Our Team
Jill Osur
A former UC Berkeley softball player, Jill utilizes her athletic background to hone her leadership approach and address challenges head on. Her commitment to advancing women and driving meaningful change has shaped her career trajectory, which spans political fundraising, executive roles with Special Olympics Northern California & Nevada, business ownership, and through public speaking on stages including the BOLD Speaker Series and TEDx.
Since 2017, she has resided in El Dorado County where she purchased vineyard property within the region’s wine AVA. In 2020, after departing from an ownership position at another Sierra Foothill winery, Jill then founded and launched Teneral Cellars.
Throughout her career wine was always at the center of deep meaningful conversations and connections, so creating a brand that did just that is a dream come true for Jill.
Since launching Teneral Cellars, she has received numerous business accolades, including: The Adrienne Hall Award for Breaking Down Barriers from the Women President’s Organization; a Stevie Award for Women in Business for Best Female Entrepreneur – Consumer Products; the Corporate Leader Award from Leadership California; the NAWBO Sacramento OWL Awards – Woman Innovator Award; and Jill was named one of the 100 Women to KNOW in America in 2023.
LISA ORRELL
Lisa is an award-winning Marketing & Branding professional with 30 years of experience, and an avid wine lover. After earning her degree in Advertising from San Jose State University, she founded and led a successful Bay Area Marketing Agency for over two decades, serving startups and global corporations. Her firm earned more than 75 awards for branding and strategy excellence. Lisa is also a sought-after keynote speaker—recently named one of the “World’s Top 30 Leadership Speakers in 2025” and the author of five business books.
Aside from her marketing role, Lisa works alongside Jill in all aspects of the business, including hands-on tasks, such as working in the Tasting Room, assisting in the winery, and representing Teneral Cellars at wine festivals & events.
Sierra the Wine Dog
Kira Ballotta
Kira grew up in Sacramento and enjoyed sneaky sips of her parents’ wines from Amador County beginning in her teenage years. She always enjoyed wine but earned a finance degree from the University of Washington in 2008 and began working in wine on the weekends in 2010.
In that year Kira was working at an investment bank in San Francisco mainly valuing mines. She got the opportunity to value several wineries as her boss had figured out a unique way to value the AVA (American Viticulture Area) intangible asset on vineyard land. Driven to learn more about the “going-ons” behind her spreadsheets, she came out to meet a winemaker in Napa and refers to herself as the “guest that never left”.
After a brief stint in wine pricing business analytics at Constellation, she moved into wine production full-time in 2013. She studied winemaking and has worked in the lab, cellar and vineyards across multiple properties in Napa and Australia before landing her full-time job with Alpha Omega in 2015. She worked her way up from Production Assistant to Enology Research Manager, coordinating all winemaking trials, many of which were under the umbrella of tannin analysis. She helped the team earn their 100-point score from Robert Parker on the 2018 vintage before taking over as winemaker for Olivia Brion in 2019.
Then, in 2021, she launched Cantadora wines to incorporate women today, who inspire her, into her wine projects. In January 2024, Kira was honored by Imbibe Magazine as an “Imbibe 75 Person Who Will Shape Food & Drinks”. And Wine Business Monthly awarded Cantadora their “Hot Brand” honor for 2023.
Kira is a fifth-generation Northern Californian dedicated to making site-expressive wines using sustainable practices and organic farming. She believes we should not be entitled to pollute our air and soil in the pursuit of making a luxury beverage.
