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Feature Article
Breggo’s founder, Doug Stewart, bootstrapped the operation with little capital and lots of moxie. Since its first crush in 2005, Stewart has never looked back.
Breggo Cellars Turns Pinot
Passion into Reality
by
Thom Elkjer
June 30, 2008
Just before the end of 2007, Anderson Valley got a love letter from none other than Robert Parker, who devoted a page of his newsletter to one of the appellation’s youngest wineries, Breggo Cellars. The names of four vineyards in the valley – Donnelly Creek, Ferrington, Savoy and Wiley – 
were included as wines receiving scores ranging from 89+ to 93. Among the eight Breggo offerings reviewed, the average score was well above 91. Along with these numerical riches came a remark that Anderson Valley vintners could not have dreamed of: “Their 2006 Pinot Gris Wiley Vineyard is the finest Pinot Gris I have ever tasted from the New World.”
All this from a label that completed its first crush in 2005, while contractors labored in the rain to erect a winery over the fermentation tanks. Breggo’s founder, Doug Stewart, and his wife Ana largely bootstrapped the operation, with little capital and lots of moxie. They seem to have captured lightning in a bottle, not just with Parker but with distributors and restaurants. I have spoken with Stewart a number of times about his travails and recent successes. The following conversation is derived primarily from an lengthy email exchange.
were included as wines receiving scores ranging from 89+ to 93. Among the eight Breggo offerings reviewed, the average score was well above 91. Along with these numerical riches came a remark that Anderson Valley vintners could not have dreamed of: “Their 2006 Pinot Gris Wiley Vineyard is the finest Pinot Gris I have ever tasted from the New World.”
All this from a label that completed its first crush in 2005, while contractors labored in the rain to erect a winery over the fermentation tanks. Breggo’s founder, Doug Stewart, and his wife Ana largely bootstrapped the operation, with little capital and lots of moxie. They seem to have captured lightning in a bottle, not just with Parker but with distributors and restaurants. I have spoken with Stewart a number of times about his travails and recent successes. The following conversation is derived primarily from an lengthy email exchange.
Thom Elkjer (TE): How did you wind up planting your flag in Anderson Valley? There’s more famous land for Pinot Noir in other places, and you can find cheaper land than in Anderson Valley.
Doug Stewart (DS): When I wanted to build a winery, I considered the Green Valley and Vine Hill areas of the Russian River appellation and parts of the true Sonoma Coast to be the gold standard for cool-climate vineyard ground. I didn’t know much about Anderson Valley as an appellation then, only that my favorite domestic sparkling wine came from here. I figured where there’s great sparkling, it’s cold enough to make great Pinot Noir and some cold-climate white varietals. I had traveled through Anderson Valley only a couple of times before, so didn’t really know what to expect. The sheer beauty won me over.
TE: How committed are you to making Anderson Valley wines, as you have done so far?
DS: Committed. Like a life sentence.
TE: Yet your 2007 Syrah will come from outside the valley, unlike your 2006 Anderson Valley Syrah. (Read my review: Click Here.)
DS: You’re referring to Alder Springs, a vineyard in northern Mendocino County, carved into the mountains just west of Laytonville. Six miles from the ocean, and three thousand feet up. A surprising number of top Syrahs and Chardonnays in the United States come from there, not to mention Merlots. We’re getting a little Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in addition to Syrah from Alder Springs in 2008. After that, we have no plans to expand outside our current sources.
The Donnelly Vineyard is one of four vineyards in Anderson Valley from which Breggo Cellars gets its fruit for its highly praised Pinot Noir.
The next [vineyard] program Breggo will develop is our estate. Our own vines go in the ground in May of 2008. We’re not looking for new sources of fruit.
TE: What non-estate vineyards are you working with in Anderson Valley?
DS: The vast majority of our fruit comes from a three-mile radius around our farm - from Donnelly Creek and Ferrington vineyards on the southeastern side and Savoy vineyard to the northwest. All three vineyards, on the east side of Highway 128, share the same aspect as our farm. We like the control and constant contact that this proximity allows.
TE: How did you select these vineyards and the others you’ve started with in Anderson Valley?
DS: We took a page from the French AOC system — particularly the way Grand Cru vineyard status was determined and granted. In the 1850s, they had 200 years worth of data indicating which wines were the most sought after. We looked at which wines out of Anderson Valley received the greatest critical acclaim year after year, which were the most sought after by consumers, and which wines were allocated and sold out upon release. We didn’t have historical data like the French, but the trend lines were pretty obvious. We also noticed that the top-tier wines that met the “grand cru” criteria were all made outside of Anderson Valley. In other words, much of Anderson Valley’s best fruit available for purchase was being “exported.” We set out to change that.
