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Wine for Normal People

Friends of the Pod Series -- Ep 224: Ana Keller of Keller Estate in the brand new Petaluma Gap AVA of Sonoma, CA

Wine for Normal People

Wine for Normal People

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

4.61.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2018

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Continuing the Women in Wine series for Women's History Month 2018, I speak with Ana Keller of Keller Estate. She helped establish the Petaluma Gap American Viticultural Area (AVA), which is Sonoma's newest cool climate appellation making excellent Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah. Ana is one of the only women of Mexican heritage running a wine estate, and she is simply amazing.

Here are some of the notes from our conversation:

  • We talk about how her family got into wine.
  • We discuss Ana's educational background -- she attended the University of Mexico and obtained a biopharmaceutical chemistry degree and then to King’s College in London for a Masters in Pharma Development.
  • We talk about how Ana got into wine as a consumer and how her dad roped her into the business as Estate Director.
  • Ana shares her feelings about mentors in the wine industry and what it was like to be a young woman in wine in the 1990s.
  • We dig into the Petaluma Gap AVA -- what makes it different, how the appellation was conceived of, and why the wines are so very different from the rest of Sonoma.
  • Finally, we wrap up with a conversation about the current state of women in the wine industry and the role of amazing men in forwarding the careers of women in it.

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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

Today on the podcast, Anna Keller of Keller Estate Wine in Petaluma,

0:29.0

which we're going to talk all about the Petaluma Gap,

0:32.0

Appalachian, which Anna basically created

0:34.9

with help from a bunch of other people.

0:36.9

Anna is the estate director of Keller

0:39.1

and she has been working in Wine via chemistry, which we'll talk about, or pharma, I guess, since the 1990s, right, Anna?

0:48.4

More or less, I started working on our family's project in 1998.

0:52.6

Wow, so tell us about how your family got into why

0:56.3

and your dad was driving around

0:59.8

and you're originally from Mexico, is that correct?

1:02.1

That's correct. I was born and raised in Mexico City and I know the last name Keller doesn't really give it too much, but you've got to remember. I really don't know where I'm from. We did a DNA testing and it turned out I have 10%

1:15.8

Italian, 10% German, 10% British. So I'm truly a product of the new world and my father's side emigrated from Switzerland to Mexico and then my dad moved from Mexico to the US.

1:28.0

So there you go. I'm kind of a...

1:31.0

I'm a true mutt. How did your dad get into wine though? So he immigrated here and then he was in California, I'm assuming.

1:40.0

He was in California and he loves old cars. My dad's passion are cars from morning to dusk.

1:46.2

And he would take out his old cars

1:48.4

and drive them around the roads of Sonoma, Napa.

...

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