Full Transcript
Doug Shafer:
Grapes all in? Got them done?
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah. Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
Our grapes are all in.
Shannon Staglin:
Yep. Been pressing tanks and, you know-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah. How about you?
Doug Shafer:
Good. Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
Of course.
Doug Shafer:
Nice year.
Shari Staglin:
You're earlier than us, I think you're west side.
Doug Shafer:
No, no we got done about 10 days ago. Took a while.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah, so did we.
Doug Shafer:
But um-
Shannon Staglin:
Good year though.
Shari Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, nice year.
Doug Shafer:
All right, so we'll get this thing rolling here. Hey everybody, welcome back to The Taste. Doug Shafer with another episode. We've got a couple of good friends in here today. It's a mother daughter team. Shannon and Shari Staglin. These guys have been growing grapes, making wine in Rutherford for over 30 years. They got started just a few years after my dad got the Shafer going back in the mid- early 80s. Um, wonderful family owned winery. They are the real deal. They grow it, they make it, they sell it. And that's hard to come by these guy- days especially for over 30 years. So, first branch I think was 86, Shari-
Shari Staglin:
Correct. That's right.
Doug Shafer:
And Shannon. Welcome to The Taste.
Shari Staglin:
Thank you.
Doug Shafer:
How you doing?
Shannon Staglin:
Great. Thank you for having us.
Doug Shafer:
We got a lot of different stories today, I've got copious notes. But let's go way back to about your property. It's in Rutherford. What's the history? What's- doesn't it go way, way, way back?
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
How far?
Shari Staglin:
1864.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
Was when it was first planted by Mary and John Steckter. And we have no idea what the varietal was, but they put in 60 acres and they had another 300 and some odd acres of wheat. Wheat was the cash crop then. And by the 70s they were fully producing. They had their own little winery.
Doug Shafer:
This is 1870s?
Shari Staglin:
1870s. Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Okay. Wow.
Shari Staglin:
But it was apparently lucrative enough for them that they kept it. But in those days the- all the old timers along the western foothills that came, a lot of them came out of Missouri, which was at that time the number two wine growing, wine making region in the United States.
Doug Shafer:
I didn't know that. Missouri-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Back in the 1800s?
Shari Staglin:
Yep.
Doug Shafer:
Second to California?
Shari Staglin:
Nope.
Doug Shafer:
Second to-
Shari Staglin:
Guess. New York.
Doug Shafer:
New York.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah, then.
Doug Shafer:
So New York and Missouri were one and two in the 1800s.
Shari Staglin:
That's right. In the mid-1800s.
Doug Shafer:
In the mid 18- what was California doing?
Shari Staglin:
It was just getting started through the Steckters.
Doug Shafer:
I'm looking at Shannon 'cause, you know, didn't you have more liberal arts than I did in college? You should know this.
Shannon Staglin:
Uh, I was an anthropology major.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
So I went a little further back to like the, the Wappo native Americans. Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
There you go. Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
We, we have a gap. Okay, so they were, uh, so the grow- so number two-
Shari Staglin:
Well so-
Doug Shafer:
Number three.
Shari Staglin:
The 1840s was a bear flag revolt.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
And then the 1850s we became a state.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
And then people started migrating.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
And so they came out in covered wagons, and they staked their claims. And they started, they built the home on that property in 1864, which is still there. We've restored it. And uh, they had six kids there. Her brother and her father were both Shariffs of Napa County. And their son was the Shariff of Napa County. He built a house on the, uh, corner of Manly and the highway. And that house is still there. And um, and their daughter and her husband built a house halfway up Manly Lane, which is where Shannon is currently building a house. That was a Sears and Roebuck prefab.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
Which, uh, was in not good shape at all. It had to be taken down. But John and Mary Steckter had six kids and they gave away a corner of their property to the county for a schoolhouse. Right on the corner of Neibaum and Highway 29, which is still there-
Doug Shafer:
The little-
Shari Staglin:
Today.
Doug Shafer:
The Kindness Schoolhouse.
Shari Staglin:
And Shannon's daughter and her son go to that school.
Doug Shafer:
Which is the co-op-
Shannon Staglin:
Yep, it's the co-op. Yep.
Doug Shafer:
The co-op nursery. Um-
Shannon Staglin:
The St. Helena Cooperative nursery school.
Doug Shafer:
Wow, this is, you know, that's what's so fun about this. So-
Shari Staglin:
And Mary died when she was 103.
Doug Shafer:
103. All right.
Shari Staglin:
Yep.
Doug Shafer:
So that schoolhouse, when I was in high school in 1973 and ‘74 here in Napa, we moved out junior year. It was my senior year, there weren't a lot of options for me class wise. I was really interested in teaching. I went down, that's- before it was the co-op it was, I don't know if you know this, it was a school for handicapped kids.
Shannon Staglin:
Okay.
Doug Shafer:
Disabled, mentally challenged children. Nursery- you know, nursery school age.
Shari Staglin:
Fantastic.
Doug Shafer:
So I used to student teach there two, two classes a day through high school.
Shari Staglin:
How great.
Shannon Staglin:
Very cool.
Doug Shafer:
And there was this wonderful lady who ran the program, Athena was her first name. She was just fantastic and just, and these- oh, it was great. And then, yeah later then my kids went to the co-op.
Shannon Staglin:
There you go.
Doug Shafer:
And now they're older, but your kids are going-
Shannon Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
To co-op, and there's- which is for kinda kindergarten, first, second-
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, it's pre- pre-K. Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Pre-K. Wow. And that all came from Mary Stedicker, Stedicker?
Shari Staglin:
Steckter. S-T-E-C-K-T-E-R.
Doug Shafer:
Got it wow.
Shari Staglin:
Good German name. German American.
Doug Shafer:
I love it. Okay, so then they, but they sold it, when did they- the Steckter family sell it?
Shari Staglin:
Well, um, they- they fell on some hard times and they- they sold it when her husband died. He was quite a bit older than her. And so, and her son was helping out, her oldest son. And then they, uh, ended up selling it to another family and it was, changed hands several times, but at Prohibition it was taken out.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
As most of the vineyards were in Napa Valley. And it was not replanted until 100 years after it was originally planted, almost exactly. It was planted in 1864, it was replanted in 1964 by Andre Tchelistcheff.
