Maria Helm Sinskey

Maria Helm Sinskey has been surrounded by food and wine for most of her life. Raised in Upstate New York, her large family embraced a life of food and wine. After graduating from College she considered law school, but knew her heart was in the kitchen not behind a desk.  

She graduated from the California Culinary Academy and Conditerie Tivoli Pastry School in Denmark and then cooked in several 3 Star Michelin kitchens throughout France. After her stint in Europe, she returned to California and went on to work in several highly acclaimed Bay Area restaurants garnering the accolades of Food and Wine Magazine’s Best New Chef and SF Magazine Rising Star chef among others. 

Married in 1997 to Napa vintner Rob Sinskey, she assumed the responsibility of overseeing the planting and maintenance of the extensive vegetable gardens and fruit trees spread throughout the winery’s 160 acres of organically grown grapes as well as the culinary program. The sale of the old winery buildings in 2022 brought Robert Sinskey Vineyards back to its roots in the Carneros Region of Napa. The winery has established itself at Wilding Farm where the focus is on the organic and regenerative farming of wine grapes, an extensive orchard of heirloom fruit trees and olives, and of course the kitchen garden.