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Join Caren this week on Aging Like a Fine Wine as she uncorks the inspiring tale of Marilyn Harris, co-founder of Paradigm Winery in the Napa Valley. From her family's Italian roots to establishing one of the best wineries in Napa Valley with her husband Ren. Together they’ve created an eco-friendly boutique winery, considered one of the best in the Valley. Cheers to a life filled with passion, determination, and the pursuit of new horizons.
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[Music]
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hello everyone Karen Glasser here and
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this is life Uncorked I am sitting here
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with Marilyn Harris the co-founder along
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with her husband Ren of Paradigm Winery
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in Oakville in the Napa Valley and this
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is Marilyn's story so Mar Marilyn
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welcome to the show how are you today
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thank you so much for having me I'm very
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excited to be here I think I'm even more
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excited than you as you know I'm a huge
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fan of yours and of Paradigm um I've
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been drinking Paradigm wine for as long
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as I can remember which is a good thing
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I absolutely adore it but let's talk
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about your story let's talk about how
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you even got into the wine business now
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I know that your family has roots from
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Italy right correct okay so tell me the
0:51
short story of how you ended up in the
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wine Biz running one of the best
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wineries in the valley all right um well
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it we go back to 1903 when my
1:01
grandparents Came From
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Italy um fast forward to 1936 when my
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father and mother bought a big vineard a
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big big
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Farmstead we were really only in
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agriculture
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until about
1:19
the 90s is when we actually all the
1:24
family started wineries in the 90s
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91 and it it it's interesting because we
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were first in agriculture and we sold
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our products to everyone in the valley
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and and but as
1:40
we I think what what really excited Us
1:44
in the 60s know maybe
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this maybe the 70s was there was the
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wine home wine making
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craze I remember that we got into it and
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we had the grapes and we got into it in
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a small way but we just loved our own
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wine and we went well what are we doing
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you know selling our grapes when we can
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make wine well it took us a little while
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longer I you know at that point I was
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raising children and and they were in
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the 80s they got into high school and I
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said I'm going to stop being an at home
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mom doing my thing I'm going to go out
2:25
and find the world here I love that left
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out by
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um meeting up with Bernard Porte at clo
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of wall and I asked him if I could have
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a job and he said
2:38
sure and I went was in Hospitality but
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it was a small Winery at the time and a
2:45
few employees and it was wonderful and I
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thank my lucky stars I ever did it
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because I learned more about wineries
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than I've ever known my entire life um
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and that really I worked there for about
2:59
10 years years and in
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1991 Ren and I said we need to start a
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winery and that's when we did it and the
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rest is history right the rest is
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history yeah so you're you're in
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Oakville we are in Oakville in the
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Oakville
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appalation and there are quite a few
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wonderful wineries here you know there
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so many of the wines in Napa Valley are
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wonderful they they really are and what
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I really love about Paradigm is is it's
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very much a boutique kind of thing when
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we come to Paradigm we literally are
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going to what appears to be a house
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right and um it's very personal and
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every we anytime I go and when I bring
3:43
visitors with me um everyone says the
3:45
same thing that you're so welcoming and
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it's so friendly and it's not what they
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experience at some of the much larger
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wineries in terms of that so kudos to
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you you you have really set the bar very
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very high um and I I love that about
4:01
that so you are um you and rener tire
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tireless advocates for the Oakville
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appalation um eco-friendly farming and
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environmental stewardship so give us a
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little bit of an overview what that
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really
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means um what that really means it's
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it's just caring our our heart is in the
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fact that it starts in the soil we are
4:27
really agriculturalist
4:31
vineyardist and it it starts in the soil
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and whatever you do in the soil is going
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to be when you make the wine it's going
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to be there and so it's very important
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to us we're it's the grape we're we're
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more of it's the grape that makes the
4:49
fine wine and if you have the fine grape
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the wine is going to be wonderful and we
