 |
|
 |
Boeger Winery
Justin Boeger, winemaker
A fourth generation winemaker, watching an animated Justin Boeger share his story with us was great fun. We spent most of our interview in his laboratory, where it was much quieter than their always-busy winery.
Justin Boeger in his lab.
Before our interview, we spent some time with his father Greg, a legendary winemaker and the founder of Boeger Winery. After a personal tour of the grounds and facility, all three of us went on the hunt for Justin, who was somewhere in the back portion of Boeger’s large winery. During our search for Justin, Greg talked about his son, and how happy he was that Justin had taken over the reins of head winemaker. He was definitely one proud dad.
Justin graduated from UC Davis in 1998 and besides the basic on-the-job training he has had by virtue of his winemaking family, he interned at two prestigious wineries in the Franconian region of Germany. Returning to Boeger, Justin’s pioneering spirit is just as strong as his dad’s; he has introduced several new wines and techniques to Boeger Winery, including the popular Pinot Noir and a comprehensive and diversified oak-aging program. His winemaking style focuses on well-balanced wines his customers can drink now, opposed to putting a bottle down for some time.
Following in the footsteps of so many great winemakers doesn’t phase Boeger one bit. Even though it took him some time to return to his roots, he’s definitely comfortable in his role of the family’s head winemaker. And considering the winery and its wines are still as popular as ever, he’s doing one hell of a job.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Did
you always want to be a winemaker?
No, I grew up in it, and when I got out of high
school I didn’t want anything to do with grapes and wine. I jokingly
said after my first quarter at school I could deal with wine again, but
not in the sense of wanting to make it. I drove trucks, you know those
that drop tomatoes all over the highway. What I did want to do was to
fly; that’s always been a passion of mine. So when I was in college I
got my pilot’s license. I was seriously considering pursuing a career in
aviation as opposed to the wine industry. As I look back at friends who
have careers in aviation, I’m glad I didn’t go that way.
Do
you still fly?
I still fly. I have my instrument rating now, and
I’m going to start doing my commercial rating soon. My goal is to figure
out how to make flying pay for itself.
So
what made you come back here?
I didn’t take a wine class for four years while I was at Davis. I was having a bad quarter and needed a good grade so I thought I would take a wine class because I could ace that. Since I grew up in a winery, I must know everything about it. I learned very quickly that I knew very little about wine after my first midterm. That spurred me on to study a little bit because it was a challenge and a reality check as well. So the more I took the classes the more I found I really did like it. At some point I thought, wow, I might actually be able to do this. And if I thought I would do it, then I’d be stupid not to go back into the family business. Once I made that decision I thought that I’d better go out and get some experience in some other places to see how it’s done, so I went to Europe and interned in Germany at two different wineries. I spent half a year doing that, returned, and finished out my degree. I came back here in 1998 and worked for two years under my dad as the assistant winemaker. Officially in 2000 I became the winemaker and have been doing it ever since.
What’s the biggest wine myth that you hear from people?
That the Sierra foothills are only known for Zin,
that it’s a warm region so we are only capable of producing warm region
varieties up here.
That’s not the case?
What’s unique about El Dorado, being in the foothills, is that our county is a little more mountainous, at least where we’re growing grapes already. Those cool mountain breezes come down and collect and pool in various valleys depending on the airflow patterns, so we have regions that are really cool. Then we have some higher elevation vineyards at 3200 feet and because of these cool microclimates we have areas where we can grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. That doesn’t mean that some people don’t grow Chardonnay where they shouldn’t in the foothills, but there are locations that are well suited to cooler region varieties.
How
many acres of vineyards do you have?
We have 100 acres that we farm over the entire
elevation range from 1600 to 3200 feet, and we grow 30 different grape
varieties in those vineyards.
All
these microclimates would appear to be an advantage.
The advantage of having all the microclimates is
one thing, but the disadvantage is that these areas are small so you
don’t see very many single 50-acre vineyards in the foothills. Our
largest vineyard of one variety is Barbera and that’s 18 acres near the
town of El Dorado. But that one vineyard takes us almost three weeks to
harvest. The top of the hill gets warmer in summer, while the cold air
sits at the bottom. So the top ripens two to three weeks before the last
part of the vineyard. Twice a week we’ll pick a portion of the vineyard
until we get into where it’s not quite ripe enough and we have to wait a
couple of more weeks.
What’s the funniest question you’ve ever been asked by a customer?
When you read those wine descriptors such as blackberry, plum and things like that, a lot of people think we actually add those to the wine.
Are
you offended when someone criticizes your wines?
Some people have very strong opinions and are unappreciative of the subjective nature of wines. I’m no longer offended when people don’t like my wines. That took me a while to get used to because this is like my art—for me, it’s “art through science” because I can’t draw a picture to save my life!
Greg Boeger at work.
Do
you have any hobbies besides flying?
Anything outdoors—hiking, backpacking, fly fishing. Since I was a kid my dad and grandpa and I would go fly fishing. I love to read. I’m a real social person, but there are times when I have a month and I just want to sit in my house and read as many books as I can, mostly in the winter time—get a fire going on weekends.
Fiction? Nonfiction?
I read a little bit of everything. Some of my
favorite books are historical fiction. One of my favorite books is Ken
Follets’ The Pillars of the Earth.
I read nonfiction like Undaunted
Courage, the Lewis and Clark story written by Stephen Ambrose. When
I get into a reading phase I really devour books and other times I’ll go
months without.
After
a hard day at work and you get home, what do you have to drink?
A beer! How many times have you heard that? Yes, 90 percent of the time, it’s a beer. Seven percent of the time it’s an Irish whiskey on the rocks, and three percent of the time—ah, actually, it’s never a wine! It’s only wine if it’s with dinner and I happen to be going out with friends. It takes a lot of beer to make wine.