The Bogle Story ~ Family, Farm, Wine

From pioneers who settled in the Sacramento River Delta in the late 1870’s, to becoming one of the largest family-owned and operated wineries in the United States today, this episode reveals the history of Bogle Family Wine Collection.  Listen and learn about the journey of the Bogle family, and how today, the 6th generation siblings of Jody, Warren and Ryan Bogle remains firmly rooted in the family business.   

To learn more about Bogle Family Wine Collection visit boglewinery.com.

Transcript

It's one thing to be in, in the Wine Spectator or the Wine Enthusiast or to be in an industry magazine, but when the Wall Street Journal puts you in their newspaper that millions of people get every day as a wine to look for, It makes a huge impact.

Welcome to the Bogle story. I'm Jody Bogle, and I'm so happy to be sipping here with you today. Today we're gonna talk about Bogle family history. There is nothing more important to the Bogle Family wine collection than family. It's at the heart of who we are at the heart of our company. Bogle Family Wine Collection continues to be family owned and operated, particularly by my brothers Warren Bogle, Ryan Bogle, and myself.

We are the sixth generation farmers and third generation wine growers. And each of [00:01:00] us works in the day to day operation of the business, but all in very different roles. Warren is the president and vineyard director. He manages all of our 2400 acres of estate vines. Ryan is the vice president and CFO.

And he works with our accounting departments and I am the vice president of consumer relations, which means I do a little bit of everything. I manage our DTC programs, including our wine club, our hospitality, and I handle international sales. So you're going to be hearing more from Warren and Ryan in future episodes.

But today we're going to talk about the journey of our family business and how we got here. How did we get here? Well, it goes way back to the 1870s. Captain A. J. Bogle came west from Tennessee. He was a member of a large family, and several were looking for new opportunities out west. A. [00:02:00] J. loaded up the wagon and his nephew Samuel in search of those new opportunities.

And he found them just south of Clarksburg in the Sacramento River Delta. Why the Sacramento River Delta? Well, during those years, we're just following the gold rush. People from around the world were coming to California to seek their fortunes in this rich agricultural region. It was considered the breadbasket for the growing metropolises of San Francisco and Sacramento, which both were the jumping points for people who were coming in from around the world to go up to the foothills and find their, find their fortune.

What was the area like at that time and what is it like today? Well, where AJ and Samuel settled was right in the heart of this rich agricultural region. Runoff from the Coast Range and the Sierra Nevada mountains for thousands of years has created rich soils. And when the [00:03:00] rivers were channeled and the levees built during this time, settlers had Today, these hand built levees still stand, and if you've been out to Clarksburg, you've driven them precariously out to the winery.

So, there's actually a thousand miles of waterways that make up the Sacramento River Delta. Between Sacramento to the north, it's and San Francisco to the southwest and in fact the Sacramento River runs right through many of our properties and right alongside the winery as it goes out under the, heading out to the Pacific Ocean under the Golden Gate Bridge.

AJ and Samuel came out as generation one and generation two and they farmed peaches, pears, and cherries all for those growing regions of San Francisco and Sacramento. We have pictures of all the produce being sent downriver to feed all those folks. Two of them married into local families and increased land holdings little by little over the [00:04:00] years.

It was Samuel's son, Vernon. our third generation, who actually lost those land holdings during the Great Depression. There wasn't enough revenue to sustain the growing family during that time, and this was not uncommon. This is very, very common happening with families in the region who were displaced during those years.

Vernon actually had to move his family north a few miles, closer to Clarksburg, where they became tenant farmers for the Our grandfather, Warren Bogle, was about 11 or 12 at the time. I can't imagine how, how much of an impression that made on him as a kid that age, right? To have lost the land your family farmed, the dirt he played in, the house he most certainly was born in.

Several years ago, I heard a story from a local school teacher who was in my [00:05:00] grandfather Warren's class. And she said, she remembered to me, You know, Warren came to school every day with his overalls clean and pressed. But he didn't have any shoes. And I just thought to myself, I can't imagine what that must have been like during that difficult time.

Warren, however, was able to go to California Agricultural College for two years, which is now UC Davis. And then he joined the Navy and he fought in the Pacific Arena during World War II. And during that time, he saved enough money so that when he got back in the late 40s, he was able to put roots down again by purchasing property in Clarksburg on Merritt Island on our home ranch.

And this home ranch is still today the heart of Clarksburg. of Bogle Family Wine Collection. Over the years, Warren added to his land holdings, but he was a row crop farmer. Lots of crops like corn, [00:06:00] sugar beets, wheat, and safflower. He was actually an award winning corn farmer for DeKalb. He used to ship field corn back to the Midwest.

But, This is where the story gets great, right? In 1968, he decided he wanted to try a different crop, something he didn't have to replant every year. And so he planted potatoes. And they all immediately died. And so he had somebody come out and take a look. And the gentleman said, Mr. Bogle, I'm sorry, I don't know what happened to your potatoes.

But this is beautiful country for wine grapes. And so there it was. He started with just 10 acres of Petite Syrah, cuttings he got from Jim Conkownen down in the Livermore area, and 10 acres of Chenin Blanc, cuttings he got from a gentleman named Skinny Nassau in Lodi. And we know there's probably a story there.

If I could go back and ask my grandfather, that would be one of the first things I'd ask him. Who was Skinny and why did he have [00:07:00] Chenin Blanc? But the Chenin Blanc and the Petit Syrah thrived in our property, on our, in our lands, in our soil. And so from 1968 to 1978, we grew wine grapes, adding a few more every year.