TE: How did you convince some of the valley’s best-known growers to cut you in on their fruit?
DS: I approached the owners and told them my business plan: make vineyard designates from Anderson Valley and sell those wines in a tasting room on Highway 128, between Boonville and Philo, at the heart of Anderson Valley. These growers have been selling most if not all of their fruit outside the Valley, but they are all deeply committed to this place.
TE: Regional commitment goes only so far, especially when there was still financial pain lingering from the grape glut earlier in the decade.
DS: I also said to all these growers, “I’ll pay you whatever you think is fair.” I didn’t even ask for contracts the first year, because I realized they looked at Breggo as an experiment.
TE: How did they respond?
DS: We got the fruit. When it came time to renegotiate prices, now two or three years into the Pinot boom, we didn’t balk when the prices climbed. We’d planned on that from the outset.
I think current prices make sense given the cost of farming to our specifications, the value of water here, the cost of land and limited amount of ground capable of producing world-class fruit – and that collectively these are among the most renowned Pinot Noir vineyards in the United States. From the outset, I’ve felt very fortunate to receive their fruit.
TE: Have you been able to secure longer-term agreements with the same growers?
DS: To secure that fruit for the long term, we needed to make great wine consistently, and to help build the reputation of our growers through vineyard designation. We have done that thus far. If we don’t continue to do so, I’d say we won’t be able to count on purchasing the best fruit from Anderson Valley.
TE: What are your plans for your own vineyard?
DS: We are planting seven acres on meter-by-meter spacing. We will plant more as our cash flow allows.
TE: What do you think made Robert Parker swoon over the Pinot Gris?
DS: Taste is a personal thing. He likes the way our Pinot Gris tastes.
TE: Let me rephrase the question. What specific qualities of the Pinot Gris might have led him to single it out among all the New World Gris he has tasted?
DS: We approach our Pinot Gris much as we approach Pinot Noir: grow intense fruit, press gently, coddle it through fermentation, protect the finished wine, then balance acidity, sugar, and weight in the mouth. In other words, we make it the way we like it. Fortunately for us, Robert Parker likes Pinot Gris the way we like it. Lots of other critics don’t swoon over it. It’s been a favorite in our tasting room since the day we opened.
TE: What did you learn from other Anderson Valley vintners when you got started?
DS: I spoke at length with owners or senior managers of every Anderson Valley winery prior to starting Breggo. It would be hard to overstate how much I learned from them. For starters, Michel Salgue, the founding winemaker at Roederer Estate - and probably the
The Ferrington Vineyard in Anderson Valley is another source for Breggo Cellars' coveted Pinot Noir single-vineyard wines.person with more experience with the range of Anderson Valley fruit than anyone - joined us for every day of harvest in 2005 and most of 2006. His philosophy of gentle treatment of the fruit heavily informed our approach to winemaking. Our growers absolutely schooled us on the ins and outs of their vineyards. We are forever indebted for their input, help, and wisdom.
TE: There are not that many tasting rooms in the valley, and yours was the first new winery-based tasting room in a long time. Was that part of the plan from the beginning?
DS: One of the reasons we spent three long years working out a deal to buy the property was because of its frontage on Highway 128. That meant we could have a tasting room that would be visible to people driving by. One Anderson Valley denizen described this component of our business plan as the “glorified roadside fruit stand.” I figured this would be Breggo’s ace in the hole, in the Field of Dreams sense. No one had built a new winery on the highway in Anderson Valley for two decades. “If you build it, they will come.” Turned out I was wrong. Tasting room traffic began as anemic and has developed slowly.
TE: What about national distribution?
DS: I didn’t have a lot of hope or faith in this. Most every advisor considered it a cruel, vicious game, full of losers. “Stay small, sell direct,” went the mantra. That advice turned out to be completely wrong in our case, at least thus far. [Distribution through the three-tier system is] the healthiest part of our business.
TE: Were there any wineries that you used as a model?
DS: Goldeneye looked like a semi-viable alternative. We owned a whole lot of dirt, so we could briefly consider a high-end estate program [like Goldeneye’s]. But we had neither the capital to plant it out, nor the time to wait it out. I remember [Goldeneye founder] Dan Duckhorn speaking at the Anderson Valley Pinot Festival’s technical conference in 2001. He said, “Our initial budget was $12 million in cash to build an 18,000 case estate program…” I remember [Goldeneye founding winemaker] Bruce Regalia talking about choosing sites, then buying them, then planting them, then waiting for the vines to grow up, then making the first three barrels from those sites… and having their first release of 500 cases several years after the business started spending that $12 million.
