Obituaries for two women who were entrepreneurs in very different fields--stories that ran next to each other in today's New York Times--struck us because of a similarity in their clear, almost stubborn, vision of what their companies would focus on.

Kathryn Kennedy, who in her 40s founded the Kathryn Kennedy Winery in Saratoga, Calif., "adopted the lesson she was taught" at the viticulture program at UC Davis, the Times wrote: "that high-caliber wines should be a 100% varietal (that is, made from a single grape variety) and that the grapes should come from a single vineyard site."

Under her leadership, the seven-acre vineyard produced only cabernet sauvignon and never more than 600 cases a year, but "the product gained renown for its full flavor, depth of color and aging potential."

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Nancy Talbot, who with her husband founded the women's clothing store Talbots, "applied her patrician good taste and enthusiasm for bright colors to merchandising well-made, affordable, preppy fashions to postwar American women," the Times wrote. "The look was classic rather than current."

In 1980, Talbot said, "We look for clothes that are timeless because they are ladylike, simple but not contrived, gimmicky, or extreme, smart but not faddy, fashionable but not funky--chic and understated, the hallmarks of good taste."