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Class Notes WINTER 2026
Her grapes and path
Shalini Sekhar '01 exchanged her piccolo for pinot.
For acclaimed winemaker Shalini Sekhar,
the autumn harvest in California wine country
is a busy time of year. When the grapes arrive
into the cellar, it's an all-hands-on-deck effort
to sort and press the fruit, to keep a watchful
eye on the fermenting juice, and then to send
the finished product into the barrel. For Sekhar,
recently named a winemaker to watch by the
San Francisco Chronicle, wine is a passion that
has become all-consuming.
First "bitten by the wine bug " as an undergrad
at TCNJ, Sekhar would save her spending money
and splurge on nicer glasses of wine at local
restaurants. "I was learning and really getting
into wine," she says. But a career in that world
wasn't on her radar yet. "It was a bit of a circu-
itous route," she says. "An Indian American
woman from New Jersey is not who you picture
when you hear 'winemaker.'"
(cont. next page)
In 2015, Sekhar won winemaker of the year
at the San Francisco International Wine Competition.
