About Us

Douglas Margerum found his passion for wine as a teenager in the caves of Clos de Papes on a family vacation. Twenty years later, a 13-course dinner in New Orleans with Chris Robles gave Doug the opportunity he had been dreaming about: he turned over the day-to-day running of the restaurant he owned, Wine Cask, to Chris to follow his passion for making wine and he established Margerum Wine Company in 2001.

Previously, Doug had partnered with Jim Clendenen and Bob Lindquist making wine with them from 1986 to 1998. In 2001 Fred Brander allowed Doug to produce his first wines in a 400-square-foot facility Doug built behind Brander Vineyard. After five vintages on the Brander property, the Firestone family made the “tree house” winemaking space above Curtis Winery available to Doug. Since 2012 Margerum Wine Company has made its winemaking home in Buellton at a state-of-the-art facility on Industrial Way.

Margerum Wine Company is committed to creating handcrafted wines using only the highest-quality grapes, which enables us to make wines that are indicative of the place where they are grown.
We strive to make wines naturally, with individual characteristics and personality. The scale of production is kept at a level where we can touch and know the wine as it is raised to the bottle—the antithesis of mass production—old-world techniques in the new world.

The standards of quality are measured by our criteria – not by external sources.

• Our winery is kept at a constant 55 degrees to preserve varietal fruit flavors in the wines.
• All the red wines are fermented in small open-top fermenters and punched down by hand.
• We use lees and the CO2 from fermentation as antioxidants rather than excessive use of sulfur.
• We farm organically and sustainably – we are good stewards of the land.
• We love making wine and working with inspired vineyard owners. Visit the website to see the plethora of different wines we produce, including our flagship Riviera Rosé, Sybarite Sauvignon Blanc, M5 red Rhône-style blend, M5 White, Grenache, ÜBER Syrah, and small-lot single vineyard Syrah.

And, as a company…

We Do Well by Doing Good – Part of what we do is to help others and our community.
We Make Growth Intentional – Everyone prospers, and we are a winning team.
We Honor Tradition While Embracing Change – Making better decisions is part of our DNA.
We Are Built to Last – We still take chances, and everyone gets heard.
We Are Good Stewards – We exchange information and knowledge. We are all part of improving our lives.

We encourage you to share and enjoy our wines with your family and friends at the table where they belong.

BARDEN Wines Mission Statement: BARDEN is the dream to make the ultimate expression of grapes grown in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA.  Our access to the top vineyards along with the philosophy and knowledge gained over thirty years in the wine business allows us to make world-class wines.  BARDEN’s English meaning is “Lives near the boar’s den” … thusly we have adorned the label with an image of the wild boar that is pervasive in the Sta. Rita Hills.