In December 2016, our Managing Editor Karin McLean interviewed Roger Beery, Co-Founder (with his wife Donna) of J. Cage Cellars. Roger and Donna created the wine blog Bacchus and Beery about ten years ago and from there slowly realized they had a “Wine Stained Dream” of beginning their own wine brand. Fast forward to 2017 and J. Cage Cellars is producing award-winning wines sold only on their website and in select restaurants.
KM: I’m always interested in hearing about how and why people decided to quit a sure thing and change careers for something completely unexpected. What were you two both doing before starting a wine brand?
RB: It all boils down to a willingness and desire to follow your passion. At the time we were deciding to make the transition from the automotive dealership consulting world to the wine world, I kept thinking about a lyric in a Robert Earle Keene song, “If you live your whole life upon a shelf, you got no one to blame but your own damn self!” That lyric still motivates me today.
Prior to starting J. Cage, I ran a successful risk management consulting firm that focused on the automobile dealership industry. As I used to joke, it was my MBA project that never ended. Donna was also involved in the firm as staff accountant. In early 2015, I was approached by a couple of prospective buyers and thought maybe the universe was trying to tell me something. We sold that firm on 6/30/2015 and haven’t looked back.
About ten years ago Donna and I began to write the Bacchus and Beery Wine Blog. As the blog matured, we focused more and more on small family and artisan wineries, many of which were in Sonoma County. We also began to learn about this entire culture of people who left stable careers to make wine to work in some other aspect of the wine world. Many of these folks sacrificed very good jobs to take a $14/hour 3-4 month internship just to learn about making wine. Some went on to get formal winemaking educations and other learned by doing. Little did I know that by interviewing and befriending many of these passionate winemakers that we were paving the way for our own transition to winemaking.
KM: Many people dream of doing something “crazy” like starting a virtual winery, but it remains a dream. What was the thing that made you do it? What do you think is the difference between the dreamers and the doers when it comes to something like this?
RB: First, let’s define a virtual winery so your readers have a clear picture. J. Cage is an actual winery, it’s just that we source our grapes from respected winegrowers rather than owning the vineyard and we make our wines at a winery that is not ours. It is virtual from the perspective that we don’t have a place to visit or distribute to retail outlets. The wines are only available at our website and in a few select restaurants… or you can just call us.
Well, we may be crazy…time will tell. First, I think it takes a very positive attitude and the willingness to not second guess yourself, too much. There are always doubts but you can’t let the unreasonable doubts stop you. For many very reasonable people life and responsibilities make following dreams and passions later in life very challenging. Kids, college tuition, mortgages, cars and all those things can and probably should make most people think twice.
For us however, I think meeting others who had successfully done what I wanted to do made it seem much more doable. The support of my family was the most important piece. If I’d jumped off this cliff without the support of Donna and our children, it would have been impossible to in all good conscience follow what we call our Wine-Stained Dream.
KM: Describe the process of getting started – what was your first step?
RB: The first step we thought would be to find a vineyard we wanted to a make wine from and convince them to sell us grapes, even though we’d never made wine. And while that was an early step, the first step was to hire a lawyer and get properly licensed, which is quite arduous. Navigating liquor laws is befuddling but it has to be done before you can make commercial wine.
We also had to pick a name. Our last name is Beery which would be a very confusing winery name. We wanted a family connection. J. Cage, my great grandfather, was a family patriarch and a [sic] early artistic bridge designer and builder. J. Cage was a pioneer who valued craftsmanship in all he did. It is that craftsman’s spirit that lives on in our family and in every bottle of J. Cage Cellars wine.
So now we are back to finding the right vineyards for the wines we envision making. Fortunately, after so many years of writing the blog and reviewing wines, we had had some relationships with vineyards where others had made wine we loved. Those winegrowers were willing to take a risk on us. Since we make only vineyard designate wines, the winegrower has to trust that their vineyard will be well represented by J. Cage since their vineyard name is on the bottle.
At the same time we needed to find a winery to make our wines and provide the services and equipment we didn’t own. In some cases, commercial wineries will use excess capacity to serve small producers like us. In our case, we went to a custom crush winery, a winery that specializes in making wines for other producers.
KM: How many years did it take between embarking on your wine journey and producing the first sellable bottles of wine?
RB: It was really quite fast. Maybe we moved so fast we didn’t have time to ask WTF are we really doing. The decision to move forward was made in late May 2014. Because of our contacts from the wine blog, we knew exactly what vineyards we wanted to work with to create what we call our “Virgin Vintage.” Luckily, those vineyards had enough fruit to accommodate us. On June 2nd, our 35th wedding anniversary, we celebrated our first Pinot Noir contract of 1 ton of grapes from Nunes Vineyard in Russian River Valley.