Doug Shafer:
Tchelistcheff planted. So he planted- well we're gonna get to that in a minute. But okay.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
So that's the history. Wow. 100, so it was-
Shari Staglin:
But 1964 is the year Garen and I met on a blind date at UCLA.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
Isn't that something?
Doug Shafer:
That is something. Okay, we're gonna get to that because before we get to Garen, um, and Shannon we're gonna get to you, I promise.
Shannon Staglin:
That's okay. Yeah. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
But Shari, Shari goes first, um, Shari where were you born? Where'd you grow up?
Shari Staglin:
Uh, I was born in Heron, South Dakota, but I mostly grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
But my family moved to southern California when I was 12. And then I ended up going to UCLA eventually.
Doug Shafer:
So what- what'd your parents do?
Shari Staglin:
My father was a machinist at night, full-time. And my mother was a secretary during the day at the, uh, aero craft industry.
Doug Shafer:
Cool. And-
Shari Staglin:
Aerospace industry.
Doug Shafer:
Wine- wine part of the home life?
Shari Staglin:
Absolutely not, we drank milk at all times.
Doug Shafer:
At all time- (laughs)
Shari Staglin:
Yeah, being from South Dakota.
Doug Shafer:
South Dakota.
Shari Staglin:
My grandparents had a dairy farm. And that's what everybody drank for dinner, milk.
Doug Shafer:
Alcohol involved? Wine, beer?
Shari Staglin:
Almost never.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
My dad- my dad's father, my grandfather was a, no alcohol. Teetotaler. Just wasn't allowed, even after dad came back from the war. He came in with a six pack of beer and my grandfather said, "Get that out of here."
Shari Staglin:
My grandmother-
Doug Shafer:
Then dad ends up making wine.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
(laughs)
Shari Staglin:
My grandmother I remember making- her made- she made my cousin leave when he came in. He was in college, with a six pack of beer. And she made him leave.
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah, she wouldn't have it in her house. And my mother always said, you can- you can have a drink, but a lady nurses one drink all night.
Doug Shafer:
(laughs) I love it. So, UCLA and um, you enrolled in UCLA and that's where you met Garen, right?
Shari Staglin:
I did.
Doug Shafer:
Blind date, how'd that happen?
Shari Staglin:
I didn't have a date for the dorm party. I was a dormie. Um, he was in a fraternity. But I didn't have a date that night and I thought it was nerdy to go to a dorm party, so I didn't want to go. But I said to my roommate, I said, "You know what, I don't have a date tonight." She was in charge of the party. Why don't you get me a date. And it was the first time that dorm parties were allowed to have alcohol because it was off campus at somebody's parents' home. So um, she asked around and the first person she could get was Garen. And apparently he had just broken up with somebody. And I got a call in my dorm room. And he said, "Hello, this is Garen Staglin, I was just elected by a committee of five to be your escort for the evening."
Doug Shafer:
(laughs)
Shari Staglin:
And I-
Doug Shafer:
Elected.
Shari Staglin:
Started laughing and I liked him right away. So, uh, we went to the party. And uh, we hit it off right away.
Doug Shafer:
That's great.
Shari Staglin:
But there was a lot of ups and downs. We were only 19.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, that's a long, that's a long road.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
So Shari I'll jump to you, tell me about your dad, Garen. Where'd he, where'd he come from? Where'd he grow up?
Shannon Staglin:
So, he was born in Nebraska, uh, and uh, he says that he had the good sense to leave at one years old.
Doug Shafer:
(laughs)
Shannon Staglin:
Uh, and uh, moved with his mother and father to southern California, to Long Beach. And uh, his father is originally from, uh, from Italy, Calabria.
Shannon Staglin:
So the last name Staglin used to be Stagliano.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
Uh, and it was, his name was Pascuali Stagliano, and he changed it to Raymond Staglin when he was naturalized. So, my grandfather is kind of where the interest in wine started for our family.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
Because being Italian, wine is a part of the family dinner table. And so- my dad grew up that way, and, and that's where his interest started. And then my parents met and my mom started learning about wine from my dad and, and his family.
Doug Shafer:
So, so when you guys were dating was it, was it wine or was it beer? Being in college it was probably beer.
Shari Staglin:
Well we were only 19.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah. Well that's right, you weren't legal.
Shari Staglin:
We were drinking beer as a matter of fact. Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Of course.
Shari Staglin:
At his fraternity parties.
Doug Shafer:
Of course you were.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
(laughs) So, um, you both graduated UCLA.
Shari Staglin:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Doug Shafer:
And degrees, you were-
Shari Staglin:
I got a bachelors in international relations.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
He got a bachelors in engineering. Uh, electrical and nuclear engineering.
Doug Shafer:
And uh, what- did you guys get married right away? Or take a while?
Shari Staglin:
No, no. We didn't get married til three and a half years after we met.
Doug Shafer:
Okay. So what were you each doing, work wise?
Shari Staglin:
I went to work right away for the- I had always worked part-time during school. I worked full-time the first two years in junior college. And I went to work full-time for the university running the charter flight program for the, at that time I think there were only five UCs. And um, I wanted to go- I wanted to travel and I didn't have that much money. So, I figured I'd run the charter flight program and go for free, which I did. So that's what I did for a year. And I would visit Garen. He would want me to come up and say- see the place, and see Stanford. And he was at business school.
Doug Shafer:
Oh, he was at business-
Shari Staglin:
He went to business school.
Doug Shafer:
Okay. I got it.
Shari Staglin:
And I would come and visit, and then he would say, "Hey, let's go up to Napa Valley, we can drive up for the day.' And that was the first time we ever visited Napa Valley, and that was ‘66.
Doug Shafer:
In 66, so you guys weren't married but you came up, dating and whatnot and-
Shari Staglin:
Right.
Doug Shafer:
So were you getting into wine and-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
The whole deal?
Shari Staglin:
We were tasting, there was only six wineries on the, on the highway then.
