Episode
912 - Heritage of Our Heartland: Field of Dreams |
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In the words of Ceja Vineyards CEO, Amelia Moran Ceja, “the family's business represents the present and future of the wine industry” but it’s the story of their past which has set them up so perfectly for success. Felipe Moran and Pablo Ceja earned a living in the 1960’s as farm laborers up and down the state during harvest time. The two men came to know each other from working on crews together. Unbeknownst to the two men, they also shared a love of the barely developed wine region of California's Napa Valley. It was time spent picking grapes in Napa Valley vineyards which convinced both dads they needed to move their families from Mexico to California.That move set the course for what today is known as Ceja Vineyards. California Heartland’s Manny Ramos meets the now retired patriarch and matriarch of the Ceja family, Pablo & Juanita. He learns how the family managed the early days of their time in California and how they came to see education as the ticket to a better life for the next generation. We’ll meet the second generation of the Ceja and Moran families which produced a formal union in the 1980’s with the marriage of Ceja eldest son Pedro to Amelia Moran. The dynamic duo of Amelia Moran and Pedro Ceja was not only a marriage, but also a union of their common dream to be vineyard owners and eventually wine makers. The shift from vineyard worker to owner happened in 1983 when Pablo, Juanita, Pedro, Amelia and Ceja brother Armando bought 15 acres in the then unknown Carneros appellation of Napa Valley. Today, that dream includes an award winning line of wines, plans for their very own winery by 2010 and building their wine dream team with the help from the third generation, Pedro and Amelia's son Ariel.
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