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Wine for Normal People

Ep 221: Campana Ranch Winery -- An Historical Legacy of Napa, An Entrepreneur's Story in Sonoma

Wine for Normal People

Wine for Normal People

Alcohol, Lifestyle, Arts, Education, Food, Wine, Dining, Grapes

4.61.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2018

⏱️ 65 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Steve and Sher Bell of Campana Ranch discuss Steve's storied past, which included working for the Mondavis during their family split, early days in Napa, and what brought him and Sher to craft the beautiful wines they make in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma today.

Here are some more detailed notes:

  • First we talk about Steve's Story -- which includes the evolution and questions about “Big Wine." We talk about Steve's getting caught in the crosshairs of a Mondavi feud, his time at Freemark Abbey, and the a long career at Beringer
  • We hit on the business side of big wine and how it was challenging for Steve.
  • Sher tells us about her perspective on Steve's career, and how her pursuing her passion helped Steve pursue his with wine.
  • We discuss how Steve and Sher began the winery -- we talk about the best and hardest parts of having their own things
  • They make a lot of different types of wine -- we discuss the rationale behind it

A fantastic show. I hope you find it as fascinating as I did!!!

Thanks to this week's sponsor who makes the podcast possible!

The Great Courses Plus -- who makes you smarter and more well rounded! With thousands of outstanding video lectures that you can watch or listen to any time and anywhere, The Great Courses Plus is an easy way to stimulate your brain and make you smarter! For a free trial, go to thegreatcoursesplus.com/wine

A must listen to anyone interested in learning about California wine history and a great story that moves from corporate to entrepreneurship and always involves a commitment to the vineyard, to doing things ethically, and to making great wine!

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thanks for

0:08.0

downloading Wine for Normal People Radio,

0:10.0

the podcast for people who like wine but not the snobbery that goes with it.

0:14.0

I'm Elizabeth Schneider, a certified Silmaier and certified specialist of wine.

0:20.0

And I'm MC Ice, just a wine-loving normal person.

0:23.0

I want to welcome Steve and Share, the owners and operators of Capanaran's wine.

0:29.4

Thank you guys so much for being here.

0:31.0

Thank you for having us.

0:32.0

This is great.

0:33.0

We're really enjoying this.

0:34.0

So let's talk about your past, Steve.

0:39.0

Because you have the longest career of everybody that I've spoken to of working an actual big wine.

0:46.7

How did you get into this?

0:48.0

This was not your original path, right?

0:49.8

You did not set out to do this.

0:51.5

My original path, my first degree was in forestry because I love

0:55.3

being outdoors and so I also have a love of sciences.

0:58.9

Where did you go to school?

1:00.1

It was a technician's degree. I went to a small little town up in Northern California called Quincy and it was called a Feather River College.

1:06.2

It was a basically a community college up there.

1:09.7

And my main, you know, the main purpose of going up there is to learn forestry.

1:14.1

So we went up there in 1970 and in 1973 I graduated with a degree because I took a quarter

...

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