#199: Franklin Vines: Legacy, Land & the Vine

Stephanie Franklin didn't set out to become a farmer. She set out to find her purpose and the vines answered. In this conversation, the founder of Franklin Vines takes us from corporate America to a Napa conference where she coined the phrase that changed everything — Louisiana made me, Texas raised me, the vines saved me — to the ancestral land in Shankleville, Texas, where her third great grandparents Jim and Winnie Shankle became some of the first African Americans to purchase land after emancipation. Stephanie is now preparing to plant a vineyard on that same soil. She talks about what it takes to build a vineyard from the ground up with no master plan, the science behind growing grapes in deep East Texas, the myths around wine she wants to dismantle, and a vision that goes far beyond the bottle — tasting rooms, educational hubs, women's empowerment spaces, and possibly the first food and wine festival in Shankleville, Texas. This is a love story between a woman and her land.