Doug Shafer:
Six wineries.
Shari Staglin:
Uh-huh (affirmative). Six wineries in 66 that could be a song.
Doug Shafer:
Wow. Okay. So, um, so you guys-
Shari Staglin:
Can you guess what they were? Oh, maybe you don't want to do-
Doug Shafer:
Six wineries, no, no it wasn't Mondavi. They weren't onboard yet.
Shari Staglin:
Right.
Doug Shafer:
It was uh, Louis Martini.
Shari Staglin:
Yes.
Doug Shafer:
Charles Krug.
Shari Staglin:
Yes.
Doug Shafer:
Beringer.
Shari Staglin:
Yes.
Doug Shafer:
Hang on. Oh, come on.
Shari Staglin:
Further north.
Doug Shafer:
Further north was, wasn't transferred yet.
Shari Staglin:
Clue is, it survived the Prohibition. It kept its vineyards.
Doug Shafer:
It survived prohibition-
Shari Staglin:
Christian Brothers.
Doug Shafer:
Oh, Christian- oh, silly me.
Shari Staglin:
It's now the-
Doug Shafer:
Now the CIA, how could- how could you miss that big guy?
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
And two more further south.
Doug Shafer:
Two more further south. You look at- you know, you're- oh, you're putting me on, I like this. You're putting me on the hot seat.
Shari Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
Further south what was it, uh, the Trinchero Family? Were they-
Shari Staglin:
Wasn't, no they weren't here yet.
Doug Shafer:
They weren't here yet. 66, um, it wasn't Mondavi. Wasn't Cakebread. It was, oh man.
Shari Staglin:
It was a Finish ship captain.
Doug Shafer:
Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Rubicon- Inglenook.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah, that's it.
Doug Shafer:
There you go.
Shari Staglin:
One more.
Doug Shafer:
Give me a hint. I need to-
Shari Staglin:
Is our-
Doug Shafer:
I need to phone a friend. I need to phone a friend.
Shari Staglin:
It's our vineyard's heritage.
Shari Staglin:
Our vineyard was originally planted by Andre Tchelistcheff for-
Doug Shafer:
Oh, BV of course.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Gosh, I gotta remember that.
Shari Staglin:
You got them all.
Doug Shafer:
Jeez, yeah but I had to-
Shari Staglin:
You can take that-
Doug Shafer:
I had to phone a friend.
Shari Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
Wow. That's great. So that was easy. Six wineries in an afternoon. Easy. You could do it all.
Shari Staglin:
We'd have a picnic. There were no restaurants.
Doug Shafer:
I do remember that. We came out in 73.
Shari Staglin:
Oakville Grocery.
Doug Shafer:
Oakville Grocery the original. Okay, so when did you guys get married?
Shari Staglin:
1968.
Doug Shafer:
68. And so you were living ...
Shari Staglin:
Uh, by then I had moved up 'cause I decided to marry him.
Doug Shafer:
Moved up to Bay Area.
Shari Staglin:
To the Bay Area.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
And I went to work for Lockeed and Missiles. Missiles and space company as a logistics analyst.
Doug Shafer:
Wow. And he was done with his MBA? What did, what did he start doing?
Shari Staglin:
Uh, well he was still getting his MBA that year. And then he did ask me to marry him.
Doug Shafer:
Great.
Shari Staglin:
And then we did get married in June that year.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
But we, but he had to immediately go into the Navy because of the Vietnam war.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
And he was in ROTC, so we knew that we had to go over, and we did.
Doug Shafer:
So what- you guys were stationed at different-
Shari Staglin:
I was in Japan. I lived there.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
And he was in Vietnam most of the time.
Doug Shafer:
I didn't know he was in Vietnam. Okay. Well, good so we have- you get through that and then you end up back in California at some point?
Shari Staglin:
We did after Washington DC and then New York and then California.
Doug Shafer:
Okay. And you moved to-
Shannon Staglin:
Lafayette.
Doug Shafer:
Lafayette.
Shari Staglin:
There was no Shannon yet.
Doug Shafer:
There was no Shannon yet.
Shari Staglin:
Yep.
Doug Shafer:
And Shannon's still here.
Shannon Staglin:
I'm still here.
Doug Shafer:
We haven't forgot you. (laughs)
Shari Staglin:
She's a California girl.
Shannon Staglin:
Born in 79. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
So, so you moved- gosh you just told me. You moved, you moved in 79 you moved?
Shannon Staglin:
75.
Shari Staglin:
75.
Doug Shafer:
75 you moved. Thank you. And um, 79 you were born.
Shannon Staglin:
Correct.
Doug Shafer:
So that was 79, so you were living in Lafayette. Which is a suburb of San Francisco.
Shannon Staglin:
Correct. Yeah, I think-
Doug Shafer:
Got it.
Shannon Staglin:
So the story my mom tells is that the day before I was born she was at the Chateau Montelena release party. True, drinking-
Doug Shafer:
The day before you were born. (laughs)
Shannon Staglin:
A glass of Reisling and dancing to a Dixieland band.
Shari Staglin:
At 10:00 in the morning.
Shannon Staglin:
Yes. (laughs)
Shari Staglin:
She came out very happy. And has been happy ever since.
Doug Shafer:
Look at you. So the wine thing was, as you, as you and your brother were, you know, little kids. You and, Shari you and Garen were doing the wine thing, big time obviously. Just, just loving it.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Just being wine lovers. Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
Well, we chose where to live because it was an hour from Napa Valley and it was two and a half hours from skiing. Those were two things that we really cared about.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
And so, we used to visit Napa Valley and Sonoma all the time. And we wanted to, we just really wanted to have our own vineyard.
Doug Shafer:
Got it.
Shari Staglin:
'Cause it was such a great dream. We loved the people here, we loved the wine, we loved the place. What a beautiful place. And eventually it worked out.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah. So, Shannon you were born in 79, your brother Brandon was born-
Shari Staglin:
71.
Doug Shafer:
71.
Shari Staglin:
In New York.
Doug Shafer:
In New York.
Shari Staglin:
Yep.
Doug Shafer:
So you guys are- do you remember Lafayette at all growing up?
