Wisdom From The Women Leading the Wine & Spirits Industries, with Anna Zesbaugh

An interview with Kelly Reeves

Resilience — It would be a heck of a lot easier to give up and go back to a corporate job, but my passion and focus keep me going. I believe so much in our product and team which keeps me pushing forward every day.

Less than 20% of winemakers and distillers are women. Traditionally, women were excluded from these industries. This number is slowly rising as more women choose to study this profession and enter the wine and spirits fields. What is it like for those women who work in this male-dominated industry? What are some of the challenges that these women face? Is there hope for better representation, and better wages, for women in the wine and spirits industry? As a part of our series about women leading the wine and spirits industries, we had the pleasure of interviewing Anna Zesbaugh.

Originally from Minnesota, Anna Zesbaugh ventured out to Colorado in 2014 to study Hospitality Management at the University of Denver. She had been working in corporate events for two years after graduation when the pandemic hit — events were quickly untenable, and of course her job…