One Family.

As one of the first women CEO’s of an American corporation, Janet Trefethen could not have picked a worse industry to get started in. “I got laughed out of so many offices,” she remembers with a rueful smile. “When you called on an account in the early 1970’s, trying to sell California wine, that was usually enough. But when they learned that the woman in front of them was not only a salesperson but the Chief Executive Officer of the company, they generally went into hysterics.” Janet took it all in stride, though. She had learned to shrug off life’s little indignities a long time ago.

Janet Trefethen grew up Janet Spooner, the third of four daughters on a rice farm in Northern California. And though Chester Spooner had wanted a son, he never complained. “He never complained about anything,” Janet says. “He and my mom both had the greatest sense of humor and always found the bright side of any situation.” With no sons to mentor, Chet simply turned to his daughters, teaching them all to farm, camp, shoot, and ride. The last was Janet’s favorite, having inherited her father’s love for animals, but it turned out to be a bit of a sticking point between them.

“Horses are expensive – really expensive – and dad was always tight with his money.” She laughs. “If you ever wanted anything that cost money, suddenly his beautiful gift for spotting the silver lining became really frustrating. I remember needing a new brush to groom my horse, and dad wanted to know what was wrong with the old one. Half the bristles were missing, and the rest were splayed out like an old toothbrush, but dad didn’t see it as worn out, he saw it as broken in. Mom and I had to work on him for a week to get a new one. A week! Just for a brush! You can imagine what we had to go through to get the horse in the first place. I’ve never worked harder for anything in my life!”

Her sisters proved to be a bit bothersome at times, as well. “Little girls can be so mean,” she remembers. “We teased each other mercilessly. Of course,” she smiles, “whereas I saw my own actions as completely justified, my sisters were motivated by pure evil. But we were all punished! It was so unfair!”

So while her parents taught her to work hard for what she wanted and to be thankful for what she had, Janet’s sisters made it clear that justice depended on the judge, and the judge didn’t always agree with you. Meanwhile, her horses were instructing her, too. “Every cowpoke falls off,” she says. “I don’t care how talented you are, or how much experience you have, eventually there will be a horse that will throw you. And it probably won’t be the last time, either. No good cowboy let’s that bother him, though. He just dusts off his jeans and climbs back on. ‘Cowboy up,’ we say.”

Paired with a bright, outgoing personality, these childhood lessons proved to be a winning combination. California wine, female CEO, it did not matter. Eventually, no matter what the preconceptions, most people ended up buying a few cases of Trefethen wine. Then, in 1979, Trefethen Chardonnay was proclaimed “Best Chardonnay in the World” at the World Wine Olympics in Paris, and Janet’s marketing efforts got quite a boost. Suddenly, everyone wanted to talk to her. She found herself overselling the wine. “It was such a change,” she remembers. “Before, I had to push, push, push to get anything, and now I had to rein myself in, tell people that they couldn’t have all they wanted. After those first few years, it was a very unique experience.”

Today, Janet continues to build the Trefethen name, attending every in-house tasting and keeping production on their toes with her sensitive palate. “She is our biggest critic and has one hell of a keen nose,” says John Trefethen, smiling. “HaLo was really her creation. Her love for Loren and Hailey pushed us all to make the best wine we could, a sublime expression of the vineyard our children grew up in.”

Her personal touch graces HaLo, as well as every other bottle of wine Trefethen has ever made, as she has been the chief designer of every single Trefethen label. She is still an obsessive workaholic, usually working later than anyone else, corresponding with key members of the wine industry and making sure that Trefethen continues to be regarded as a brand of great character and ultimate quality.

Somehow, she still finds time to cook her family dinner almost every night and get her cutting horses exercised. In 2005, aboard her mount Wholly Cats, she earned the highest score during a go-round at the NCHA Futurity in Fort Worth, and was presented with a one-of-a-kind belt buckle from the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. She wears it proudly whenever she rides, a reminder of her top-five finish in world rankings that year, ahead of many professional riders. “I still fall off occasionally,” she admits. “And not only my horses. But then I just feel that buckle, and I’m reminded that anything is possible. It’s makes it pretty easy to cowgirl up.”