Whitney Hartwell ~ Bogle Family Vineyards, Phantom & Twenty Acres

Jody Bogle chats with Whitney Hartwell, Brand Manager at Bogle Family Wine Collection.  Whitney shares the history and evolution of what she calls the Family Brands: those that are connected to the Bogle Family history:  Bogle Family Vineyards, Phantom Wines, and Twenty Acres by Bogle.   With unique origins, personalities and promotional opportunities, each brand’s authenticity speaks for itself within the Bogle portfolio and in the market as well. 

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

Transcript

00:00 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
We have a lot of resources where you know this kind of plays into a little bit what the Phantom brand is doing now, but really an embracing of film as a medium to kind of spread the brand story and also connect with consumers. So you check out the website on the history page there's the legend, A ton of videos there that are quite entertaining and yeah, just really really fun looks at how that brand kind of comes to life. 

00:32 - Jody Bogle (Host)
Welcome to the Bogle story. I'm Jodi Bogle and I'm so happy to be sipping here with you today. Whitney Hartwell, brand manager in our marketing department, welcome, thank you for having me. How did you get? 

00:44 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
started at Bogle. Well, it's a long story Now. I joined the team back in 2018 and I came actually from an agency background. So prior to working at Bogle, I'd never worked in-house at a brand and worked with a lot of different types of companies, from private label brands for different retailers to big brands that are household names like Blue Diamond Almonds and Pop Secret and different fun things like that. So I really got to see kind of the gamut of marketing and in an account manager role, you kind of become a jack of all trades, which is really great when you get in-house, and especially in a kind of a scrappy environment like we are. 

01:18 - Jody Bogle (Host)
I was going to say that was good training for Bogle, where you are a jack of all, exactly exactly. Well, so, as most people know, just a decade ago we were Bogle Vineyards. We had, you know, eight SKUs, one brand, pretty high and tight, but today, over the last decade, we've transitioned to be Bogle Family Wine Collection, with a stable of brands, including three that are under your responsibility Bogle Family Vineyards, 20 Acres and Phantom Wines. 

01:47 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Yeah, and I call those, you know, when I talk to people, the Bogle Family brands, because they all say Bogle on the label. So that's kind of a distinction from some of the other brands that we're developing. But it's a really awesome, you know, stable of brands to work on because there is such a rich history, your history, which we'll talk more about, but just everything about working on this brand is, I would say, amazing and that's why I've stayed here for the six years that I've been here, because we, you know, we have fun working on these brands. We're in the wine category. I mean, that's fun. 

02:16 - Jody Bogle (Host)
No, matter what we're not selling paperclips. 

02:18 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Exactly, and we have a product that I'll probably say about five times as we talk here that you can really believe in, because the quality is there, the commitment to the team that we work with is there, and so that comes through from every touch point down to the consumer, and so really proud to work on these brands, thank you. 

02:35 - Jody Bogle (Host)
Well, I guess we start with Bogle Family Vineyards and make sure you listen to the family story episode. So we're not going to go all the way back to the beginning and how we got started, but the brand itself, the first. When we first started putting wine in the bottle under Bogle Vineyards it was the late 70s, yeah, and it mostly came about because we lost a contract from another winery and our father, I think, really felt that it would. You know, they felt it would be kind of a hobby. Well, let's just make a little bit and let's see what happens. I think that they still truly felt that the agricultural side of our business was going to, you know, still be. You know what the family business was. 

03:21
And so, all these years later, who could have imagined that the winery would be where we are today? 

03:27
I know my father and my grandfather could never have imagined where we are today Bogle Family Vineyards, 2.5 million cases across the country, available nationwide at all most major retailers, and if you've got a retailer it's not near you then you know it should be. So just to kind of start talk a little bit about when Bogle really first started taking off. The brand was growing year over year over year. But in 1998, we earned notice in the Wall Street Journal. Dorothy Gator and John Bresher were writing an article every year called the Dow Jones Chardonnay and the Dow Jones Merlot Index and for three years our Chardonnay and our Merlot were on the top of that list and that was really really the start of the trajectory for Bogle growing. Because when you're in the Wine Enthusiast or the Wine Spectator, the industry is reading that magazine, wine enthusiasts are reading that magazine, but when it's in the Wall Street Journal with that kind of publication reach, it really had a huge impact on the brand. 

04:34 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Yeah, and I would say that just in my experience of working in wine and I think the first thing I noticed was just how important word of mouth is, so that having that endorsement from the Wall Street Journal is huge. And then I think you can see back to the history of the brand. Historically, there wasn't a lot of marketing happening. 

