ABOUT US
Founded in 2016 by Jennifer McDonald and her family, Jenny Dawn Cellars has grown from the dream of an at-home winemaker into Wichita’s first urban winery startup.
In 2017, Jenny Dawn Cellars established a working partnership with a wine facilitator in Napa, California that serves as our base of operations while we continue to develop and prepare for our home location. We are happily launching our inaugural vintage of 2016 Pinot Noir and 2016 Chardonnay for online purchase in the fall of 2017. Both of these wines are sourced from Santa Barbara County, an up-and-coming region described as dynamic and promising for varietals such as the two we have chosen as well as those in our complete wine list.
In April of 2018, we released a 2017 Rose’ and White Wine sourced from Clarksburg. In October we will be releasing our 2nd vintage of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
On November 23, 2019 our winery proudly opened its doors at the south end of Union Station. We are a tasting room, event venue, and on-site wine production facility. We are happy to share our exceptional product, passion, expertise, and breathtaking location with the Wichita community!
Jennifer McDonald, Founder, Managing Partner and Winemaker
Jennifer McDonald is a successful entrepreneur, human resources and recruiting professional who has spent the last 12 years developing and leading strategic initiatives for some of Wichita’s largest employers. She has leveraged her business acumen and leadership skills from the corporate world into the wine industry. She has spent the past six years turning her passion for wine and her love of the unique ability wine has to bring people together into an urban winery vision for expanding both depth and diversity into downtown Wichita.
Jennifer has a Master’s Degree in Agribusiness from Kansas State University. Jennifer has developed and produced research data on consumer wine preferences. She is an award winning winemaker. Her wines have received Best in Class, Gold, Silver and Bronze medals from the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, Texas International Wine Competition, New World International Wine Competition and Kansas Grape Growers and Winemakers Association.
She has received the Innovations in Business Award presented by Young Professionals of Wichita and was also recognized as one of Wichita’s top 40 people in business under age 40 by the Wichita Business Journal. She is a part of the Pipeline Fellowship and also completed Wichita State University and e2e’s collaborative start-up accelerator program, Launch Prep. She manages an urban orchard and teaches a monthly wine class called Wineucation. She manages the winery strategy and vision.
Matthew McDonald
Business Partner
Matthew McDonald is a Business Partner at Jenny Dawn Cellars. Currently, he manages the day-to-day operations of the urban orchard and vineyard. In 2018, he was instrumental in the cultivation and establishment of the orchard by planting apple and peach trees. In 2019, he lead the efforts in planting Traminette and Brianna vines. Matt has a Mechanical Engineering degree from University of Nebraska- Lincoln. He has spent the past 13 years working in the aviation industry.
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