Randy Hester is a person who’s not afraid to make a big pivot in his life. It’s something he’s done over and over again since a young age.

For example, there was the time when Randy was working as a sales rep for Glazer’s, a large wine & spirits distributor, here in Texas. It was a job he was very good at. He was moving up the company ladder and being told by some customers that he was selling more of their wines than anyone else in the state.

But Randy started to get interested in something else. Instead of selling the wine, he wanted to make it. And so at the age of 36, he left his career and nice salary behind, and he moved to Napa Valley, California, so he could learn the winemaking craft.

After almost a decade there, Randy had made it. He had worked at some of the top cellars in Napa. He was working with winemakers that are revered as some of the best on the planet. He had even launched his own wine label, Lightning, that was being received really well.

But it was here that Randy made, perhaps, the biggest and most surprising pivot of them all. He decided that he wanted to make Texas wines. So he moved to Austin and he started a new winery, naming it after his great-grandfather C.L. Butaud.

So why did he do it? And how did he do it? And was it tough to leave everything behind, just as he was securing his place inside Napa Valley’s elite club of winemakers.

Well, Randy’s going to tell us. He’ll also explain what makes Texas wine unique and why the winemaking future of this state is so bright.

To learn more about Randy and C.L. Butaud, check out their website below:

https://clbutaud.com/