You grew up in Pennsylvania in an Italian family and your grandparents made wine. What role did wine play in family gatherings? Did your grandfather’s hobby influence your decision to become a winemaker and winery owner?
Sunday dinner was a big event for our family, exactly what you can imagine from how it is portrayed in many Italian homes. You were never late to grandma’s home, period. A table filled with way too much, incredible homemade food and a grandmother that wouldn’t take no for an answer when you say you are full to the brim. My grandfather made wine in his garage and I used to love to play in there, with the wonderful smell of the fermentation. Wine was around, but it was not any more important than the food.
As far as influence, yes, when I was helping a friend with his harvest, I recalled that smell of fermentation. I like to call it my Ratatouille moment. In an instant, it took me back to that garage and made me remember my grandfather, whom I adored. From that moment, I knew I was going to make wine every year for the rest of my life.
You graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in graphic design. As a teenager, did you know that you wanted to be a designer?
I was always interested in art and craft but there weren’t any people that I knew that were making a life out of it. I didn’t know that I could do it for a career. My father was a dentist and went to West Point AND Annapolis (long story), so his path for me was the Naval Academy. I wanted to go into finance. After a difficult freshman year, I decided to fall back on what I was good at doing and went into fine art, with painting, sculpture and lithography, and then commercial graphic design. I found my path in the arts.
You had a very successful career in the film industry with several credits for special effects and animation in movies, including Men in Black, Toy Story and Ratatouille. What was the source of inspiration for these visual effects?
Prior to the film industry, I had launched a game company with a business partner. We were pioneers in real-time 3D graphics for games. It was an easy transition into film and pre- visualization as the goal was to create fast-rendering, low-resolution animations that could be used as animated storyboards. I already had training in camerawork from art school and I was using the right software. All the pieces fell into place when Star Wars called.
Both you and your wife are from Erie, Pennsylvania. How did you meet and what brought you together?
Sara and I knew each other in high-school, but didn’t meet again until I returned from college for a Thanksgiving. I found out she was working on Capitol Hill in DC and we decided to go on a date. We had many things in common from music to the love of the outdoors as well as common stories from our youth in Erie. We moved out to CA together and after several years of knowing we wanted to be married, but didn’t have the resources to do it, finally had good jobs that paid well and planned our wedding. We were married in the wine country in PA.
How did you meet your business partner, Brent Bessire, and what made you decide to start Fogline Vineyards as a joint venture?
Brent and I met at a party in Bennett Valley. My friend from the gaming days, Peter Young, owned Grey Stack Vineyard. He and his wife, Marie, were also real estate agents and sold Brent his house where our estate vineyard would eventually be planted. It was one of those wine country romantic settings and everyone was in the industry there. Russel Bevan was pouring great German Riesling from magnums next to Andy Erickson, phenomenal wine country cuisine, it was a dream. We decided we had to be part of this world and went about creating a plan. It was when Brent bought and subdivided the property next door, that I knew we had the area to plant out a vineyard. It is right above Gaps Crown with the same soils and aspect, so I knew it would be a fantastic location for top quality Chardonnay and Pinot noir. As we grew our vineyard we came to realize how critical and special the Petaluma Gap climate is in making this happen.
How did you choose the name, Fogline? Has your philosophy of winemaking changed since launching the brand in 2009 and, if so, how?
Fogline is our DBA, we originally were called Mountain Valley Vineyards but there is another winery called that on the east coast so we needed another name. My wife, Sara, came up with the name based on our desire to have all of our vineyards above the fog, or at least heavily influenced by the fog. I have always been a fan of more restrained, balanced wines with a lot of structure. I was educated in the Williams Selyem methods of winemaking and tried to emulate much of what they were doing in our brand. Brent worked for Gary Farrell and brought a similar winemaking attitude to our process. As our vineyard grew, we stayed true to those principles, but have listened to what the vineyard blocks were trying to express and have used fermentation techniques and barrel management to guide those resulting wines in the direction they would like to go.
How did you choose the name, Fogline? Has your philosophy of winemaking changed since launching the brand in 2009 and, if so, how?
