OBITUARY: PATTY BOGLE, 59

The matriarch of Bogle Vineyards in Clarksburg, California, died in February due to complications of leukemia.  Patty Bogle and her late-husband Chris built Bogle Vineyards from 18 acres of grapes to a regional wine powerhouse.  Wine Business Monthly recently ranked Bogle as the country’s 14th largest winery.  The Bogles first sold their grapes to wineries and later founded their family winery in 1979.  They started with a goal of producing 4OOO cases annually, and now ship more than 1.2 million cases of wine and operate production facilities in Clarksburg and around Northern California.
Patty Bogle oversaw winery operations, while her husband ran the company’s agricultural program.  When her husband died in 1997 of heart and kidney failure, their son Warren Jr. left college to become the company’s vineyard manager.  Patty Bogle was named “Woman of the Year” by the California Legislature in 2OOO, but was also committed to seeing the winery continue through the family’s generations.  She named son Warren Jr. as President in 2002, and daughter Jody Bogle VanDePol was named Secretary of the winery’s board of directors.  Ryan Bogle, her youngest son, joined the family business in 2OO8 and now serves as Vice President. Patty Bogle was diagnosed in 2OO7 with acute myeloid leukemia, and received a stem-cell replacement and other treatments at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.  She stepped back from many of her winery duties, but the family business continued to thrive under the helm of her children and longtime employees.  She is remembered for championing petite sirah, a grape that produces rich red wine and grows well in Clarksburg’s soils.