Gene Kirkham
Casa Nuestra Winery and Vineyards founder, partner
St Helena, California
I am an amateur at English letters. As they say, "once and English major, always an English major." Throughout my college years (Harvard, AB, '67) I concentrated in English; and I was taught by some of the towering figures in the field, eg Walter Jackson Bate, Douglas Bush, David Perkins. Up until a few weeks before graduation, I intended to enroll in the PhD program at either Stanford or Berkeley, where I had been offered placement. At the eleventh hour, I decided to go to law school instead (UC Berkeley, Boalt Hall, JD, '1970). This choice lead me into some unexpected meanderings, and eventually lead me to create Casa Nuestra Winery and Vineyards in St. Helena, Napa Valley, in 1979. There I have been ever since - sometimes wondering where life would have taken me if I had stayed on the academic path. Speculation aside, I have never lost my love of English letters. My concentration has shifted from Romantic poetry, to 19th-early 20eth century novels. Dickens is my favorite author; and although I am rather proud of my reading, I had never read Barnaby before enrolling in Dickens Universe. I am looking forward to being among English scholars once again.
casanuestra.com