04:51
It really was word of mouth of the sales team of the Bogle family. I mean, you were telling me the other day about how your mom would go, you know, after the day of work, go and do tastings and be out there pouring the wine herself. So spreading that word and being so involved in it definitely, I'm sure, has contributed to the growth and also having great partners to help build the brand. 

05:12 - Jody Bogle (Host)
So in terms of brand personality and kind of those unique selling points for Bogle share, kind of what marketing wants everybody to know, yeah, well, I mean, it's really interesting because I'm here, I'm talking to you about a brand that is based on your family. 

05:27 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
So I mean, I think it kind of comes through when people meet you and other people and we try to kind of bring that feeling of being approachable but committed to quality, committed to, you know, the environment. All of these things are so part of our ethos and how we operate that it comes through through the marketing and that's what our hope is. So we've been leaning into a lot of, you know, kind of down to basics. We're about the family, we're about the farm, we're about wine. 

05:53 - Jody Bogle (Host)
And sustainability being one of those touch points as well. 

05:56 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Exactly, Sustainability and quality, exactly. So you know that all kind of comes through together there and I think you know I will say approachable a ton. But we also want to elevate the experience for the wine consumer at this like $8 to $12 level. If you look at, you know, the competitor brands that are out there. It's you know there's not a lot with the history that we have and the commitments that we have to producing wines that are varietally correct, vintage after vintage, you know, in a way that's good for the environment and will ultimately taste good in the glass. 

06:26 - Jody Bogle (Host)
I think our that point of difference for our wine on the shelf versus the other wine down there right in the same shelf is that authenticity. I mean, you're absolutely right, we have a story, we have this history, and so it's really important to to focus on that and and and share it with people. 

06:44 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Well and exactly and the authenticity I mean I can talk about just my experience in starting at the winery in the first year, working out at the tasting room, which was even just driving out to the interview, I was like OK, how do I, how do I do this every day? 

06:56
This is a beautiful drive and then getting out there and you know, noticing Warren on the tractor a lot of mornings, you know, as I drove by, and then seeing you at the tasting room and knowing that you all, as the family, were so involved in the day-to-day operation, you know, and making sure that this legacy was coming across as you want to build it. 

07:15 - Jody Bogle (Host)
I think that you know there's. We've heard right from folks out in the marketplace that Bogle is kind of a mature brand, saturated, right it's out there. 

07:26 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
I think there's really all upside. At this point. There is so much room to grow for our brands and you know a lot of that is from where we started off and where the wine category is going. So we are. If you look at certain varietals, our distribution is the highest in. You know any of the other competitors in that category. If you look at Petit Seurat, we're 80% of the entire Petit Seurat category at any price level. But these aren't necessarily the varietals that are growing at the pace that other varietals in the market are. So you know, obviously Cab and Chard are king, right. 

07:58
King and queen yeah king and queen and we've held strong positions in those areas for a long time, which is really amazing, when we were the number one cab in the H-12 dollar category and we have an amazing history of accolades to back up why people buy this over and over. But we have other wines that aren't as strong of distribution. So if you look at you know kind of the country, there may be Merlot and Old Vines Inn in most accounts that sell those wines, but we don't have our Pinot Grigio, we don't have our Sauvignon Blanc, which was a top 100 best buy. We don't have our Pinot Noir, which is another top 100 best buy. So there's building those. 

08:36 - Jody Bogle (Host)
There's a lot of opportunity still there. There's a lot of opportunity. Exactly, there's a lot of places. So, for those who believe that you know they don't need to push the Bogle brand or it isn't where we'll find a lot of growth, there is still opportunity out there. 

08:49 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Absolutely, and we've seen them in. We all see the headlines, if you're in this industry that consumers are moving up and premiumizing what they're buying. They're drinking less. They're, you know, drinking RTDs. There's so many places where people can move out of this category. But even throughout all of these trends, we've seen Bogle's share grow. 

09:11 - Jody Bogle (Host)
Still within this category. That is falling Exactly. Bogle's share is growing. 

09:14 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
And we consistently outperform the category. I was looking back at Nielsen's, you know, recently and it's generally like we're doing 5% to 10% better than where the category is on each of our SKUs. 

09:24 - Jody Bogle (Host)
So I think that's so. It just seems like a no-brainer to you know, continue to push, continue to find those holes and continue to find where the opportunity lies, because it is out there. 

