Kirk Venge, one of the country’s most promising young winemakers and the 33-year-old son of one of the Napa Valley’s elite winemakers, has been named winemaker for Tudal Winery.

Venge, who will continue to make wine for his family’s Venge Vineyards of Calistoga, as well as a number of small but prominent Napa Valley brands, began his relationship with Tudal with the 2009 vintage, Tudal Winery’s 30th harvest that was begun by founder Arnold Tudal. Venge is the scion of Nils Venge, considered to be one of the Napa Valley’s best winemakers.

John Tudal, the winery’s owner, said of Kirk Venge’s appointment, “Kirk is such a natural fit for us given the friendship that our fathers shared to his roots from the vineyard to the cellar. The decision to hand to Kirk the winemaking at Tudal Winery was without doubt one of the easiest calls I’ve made at the winery in 30 years. I know my dad would be smiling and saying ‘Could not have made a better choice myself.’ We have asked Kirk to make the best wine possible without the pressure of creating the next Napa Valley cult wine. When I arrive at the winery and see Kirk, I know that I am at home and relaxed almost the same way as when I used to drive up to the winery and see my dad at work doing what he loved to do.”

Venge will work alongside John Tudal’s nephew and Arnold’s grandson Matt Tudal Fidge, who will be his apprentice as they produce about 2,000 cases per year of two of the estate’s Cabernet Sauvignons. Tudal Winery, three miles north of St. Helena, began producing wines in the Napa Valley in 1979.

Last August, the San Francisco Chronicle cited Venge as one of a quintet of “The New Guard of California Wineries.” The following month, the prestigious Food & Wine Magazine, in an article titled, “Generation Next: 26 Winemakers, The Scions of Great Wine Dynasties Around the World To Watch,” Venge was named among the pantheon of winemakers to whom to pay attention.

After studying at UC Davis, Kirk developed his craft interning with Mumm Napa Valley as experimental winemaker for five harvest under the guidance of sparkling winemaker, Gregory Fowler. Kirk spent the 1999 harvest working with Rapaura Vintners in Marlborough, NZ. That November he decided to work alongside his father in developing a winery for the Venge Family Reserve wines and supervising the restoration of Venge Vineyards at the historic Rossini Ranch. In May of 2008, the Venge family sold the property and bought another south of Calistoga.

Kirk’s philosophy is “Understanding the terroir of a specific vineyard and the hidden potential of that site …” In addition to Tudal, Kirk is the consulting winemaker for Igneous, Hunnicutt, Macauley, Bacio Divino, JAX, B Cellars, Trespass, JR Wine, Frazier, and Calistoga Ranch.