{"id":1725,"date":"2022-07-15T21:33:31","date_gmt":"2022-07-16T04:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/?p=1725"},"modified":"2022-07-16T21:44:10","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T04:44:10","slug":"boeger-launched-the-el-dorado-county-wine-scene-50-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/07\/15\/boeger-launched-the-el-dorado-county-wine-scene-50-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeger Launched The El Dorado County Wine Scene 50 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Benjy Egel, The Sacramento Bee<\/pre>\n
(PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA) July 16, 2022 \u2014 More than 70 wineries dot El Dorado County today. Fifty years ago, there was only one.<\/p>\n
Boeger Winery\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 and by extension, the modern El Dorado County wine scene \u2014 celebrated its golden anniversary last weekend, a party that will roll into Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Boegers quit their jobs as state workers and bought the Fossati family\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
What\u00a0Bogle Vineyards\u00a0<\/a>was to Clarksburg\u00a0in those early years\u00a0<\/a>, Boeger was to El Dorado County. The Bogle and Boeger family patriarchs shared the California State Fair\u2019s 2018 Wine Lifetime Achievement Award.<\/p>\n
Boeger championed the foothills\u2019 slopes, high temperatures and cool pockets as ideal terrain for certain reds, and drew outside attention to foothill towns such as Camino and Placerville.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s son Justin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe great thing about wine industry in general, but particularly in El Dorado (is that) I feel like we\u2019re really close,\u201d said Justin Boeger, the winery\u2019s winemaker since 1998. \u201cA 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).\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=2Yk4Br_0ggiCcY100\"
Greg Boeger next to a Gold Rush-era grape press in the original stone cellar on the property now home to Boeger Winery. Mike Dunne\/Special to The Bee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Boeger\u2019s anniversary celebration continues this weekend with vineyard strolls, barrel tastings in the cellar and blacksmith demonstrations at 1709 Carson Road in Placerville \u2013 about 45 miles from Sacramento. Visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.boegerwinery.com\/50th-anniversary-open-house\u00a0<\/a>for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boeger\u2019s anniversary celebration continues this weekend with vineyard strolls, barrel tastings in the cellar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1725"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1727,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1725\/revisions\/1727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}