We grew wine grapes for other wineries like Wente, Charles Krug, Sebastiani. And then in 1978, we decided to put it in the bottle under our own winery. So the next generation, the fifth generation, our dad, Chris Bogle, was in high school when our grandfather Warren planted those first vines and, and worked alongside him in the fields to do so.

Our dad traveled out of state to Oregon to go to college, where in, during his freshman year, he met Portland native, And the two were inseparable from that point on. In fact, dad convinced our mom to come down in the summers and he put her to work in the fields, planting a lot of new [00:08:00] grapevines. We have some great pictures of them on the back of tractors, planting vines.

They married spring break of their senior year, and as soon as they received their diplomas, they had the car packed, and they were headed south to start their new life in Clarksburg. So Chris farmed alongside Warren. And land holdings continued to grow year over year. However, our grandfather Warren always wanted to hang on to quite a percentage of row crops.

I have to believe that most likely was from his background of living during the Depression. He wanted to stay diversified. And that was really important to him to have a multitude of different crops we were farming. In 1989, our grandfather Warren passed away. And our dad decided It was time to, quote, fish or cut bait.

And over the next several years, all of our acreage, which was about 500 acres at that time, was planted to wine grapes. Our mom, Patty, who had been raising four kids and doing the books at night, she jumped in with both feet [00:09:00] and worked alongside our dad who took over all the ag operations and our mom managed the fledgling winery.

This is where my story and the story of my brothers starts. We grew up in a house with our parents working hard day in and day out for the business they were building. Our dad worked six and a half days a week, taking only Sunday afternoon off so he could. Watch the Raiders game. The offices were in our home and our mom worked late into the night running numbers and bouncing the books.

Both of them were very active in our local community and as other farmers were planting wine grapes and others were bottling wines in the area, they were really involved in supporting the growing wine region of Clarksburg. Watching our parents devote themselves to the business while still coaching our sports teams and driving us to practices and games and rehearsals made an impression on all of us.

We grew up running around the ranches, riding [00:10:00] our bikes, building forts, riding tractors, of course. Growing up in Clarksburg in that kind of family environment, it was truly a really wonderful and idyllic childhood. In 1997, our father passed away pretty unexpectedly from a heart condition. Our mom, Patty, took on the business in earnest.

We know she had suitors, large wine companies, who saw our growing winery as an opportunity. But she had no interest in selling. Warren was finishing his ag business degree at Chico, and he returned to take over our dad's ag duties on the ag side of the business. And I was teaching English in Oregon, and it was a very easy decision to come back and circle the wagons and start working with Mom and Warren to carry on the business.

We worked alongside a team that she and our dad had put together in the previous years. You [00:11:00] will hear from both Chris Smith, who's been with us for 34 years, and Eric Offit, who's been with us for 30, in these podcast episodes as well. So it was just a few years later when something truly amazing happened.

The Wall Street Journal Dow Jones Wine Index, written by Dorothy Gator and John Brusher, mentioned our Merlot and our Chardonnay as wines under 10 to look for for two or three consecutive years. It's one thing to be in the Wine Spectator or the Wine Enthusiast or to be in an industry magazine, but when the Wall Street Journal puts you in their newspaper that millions of people get every day as a wine to look for, it makes a huge impact.

People were coming into the tasting room with their wine. the paper under their arms saying I want to try this wine. That was such a huge pivotal moment for the business. And what did this do to the [00:12:00] business? It took off like a shot. From 2000 to 2015, we appreciated double digit growth every year. Our goal during this time continued to be managing the demand and growing without sacrificing quality.

In just a few short years, we had outgrown our little winery at the Home Ranch and were outsourcing much of our winemaking. From crushing grapes in Lodi and Monterey, cellaring wines at Winnie Brothers in Livermore, and bottling at Sonoma Wine Company. At one point, we were making wine in six or seven different wineries.

different locations around the state with our team overseeing all those operations. Of course, that little Prius got a lot of mileage. Our mom's direction during this time cannot be understated. She led the company. She drove with her passion and her devotion to building the business in the marketplace.

But she knew that the way we were making our wines in so many different locations wasn't sustainable. And so we decided to build a [00:13:00] winery in Clarksburg that would house all of our production in one place. In a future episode, Ryan's going to talk about the winery and our state of the art facility, its construction, and what sets it apart from others in the industry.

Sadly, Patty had to step away from the business in 2007 due to her health and passed away after a four year fight with leukemia. She did not get to see the winery completed, but she was involved in the early planning and design and was so excited about what this winery would mean for the future of Bogle.

Ryan came back into the fold, taking on many of Patty's accounting duties, and was there at the completion of construction of the new winery alongside Warren and myself. And that brings us to today. Warren, Ryan, and myself, as sixth generation farmers and third generation winemakers. Not only has the landscape of wine changed dramatically in Clarksburg after all these years, but the industry itself is much different in [00:14:00] 2024.

Our company is different, no longer just Bogle Vineyards, but Bogle Family Wine Collection, a company with a stable of brands at multiple price points targeting various demographics. But what hasn't changed? Our family's commitment to quality. To sustainability and to producing wines that over deliver with every single bottle at every single price point.

You know, we get asked all the time, how do you work together with your siblings? With all three of us working in our own niche within the company, we all have our own perspective about things. We disagree very seldom, believe it or not. And when we do, we have meaningful and thoughtful discussions in order to work through the issues.

And then, of course, there are three of us, so there's always a tiebreaker if need be. But at the end of the day, we have the same goal and the same vision for the company. And what is that vision? We didn't start this business. Our job [00:15:00] is pretty simple. To keep the company strong, evolving, and relevant in the industry, so that someday, if any of them chooses, the seventh generation.

Can come in, get involved and carry it on as well. That's what we're looking for.