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also have a wonderful wine maker Heidi
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Barrett Heidi Barrett oh my God been
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with us since
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1991 bless her heart she puts up with us
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all these many years but she's wonderful
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she's and she's a woman and and what I
5:10
find fascinating she's a woman and
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that's right and and some of the best
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wine makers in the valley are women
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which I think is just wonderful because
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you know being one and and all of that
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so Marilyn what drives you at this stage
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of Life what keeps you going oh I don't
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know I get up every morning and I say
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I'm gonna have a wonderful day
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and I you know I try to stay busy and I
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think I'm pretty busy for my age um and
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you know I try to be in the moment
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because if I'm out of the moment I'm
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worrying about something so I'm in the
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moment and I cherish the moments and I
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just go from there you know it's it's
5:53
sometimes we and I always say to to the
5:56
staff you know don't second guess
5:57
yourself just go for it and if it fails
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it fails exactly because what's the
6:03
worst that could happen if you don't try
6:04
you're not going to know and I I agree
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with you 100% on that so what
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inspiration and I think you're kind of
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telling me right now can you give to
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someone who's looking to start something
6:13
new in this chapter of Life are you
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going to tell them go for it I'm sure
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I'm going for it I I've got a couple of
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things that we're doing right now I I
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love Modern Art and I happen to meet a
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local modern artist who has many
6:33
paintings quite large 4x6 or whatever in
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his home and he he is just passionate
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about painting and I said well you know
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Jose I could I could probably find a
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place to put those paintings so I am
6:49
setting up showings for him and he can't
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believe it because he's the kind of man
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at this stage in his life where I ask
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him what what do I pay you for this
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painting and he says we'll name a price
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oh wow I mean and and he is just so
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passionate about it and it's just a warm
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I just am so excited to be doing that uh
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what else are we doing oh my husband and
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I
7:17
bought um ponches bar in yville which is
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historically very uh historically
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prominent in life and times um
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we
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um we purchased it and we're going to
7:35
make we're going to keep it as ponches
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dive bar now which is a dive bar right
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it's a dive bar I love there are no
7:44
windows in this building I mean can you
7:46
imagine no one knows who's in there or
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what they're doing I mean really but the
7:53
the real reason we did it is the solise
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family who have owned it since 197
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75 used to be employed by us Poncha was
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actually the cook in our cook house oh
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my 70s and 80s or 60s 70s and 80s and
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the sons and daughters I daughters were
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were our babysitters I mean it's just I
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mean the family goes back a long way and
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it kind of broke our heart when Co habit
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then they closed the the bar and and
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just need to be out now and so we said
8:32
we'll buy it I and I love this it's like
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a neighborhood it's a neighborhood
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community place right where where um I
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was speaking um to somebody who who's
8:41
near and dear to you your
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daughter-in-law she was talking to me
8:44
about the fact that this particular
8:45
place is where all of the uh Pickers the
8:49
wine picker the The Growers would go to
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this place because quite
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frankly French Laundry goes they're not
8:57
gonna right go there I mean everyone
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went there I mean movie stars would come
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in from out of town and they had to go
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to ponches it was the place to go and in
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2014 I think the
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um uh Playboy magazine had the top
9:15
five uh dive bars in the country and
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ponches was number one so when are you
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opening again you bought it when are you
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reopening uh probably about three months
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we have to clean it up
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I I'll be there I will be there right
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yeah invite all your friends I am
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totally I am just so thrilled Marilyn
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you are an inspiration to anyone that
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listens to your story where you have
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come from where you are right now and
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where you are going I want to thank you
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so much for sharing your story with us
9:50
because quite frankly I think that we're
9:52
all aging like a fine wine what a great
9:54
show thank you so much for joining us
9:57
and for being a part of this journey
10:00
and as we said make sure you check down
10:02
below in the copy we have links to some
10:04
of the things that we talked about and
10:06
most importantly check out the Napa
10:08
travel guide we are so proud of it Mel
10:10
works so hard on this and we hope that
10:12
you enjoy it it's absolutely free click
10:15
on that button and we'll see you next
10:18
week next week
10:20
[Music]
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ciao
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