Our Story
Seven Oxen was born out of a long overdue reunion with old friends, when Adriana Neal and Rebecca Leduc met up at a restaurant in San Francisco with Rebecca’s new husband, Bastien Leduc. The couple had just moved back to California from Bastien’s family vineyard in Gaillac, France. Over the course of the evening the friends (old and new) recognized a common love of wine, respect for this beautiful planet, and desire to create something tangible and unforgettable with their hands from it’s soils. Less than a year later the 26-acre westside Paso Robles vineyard was purchased and Seven Oxen Estate Winery began.
Our TEAM
BASTIEN LEDUC
Founding Winemaker & Vigneron
Bastien is an amateur botanist, a budding beekeeper, a sometimes surfer, a Red Sox convert, and an avid photographer. When he is not chasing around his one-year-old daughter, he can usually be found in the vineyard. Bastien grew up helping his father on the family’s organic vineyard in the southwest of France, where he became an advocate of agroecology. He holds a degree in viticulture and oenology as well as in organic agricultural consulting. His wanderlust led him to work in a wide range of viticultural regions—in Gaillac, the Loire Valley, Bandol, Cognac, and Bordeaux in France and in the Upper Hunter Valley, the Clare Valley, and the Mornington Peninsula in Australia. From 2007 to 2009, he served as winemaker and vineyard manager for Château Beau Rivage in the Haut-Médoc. He moved to California in 2010 to work as the Vineyard Manager for Domaine de la Terre Rouge in the Sierra Foothills before joining the Seven Oxen Estate Wines team as Vineyard Manager and Winemaker.
Adriana Neal
Founder, General Manager
Adriana is an outdoor enthusiast, a Michigan Wolverine and a traveler who loves visiting friends and new places. No matter where she travels, she always returns home with a deeper appreciation of the beautiful Central California landscape. Adriana learned about environmental responsibility and organic living from her mom and about wine from her dad. She has always been interested in design and stewardship of space and resources. In 2007 she moved from the Bay Area to the Central Coast, where she received a masters in City and Regional Planning at Cal Poly, with a focus on graphics and visual communication. She has been general manager of Seven Oxen Estate Wines since 2013.
NANCY GONZALEZ
Director of Sales and Hospitality
Nancy is a food, wine and animal lover. She spends her free time exploring new cuisines, expanding her wine knowledge attending oenology and viticulture courses, as well as hanging out with her furry children. Throughout her life, she has been exposed to cultural culinary experiences which have opened the doors to furthering her desire to learn and try new things. She attended San Jose State University where she earned a degree in Sociology. For many years she worked in numerous non-profit organizations, but her love for food and wine always pulled her towards the hospitality industry. Her interest in wine grew while working at a farm to table restaurant, where she gained extensive wine knowledge during staff trainings. This led her to pursue a career in the wine industry. She moved to Paso Robles in early 2017 with hopes of submerging herself in the vast wine industry in the Central Coast. After serving as Wine Director at Thomas Hill Organics for almost 2 years, Nancy joined Seven Oxen’s team in May 2018.