Release Date: February 20, 2026
Do you currently feel stuck or are struggling in the trenches of today’s industry status? This may be the conversation you need! We’re dropping a section of our interview with Estelle Tracy which was not previously released. We will pick up the interview when Virginia asked Estelle for background on how she named her company “37 Chocolates.” From here, Estelle divulged more information on the years that led to the development of 37 Chocolates. After years of experimentation with a different blogging topic, Estelle found her interests and devotion to writing led her into a professional educator. For Denise, after a decade of using blogging as a tool to communicate to a broader audience, she learned that her persistence and interests captivated more people than she had imagined. Today’s discussion reveals how both needed creativity in their work to maintain motivation and pivot through life’s crossroads as they developed their businesses, which are still evolving today! We hope that today’s episode encourages you to lean into your interests and allow them to guide you through those stuck moments.
Links for things mentioned in this episode:
- Estelle’s position is an action item: she provides chocolate education and tastings. Her business, 37 Chocolates, is the vehicle through which interested parties can connect with her services.
- You can listen to the full interview on what she does through 37 Chocolates, here (Season 2, Episode 5: Chocolate and Wine: A Sense of People and Place) and for more information on chocolate.
- Or, listen to our chocolate and wine tasting with Estelle, here (Season 2, Episode 5: Pairing Chocolate and Wine with Estelle Tracy).
- Estelle’s business, 37 Chocolates, started with a personal challenge to taste and review 37 different, exclusive, and expensive chocolate bars that were routinely available through her local coffee shop that she frequented.
- After her challenge was complete on Halloween in 2015, Estelle started 37chocolates.com, thinking it was going to be a blog for her to continue to review chocolate. However, after the local newspaper covered a story about her in February 2016, a regional library contacted her to give a chocolate tasting to an audience. This changed the entire direction of 37 Chocolates and Estelle’s business parameters.
- Both Estelle and Denise connected over their journeys into becoming self-employed and starting educational-based businesses. As a winery or wine brand, this portion of the interview may be interesting as one works to rejuvenate a brand, develop a brand, or appeal to new audiences.
- Estelle’s journey into blogging started as a hobby, writing (in French) about food. After 10 years of blogging, Estelle was a mother-of-two and working a corporate job. At the end of those 10 years, she started to notice that she felt a pull internally that was pointing to a loss of her own creativity. She saw this loss echoed in her blog. And while many could remain “stuck” in feeling that loss, Estelle used the feeling to find a way to bring creativity back into her life. She promised herself that anything new she created, she would treat like it was a successful business to maintain momentum. In hindsight, Estelle believes this pivotal moment was her way of experimenting with blogging before developing 37 Chocolates.
- For Denise, she began blogging as a young wine industry member when she lacked an official voice or position within the wine industry. Blogging became a way to not only learn how to navigate the blogging technology, but to learn how to reach an audience. Over several years, Denise blogged about places she visited in Napa Valley and reviewed various wines she tasted as a way to develop her wine sensory skills during her early career. Not only did this further develop her sensory skills, but it gave her the knowledge on how to reach industry members when she moved into the Extension Enologist position at Penn State University.
- Here on the podcast, we have talked to another professional about her career journey and blogging. That was Jayme Henderson, co-owner of The Storm Cellar. You can listen to Jayme Henderson’s interview or review the show notes, here (Season 1, Episode 18: Cultivating Wine Cocktails with Jayme Henderson). Like Estelle and Denise discussed, Jayme’s journey and melding various interests is what has led to her success with The Storm Cellar wines, today.
- The point is not that everyone needs to blog to start a business successfully. The point is that if there is something that is interesting to you or something that is important to you, you should find ways to document that interest from day one. This practice archives a journey that may end up aligning closer to your business than you originally imagine.
- Furthermore, as you become an expert in your business, and potentially, the field of interest, documenting your learnings sharpens two skills:
- Subject matter expertise. Amongst colleagues, we put a lot of emphasis on this skill. As an educator, it is important to know more than your audience in order to accurately speak on the topic.
- Relatability and performance. You have to learn how to relate to various audiences and provide education and entertainment to the audiences that you are teaching.
- But remember: “The more you know, the less relatable you can be if you are not keeping yourself in check.” – Estelle Tracy. I think this is a problem in today’s wine industry. Some experts lack relatability and, therefore, avoid being able to make profound changes in wine expertise across the industry. In contrast, many that may feel confident sharing their experiences may lack the background and expertise, which can end up proliferating misinformation across the industry.
- In today’s evolving wine industry, many may feel “stuck” or struggling to navigate the trenches of industry changes in association with how their business can succeed. There are many different factors that may contribute to one’s individual motivations. If creativity – and the freedom to be creative – is one of those motivations, it can be a strong pivot to lean into those interests. For Estelle, blogging and learning about chocolate paved the way to her business, 37 Chocolates. For Denise, blogging and taking photographs helped her find her niche within Denise Gardner Winemaking. While success did not occur overnight for either Estelle or Denise, focusing on their interests kept snowballing into opportunities and growth.
- The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron: The go-to book and manual for someone trying to reclaim their creativity.