09:33 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Yeah, for all your you know accounts that have Cabin Jard and Merlot. If they don't have Sauv Blanc, you know, go out there, talk about Sauv Blanc. It's a delicious wine and that's what consumers are buying right now, so we want to be in the consideration set there, got it. 

09:47 - Jody Bogle (Host)
Yeah, All right. So let's talk, let's transition to kind of where we were growing in 2020 with our next wine brand 20 Acres. 

09:57 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
So interesting time, I think many people would say, to launch a on-premise only focus brand. But it was really an area kind of of the business that we see opportunity to grow. 

10:06 - Jody Bogle (Host)
I can't tell you, whitney, how many times I've been working in the market with a rep and I'm at a, I'm calling on a restaurant and I'm pouring our traditional line of wines. I have heard this a hundred times. I love Bogle, I drink this at home, but I can't put it on my restaurant list because it's at three grocery stores down the street. And so 20 Acres was our answer to the call to action that we want a wine at the same price point. We want a wine that has Bogle on the label, a wine that has Bogle, quality and sustainability as its values, but that isn't available at your local retailer. 

10:44 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
And designed exactly for the on-premise market. You know, you have the Cab which is blended with about 15% of the Petit Syrah, so you know, a nod to the original 20 acres that were planted. And then the Chardonnay with the Chenin Blanc, which both of these additions really kind of build on the food-friendly nature of these wines. 

11:01 - Jody Bogle (Host)
And that was actually Eric who decided that. You know who came up and said, hey, we should do this. You know 20 acres. Warren Bogle planted those first 20 acres in 1968, you know the 10 acres of Petit and the 10 acres of Chenin Blanc, and let's blend a little of each into each wine. Not only is it going to make a great wine more nuanced they're great. You know, the Petit and the Chenin Blanc both add so much when you're pairing wine with food, but also is that that nod to our heritage? 

11:48 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
no-transcript. I've heard Eric say we're banking better wine than we were, you know, 25 years ago, being even at this scale, which is so cool. So 20 Acres is another example of that, of being able to make something special for the on-premise market that carries that quality and promise to over-deliver. 

12:09 - Jody Bogle (Host)
I think we've all heard, we're all very aware of what our on-premise numbers are, and I think we all know that this is it's a huge point of focus for us, especially as we continue to develop our relationships with our distributor network out there and working with them to really make these placements and build this brand Absolutely. 

12:31 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
I also wanted to add on 20 Acres. You know the brand voice and kind of the way the brand presents itself to the consumer is very similar to Bogle, but we do lean in on the and emphasize our heritage within farming. You know six generations of farming and so you can even see that in the label itself, where Warren loves this label because it has him featured as the child who's being taught you know how to drive a tractor on the label the picture we have of dad teaching Warren how to drive the International. 

13:00 - Jody Bogle (Host)
Yeah, exactly, yeah. 

13:01 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
So it's just an iconic label. You know it gives you a great story. You can immediately go into that and talk about the family history, the history and farming, the. You know the values that are passed along through. That, I think, is just a great story. And again, you know we have the label itself which is, you know, beautiful. We've got the back label which has the key to different kind of flavor notes and you know aspects of the wine that is really helpful to servers. 

13:26 - Jody Bogle (Host)
It's a great at a glance for someone who, even if they don't, if a server doesn't know a lot about wine, all they have to do is glance at it and it tells them is it dry, is it sweet, Is it? You know where does it fall? It gives them, just at a glance, a few little talking points to share with the, with the consumer, to hopefully make that sale and make that an easy option for people to say yes, I'll have a glass of that, or the wines are delicious, then they'll have another one and screw cap too. 

13:52 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Screw cap exactly. Servers love this wine. 

13:55 - Jody Bogle (Host)
All right. Now, whitney, we're going to go from the family to the paranormal phantom wines. 

14:03 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
It's something you would obviously think of as the next progression for Vogel Family Vineyards, but another brand with a great history. 

14:09 - Jody Bogle (Host)
Phantom was actually the second wine brand that we created. The very first Phantom was created back in 1999. The story behind that I remember sitting at a table with our mom and Warren and Chris Smith and Eric and the team and we wanted to create kind of a reserve selection wine that was available out in the marketplace and we thought that pairing kind of the spicy Zitnvendel with the rich Petit Syrah would be a really, really wonderful combination. And so we played around with, you know, we had bottles of different lots from different vineyards and that first year we made a couple hundred cases and it went to the wine club. But we all talked about what are we going to call it? And it was our mom, patty, who said well, you know, bogle's actually the Scottish word for ghost, so why don't we call it phantom? Now the history behind the phantom the Scottish. 

