When Lise Asimont of Dot Wine learned she’d been named Winemaker of the Year at the 2025 North Coast Wine Challenge, she was stunned.
As senior vice president of Foley Family Farms, Asimont spends most of her time overseeing nearly 5,000 acres across California, Oregon, and beyond.
Yet this honor was for her passion project — Dot Wine, the small Healdsburg-based wine brand she co-founded with her husband, Shawn Phillips, in 2016.
“I’m really just a farmer at heart,” says Asimont, who has a master’s degree in viticulture from UC Davis. “I make wine because it makes me a better farmer. So being named Winemaker of the Year is an amazing honor.”
Asimont, who produces about 800 cases of wine each year under the Dot Wine label, was chosen as Winemaker of the Year because of her impressive showing in April at the North Coast Wine Challenge, presented by The Press Democrat. The competition is exclusively for wines produced with grapes grown in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Marin, Lake, and Solano counties. This year it received a record-setting 1,147 wine entries from 223 wineries. Four of those entries were from Dot Wine.
During the blind tasting, the judges whittled down the wines to a mere 38 finalists, which were judged again during the final sweepstakes round.
“I was completely blown away when I found out our Rosé, Sauvignon Blanc, and Grenache made the sweepstakes round,” Asimont says. “We only entered the competition because we were curious to see how they’d stack up against the others.”
Dot Wine’s 2024 rosé of Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley — which the judges compared to “a Ferris wheel of fun” – was crowned the competition’s best rosé. All three wines were awarded Double Gold (a score of 95 points or better).
“Lise is the first winemaker to have three wines end up in the final sweepstakes round,” says Daryl Groom, the North Coast Wine Challenge’s chief judge. He was “elated” to learn of Asimont’s success. “Given she’s one of the most savvy viticulturists across the North Coast and an excellent winemaker, it’s no surprise she scooped up so many awards. She also happens to be one of the kindest, most respected people in the wine industry.”
Asimont, a Filipino-American whose mother emigrated to the U.S. mainland from Hawaii, is especially proud Dot Wine’s rosé rose to the top.
“The rosé has Filipino-Hawaiian representation on the label from artist Jackie Eitel of Paradise Now in Hawaii,” she says. “To have my culture represented means everything.”
Nine years after launching the brand, Asimont has gained “a tremendous amount of perspective” that she integrates into her role at Foley. “There’s nothing like trying to sell your own wine in a challenging market to give you a sense of humility,” she says. “It gives you an entrepreneurial edge that makes you a savvier winegrower.”
Michael Beaulac, Foley’s director of winemaking, was among the judges at this year’s North Coast Wine Challenge. When he learned Asimont had landed three wines in the sweepstakes round, he teasingly asked her if she was coming for his job.
“I reassured him I wasn’t,” laughs Asimont. “I told him I’m truly at my finest — my strongest — when I’m farming wine grapes. Winemaking allows me to complete the sentence I begin in the vineyard. That’s where I’m the happiest.”
Dot Wine, 14210 Bacchus Landing Way, Healdsburg. 707-385-9855, dotwinery.com