The next installment in my small series on microwineries, continuing to tell the stories behind great, small producers. Learn more about Roger and Donna Beery and their newest wine adventure, J Cage Cellars.
Size Matters: All in the Family--J Cage Cellars
Don’t let the last name fool you.
Though “beer” is at the heart of their surname, wine has
always been at the heart of Donna and Roger Beery’s family.
It all started on their first date.
Roger confesses he may have had a little too much wine that
night.
Though just in his twenties then, Roger can think back even
further to when he started to appreciate wine.
It was international cooking sensation Graham Kerr, who paired food with
wine on his tv show, that turned Roger’s teenage interests to wine.
Both Roger and Donna saw their “wine-stained dream” begin in
Napa, California on their first trip there in 1984.
Roger’s aha! moment for wine happened when the Beerys pulled
into Caymus Vineyards. Winemaker Charlie
Wagner met them in the tasting room. Though
the day was cold and rainy, Charlie gave a tour of the vines. Roger began to understand how wine was actually
made in the vineyard; he also saw that wine making was both a science and an
art.
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| Roger and Chuck Wagner, father to Charlie Wagner. |
He was hooked.
Donna’s aha! moment happened later that same trip. At the time, she didn’t like red wines, so
she drank whites only. At the end of the
tasting day, the travelers and their companions made it a habit to open a
special bottle. One evening, the wine was
a Jordan Cabernet. The Beery’s
companions basically forced Donna to drink the first sip…then she needed no
encouragement. She fell in love with the
beautiful red wine. She “lost her
cabernet virginity” and went back to the winery the next day to buy two cases!
These two cases were the start of the 1000-bottle cellar
Roger and Donna eventually collected.
It was this collection that initiated the Beery children
into the world of wine.
Roger and Donna raised their children first in Austin, Texas
and then in Breckenridge and Denver, Colorado, where Roger owned a risk
management company for the auto industry.
All the family members kept close ties to Austin and their Texas
roots.
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| Enjoying time with the Beerys...wine passion with Texas roots. |
In fact, when Roger and his son Conch were reading “the
bible”—AKA Texas Monthly Magazine to a red-blooded Texan—Conch saw an ad
for the brand new viticulture and enology program at Texas Tech. He instantly knew that was what he really
wanted to do, even though he was already working on a business degree from
another college.
Conch started at Texas Tech and fell into the life of wine
he saw modeled at his parents’ elbows. Conch’s first winery gig was as a
volunteer intern at Solaro Estate. This
turned into a paid internship and then an assistant wine making job there in
the Texas Hill Country outside of Austin.
Roger encouraged any and all wine-related education for his
children. So much so that when Conch
turned 21, Roger took his son to Napa, mimicking the trip Roger experienced in
his twenties. Later, Conch was able to
follow the harvest season around the world.
Since the southern hemisphere harvests six months ahead of the north, Conch
was able to work not only in Texas, Sonoma, and Napa, but also in Australia and
New Zealand. He currently works for
Gundlach Bundschu in Sonoma.
Lest anyone believe daughter Whitney was not following the
family passion, don’t be worried. She
also went to Texas Tech—like a good Texan—and got a degree in marketing and
hospitality. The wine-travel bug bit
Whitney as well, and she soon started searching for jobs in Sonoma. Today, she works for Jordan Winery. Yes, the family wine story came full circle when
Whitney took a job for the producer who made her mother’s aha! wine.
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| The Beery family. |
During this time of wine exploration for the Beery children,
Roger and Donna were also charting new wine territories.
Still foodies, Roger and Donna watched the
movie
Julie and Julia.
The whole
idea of blogging about their passion intrigued them.
At this same time, Conch was working on a
project for his enology program—researching stories about the emotional impacts
of wine.
Roger volunteered himself and
Donna to write their wine stories.
These
became the first posts on their new blog
"Bacchus and Beery."