Shannon Staglin:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. We lived there, uh, until I started high school.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
So we moved up here full-time when I started high school. Uh, so definitely remember Lafayette well. But you know, Napa we were here every weekend from probably since I was like, at least four years old. Uh, so Napa's definitely home. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
What was that like? They're dragging you up here every weekend? Did you guys have a place up here or were you just-
Shari Staglin:
I remember when she was a baby-
Doug Shafer:
Come up day trips?
Shari Staglin:
At Chateau Montelena and I was rocking here, it was a storm- it was a rainstorm and our friends were saying, "Oh, your- this is terrible to your baby. You shouldn't have her out in this, in this rain." And I was like, "Well, she'll be all right. She's gonna be fine." (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, she's fine.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, no I mean I think, um, coming here it was a different place then. I could run around in the vineyards or hide in the barrel room or things like that-
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
While they were tasting. So, it was uh, very kind of relaxed and, and agrarian.
Shari Staglin:
And Brandon was climbing up and down the rocks and the streams and-
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, but did you guys like it or were you like, I'm- 'cause I imagine myself- well, I have my, remember my own kids at that age they were like, really we gotta go do this?
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
I want to go play with my friends down the street. I want to go to the, the mall.
Shannon Staglin:
I think when I got to that age, like my parents we would bring- my friends would come up with us for the weekend, and you know, it was a fun getaway for them. And uh, kind of only an hour away, but you know, quite, quite different from life in Lafayette. So. It was the- my fourth, both third and fourth grade we had a, um, field trip to Napa Valley. So, the- my whole class got on, you know, the yellow school bus and came to Rutherford.
Doug Shafer:
(laughs)
Shannon Staglin:
And helped pick grapes. And it wasn't child labor it was, you know, like (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
Sure, no it was a-
Shannon Staglin:
Just a few clusters. Uh, but it was a great way to kind of learn about agriculture and viticulture and, and what it- what wine comes from right? And uh, the kids would explore the property, and we had an old cave that they would, you know, climb in and get poison oak and all that good stuff. So.
Doug Shafer:
So this was your place- this was your- so when did you buy your place in Napa?
Shari Staglin:
We bought it in 1985.
Doug Shafer:
85.
Shari Staglin:
In December. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Doug Shafer:
Okay. That's, and uh-
Shari Staglin:
It had never been on the market.
Doug Shafer:
But you moved, when did you move up here?
Shari Staglin:
We- we didn't move up here until 1993.
Shari Staglin:
Because we decided, we sorta got seduced into the wine business. We just wanted a little vineyard. And we would have a house up here, and then we would sell the grapes to other wineries.
Doug Shafer:
That's-
Shari Staglin:
But as I looked-
Doug Shafer:
(laughs) That sounds familiar.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah. And as I, as I came up to look for a place, and at that time I was doing executive search and Garen was selling a business. But I started taking some time off work to come up here every day because the tax laws were changing from a tax shelter of, uh, depreciation over five years to, uh, 30 years.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
So, we said well we're gonna have to do it in 85. And so, I started looking in June, no January of ‘85. And we didn't finally close on it until December 5th.
Doug Shafer:
So, the plan was just to have a little small little vineyard, house in the country, sell the grapes. That was- that was the-
Shari Staglin:
That was the original plan, but we slowly got seduced. Fairly quickly actually got seduced.
Doug Shafer:
I think it was quickly.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
I know you.
Shari Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
I think that was, I remember the story with my folks, because I think my mom was under the impression dad was gonna just be a gentleman farmer and sell the grapes.
Shari Staglin:
Uh-huh (affirmative). Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Actually that was my take too. And then within a few years, all of a sudden you know, I'm in college I hear that dad's starting a winery and it's like, wow. And not til many, many, many years later I was talking to him one time. I said, you know, "Wow, what was that like?" And he said, you know, you know, "How'd you figure out you wanted to make wine?" And he goes, "Well I kinda always did, I just never told your mom." I said, "Oh, oops." (laughs) So-
Shari Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
But similar story. So, you buy that, so you're absentee owners.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
And farming grapes. So, were there grapes on the property?
Shari Staglin:
Yeah, it was fully planted.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
Um, it had been planted by, um, replanted from a prune orchard that had come after Prohibition. Replanted in ‘64 by Tchelistcheff for the granddaughter of Georges de Latour, Dagmar dePins who was that time the owner of BV.
Doug Shafer:
And so he- and he was the wine maker BV.
Shari Staglin:
Yes.
Doug Shafer:
So he planted the property.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah-
Doug Shafer:
She owned it, he, he planted to-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
For the grapes for BV Cab.
Shari Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Doug Shafer:
Got it. Well you couldn't have a better guy planting your grapes.
Shari Staglin:
I- I found out that later. And he did come to visit us.
Doug Shafer:
So did- yeah. Did you meet him?
Shari Staglin:
Oh yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Doug Shafer:
And did-
Shari Staglin:
Absolutely.
Doug Shafer:
Did you work with him, too? Did he work with you guys?
Shari Staglin:
He- he said he was under contract not to consult with anybody else.
Doug Shafer:
Huh.
Shari Staglin:
But um, he said he would come and talk to us as a friend, which he did.
Doug Shafer:
That's great.
Shari Staglin:
He and his wife came out. And we- and he tasted through everything that we had made at that time. We hadn't made any wine until ‘86 'cause we had bought it after the ‘85 harvest.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
And so, he tasted ‘86 through ‘91, no, that was April of ‘91. So, and he uh, he gave us his kind of recipe for where and when he picked the grapes, which, which acids, which pHs, et cetera.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shari Staglin:
And which sugars. And um, we were of course at that time picking much higher sugars than he used to do.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
For his perfect wine. And so, we tried it. And the next year I told Celia, who was our winemaker at that time, Celia Welch, I said "Let's have David just not pick anything, half of this vineyard until such and such a date- or such, such sugars. And we'll pick the other part according to Tchelistcheff's standards." And we did that. And um, I really didn't like, I didn't like Tchelistcheff's standards.
Doug Shafer:
(laughs)
Shari Staglin:
I liked- I liked our version better.