Fogline is our DBA, we originally were called Mountain Valley Vineyards but there is another winery called that on the east coast so we needed another name. My wife, Sara, came up with the name based on our desire to have all of our vineyards above the fog, or at least heavily influenced by the fog. I have always been a fan of more restrained, balanced wines with a lot of structure. I was educated in the Williams Selyem methods of winemaking and tried to emulate much of what they were doing in our brand. Brent worked for Gary Farrell and brought a similar winemaking attitude to our process. As our vineyard grew, we stayed true to those principles, but have listened to what the vineyard blocks were trying to express and have used fermentation techniques and barrel management to guide those resulting wines in the direction they would like to go.
How do you and Brent split responsibilities in running the business?
Brent is the CEO and I’m the President. Those are titles and really don’t explain our day to day jobs. Brent handles the finances and engineering; I do the creative side and take care of the cellar. We both work the vineyard properties and we both play a big role in the winemaking process. We do all of our processing ourselves. Our only staff is for tasting room.
You farm vineyard property in the Petaluma Gap. Where is the property and what grape varieties are planted there?
We have two properties in the Gap that we farm — our Fogline Estate and our Cloud Twelve vineyards. The estate vineyard is on Pressley Road above Gaps Crown. It is 4.1 acres and is planted to Pinot noir clones Swan, 115, Mt. Eden and Pommard. It has Chardonnay clones 76 and Old Wente, as well as a block of a Kendall Jackson’s clone of Fume Blanc.
The Cloud Twelve Vineyard is a 1.3-acre land lease from Barry Lawrence (who helped form the Sonoma Coast AVA) and it is at 2000 ft elevation up Sonoma Mountain Road on the Petaluma side. It is the highest Syrah vineyard in Sonoma County, but also has some Ehrenfelser grapevines as well as Zinfandel.
How much of your time is spent in the vineyard working on the grapevines? What lessons has Mother Nature taught you during the pandemic and wildfires?
It really varies depending on the year as I do all the spraying. So, in the summer I am in the vineyard a lot of the time. This year has been very hard on me as it will be the first vintage in more than 20 years when I will not be making wine. Over the years I have learned how much I appreciate and am thankful to be able to not only do what I love, but to also be able to be outside and enjoy nature and the growing cycle. The sounds of animals, the red tails and kites battling in the sky, with hair raising on my neck as I cross the seasonal creek bridge waiting for the deer to jump out from below, hoping it is not a mountain lion. I also treasure the satisfaction of seeing your hard work come to fruition at veraison and enjoy unravelling the ball of confusion that mother nature throws at me each year. We can all do without fire and floods, though.
Of all the wines you’ve made over the years, which wine are you most proud of?
I really love Pinot noir; my experiments in dividing the estate blocks based on their expression has been very gratifying. Our Hillside Pinot noir is brilliant. I love our whole cluster “Bacchus” Pinot noir wines as well. I really am loving the Syrah that is coming from the Cloud Twelve Vineyard, but that won’t be bottled until next spring and then not available until the year after.
The last few months have been very difficult for small boutique wineries. What changes has Fogline made to survive in a year like 2020? Are there changes you’ve made that will be permanent?
Yes, it is incredibly difficult across the industry. When we knew we would be closed for an extended period, we had to lay off tasting room workers as we would have no tasting going on. We also knew that we would need to cut back on the amount of purchased fruit to conserve cash. When we started, Brent and I financed the brand and did not take any investment. We are frugal and came into these crises without debt. We are relying on our loyal, long-time wine club members to see us through this time of trouble.
You’ve been involved with the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers for many years, and are now an Emeritus member of the Board of Directors. Thank you for your service! How did you get involved with PGWA and did being on the board create any relationships or open any doors for you?
Throughout my career, be it art, games, film or winemaking, I have participated in user groups and events to try and play an important part in each community. I was recommended to the board by Cecilia Enriquez of Enriquez Estate, who was on the board at that time. She and I were trying to get a group of Southern Sonoma Family Winemakers to get together to market our brands and she thought I could help the Gap move forward. I really enjoyed my 5+ years on the board and am pleased to have been part of the creation of the AVA. The many friends and customers I have made through it all and the stronger connection to the community has been a true gift.
