Your background is in farming, so what got you into wine and more specifically vineyard management?
Brenae Royal says understanding the science of a vineyard is key to growing good quality grapes
I was introduced to farming by my grandmother, who had an enormous garden. At the age of 17, I was an officer at Future Farmers of America. I started drinking wine in college, I worked all the way through college and initially went in under animal science because I had previously reared pigs, but I didn’t want to continue that so changed to crops and horticulture science.
In my senior year, I turned into an old lady where my most fun nights consisted of Apothic Red, a puzzle and Jeopardy. So that’s how I got introduced into wine, I loved it and when I went to my last career fair E.& J. Gallo Winery was there and just happened to have a magnum of Apothic Red on its stand. I was like, “we’ve got to make this work because I can probably farm it. I know I love drinking it. Let’s mak