About Us
The Founders
Deniro and I created Squish Cellars with the hope to make great wine without pretense. We focus on working with amazing vineyards to create one of a kind bottles of our favorite varietals. We fell in love in front of home cooked meals, paired with awesome bottles of wine. To us, wine is connection, it’s our culture, it’s an art, and a very delicate and precise science. We hope you share our wines over laughter at your dinner table, late night dancing to live music, and any other glimmers that life brings your way.
Deniro Keck
Deniro is the kind of person who becomes your best friend within five minutes. His warmth, charm, and sun-packed smile have a way of drawing people in wherever he goes. After nearly a decade in hospitality and management in the East Bay, he moved to Napa and dove headfirst into the wild world of wine, chasing knowledge, connection, and a certain yeast-obsessed winemaker along the way.
He's spent the more recent years of his busy life making memories in cellars and vineyards and always with a full bottle in hand. As Proprietor and Director of Hospitality at Squish Cellars, he helps shape a hedonistic movement that’s rooted in joy, generosity, and just the right amount of rebellion. Whether he’s pouring a glass or telling a story, Deniro makes people feel at home, reminding us why wine is best when shared.
Melani Vargas
Melani has always been drawn to the deep end of creative work. She professionally started that dive at 16 with film and concert photography, capturing moments that required creativity, quick instincts, and technical skill. That experience has served as a crash course in the precision and artistry that is required in winemaking.
Before stepping into the cellar, she worked across nearly every corner of the wine industry, from hospitality to marketing to production. Along the way, she was trained by some of Napa Valley’s most accomplished winemakers, gaining the full-circle perspective she now brings to Squish Cellars, where she serves as Winemaker and Creative Director.
Her style leans low-intervention and vineyard-first, with a focus on honesty, restraint, and letting the fruit lead.