Dave's interest in food and wine started at a young age while growing up in South Africa. He studied Hotel and Restaurant Management at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. Having spent the first 15 years of professional life managing restaurants from New York City to San Francisco, Dave left the restaurant industry to focus on wine, taking a position at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant. Dave's fascination with wine grew exponentially after being given the opportunity to work a harvest for A Donkey and Goat winery a few years later. From 2005 through 2011 Dave was head of sales at Crushpad, one of the original urban custom wineries, leading clients through every aspect of the wine making experience and helping launch dozens of boutique wine brands.
In 2010 he started DogpatchWineworks, a custom crush facility in San Francisco. As co-owner and head winemaker, he participated in every aspect of the winemaking experience and helped others find the joy he already knew existed in seeing wine made from start to finish.
Having helped a lot of other people make wine over the years, it was time to take a chance and start his own label. In 2015 The Gifford Family Wine Co was created and Windchaser Wine Co. was born. Windchaser is a family project that is the culmination of Dave’s years of experience from restaurants to winemaking.