This Texas native had no plans to become a winemaker when a harvest intern job in California fell in her lap. Jackie van Sant Downes grew up in the Houston area and studied Communication and Psychology at Texas Tech. Her aunt and uncle had a wine bar in Katy, and Jackie was able to taste wines from all over the world and began developing her own palate. She didn’t grow up in a wine-drinking family, and in college, like many of us, she may have bought wine in a box. After sharing these beautiful imports from France and Italy, she wanted to seek out delicious wines – in a bottle and not a box!
In the summer of 2007, her aunt Robin called and said she just met a winemaker from Sonoma who needed a harvest intern, and Jackie should take the job. So, three days after graduation, she hopped on a plane with no idea what was to come. She had one suitcase and zero idea of how to make wine. Jackie confides, “My only opinion of California was based on the TV show The OC and things like that, so I didn’t know what to expect. It was so cool because we’d be sitting around barbecuing, listening to Willie Nelson, and it was just like all the things we do in Texas.”
She took a leap of faith in taking the internship because she had no training and, frankly, no idea how to make wine. She says,
This Article was originally published on Texas Wine Lover
