Our Journey
The Family
Two families that had similar background joined together to create one happy family. Mike, met his first wife Tina in college, after dating several years they married and moved to Napa after both landing jobs in the wine business. They had three robust boys Danny, Chris and Will. As their family grew so did the winery. Tina was a beautiful artist and helped Mike design and create the Optima label. In 2001 Tina unfortunately lost her battle with cancer leaving Mike to raise their family alone and continue the dream they built together.
Nicol, born and raised in Santa Rosa, also found herself a widow at a very young age. With her degree in Accounting she knew she could go anywhere. She made the bold move to leave Santa Rosa, where she and her son Tyler made a life. They then purchased property in Healdsburg in hopes of starting over. Tyler decided he wanted to play soccer so he tried out for the local team. Who was the coach? Mike Duffy.
Mike and Nicol met on the soccer field and had an instant connection. One night Nicol invited Mike over to dinner. Not knowing what Mike did for a living, she asked Mike if he wanted a glass of wine. The wine you ask? Optima Chardonnay! You can guess the rest of the story.
Today the entire Duffy clan pours heart and soul into Optima. Mike runs the day-to-day winemaking and Nicol runs the office and markets the wines from California to New York. Danny their oldest graduated from UC Davis in 2018 and is currently our assistant winemaker and the next generation, Tyler his wife Leesha and two daughter’s (Miyah) and (Madison) come on weekends from Sacramento to help during bottling and special events at the winery.
For them, it’s a family affair. Each bottle that leaves the winery represents their hard work, dreams and devotion to each other.