Team

Mario Sculatti

Proprietor/Winemaker

Mario grew up in the Napa Valley. He is the fourth generation of his family to live in St. Helena since the family came here from Italy over 100 years ago in 1901. Mario first began his career in the wine world by brokering rare & collectible wines to customers around the globe. Then after working in the commercial wine auction business for five years, in dynamic markets such as Asia, he decided to make wine of his own back home.

Over the course of three harvests he became a protege of his dear friend, the late Denis Malbec (who was the former Cellar Master of Chateau Latour) and today Mario carries on Mr. Malbec's exact wine-making techniques during each Napa Valley vintage. Mario's father Ron, was one of the cellar assistants who helped make the famous 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. Mario is also an avid antique collector. His vision as the owner of VAULT Wine + Artifacts is to bring people together by connecting them through the arc of wine history!

Vanessa McMahon

Wine Educator & Marketing

Vanessa McMahon was born in San Diego, California. A first generation American with parents from Canada and Scotland, she grew up living between southern California, Canada and Scotland. She holds a graduate in Letters (English and Brazilian Portuguese) from UCLA and post-graduate in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway University, London. Since university, she spent nine years living in four countries in Europe and seven years in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was during her life in Europe that she was bit by the fine wine bug.

Vanessa’s obsession with wine began in Italy twelve years ago where she lived and worked seasonally in the Italian wine industry. She dove deeper into wine when she embarked on the writing and directing of her documentary “Purple Gold” (2021), a history of the California wine industry. She has conducted over a decade of research relating to the history of wine from the New World and Europe, visited hundreds of wineries around the world, interviewed and filmed dozens of various significant characters in the California wine business and is currently a wine educator and marketing director for Vault Wines + Artifacts in Calistoga, CA.

Prior to working in the wine industry, she has held a career in the international film industry as a writer, film producer and film professional consultant. As a writer, she is a published novelist (The Road to Tataouine, A California Girl, Bosphorus), journalist for online daily news site Filmfestivals.com and a screenwriter with a TV series and wine documentary in the works.