Events + News: Articles

Sunday, May 4, 2003

Bargetto family carries vintner’s art into 21st century

By Karen A. Davis, Sentinel staff writer

SOQUEL — Like the perfect vintage paired with the right fromage, Bargetto Winery is proving that age-old artistry can make a wonderful pairing with 21st century technology.

At a time when many small wineries have gone out of business or been snapped up by larger companies, Bargetto, now in its 70th year as a family business, is a rarity, experts say — one that is helping keep alive the tradition of hand- crafted wines for which California is famous.

The oldest continuously operated winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains launched a new Web site with an online store and wine club in April.

"The Web site is going to ... enable us to reach out to new and existing customers through the power of the Internet," said Martin Bargetto, 46, winery marketing director and the third generation of the Bargetto family to run the winery.

Internet and direct mail sales have increased 82 percent in the past two years, despite a difficult economy and 1,300 brick-and-mortar and online wineries statewide to compete with, according to Dana Sheldon, wine club manager.

"All these wineries are trying to sell to consumers through a channel that is narrowing," said Martin Bargetto. "You have fewer distributors with more brands to choose from now ... and that means they have less time for smaller wineries like us."

The past decade has been a time of incomparable growth and change for the wine industry, according to Lisa Anthony of Motto, Kryla and Fisher, a St. Helena-based wine advisory firm.

Offering products like Bargetto’s honey mead and olalliberry dessert wines has been key to the survival of small wineries — those producing fewer than 50,000 cases per year.

Also, direct sales, including online sales, are fueled by tasting room encounters, according to Jon Fredrikson, a wine industry analyst and publisher of the Gomberg-Fredrikson Report, a wine industry publication based in Woodside. Bargetto has tasting rooms in Soquel and Monterey.

"Tasting rooms give a winery’s staff an opportunity to tell the stories about how the wines are produced," he said. "Many people go home and continue to buy through wine clubs."

Rare vintage

While the state has 900 bonded, or brick-and-mortar wineries, one as old as Bargetto, founded in 1933 by brothers Philip and John Bargetto, both Italian immigrants, is a rarity in the business, said Fredrikson, "There are a limited number of wineries that are this old and have remained and grown over generations," he said. "Many experience difficulty in the transition from one generation to another."

Each generation of Bargettos has managed to build on the past, while making products that appeal to each new generation of connoisseurs.

"Bargetto ... has improved with age," said Shannon Flynn, spokeswoman for the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrower’s Association. "They have come to be known as one of the finest wines in California, one of our (region’s) largest wineries and their wine is found all over the world."

The Bargetto family business began when Philip and John learned the skill of winemaking from their father Giuseppe Bargetto on a small family vineyard in Italy. Philip emigrated to San Jose in 1891 at age 17. John followed in 1909 at age 24. In 1918, the brothers paid $3,000 for a 2.5-acre farm site with a barn and house on what is today North Main Street in Soquel. The site had no vineyards and the brothers purchased grapes from other area growers.

Between 1918 and the end of prohibition 15 years later, the brothers grew vegetables on the property and eventually opened a wholesale produce business.

The winery offered about a dozen different wines, mostly reds, when it began full production in late 1933 after the end of prohibition.

In 1964, when John’s son, Lawrence Bargetto, took over operations, he began experimenting with port and sherry and introduced the company’s line of dessert wines. Lawrence expanded to about 30 products. A second tasting room was added on Monterey’s Cannery Row in 1968, complementing the one opened at the winery in Soquel eight years earlier.

Today, the winery has pared its selections to its most popular — about 15 varietals and three dessert wines sold under the names Bargetto, Chaucer’s, La Vita, a premium red, and Coastal Cellars, value-priced wines.

Vine appeal

According to Martin Bargetto, the popular adage that mountain grown coffee plants produce beans with better flavor applies to wine grapes, too.

The roots of mountain grown vines must go deeper into the soil to get the nutrients and water they need, he said. This means the vines must work harder, so they yield about 3 tons per acre — 1 ton less than vines grown in other areas.

The fact that Bargetto is located 6 to 7 miles inland from the coast means "you get an ongoing cooling influence ... and you don’t get the higher highs and lower lows they do in Napa." Vines here bud three weeks earlier than their Sonoma County cousins, but the grapes take about three weeks longer to mature.

