Farm to Vineyard, with Courtney Kingston

In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Courtney Kingston. When we hear stories of other people’s success, their journeys often seem straightforward and obvious. Courtney shares her experience that it’s not until you have a chance to look backwards at your life that you see how all the dots connect. Courtney’s family has many roots in Chile, on their farm outside of Santiago. This multi-cultural background influences much of who Courtney is, including her role as a leader of the family vineyard.

Courtney is a co-founder of Kingston Family Vineyards in Casablanca Valley, Chile, along with her father Michael and brother Tim. A graduate of Princeton University, she started her career as a consultant for Deloitte’s wine industry practice. There she began learning the ins and outs of the California wine business. Later, as an MBA student at Stanford, she wrote the vineyard’s original business plan using the Chilean cattle ranch her family had owned and operated since 1906. After many discussions about the feasibility of converting the family farm into a vineyard, Kingston Family Vineyards became a reality in 1998.

Stanford has written two case studies on Kingston Family Vineyards, highlighting the family’s purpose-driven, growth oriented business spanning 100 years including a recent move into hospitality and tourism. Courtney and her husband Andy have three daughters, and share their time between Portola Valley, California and Chile’s Casablanca Valley.

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