From a financial standpoint, I needed to accomplish in two years what they planned to accomplish in seven or eight. The only way that I could see making a significant profit in the first full year was by entering the market at the very top. Had we not landed fruit from the likes of Ferrington, Savoy, and Donnelly Creek vineyards, we could not have entered the wine business.
TE: Your previous business was in organic ice cream. Are you likely to take Breggo in a similar direction regarding agriculture?
DS: Yes. We will seek third party organic certification on our estate fruit. Much of the innovation going forward at Breggo will take place in the vineyard - not just in ours but in our growers’. That cliché about wine being made in the vineyard? It’s just fact. If you want to make better wine, do it in the 11 months before harvest.
Imagine if the top university graduates chose to go into farming rather than becoming investment bankers, corporate lawyers, or venture capitalists. What if kids saw farming as the frontier of technological innovation and the solution to our global environmental crisis?
I’d like to leave my children more wildlife, more topsoil, and cleaner, healthier creeks on our farm than I found when I arrived. One hundred and fifty years of grazing had done some damage. It had also left a beautiful legacy. I’d like to leave a business that can sustain them economically if they choose to continue it, or one they can sell with no regrets if they choose not to. But I’d rather they remain stewards of the land.
Get a taste of Breggo Cellars wines. Read our reviews at APPELLATION AMERICA
.
Photo of Doug Stewart by Thom Elkjer; vineyard photos courtesy of Breggo Cellars
Doug Stewart (DS): When I wanted to build a winery, I considered the Green Valley and Vine Hill areas of the Russian River appellation and parts of the true Sonoma Coast to be the gold standard for cool-climate vineyard ground. I didn’t know much about Anderson Valley as an appellation then, only that my favorite domestic sparkling wine came from here. I figured where there’s great sparkling, it’s cold enough to make great Pinot Noir and some cold-climate white varietals. I had traveled through Anderson Valley only a couple of times before, so didn’t really know what to expect. The sheer beauty won me over.
TE: How committed are you to making Anderson Valley wines, as you have done so far?
DS: Committed. Like a life sentence.
TE: Yet your 2007 Syrah will come from outside the valley, unlike your 2006 Anderson Valley Syrah. (Read my review: Click Here.)
DS: You’re referring to Alder Springs, a vineyard in northern Mendocino County, carved into the mountains just west of Laytonville. Six miles from the ocean, and three thousand feet up. A surprising number of top Syrahs and Chardonnays in the United States come from there, not to mention Merlots. We’re getting a little Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in addition to Syrah from Alder Springs in 2008. After that, we have no plans to expand outside our current sources.
The Donnelly Vineyard is one of four vineyards in Anderson Valley from which Breggo Cellars gets its fruit for its highly praised Pinot Noir.
TE: What non-estate vineyards are you working with in Anderson Valley?
DS: The vast majority of our fruit comes from a three-mile radius around our farm - from Donnelly Creek and Ferrington vineyards on the southeastern side and Savoy vineyard to the northwest. All three vineyards, on the east side of Highway 128, share the same aspect as our farm. We like the control and constant contact that this proximity allows.
TE: How did you select these vineyards and the others you’ve started with in Anderson Valley?
DS: We took a page from the French AOC system — particularly the way Grand Cru vineyard status was determined and granted. In the 1850s, they had 200 years worth of data indicating which wines were the most sought after. We looked at which wines out of Anderson Valley received the greatest critical acclaim year after year, which were the most sought after by consumers, and which wines were allocated and sold out upon release. We didn’t have historical data like the French, but the trend lines were pretty obvious. We also noticed that the top-tier wines that met the “grand cru” criteria were all made outside of Anderson Valley. In other words, much of Anderson Valley’s best fruit available for purchase was being “exported.” We set out to change that.
TE: How did you convince some of the valley’s best-known growers to cut you in on their fruit?
DS: I approached the owners and told them my business plan: make vineyard designates from Anderson Valley and sell those wines in a tasting room on Highway 128, between Boonville and Philo, at the heart of Anderson Valley. These growers have been selling most if not all of their fruit outside the Valley, but they are all deeply committed to this place.
TE: Regional commitment goes only so far, especially when there was still financial pain lingering from the grape glut earlier in the decade.
DS: I also said to all these growers, “I’ll pay you whatever you think is fair.” I didn’t even ask for contracts the first year, because I realized they looked at Breggo as an experiment.
TE: How did they respond?
DS: We got the fruit. When it came time to renegotiate prices, now two or three years into the Pinot boom, we didn’t balk when the prices climbed. We’d planned on that from the outset.