15:09
There's quite a bit of Scottish lore and I think many people might already know this, but our family originally came to the US from Scotland and from a region near Glasgow, and the legend has it that there was a small town called Kilmacombe and it was a dry village. 

15:26
There was no alcohol, so the men who wanted to get their drink had to walk down the hill along the River Clyde and to the port of Glasgow. 

15:35
It was pretty rough, right, I think, in those days, and I think it's probably pretty rough today too and it was said that the men that didn't make it back were taken by the Bogle Bogle Stone. There was a stone along the river and those that didn't make it back were taken. So now that's obviously a very, you know, paranormal, creepy story, but the lore continued and there are people who, who work at the winery, who have seen things they can't explain, who have heard things when they're working late at night, and we have some employees who won't work at night alone any longer. So now, when you think about it, you know I like to think of it as you know the kind of spirits of mom and dad and grandpa, making sure you know watching over us, making sure we're, you know, doing everything correct. But the history of the Phantom and the lore of the Phantom is what makes it such a fun and exciting brand it really is. 

16:34 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
I mean, if you talk to different people who've worked with the winery for a long time, you know there's believers, there's non-believers, but everybody has an opinion, which is pretty great and yeah, I think there's just so much story there. We have a lot of resources where you know, this kind of plays into a little bit what the Phantom brand is doing now, but really an embracing of film as a medium to kind of spread the brand story and also connect with consumers. So if you check out the website on the history page, there's or the legend with consumers. 

17:03 - Jody Bogle (Host)
So if you check out the website on the history page, there's or the legend, excuse me, a ton of videos there that are quite entertaining and, yeah, just really really fun looks at how that brand kind of comes to life Well, and in its early years it was really kind of a cult brand because we would lease it in August to hit shelves in October, right around Halloween, and then it was sold out by January. It was always we always made less of it than our other wines. By nature of how the Phantom Red was made, eric was culling the best lots of Petit Syrah to blend with the best lots of Zinfandel, aging it for an additional year, so for a total of 24 months in American oak, and so it really was, by virtue of how it was made, the best wine in our portfolio and it had this real kind of cult following. You know, people grabbed it because they knew it was going to be gone. 

17:54 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Yeah, now, since, you know, beginning here at Bogle, that's one of the things I've noticed is people. You know, oh, I work on the brand Phantom and oh my gosh, I love Phantom. You know, I had that at my wedding and it was like a real special thing to them, you know. 

18:09
but I think it's a great brand and the quality there, I think, is what keeps bringing people back to it year after year. You know, now it's available year round, which is a little bit different than when it first started, but the most current vintage of Phantom Red just got a 91 points from the wine enthusiast. 

18:21 - Jody Bogle (Host)
Our Chardonnay is made very much the same way, in that Eric is taking the best slots of Clarksburg Chardonnay. It cannot be emphasized enough that the appellation on Phantom is Clarksburg. Clarksburg grows beautiful Chardonnay, and so Eric is taking those absolutely highest quality vineyards and producing a wine that is hand stirred twice a month, yeah, twice monthly batonage. Extra additional oak aging in French oak, yeah, yeah. 

18:50 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
And you get that really creamy mouthfeel. Just the amazing. Like you said, that Clarksburg Chardonnay with the green apple and pear flavor notes there, and then you know just the effect of the oak on the wine in general is just amazing. So we have both of those skews out there. I mean, phantom red is a fairly big skew in the category. So if you look at you know 15 to 20 red blends, phantom is number three. 

19:14
Chardonnay still has a lot of room to grow there but it's you know. On both of those our sales per point of distribution are really strong and so that, you know, is a measure of the sales, if you put it in kind of this. You know account universe and I was looking at Phantom this morning and you know we're the number three SKU, we're number two in sales per point of distribution, but our distribution is considerably lower than the you know the number one and two wines there. So there's just so much room for upside and we've just gone through a brand refresh where we moved from the silk screen to paper labels and the new paper labels really are stunning. 

19:54 - Jody Bogle (Host)
They are so much brighter on shelf they really grab your attention. So it's been a really nice kudos to marketing for that change. Thank you. 

20:03 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
I wish I could take full credit for it, but no, I think you and your brothers were very involved in the process and we kind of all went on a journey together and trying to figure out what was the best step forward for Phantom, and through consumer research. I think we're pretty confident that now that that's out, there is, you know, as long as we can get it on shelf and in front of people, that they will continue to try it and buy it. 

