Celebrating Women in Agriculture

Hi, my name is Kristen Barn. I'm the winemaker for white wines for J LO or vineyards and wines. I kind of grew up in the industry in Sonoma County. Uh growing up and was introduced very early on walking the catwalks when my mom worked at winery and my dad was making homemade wine. When I was going to school. My undergraduate is in Italian literature and it was over there that I really fell in love with wine and saw it as *** conduit to conversation and just making something that people could enjoy over the table. So I came back and went to school at UC Davis and got my master's from UC Davis in 1997 and uh started out as *** ologist, you know, working mostly kind of conduit between the laboratory and the the seller in production and worked my way up to assistant winemaker and now winemaker, I manage the, the winery here, um manage about 26,000 barrels of chardonnay. Uh All of our chardonnay is barrel fermented. So I managed the whole process from receiving the grapes and the juice all the way through crushing, through adding yeast and bacteria going through fermentation all the way through to bottling. Some days are in the lab and just really looking at lab work to help maintain all of these 26,000 barrels of chardonnay. And uh and everything in between. There are so many different aspects from the technical science part to active production, to the creativity that is and the artistry that is blending. At this point. I've worked for about 25 years. I've been here at J Lo about eight years now and really enjoying being here in the in Monterey. I've been for most of my career by Zelma long, who's *** long time family friend. She was the winemaker at CMI winery when I was young and uh has throughout my career provided excellent advice and direction in terms of *** career path. She motivated my dedication to the craft. And I think my endless curiosity as well in terms of constantly learning the winemaking process. The way I see the industry moving forward is more women getting involved and staying involved in the industry. We have *** very integrated crew, for instance, here at J Lo. So we see women driving forklifts and in the vineyards and in all aspects of wine making and in the lab too. And I just see more women having the opportunity to learn to show what they know and then advance their careers. I think women have more opportunities in terms of, you know, trying out *** new part of *** career instead of just one part of the wine industry to branch out into production, to branch out into agriculture. So if you want to branch out into packaging or into barrels, there are just many different avenues that women can do and do well in the industry and really move us forward. As I have gotten through my 25 years of this career path, I look for young women particularly that are interested in this industry and just offer advice, have an open door policy and encourage them, especially in the sciences to continue learning. Everybody that works for me, try to teach them every part of the winemaking process so that they know not only what they're doing but why they're doing it as well. I would say I have three pieces for advice for young women looking to get into the industry. The first would be to always be curious and to keep learning throughout the course of your career. The second would be to have confidence in your skills and your strengths. And the third would be to always keep building your network, the more people you can meet, this is *** very friendly industry and the more people you can meet, the better it is for you and for the industry as *** whole. What drives me at the end of the day is working with this great crew every day and I really appreciate being able to make world class wines that people can appreciate at the table. So it's really just about crafting something that people will enjoy with food. Central Coast ABC celebrates women in agriculture.