, WA with their dogs, Koji and Paw-Dre.