023 - Today we talk with San Francisco native and longtime Oakland resident and wine entrepreneur Paula Harrell of P Harrell Wines. Paula’s love for wine and wine culture began while studying abroad in Spain while in college. Paula had no formal education in wine making. For 15 years it was a fun little hobby - she would blend other peoples’ wines. After sharing her concoctions with her wine connoisseur uncle, he told her to make her own wine.

“And so that was when I thought, oh my God, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to make my own wine. So to your question, I'm very involved because I don't want anybody deciding what my wine is going to taste like. So I'm choosing where the grapes are coming from. I'm spending time during harvest and crush.”After learning about custom crush, she knew she did not need to make the large capital investment required to buy a winery, but she could remain in control of the taste and quality of her wine. So, in 2015 P Harrell Wines was born.

Paula enjoys being an Oakland based wine company - doing events all around the Bay Area. She loves opening peoples eyes and answering their questions and helping them through their own wine journey. Many people are surprised to find wine businesses beyond the wine country. Paula says…

"I think now it's a really great time to be in the wine business and be in Oakland and be in an urban area because, this has really taken off, like people are really interested in that and being able to have it local."The key takeaways from my discussion with Paula are:

1 Being a wine connoisseur and indulging in wine culture for fun is very glamorous - making wine and running the business is a lot of work

2 She loves events - sharing her wine knowledge with others

3 Figuring out the sales and marketing channels early on was important

4 The names of her wines pay homage to her family legacy

Be sure to stick around until the end to hear how Paula is mentoring young people of color in the wine business.