Doug Margerum
Doug Margerum has been intimately involved in the Santa Barbara food and wine scene for over 40 years. Doug is regarded as one of the pioneers promoting the uniqueness and quality of Santa Barbara food and wine. His food and wine explorations started at an early age while traveling with his parents in France. In high school and college, he worked in restaurants as a cook and server, continuing to follow his passion and learning more about food and wine.
Coinciding with his 1981 graduation from UCSB with a degree in Business Economics, his family purchased Wine Cask, an existing wine store. What began as a retail wine store quickly expanded to include a simple bistro adjacent to the existing space. The restaurant garnered critical success from the outset with praise from Gourmet, Bon Appétit, and the Los Angeles Times.
Doug launched the Wine Cask Futures program in 1984 in Santa Barbara, elevating the national exposure of Santa Barbara wines. Doug founded and owned Vita Nova Winery with Bob Lindquist (Qupé) and Jim Clendenen (Au Bon Climat) in 1986 and sold his share in 1998.
In 1991, Wine Cask expanded to the “Gold Room” in Santa Barbara’s legendary El Paseo, and the adjacent Intermezzo cafe opened in 1996. The two restaurants and the wine store were the Santa Barbara destination of choice among local and international food & wine cognoscenti.
While running the restaurant, wine store, and catering business, Doug traveled and discovered wines that had not yet been imported into the United States. Wine Cask was the first to bring in the wines of Didier Dagueneau, a Loire Valley winemaker who built a cult following for his Sauvignon Blanc from the Pouilly-Fumé appellation, as well as René Geoffroy Champagne and Dominique Laurent wines from Burgundy.
In 1994, Wine Cask became one of 74 restaurants worldwide to earn the Wine Spectator Grand Award. In 2007, Doug sold the restaurant to focus on his nascent eponymous wine production.
In 2001, MARGERUM WINE COMPANY began in a tiny 240-square-foot cold room behind Brander Vineyards. At the time, it was the smallest bonded winery in the United States. The philosophy was to return wine making to its previous form of production – handcrafted and personal.
Margerum primarily produces M5 wines (Rhône varietal white and red blends), a co-fermented Syrah called ÜBER, SYBARITE Sauvignon Blanc, and RIVIERA Rosé. Doug works with the top vineyards from the cool eastern end of the Santa Ynez Valley, in Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara, to the cold vineyards of Sta. Rita Hills towards the western end of the Valley.
In 2012, Margerum founded BARDEN wines – an exploration of cold climate grapes grown in and around the Sta. Rita Hills AVA. BARDEN is Doug’s middle name, and its English meaning is “Lives near the boar’s den” … thusly, the label is adorned with an image of the wild boar that is pervasive in the area’s vineyards.
Doug’s unique background in retail wine sales, as the sommelier/owner of a Grand Award restaurant, chef, and as a winemaker, has made him sought out by a variety of wineries to assist in the development of their brands. Doug has consulted for Chêne Bleu super Rhône wines in France, and continues to consult for the luxury Happy Canyon brand Santi Rosina, and for the Santa Barbara wines of Paradise Springs Winery, based in Virginia.
In 2016, Doug established the Margerum Estate, an 18-acre vineyard on Alamo Pintado Road in the Los Olivos District AVA. The vineyard is planted to ten red and white Rhône varietals, with five Syrah clones on steep hillsides.
As a friend and colleague of Julia Child’s during her time in Santa Barbara County, Doug was asked in 2016 to serve on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Kitchen Cabinet, a board made up of leaders in the food and wine industry. Doug is also on the advisory board for the Julia Child Foundation as well as the Treasurer for the Santa Barbara Vintners Foundations