Dec 17

Dec 17 Ana Keller, Estate Director, Keller Estate, Petaluma, California (USA)

Years in Industry:
In March of 1998, my parents asked me to come to Petaluma from Mexico City to resolve a stuck fermentation of chardonnay at their winery. I was y for my Ph.D. in pharmaceutical development; I always wanted to work with medicinal plants. That's why I gravitated to biochemistry in the first place. Since I walked into that cellar in 1998, I never looked back. Once I understood what I was dealing with at the winery, I saw that it had everything I loved – the plants, grapes, viticulture, production. Working in pharmaceuticals was so strict that I innately understood quality standards, plus making wine was enjoyable. Little did I know that I'd spend so much time in marketing and sales!

My Top Three Challenges to Wellness:

Keeping healthy and acknowledging the limitations of my body as I grow older. Before, if I wasn't feeling well, I'd go to bed and sleep it off, and soon I'd be back to my old self. Now I need to do a lot more to stay healthy and be in a happy place.
Rekindling friendships. Time is limited, especially with all the demands of the job. But I work hard at keeping my friends. Sometimes we need to go out and look for friendships because the friends we used to have may not be relevant at different times in life. Talking about where each friend in life gives me perspective.
Juggling family and making sure that I give everyone what I want to give them without it being too taxing on myself. I have three sons, a husband, father, sisters… and everybody's gotten used to expectations of what my role in the family is. When you're not that person anymore, it's hard.

How I Keep It Together to Stay Well:
A lot of experimentation! I try new things to see what works and what doesn't. Sometimes what works is not necessarily easy. To stay well, you really have to start observing yourself very closely to see how external factors affect your well-being. Everyone can be well. We just have to be very creative.

I also look for rewards and treats, finding safe landing spots. Change isn't going to magically happen, so we need to realize our decisions' effects and make a plan.

What Inspires Me:
I'm inspired by the cyclical nature of the wine industry. I love coming to a new harvest, coming back to the same problem, and dealing with it differently this time. Also, flowers and gardens always inspire me. Every time I travel to a new city, I look for the closest garden. My birthday and my sister Grace's birthday are within a week of each other, and our birthday gift every year is to go and walk a nursery.

A Quote I Love:
George Washington Carver said that "99% of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses." In my family, you can always say you messed up, but you don't get to make excuses for it.

You can connect with Ana on Twitter and Instagram, and through the Keller Estate website.

Know Someone Who Would Like To Be A Part Of ABG?

Tell Us!

Help ABG grow into a stronger global community that supports wellness for the long term. Click the link below to nominate someone to be featured in ABG's Community Profile!

Nominate A New Member

Leave a comment

Cathy Huyghe

Cathy Huyghe is a dynamic media professional with a special interest in wine and the spirit of hospitality. She is also an effective, engaging public speaker on subjects ranging from wine and gastronomy to digital media and entrepreneurship.

Cathy is the co-founder and CEO of Enolytics, a big data startup providing business intelligence for the wine industry. She also currently writes for Forbes.com about the business and politics of the wine industry, and for Inc.com about entrepreneurs with a special focus on women. She is the author of the award-winning book Hungry for Wine: Seeing the World through the Lens of a Wine Glass; she was a finalist for the 2016 IWSC Wine Communicator of the Year award; and she won the 2016 Innovator of the Year award from Diaz Communications.

Cathy's writing has appeared in print and online for both general-interest and wine industry publications including the Harvard Business Review network, The Atlantic, Decanter, Food52.com (where she was the "Wine, Unfussed" columnist), DailyBeast, The Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Wine Enthusiast, GlobalPost, Grist.org, and Daily Candy. She has also been featured on the BBC, WNYC, WGBH, and Nevada Public Radio.

Cathy is the founder of 365daysofwine.com and Red White Boston, a digital media company for the wine industry. Red White Boston produced daily content, monthly tasting events, and a location-based iPhone app of video wine recommendations from their network of 30+ local partner stores. While in Boston, she also managed the wine cellar at WGBH public broadcasting station and managed wine events for donors and the public.

Cathy’s restaurant experience started when she knocked on the kitchen door at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. She also has worked for Jean-Pierre Vigato in Paris (at Natachef bistro and at his two-star restaurant, Apicius) and for Thomas Keller at Bouchon in Las Vegas. She studied at La Varenne École de Cuisine in Burgundy, France; she completed the Wine Studies program at Boston University; and she received Advanced Certification from WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust).

Cathy received a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard in 2004 and a second master’s degree in Journalism in 2010, also from Harvard. Before that, she received a master’s degree in comparative literature from the City University of New York in 1998 and a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania in 1995. She is also a trained mediator, and worked for two years at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School on a project in the Middle East.

In April 2008 she founded the Harvard Alumni in Wine and Food special interest group, which provides educational and networking services to the Harvard alumni and current students. She has also served as the President of the Harvard Club of Georgia, and she has begun a term of service on the Board of Directors for the Harvard Alumni Association.

Her other non-profit involvement includes the Women's Solidarity Society at the new National Center for Civil & Human Rights (Atlanta), grant reviewer for the Food Well Alliance (an Atlanta-based organization that supports the local network of 350 urban farms and community gardens), Coach at GOTR (Girls on the Run) in Atlanta, Board Member at the Greening Youth Foundation (Atlanta), Board Member at The Food Project (Boston), and Mediator at the Neighborhood Justice Center (Las Vegas).

She lives in Atlanta with her husband, their twin boys, and their Bernese Mountain dog, Coco.

Website