The cooling influence coupled with the deeply-rooted vines yields grapes with a naturally high acidity, making for a crisper tasting wine. Still, the quality of the mountains is affordable to most.

"The price range in the Santa Cruz Mountains on average is around $20 per bottle," said Flynn. "In Napa, you will find similar wines for a much higher price."

Bargetto wines range in price from $7.50 for a bottle of 2000 vintage Coastal Cellars Chardonnay to $50 for a bottle of 1998 vintage La Vita red. Most wines are priced between $11 and $20.

The winery has done a good job of transforming and repositioning itself into an upscale, premium varietal producer, said Fredrikson.

Some small wineries have tended to focus on "one product that did well," he said. Then, when trends changed, they experienced difficulty in growing their business and surviving as they were surpassed by hundreds of new players.

Grape expectations

Though some people may not have given much thought to the recession before Sept. 11, Martin Bargetto said he began noticing the impact of failing consumer confidence as early as January 2001.

Sales that stood at 42,000 cases at the end of 2000 began to drop slightly early that year. Sales at year’s end totaled 40,000 cases and sales in 2002 remained flat. The winery expects flat sales again this year.

Whether sales increase or not, expenses continue to rise, Martin Bargetto said.

That forced the company to lay off a few part-time employees and scale back hours for others. The winery employs 30 full-time workers.

Wine club

With its wine club offerings, Bargetto hopes to educate consumers and create a sense of community.

"We provide club news and fun facts and we like to use the club as a vehicle for some surveys," said Martin Bargetto.

The formula has helped the club grow. Bargetto’s Wine Club began in 1982, with fewer than 100 members. Today, it has nearly 2,500. The winery’s target consumers are those ages 35 to 54. A second dessert wine club, Chaucer’s Wine Club, was added in recent months to satisfy the sweet tooth of younger wine enthusiasts.

"We find that, among the 21 to 34 age group — people who are just coming onto wine — the sweetness appeals to them, I think because they may be coming off soft drinks or juices," said Martin Bargetto.

The clubs have "helped us find and keep customers in a very challenging distribution marketplace," he said.

Innovations

For years, the winery purchased its wine grapes from area growers. But in 1992, the family planted its first vineyard — seven varieties of grapes on a 50-acre site in Corralitos known as the Bargetto Regan Vineyards Estate. Regan is the Irish maiden name of Beverly Bargetto, Martin Bargetto’s mother.

The first grapes were harvested on the site three years later.

In recent months the winery renovated its courtyard in hopes of making the winery a destination spot. While the winery has been a popular site for milestone birthday and anniversary parties, the Bargettos hope it will gain popularity as a location for corporate lunches and wedding rehearsal and reception dinners.

Family vine

For Martin Bargetto, the choice to follow in his forefather’s footsteps was not obvious at first. Still, he had an affinity for the business he couldn’t shake.

"I think somewhat by osmosis ... just by being near the business, you start to be familiar with it," he said. "Sometimes that familiarity breeds contempt and sometimes it breeds love."

In Martin’s case, it was the story of an old friendship that grew into a romance with the vine.

He had decided to major in chemistry at UC Davis, but later realized he’d rather focus on biochemistry.

"About halfway through I realized I didn’t want to be in a lab all my life, and I needed to apply the science to something," he said. "Well, duh! The answer was always in front of me. I ended up studying grape growing."

He earned a bachelor’s in plant science with an emphasis in viticulture. After graduation, he returned to the family winery to work for a couple months, but planned to go to Europe to work in the industry there when his father died in 1982.

"I sensed my mom was going to need me," said Martin Bargetto, the oldest of Lawrence and Beverly Bargetto’s five children.

Beverly Bargetto soon incorporated her love for art into the business, launching two large showings of local artists at the winery each year — the Fine Arts Festival held each July and the Art in the Cellars exhibition each December.

Now, at age 78, the Bargetto matriarch can be found most weekdays at the winery she has seen through so many vintages.

When asked which of the wines is her favorite, she exclaimed, "That’s like asking which of my children I like best!" However, she admits she is partial to the Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay.

The winery’s recipe for success, Beverly Bargetto said, lies in "enjoying the work tremendously and appreciating how wine adds to life’s pleasures."

For now, the fourth generation of Bargettos — the oldest of whom is 13 — waits in the wings to carry on the family’s tradition.