Doug Shafer:
Well yeah, styles change.
Shari Staglin:
I would like to add why Garen has never run the wine business and why I always have, and now Shannon.
Doug Shafer:
Garen's, oh help me with that so Garen's never, I always thought Garen was kinda running it.
Shari Staglin:
No.
Doug Shafer:
No, it was your baby.
Shari Staglin:
No way.
Doug Shafer:
No way he'd not listen to you.
Shari Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
So operations, all these are, all these are yours.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
You were running it.
Shari Staglin:
We own it together. And the children too.
Doug Shafer:
Cause he's got his own thing.
Shari Staglin:
He's got lots of other things going on yeah. Talk about energy.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
Yes. But when we bought the vineyard, the first thing, and we thought he would retire from working in other jobs-
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
And run the vineyard. And instead we've ended up getting a red leaf virus right away.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
The, couldn't get the sugars up. Then we got Phylloxera. It was one thing after the other and we had to put so much money in to the vineyard to start re-planting it and getting nothing back, or very little back. And so, and you know how that goes.
Doug Shafer:
Yep.
Shari Staglin:
So um, I said "Honey you've got to start another business." So he did.
Doug Shafer:
(laughs)
Shari Staglin:
And then I've always run it. So I left my work, I was doing executive search then in the city and then I left that and, and worked as, ever since then full time in the wine business.
Doug Shafer:
That's fantastic.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Well congratulations.
Shari Staglin:
And then Shannon luckily, cause I told both the kids "you cannot come and work for the wine business, we don't, we don't want you to, we want you to go out and do your thing what you love to do. This is what we love." And both of them ended up wanting to come back.
Doug Shafer:
Well...
Shari Staglin:
But I told them five years and so, it was, Shannon wouldn't listen to me and she came back immediately after college. Shannon: (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
I just don't understand why Shannon you wouldn't listen to your mother. I've known your mom for a long, long time I just don't get this. Shannon: Everybody in my family is a Capricorn except for me but I am a Taurus so... (laughs) We're all strong willed.
Doug Shafer:
So when you moved up here, Shannon. You were just starting high school.
Shannon Staglin:
Correct. Yeah, I you know, leaving, uh, all of your friends when you're in eighth grade is like your world is, is over. But it all turned out okay. (laughs) so.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, come on. How was it- it's, it's rough.
Shannon Staglin:
I mean it was, I was very scared and very emotional. But I, I went to, uh, Justin Siena.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
Which was a great school because it was smaller and also kids from a lot of different schools convened there. And so, it wasn't like everybody knew each other already. Uh, so and uh, they have great sports programs, and great academic programs, and so I definitely I think, uh, flourished, uh, in that environment. Um, and got to meet a lot of great new people. And I played basketball, and volleyball, and did well enough in school. So (laughs).
Doug Shafer:
That's great. And, and I think you're being a little modest. Basketball, I heard there's some records that you still own.
Shannon Staglin:
I think I fin- it finally got beaten. But I did have the season assist record for varsity basketball for a long time. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
Way to go. Way to go. Well, I uh, I- when we moved out here I played basketball up in St. Helena.
Shari Staglin:
You did?
Doug Shafer:
I've got- yeah, I did, but, but I got no records baby. (laughs)
Shari Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
No, it was fun. It was middle- I moved out in middle of junior year.
Shannon Staglin:
Okay.
Doug Shafer:
I was from Chicago. That was pretty wild.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, I bet.
Doug Shafer:
But um, it was fine. St Helena was a small school. It was great, and people were really friendly. And um, so it was-
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
And you know, playing sports helped a lot too.
Shannon Staglin:
Yes.
Doug Shafer:
Gets you going.
Shannon Staglin:
And Justin and St. Helena are rivals, so-
Doug Shafer:
Arch rivals.
Shannon Staglin:
So yeah. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
I've got two, two of my kids went to Justin, so yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
Oh, okay.
Doug Shafer:
I've bounced all over-
Shannon Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
My- my allegiances are all over the valley. So you've-
Shannon Staglin:
That's good.
Doug Shafer:
You got done, uh, with Justin and then you off you went to-
Shannon Staglin:
I went to UCLA as well. Uh, so I graduated from UCLA in 2001 with a degree in anthropology. And despite my mom's wishes for me to go do something else, I wanted to come back to the wine business. I'll rewind in saying in high school of course I didn't want to have anything to do with the wine business, because what teenager wants to do what their parents do?
Doug Shafer:
Understood.
Shannon Staglin:
Uh, and, but after going away to college and having some distance and coming back home to Napa really kind of saw how, how beautiful it was, and you know, the, the romantic side of what my mom did. Of you know, traveling and meeting great people. And drinking great wines.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shannon Staglin:
And going to the, you know, the new restaurants. And uh, so I just, uh, I decided you know what, that's what I want to do. So, um, and I kept my, my focus on anthropology, mainly cultural.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shannon Staglin:
And when I came back I worked as an intern in our winery in 2001.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
It was when we were still kind of balancing between Napa Wine Company and our own caves.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
So, our, our caves took two years to dig out and build. And so, in 2001 our red wine production was still at Napa Wine Company but our white wine production was in our caves.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
And so I managed all of those Chardonnay fermentations, uh, Andy Erickson was our winemaker that year.
Doug Shafer:
Oh, great. Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
So it was his first year at the winemaker. He came from Harlan where he was the assistant. And I was his first ever intern. So I like to wear that badge proudly. He's had a lot of interns since then. (laughs) But learned a lot about wine making, and learned that I didn't want to be a winemaker.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shannon Staglin:
Um, you know with a winery our size it can be somewhat of a solitary job.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
And anybody that's worked in a winery understands that like, 909% of what you do is clean things, especially if you're an intern.
Doug Shafer:
(laughs)
Shannon Staglin:
But I just, I- I love being around people. And I love kind of a diverse set of responsibilities. And so I started working in our offices and did that until 2006. And kind of got to the point where I, I did national sales, I, I hosted events and tastings. I- I did all sorts of different things. And um, kind of reached my plateau of where I could get at that point before I started managing people that taught me what I was doing.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shannon Staglin:
So I went and got my MBA at UC Davis, um, from 2006 to 2008, and then worked in banking at Wells Fargo, um, for two and a half years.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
And then came back to the family business in a managerial role in 2011.
