By Benjy Egel, The Sacramento Bee

(PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA) July 16, 2022 — More than 70 wineries dot El Dorado County today. Fifty years ago, there was only one.

Boeger Winery — and by extension, the modern El Dorado County wine scene — celebrated its golden anniversary last weekend, a party that will roll into Saturday and Sunday.

El Dorado County had 4,300 acres of vineyards in 1898, but just 11 acres growing for out-of-county wineries in the early 1960s.

By the time Greg and Susan Boeger fell in love with the region while drinking a bottle of wine under a fig tree, though, word was getting around: soil scientists had identified the Sierra Nevada foothills as prime growing territory.

The Boegers quit their jobs as state workers and bought the Fossati family’s old Placerville pear orchard in February 1972. They converted it to a vineyard and began by planting French varietals such as merlot and cabernet before adopting the more niche Italian and Spanish grapes such as negroamaro and barbera for which Boeger Winery is now known.

What Bogle Vineyards was to Clarksburg in those early years , Boeger was to El Dorado County. The Bogle and Boeger family patriarchs shared the California State Fair’s 2018 Wine Lifetime Achievement Award.

Boeger championed the foothills’ slopes, high temperatures and cool pockets as ideal terrain for certain reds, and drew outside attention to foothill towns such as Camino and Placerville.

The Boegers co-founded the El Dorado Winery Association and the El Dorado Wine Grape Growers Association, and helped get the region formally recognized as an American viticultural area in 1983. As the awards streamed in, Greg Boeger made a point of sharing knowledge and vine clippings with newer farmers, his and Susan’s son Justin said.

“The great thing about wine industry in general, but particularly in El Dorado (is that) I feel like we’re really close,” said Justin Boeger, the winery’s winemaker since 1998. “A rising tide lifts all ships, so we really try to work and collaborate with everybody to make sure more people are aware of the great wine that come out of this (region).”

Greg still oversees the vineyard, and will have his hands full as the winery ramps up production of whites such as pinot gris and sauvignon blanc over the next five to 10 years, Justin said.

Boeger’s anniversary celebration continues this weekend with vineyard strolls, barrel tastings in the cellar and blacksmith demonstrations at 1709 Carson Road in Placerville – about 45 miles from Sacramento. Visit https://www.boegerwinery.com/50th-anniversary-open-house for more information.