I think current prices make sense given the cost of farming to our specifications, the value of water here, the cost of land and limited amount of ground capable of producing world-class fruit – and that collectively these are among the most renowned Pinot Noir vineyards in the United States. From the outset, I’ve felt very fortunate to receive their fruit.
TE: Have you been able to secure longer-term agreements with the same growers?
DS: To secure that fruit for the long term, we needed to make great wine consistently, and to help build the reputation of our growers through vineyard designation. We have done that thus far. If we don’t continue to do so, I’d say we won’t be able to count on purchasing the best fruit from Anderson Valley.
TE: What are your plans for your own vineyard?
DS: We are planting seven acres on meter-by-meter spacing. We will plant more as our cash flow allows.
TE: What do you think made Robert Parker swoon over the Pinot Gris?
DS: Taste is a personal thing. He likes the way our Pinot Gris tastes.
TE: Let me rephrase the question. What specific qualities of the Pinot Gris might have led him to single it out among all the New World Gris he has tasted?
DS: We approach our Pinot Gris much as we approach Pinot Noir: grow intense fruit, press gently, coddle it through fermentation, protect the finished wine, then balance acidity, sugar, and weight in the mouth. In other words, we make it the way we like it. Fortunately for us, Robert Parker likes Pinot Gris the way we like it. Lots of other critics don’t swoon over it. It’s been a favorite in our tasting room since the day we opened.
TE: What did you learn from other Anderson Valley vintners when you got started?
DS: I spoke at length with owners or senior managers of every Anderson Valley winery prior to starting Breggo. It would be hard to overstate how much I learned from them. For starters, Michel Salgue, the founding winemaker at Roederer Estate - and probably the
The Ferrington Vineyard in Anderson Valley is another source for Breggo Cellars' coveted Pinot Noir single-vineyard wines.
TE: There are not that many tasting rooms in the valley, and yours was the first new winery-based tasting room in a long time. Was that part of the plan from the beginning?
DS: One of the reasons we spent three long years working out a deal to buy the property was because of its frontage on Highway 128. That meant we could have a tasting room that would be visible to people driving by. One Anderson Valley denizen described this component of our business plan as the “glorified roadside fruit stand.” I figured this would be Breggo’s ace in the hole, in the Field of Dreams sense. No one had built a new winery on the highway in Anderson Valley for two decades. “If you build it, they will come.” Turned out I was wrong. Tasting room traffic began as anemic and has developed slowly.
TE: What about national distribution?
DS: I didn’t have a lot of hope or faith in this. Most every advisor considered it a cruel, vicious game, full of losers. “Stay small, sell direct,” went the mantra. That advice turned out to be completely wrong in our case, at least thus far. [Distribution through the three-tier system is] the healthiest part of our business.
TE: Were there any wineries that you used as a model?
DS: Goldeneye looked like a semi-viable alternative. We owned a whole lot of dirt, so we could briefly consider a high-end estate program [like Goldeneye’s]. But we had neither the capital to plant it out, nor the time to wait it out. I remember [Goldeneye founder] Dan Duckhorn speaking at the Anderson Valley Pinot Festival’s technical conference in 2001. He said, “Our initial budget was $12 million in cash to build an 18,000 case estate program…” I remember [Goldeneye founding winemaker] Bruce Regalia talking about choosing sites, then buying them, then planting them, then waiting for the vines to grow up, then making the first three barrels from those sites… and having their first release of 500 cases several years after the business started spending that $12 million.
From a financial standpoint, I needed to accomplish in two years what they planned to accomplish in seven or eight. The only way that I could see making a significant profit in the first full year was by entering the market at the very top. Had we not landed fruit from the likes of Ferrington, Savoy, and Donnelly Creek vineyards, we could not have entered the wine business.
TE: Your previous business was in organic ice cream. Are you likely to take Breggo in a similar direction regarding agriculture?
DS: Yes. We will seek third party organic certification on our estate fruit. Much of the innovation going forward at Breggo will take place in the vineyard - not just in ours but in our growers’. That cliché about wine being made in the vineyard? It’s just fact. If you want to make better wine, do it in the 11 months before harvest.
Imagine if the top university graduates chose to go into farming rather than becoming investment bankers, corporate lawyers, or venture capitalists. What if kids saw farming as the frontier of technological innovation and the solution to our global environmental crisis?
I’d like to leave my children more wildlife, more topsoil, and cleaner, healthier creeks on our farm than I found when I arrived. One hundred and fifty years of grazing had done some damage. It had also left a beautiful legacy. I’d like to leave a business that can sustain them economically if they choose to continue it, or one they can sell with no regrets if they choose not to. But I’d rather they remain stewards of the land.
Photo of Doug Stewart by Thom Elkjer; vineyard photos courtesy of Breggo Cellars
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