Doug Shafer:
Look all I, I remember- I remember meeting you 'cause it's kind of like, you know, you were the big trade tasting or consumer tasting, Staglin table and Garen and Shari aren't there, so I-
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
It's this other gal. It's like, well hi. I'm Dough Shafer. And hi, I'm Shannon Staglin. It's like, oh.
Shannon Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
I didn't know you existed.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
It's been great. And um, but going back with you guys, the history of your winery. So, I think you- do you guys still use David Abreu?
Shari Staglin:
Yes, he was our original vineyard manager.
Doug Shafer:
You're original guy, which is he's one of the best. So, you've got great grapes.
Shari Staglin:
He's terrific.
Doug Shafer:
So wine making you custom crushed at Napa Wine Company for how many years? 10, 15?
Shari Staglin:
Well we were in one, two, three, four uh, four different wineries before we finally got our own caves.
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shari Staglin:
To make it in.
Doug Shafer:
That's- that's-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
That's gotta be challenging I think.
Shari Staglin:
We were just- yeah, we were like gypsies trapes-
Doug Shafer:
Yeah. (laughs)
Shari Staglin:
Trapesing around. We'd the uh, the winery would get full up with their own wine and they'd kick us out.
Doug Shafer:
Sure, they'd kick you out. Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
And then the same thing would happen. It happened several times.
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shari Staglin:
And so, Napa was our, Napa Wine Company was our fourth. We'd been at, um, uh, first it was called Sunny St. Helena.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
And later became Merryvale.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
And so we made some wine there with Bill Harlan and Debbie Harlan.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shari Staglin:
When they were dating. Um, we picked our first ton together.
Doug Shafer:
Oh, fun.
Shari Staglin:
On our vineyard. And uh, we had no idea what we were doing in ‘86, but it, it turned out okay after several years. Originally it wasn't great.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
Uh, and then we, we after that we went to Sinskey, we got kicked out of there, then we went to way up in the hill-
Shannon Staglin:
Hess-
Shari Staglin:
Hess Collection.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
And then we-
Doug Shafer:
Oh, yeah that's-
Shari Staglin:
Ended up at Napa Company.
Doug Shafer:
That's a drive.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Well good.
Shari Staglin:
But we finally got our own winery.
Doug Shafer:
You finally got your own place in 2002.
Shari Staglin:
It was finally for red wine and white wine.
Doug Shafer:
Great. That's all underground, which is really cool.
Shari Staglin:
Everything's underground.
Doug Shafer:
I remember- I remember going there for a lunch, it was so cool. Well you know, Tchelistcheff actually suggested that. He did.
Doug Shafer:
You know the guy, the guy has his fingerprints all over this valley.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Everybody I talk to there's some connection.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Elias has his tuxedo.
Shannon Staglin:
Really?
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, Dorothy-
Shannon Staglin:
Really?
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, Dorothy called up Elias, said, you know-
Shari Staglin:
How great.
Doug Shafer:
"You're about the same size as Andre, you want his tuxedo?" Elias says, "Sure."
Shannon Staglin:
Has he worn it to anything-
Doug Shafer:
Oh yeah. Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
Whenever there's something- it's rare that we, you know, get gussied up.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, black tie around here. Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
But uh, he does it's great.
Shannon Staglin:
That's great.
Doug Shafer:
We always have a moment. Um, and so wine make- on the wine making you had Celia was your first?
Shari Staglin:
Uh, no our very first wine maker was, I think our first- Cathy Corrison.
Doug Shafer:
Okay, Cathy. Great.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah, and then after her it was Celia. Uh, because Cathy started making her own wine. And it just- and she was buying out grapes and it, it seemed like a conflict of interests. So we parted ways.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah. Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
But we're all still friends. And then Celia was with us for 11 or 12 years. And then Andy came on board. And um, and then he went into being a consultant, Celia became a consultant because I said-
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
They either have to be full-time or, for Staglin or they're a consultant but it's not together. And so, whenever they wanted to be a consultant they had to leave with my blessing. And we found somebody new.
Doug Shafer:
I'm with you. That's-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
That's, you need to have your own team in place.
Shari Staglin:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
So, Frederick Johansson is our current wine maker.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
And he's been with us since 2007.
Doug Shafer:
That's great.
Shannon Staglin:
Yes. Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
It's nothing better than having some time.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, for sure. And another thing about tenure too in the vineyard, so we talked about David but our crew on the estate, some of them have been with us 34 years. So, Richard-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah, since we-
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, Richard Villaseñor is our foreman, so he's overseeing the, the crew since the beginning. And then Juan is the tracker driver. Also 34 years. Um, then there's Jose and Ignacio and Jesus, uh, and Jorge are all about two decades. So, the-
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shannon Staglin:
Continuity of workmanship's very important to the quality of the wines that we can make off the estate.
Doug Shafer:
That's incredible.
Shari Staglin:
It's pretty wonderful.
Doug Shafer:
It is wonderful. And you guys should pat yourselves on the back. What's the secret? How- how's-
Shari Staglin:
They're like part of our family.
Doug Shafer:
How's that happen?
Shari Staglin:
Um, well during harvest we've always given a breakfast.
Doug Shafer:
(laughs)
Shari Staglin:
'Cause they have to pick at night.
Doug Shafer:
Food's important.
Shari Staglin:
And lunch.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shari Staglin:
And uh, we just care about them a lot. And you know-
Doug Shafer:
You take care of them.
Shari Staglin:
We walk in the vineyards and talk to them every day. And we live there, and we work there too.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
And we see each other. And-
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
Everybody knows everybody.
Doug Shafer:
No, that's- that's a-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
I just, I- that's always really good to hear. I love hearing that.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
And we've gotten to, you know, like they've seen my grow up since I was six years old.
Doug Shafer:
Oh, you were a little girl. Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
And you know, we've gotten to see some of their kids grow up. And uh, you know, help support them in their ongoing-
Shari Staglin:
Going to college.