At first, Roger and Donna thought they were just going to be
writing about why they loved wine and why others should too. However, they quickly saw their fascination
with, and appreciation for, small producers come to the forefront. They championed the “little guys” of wine, those
artisan producers who were often “overshadowed by their large, corporate
brethren.”
"Bacchus and Beery" continued to expand.
Roger and Donna wrote about wine events, wine
travel, and wine samples.
They met and
interviewed winemakers.
Soon, “Bacchus
and Beery Wine Radio” on Voice America Radio gave them yet another outlet to
help artisan producers showcase their wines.
Roger and Donna loved all aspects of being bloggers. They especially enjoyed the stories of those
that had left established careers to follow their dreams of making wine, often
doing low-paid internships just to learn the craft. Only a lover of the written word like Roger—who
minored in poetry—could see the foreshadowing in this.
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| Tools of the blogging and wine making trade. |
Sitting on a porch in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California,
Roger and Donna were celebrating their wedding anniversary.
Roger had a very special gift for his wife of
thirty-five years—a ton of pinot noir grapes from the
Nunes Vineyard, one of
their favorites.
This is exactly what
Donna wanted and exactly what both Beerys had been working toward.
They now split their time between their home in Austin and
the mother-in-law’s cottage in Whitney’s backyard, where wine making has them
scrambling during the months they spend living in Sonoma County.
The first vintage (2014) was the
Nunes pinot, sourced
because of great connections the Beerys made through their blog; a viognier that
Donna calls “Momma’s wine,” sourced from an unusual clone; and a sauvignon
blanc, sourced from the historic Schmidt Family vineyard.
Roger and Donna believe in minimal manipulation of their
wines. This is the reason they worked so
hard to find high-quality fruit from high-quality growers. They also believe that single-vineyard fruit shows
true terroir, and they will continue to make this style of wine.
This endeavor is accurately a family affair, as finally all
four of the Beery family members and their wine obsessions have come together
for this project.
Roger and Donna are at
the helm of
J Cage wines.
They harvest the
grapes from those select vineyards themselves.
They also do the sorting table, punch down, and initial fermentation
labor at a custom crush facility in Healdsburg.
When they do go back to Austin, son Conch acts as a
consultant to keep tabs on the wine as it ages and waits for the next step in
its wine life. Daughter Whitney uses her
marketing expertise to promote and sell J Cage wines. Even Conch’s and Whitney’s significant others
help.
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| The entire extended Beery clan! |
The name also has a personal connection.
Though the Beerys did experiment with other titles,
they wanted something that was meaningful.
Beery sounds more like a malt beverage than a wine, so they went in a
different family direction.
J Frank Cage
was Roger’s great-grandfather.
The Cage
family was very influential in Austin, and J Frank helped design and build the iconic
Lamar Street bridge over Lady Bird Lake in downtown.
He was a great craftsman, and Roger wanted to
honor the wine craft by naming it after J Cage.
The Pinot Noir is filled
with cherry, strawberry, and earth, both on the nose and the palate. The strong acid is clearly showing, so this wine
will age beautifully.
The Viognier is filled
with overripe melon, tropical fruit, and mineral on the nose. These same elements, in addition to a slight
creaminess and a touch of apricot, show on the palate.
The Sauvignon Blanc is
a beautifully aromatic blend of pineapple, mineral, and grass. A richness shows through to the finish,
without being overdone.
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| J Cage wine and wine grapes. |
In 2015, these same three varieties will be the backbone of
the production, with chardonnay and another single-vineyard pinot being added. The 2016 plan is still wide
open. Grapes will continue to be sourced
from single vineyards; Roger and Donna hope to grow in production quantity
while keeping the quality of wines top priority.
With a last name like Beery, one might believe this would be
a beer-loving family—not that the Beerys have anything against beer! However, from father and mother to son and
daughter, passion for wine is in the blood of this clan.
Roger and Donna should have known after their first date
that wine was going to be a large part of their futures. The connections made due to their passion for
wine and the “Bacchus and Beery” blog continued to foreshadow the paths that
would take four different routes but all end in the same place—Sonoma County,
California.
