Lane Giguiere, Striking Paydirt In Yolo’s Dunnigan Hills

The fourth of eight interviews with women contributing to wine in the Sacramento region, today featuring Lane Giguiere, who with her husband John and brother-in-law Karl remain grounded in the rolling Dunnigan Hills of Yolo County.

 

Lane Giguiere, Owner, Matchbook Wine Company, Zamora, Yolo County

Over the past four decades, Lane Giguiere, her husband John, and John’s brother Karl have constituted a formidable presence on the national wine scene, despite their grounding in the remote and isolated Dunnigan Hills of Yolo County, an area more recognized for sheep than Chardonnay.

They changed that perception, starting with the winery R.H. Phillips in the 1980s, now with the winery Matchbook Wine Company, which produces 165,000 cases a year under such brands as Pillars of Hercules, The Arsonist, The Herdsman, Tinto Rey and Matchbook.

After selling R.H. Phillips in 2001 and before establishing Matchbook, Lane and John Giguiere took a break, but retirement in Sacramento didn’t fit them, and two years later they were back in the Dunnigan Hills, creating vineyards, building another winery.

Early on with R.H. Phillips, Lane Giguiere’s winery duties included pasting labels on bottles of wine by hand at the kitchen table. Today, she is more administrator, overseeing the company’s hospitality program and public relations, though she still can maneuver a tractor through vineyards, where she is an engaged partner in the family’s turn to organic and regenerative farming practices, convinced that healthier, more energetic soils not only are better for the environment but better for the quality of their wines.

You, John and Karl started R.H. Phillips on a shoestring, with only energy and hope. Could someone do that today?

In an area like this, I think so. We are out of the really high-cost appellations (grape-growing regions). If you were starting in Napa, Sonoma or Paso Robles, the costs of the land are so high today, maybe not, but in unsung appellations there is room to grow and to improve.

What advice would you give someone tempted to get into the wine business with similar aspirations?

It is pretty easy to plant and grow vines, and to make wine, but you better have a plan to sell it.

What was your plan?

We didn’t have a plan, but it was a little easier to sell wine then. California varietal wines were just emerging, they were a hot product.

From the start, your bottles have stood out on wine list and shelf for catchy brand names and boldly imaginative art; who in the family has the final word on those designs?

John Giguiere – first, middle and last word. He has a marketing eye that amazes me.

You guys have come up with wildly successful styles of wine, most notably Toasted Head Chardonnay, but have there been duds?

Early on, we had a Semillon. We thought it was a great grape for the area, and we had great marketing for it, but people don’t know Semillon. And we had a brilliant White Zinfandel we called Poolside Blush. It had great packaging, and White Zinfandel was hot, but maybe the word Blush wasn’t. It didn’t work. At the end of the day what really works is Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. That’s what people want. They account for 50 percent of our business, maybe more.

What’s your favorite Matchbook wine?

I am a white-wine drinker, so Matchbook Chardonnay and The Arsonist Chardonnay are my go-to wines all the time.