Shannon Staglin:
Education. And-
Doug Shafer:
Yeah. Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, so it's actually kinda funny. When my husband and I first started dating and he moved out here from Florida, he's from Houston. He would come on the property and all of the guys that the crew, in the vineyard would kind of look at him very skeptically and (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
(laughs)
Shannon Staglin:
You know, he had to, he had to pass the, the test-
Shari Staglin:
He had to pass muster-
Doug Shafer:
He had the pass the test. It's like, who's- yeah. Who's-
Shannon Staglin:
Who's this guy?
Doug Shafer:
Who's dating Shannon?
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
(laughs) That's pretty funny.
Shari Staglin:
But we know their families and their wives and we've all gotten to know each other every year at our harvest party and throughout the year. And um, you know, they send me pictures of the- one of our guys just sent me several years worth of pictures of, of his family with me.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
At harvest parties.
Doug Shafer:
That's-
Shari Staglin:
And the kids were from little until now they're, you know, starting in high school.
Doug Shafer:
That's cool. Um, want to back up a little bit because this is a really important part of your family's life.
Shari Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Doug Shafer:
And it's, it's blossomed into some wonderful, wonderful things. But in 1990 your son Brandon, brother Brandon, some things happened. Changed his life, changed your lives.
Shari Staglin:
He had an acute onset of schizophrenia.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
In adolescence.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Doug Shafer:
And he was how old?
Shari Staglin:
A psychotic break. He was 18.
Doug Shafer:
18.
Shari Staglin:
He was just after his freshman year at Dartmouth.
Doug Shafer:
Just out of the blue.
Shari Staglin:
To us it was out of the blue. Then, had we known then what we know now, we would have seen the symptoms leading up to it. But he was our first born, and we just assigned it to-
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
Okay, that's a way teenager- that's who he is.
Doug Shafer:
He's a 19- yeah, he's a 19 year old. Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah. Right.
Doug Shafer:
But he's in great shape, and he's, he's-
Shari Staglin:
Well he wasn't for a long time.
Doug Shafer:
He wasn't for a long time, but you guys-
Shari Staglin:
We had to figure it out.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
First we had to find out what it was. Then we had to educate ourselves about what it was, and we felt very guilty that usually, in psychology classes in college we learned, I had learned that it's usually the mother's fault because- You hadn't been a good mother. And so I felt very guilty because we'd always expected him to be a high achiever, and he was our first born. And, and a psychologist friend came and talked to us, and he said, "You know what, it's- this is a genetic predisposition. It's triggered by something environmentally. We don't know what it is, but it's not your fault. And nor is it Garen's fault."
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
It's nobody's fault. It just happens just like, you know, you get cancer, you get diabetes, sometimes you get schizophrenia. And what he needs now is somebody to stick with him. He needs unconditional love, and he especially needs his father. And so, Garen took him to Europe. And uh, he was still pretty sick and they- we were still trying different meds. But eventually one of them worked pretty well. They- those days they kinda zombied you out.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
But it got rid of his psychosis and he was grateful for that. Um, but we had to go through trial and error for a long time. And at any rate, I think as much to do with meds and psychiatrists is unconditional love.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, love and support.
Shari Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Never ending.
Doug Shafer:
Uncon- unconditional. That's the key word right there.
Shari Staglin:
Right. And sometimes you just want to throw them out. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
Yeah. Yeah. But-
Shari Staglin:
But that's life.
Doug Shafer:
But how tough on you, and Garen. You know, it's like-
Shari Staglin:
It was a- it was, it was the worst thing we ever went through.
Doug Shafer:
'Cause you did everything right raising a kid.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Right?
Shari Staglin:
We- but you know, we all, we all got through it. And Shannon was only 10 then. And she had to bare the brunt of it because Brandon would call her and he had forgotten where he'd left his car. And she'd have to get a neighbor to go pick him up.
Doug Shafer:
Oh. 10 years old.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah. It was kind of a shift in roles, right?
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
'Cause I was-
Shari Staglin:
You know-
Shannon Staglin:
I was always the younger sister that pestered him. So, it was a, a different, uh, a different exchange for sure. But I, I definitely, I wouldn't say I bared the brunt, you guys did most of the heavy lifting. And I was there on the periphery, so.
Shari Staglin:
But it takes a village, you know.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
He had friends that would come over and visit. And-
Doug Shafer:
That's great.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
And he works for the winery now, communications manager-
Shari Staglin:
Well he was working for the winery. But now he's full-time, he got his master's degree last year. And now the board has named him president of One Mind, our nonprofit for brain health.
Doug Shafer:
Oh, fantastic.
Shari Staglin:
He's doing a terrific job.
Doug Shafer:
Now is, okay because I was, before I talked about One Mind, this tough, challenging problem you guys had in your family has, you guys morphed it into this fantastic event. It's called the, the Music Festival for Brain Health.
Shari Staglin:
Music festival for Brain Health. Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
And it's on year 25.
Shari Staglin:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Doug Shafer:
And you've raised how much over that time-
Shari Staglin:
Over 460 million dollars. All of it for research.
Doug Shafer:
I mean, okay. I want to hear about this. Are you- you have to describe this, 'cause it is a fantastic event. It always happens in the middle of harvest, so I can't come pour wine. But I give you cases of wine. But um-
Shari Staglin:
Thank you very much-
Doug Shafer:
Of course. Of course.
Shari Staglin:
For your support and participation.
Doug Shafer:
But describe it to everybody.
Shannon Staglin:
I think you gave a, you gave like a, a five or six liter this year of an older vintage of Hillside Select, so thank you for that.