While one ton sounds like a lot, it only makes two barrels or about 50 cases, but we were on our way. In the next few weeks, we secured contracts with our Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier vineyards and added an extra ton to our Nunes contract. We picked our Sauvignon Blanc on August, 27th and Viognier on the 28th. The Nunes Pinot Noir came in a couple weeks later. J. Cage released our first white wines in May of 2015 and the Pinot Noir in November. Fortunately, the wines were well received and sold out rather quickly. Our 2015 Chardonnay is sold out and we have only a small amount of Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc left. We have just released two 2015 Pinot Noirs from Nunes and Hallberg Vineyard to very positive comments.
KM: Describe a typical day at your business.
RB: There really is no typical day but it is pretty easy to say that our work is divided into winemaking and wine selling. In August through October, we are really focused on winemaking. That’s when the grapes are harvested and the heavy lifting of winemaking is done. The rest of the year is spent promoting J. Cage and meeting our clients. We also spend time during the year with other winery activities like barrel topping, blending and bottling.
We do not have a tasting room so our wines are either ordered from our website or at private tasting events. We like that we get to personally interact with most of our customers and wine club members. We want them to know they are an integral part of the J. Cage family and the “wine-stained dream.”
KM: How many people do you employ and what do you look for, besides experience, in someone you hire that may be unique to your brand?
RB: At this point, and for some time to come, it’s just our family. Our son, Conch, serves as our winemaker but because we are so small, he works full-time at a well established winery. Donna handles all the back office compliance and accounting. Our daughter, Whitney, helps with some marketing but she also works in hospitality at a very well known winery. Many of the other jobs that larger wineries do in-house, we use consultants. This includes our consulting winemaker, Adam Lee. We also are fortunate that Conch and Whitney have significant others in the industry that help when asked everything from marketing ideas to vineyard inspection and grape sorting. It really is a family thing…at least for a while longer.
KM: What is your wine brand’s “personality?”
RB: We are truly a family winery that crafts small lot single vineyard wines. We think serious wines should not be taken so seriously. If you even question this, pick up the phone and see who you get on the other end…We are there to share the wine-stained dream with our customers.
KM: How has the wine industry changed over the years you’ve been doing it? Has your marketing strategy changed as well?
RB: Since we’ve only been at it since 2014, it hasn’t changed much. Our marketing strategy is to “touch” as many of our customers as possible through direct sales rather than just being another brand in a wine shop or grocery store. The client connection is important to us.
KM: What’s the difference you can see between wine buyers of, say, a generation ago, and today’s millennial buyers? Are you targeting any one specific group of buyers?
RB: As a producer of premium wines our market is smaller than a lager value priced producer. That said, we look for clients who want to feel a part of the winery…sharing the wine-stained dream. In this segment, I don’t think millennial wine buyers are much different. They want a wine that feels authentic and is artfully crafted. We hope all J. Cage clients feel a part of what we are doing. Any time you reach out by email or phone…you get a member of the Beery family..we are all about service and great wine.
KM: How are the responsibilities of the business divided up in your family?
RB: Donna and I do the vast majority of the work since both Conch and Whitney have full time wine jobs. In the office, Donna handles the accounting and compliance side, while I focus of planning, grape contracts, etc. I do most of the marketing while Donna and I share the wine sales, event pouring etc.
While Conch, with the help of our consultant, guides the winemaking, it is Donna and I that are hands on in the winery and in the vineyards. Conch tries to be in the vineyards on his days off and often helps with harvest if the grapes are picked on a day he has off.
Donna has unexpectedly found that she loves the pre-harvest vineyard work of sampling and testing grapes so we work in the vineyards together. I do much of the winery work but Donna is always available to offer assistance when she can. This year that includes foot stomping our Sangiovese to break up the skins for a better fermentation.
KM: What are your long-term goals for your brand? How many cases are you currently selling, what’s your production now, and what are your plans for the next 5 years?
RB: Our main goal is to produce delicious wines that let the incredible vineyards from which they are sourced have a voice. That said, we strive to craft wines that excite our clients and they are proud to share with friends and family. Our current production is about 750 cases which include two single vineyard Pinot Noirs, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Viognier. We also added old vine Zinfandel and a mountainside Sangiovese in 2016.
Over the next five years we expect to grow to 2,000 to 2,500 cases. At this size we can still hand craft the wines and remain in contact with our customers.
KM: You’ve been entering competitions and doing quite well – how does that help your sales?
RB: Yes, all the gold medals have helped to increase awareness and add validly in the eyes of some customers. There are a lot of great wines out there. For a new brand, the medals do validate that we are doing something right…Hopefully, that new customer will have the confidence to take a chance on our little winery rather than buying a wine they already know they will enjoy. Hopefully, we then become that wine they love and know they will enjoy each and every vintage.
KM: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us! We really appreciate learning about your journey from dreaming to doing, and we hope this encourages others out there who have a dream of their own to pursue.