20:22 - Jody Bogle (Host)
So when they're. Also, I think that these are also fantastic wines for the on premise market as well. Yeah because they do have slightly slower distribution you know those ACV than the traditional line, and it is a premium wine. So I mean you're looking at wines that really do but still are at the price point that fit a good by the glass pour Absolutely. And the Chardonnay Screw Cab as well. 

20:45 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Exactly, we just made that move this last year as well. Yeah, and Phantom, you know, as a brand we already talked about. It's just kind of a different vibe than Bogle in general, but that's been really amazing and kind of allowing us to test some new things, try to reach some new consumers. I mean, when I first started, you know and this is a project that's at this point, you know, not active but I saw the desire to innovate and through the Phantom brand and that was really exciting. We did an AR app. We've done, you know, a bunch of different fun things. 

21:14 - Jody Bogle (Host)
We tried lots of different things. We tried a lot of things. 

21:16 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Yeah, and just really kind of open to trying new things, and so recently we've been leaning in, like I said, on the film aspect of things. So 2020, we launched our ghost story writing contest, which is just a super fun thing for us in marketing to facilitate every year. 

21:33 - Jody Bogle (Host)
As an English major, I have to say I truly do enjoy reading, reading all the stories. Well, if you'd, like more. 

21:38 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
We get up to 250 entries every year. The top 10 are fine. Thank you, whitney. Well, and I failed to mention at the beginning that we have or I have personally a team of people who are helping me Drew and Teresa, who are amazing, and our amazing design team as well, who are kind of making all of this stuff come together. But Teresa is our resident ghost story reader and she filters through all of the silly ones and gives us just the best. But we then take that winning ghost story at the end of every year. 

22:08 - Jody Bogle (Host)
We have, in the past three years, turned it into a short film and then submitted that to the austin film festival, where we are their exclusive wine sponsor so I think for phantom it's it's kind of been it's been of all of our brands, the one whose personality has not really it's been hard to kind of. It's so many things right, so many things, and I think it's important for us to really identify what those, what that personality is. For Phantom, you know it's different than Bogle, but I think we have to really focus not only on the quality aspect of how the wines are made, but that it is so completely different and kind of just really stands apart. 

22:51 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
Yeah, and so we are constantly saying and you'll see on Point of Sale and different things. You know it's mysterious and hauntingly seductive. So it's not scary. It's not Friday the 13th, scary movies kind of thing, but it's, you know, just kind of that looking at what else is going on out there in the world. Like you know, you've a lot of people have had that feeling of you know, is there something else here? 

23:12 - Jody Bogle (Host)
with me right now, and not just around Halloween. We do not want this to be a Halloween brand. This is not a brand that we sell just in September and October Exactly. 

23:21 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
But we do definitely do a little bit more there. 

23:23 - Jody Bogle (Host)
I mean, we're going to Obviously we will and we get some great press. You know we're often included in you know top 10 wines to take to a Halloween party. You know those kind of things are fantastic but we really have to keep it top of mind the rest of the year as well, absolutely, absolutely. 

23:38 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
And so we do a lot of that through working with influencers, which has been a great way, you know, through the Phantom brand, to reach younger audiences that may not usually be buying, you know, or we maybe thought weren't buying wine at the $15 plus, you know, range, but bringing them in and they are so into it, these young ladies who are on Instagram, tiktok, et cetera. They're talking about the brand, bringing younger consumers in and then we get. You know, we want to find this close to me, so building that distribution is going to be huge. 

24:06 - Jody Bogle (Host)
Well, such an exciting kind of scope of work that you have the Bogle family brands, bogle family vineyards, phantom Wines and 20 Acres which all carry the Bogle name. But you know the same values as well right, quality, over-delivering at that price point and just really wonderful wines. So thank you, whitney. Well, thank you. 

24:27 - Whitney Hartwell (Guest)
And this has been great. I think you know we talk a lot about the like you said. You know we have our very clear values, the simplicity of our portfolio, and it really allows us to do the things that we do and do them well. And you know, like I said earlier, just having that confidence in the product that we're selling, you know, you know this is a good product. You know that really a lot of work from a lot of people has gone into making the best wine possible that over delivers at this price point, and so we're we're proud to be a part of it. Excellent, well, thank you, thank you. 

25:02 - Jody Bogle (Host)
Thank you for listening to the Bogle story. We are happy to.