Cricket Hill’s Founders:
Partner & Resident Chef
Kathy Hemingway Bowman
Kathy was born in Salt Lake City and grew up a “Western girl”, spending her childhood living at times in Utah, Montana, Colorado and Oregon. At 5′-3″ and 108 pounds you might believe she wouldn’t be doing much real work around the vineyard or winery. You’d be wrong! With a Bachelor degree in Journalism and a tough streak Kathy more than pulls her weight in every aspect of the winery’s operation. From bottling to marketing to working the crush, she does it all. But even more, she’s a passionate chef. But studying French cooking under the tutilege of a 5-star chef in San Jose, California wasn’t enough for her. She then went to Boston and learned deserts under the former White House desert chef of the Carter Administration.
Still not enough, Kathy is a patron of the arts and especially theater. Locally she served multiple years on the program committee for the Ginger Rogers Craterion theater and still maintains close contact with that venue.
Wine – Food – The Arts … Is there any more she could do? Well, yes! She loves travel with her Husband of 38 years and has enjoyed traveling Most of the Continental US as well as exotic places that so far include Tahiti, Yugoslavia, Greece, France, Italy, England, Portugal, Morocco and Spain.
Partner & Winemaker
Duane Bowman
Born in Ohio, Duane grew up in South Florida. So today he enjoys the outdoors and water. His academic influence began at Junior High when he was admitted to an experimental school and continued as he payed his way through college working in the Carpenter’s Union. Duane finally earned an undergraduate Engineering degree and a Masters in Business from one of the perpetual top 10 ranked Business Graduate Schools in the US.
Duane’s career understandably spanned both marketing and technology, starting several market research departments and consulting companies, being product manager for IBM networking products and working at Bell Labs on defining advanced telephony projects.
In the 1970s Duane found a passion for wines and began preparing for a second career track in concert with his wife Kathy. Founding Cricket Hill along with Kathy, they were pioneers in Southern Oregon’s wine industry – Cricket Hill being the 3rd winery in what since became the Applegate Valley AVA and the 138th winery in Oregon. Involved in the larger Oregon wine industry from the beginning. A member at the inception of the local Oregon Winegrowers Association chapter he served multiple years on the Boards of Directors of the Rogue Valley Winegrowers and continues to serve on the Board of the Applegate Valley Vintners Association.
Duane began learning viticulture and enology science at UC Davis in California and picked up the Art of Winemaking and blending wines in his favorite wine region, Bordeaux.