Doug Shafer:
You're welcome. I'm-
Shannon Staglin:
It was enjoyed. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
I'll give you whatever- I'll give you- you just, you tell me what you want I'll deliver. You don't even have to ask. You guys tell me what you want me to give you.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, it's um, so it's a, it's a really wonderful day. It's called a music festival, but it's really more a festival of a day.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
We only have one music performer. Um, but it starts out with a scientific symposium so we have some of the scientists that we're funding their research. We have some of the top scientists in the nation, uh, speaking kind of about, uh, what is happening in research.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shannon Staglin:
The breakthroughs that they're finding. Really sharing kind of pen to paper if you're donating to this cause where your money is going and the difference that it's making. It's a great opportunity for people to be able to meet these scientists, ask personal questions, and it's one of the few places that is truly like, there is no stigma involved in brain health when you come to this day.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
And so it's a very kind of freeing and opening energy that I think everybody experiences, and joy from that. Um, being able to talk openly about it. Then after the scientific symposium we have the wine tasting reception in the caves, which you generously contribute to. Uh, and we have 70 of the top wineries, um, from the Napa Valley and beyond pouring. And we have a different local chef doing the hors d'oeuvres for that every year. And then after an hour and a half in the caves, tasting, uh, we transition out to the um, the concert. And so, a different performer is every year, this year was Sheryl Crow. Uh, next year will, will still TBD, but I'm sure it'll be somebody fantastic. It's, Jennifer Hudson was the year before.
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shannon Staglin:
Um, so a really great, uplifting concert, and then for the patrons we have a dinner, uh, at my parents' home in the backyard, and a different celebrity chef does that every year. So, uh, the founding, the first chef every was, uh, Charlie Trotter. Uh, he was very-
Shari Staglin:
First two years.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, very, very supportive of the cause.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
And very interested in what we were doing. This year was chef Nina Compton. So she just won James Beard award for the south. And uh, she has two restaurants in New Orleans, and uh, she actually worked with my husband Artie in Miami, where he was kind of the manager of, uh, Casa Casuarina, which is the Versace mansion and she was the chef. So they go back. Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
It's- it's, it's a day long event. And how many people are there, like for the, for the, the- this, the talks by the scientists, or-
Shannon Staglin:
It's a full house.
Doug Shafer:
Research.
Shannon Staglin:
I mean, it's stand- it gets into standing room only, uh-
Shari Staglin:
It's about 450 to 500.
Doug Shafer:
Four- four to five hundred people.
Shari Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Doug Shafer:
And then they all can participate in the wine tasting and patron dinner's probably a little smaller.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, the- so the symposium is also free. So, anybody can come to that as long as they register.
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shannon Staglin:
Uh, and then um, the tickets that you can purchase are for the concert and reception, wine tasting and reception. Uh, and concert, or the full day, which includes the dinner.
Doug Shafer:
The dinner.
Shannon Staglin:
So, yeah the dinner, uh, generally is around two-
Shari Staglin:
250-
Shannon Staglin:
Under 250.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
Uh, this year we got totally oversold. And I think we were at 340.
Doug Shafer:
(laughs)
Shannon Staglin:
So we now know exactly how many can fit without any more room. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
You know, the Staglin family has a lot of energy.
Shannon Staglin:
We do.
Doug Shafer:
That's all I can say.
Shari Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
I've known you, Shari for so long, and Shannon, you know, I can't keep up with you guys. Um, so it's a beautiful day. It's all, it's all happens at your place.
Shari Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Doug Shafer:
Home and winery.
Shari Staglin:
It does.
Doug Shafer:
So this fantastic festival 25 plus years. It's so great, but, flashing back to before you started the festival with this, this unbelievably challenging, tough, tragic thing with Brandon and, and how it, you know just challenged you to your core-
Shari Staglin:
For sure.
Doug Shafer:
as a parent, how, how did you get through that, that, that tough, tough tragic time and evolve and turn this into this wonderful triumph that you have today? How, how, how you, Shari, how you do that?
Shari Staglin:
Well, we didn't do it alone. A lot of it was Brandon too.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
And, and he, he realized and we told him that, if we could, we would take that disease from him, because we'd already lived a great life and we wanted him to live a great life.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Shari Staglin:
And that we loved him very much, um, but his job going forward, and he, he was down on himself psychologically because of the stigma.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Shari Staglin:
Plus the fact that he didn't have a girlfriend, he couldn't get a job, um, so we said your job now is to get well, that's your job, and we're here to help you and we gonna always help you, no matter what; but he realized that, okay, from that point forward, he had to work at it just as hard as we worked to help him and so it took us a long time to get him better. But he had, we had a wonderful psychiatrist at Dartmouth who gave us pointers along the way and when, even when Brandon couldn't go back to school, they always made their kids with psychotic breaks stay out for one year.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Shari Staglin:
Brandon talked him into coming back within one quarter, because the psychiatrist said you either have to get a job and, and, uh, you have to get a supervisor to recommend you or you have to go back to school and get a professor to recommend you. Well Brandon did both-
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Shari Staglin:
And he got both recommendations and he went back within a quarter, and he worked hard, it was not easy. He moved out of the dorm because of the, the di- discrimination and stigma and, and-
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
We got him an apartment, but, um, and it was us as much as anybody that had to get ourselves better. We needed that psychologist to help us understand that it wasn't our fault and then we didn't feel the guilt and we could help him more. But we were still in shell shock for quite a while and we were running through the vineyard one morning with our dogs and I said "You know what," we met Charlie Trotter at Birmingham, at that wine auction.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Shari Staglin:
He's such a great guy, he was a chef, we were the winery and, um, I told him, you know, you're so good, you gotta come out and do something. We just built a house on our vineyard and maybe you'll do something for us. He said, "Well sure, uh, well if it's charity, I'll do it for nothing".
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shari Staglin:
And I said "Wow, that sounds great". So, and then we had another friend who had a new boyfriend and she brought him out from New York and he was conductor and he said "My gosh, this is a beautiful place, you ought to have a music festival."
Doug Shafer:
(laughing)
Shari Staglin:
And I said no way, there's, I have no time to do a music festival, because I am so busy getting our business started in the wine business. And he said, "Well, if you did something for charity," he said, "I'd produce it for you". So, I was like, well, we'll talk about it.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
So we're running around with the dogs one morning, I said to Garen, you know, what if we put Charlie Trotter together with Richard and we did a music festival and Richard did the music, he, he'd have an orchestra and, and Charlie would do the dinner-
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Shari Staglin:
And so in our next wine release letter, which was a little letter on executive stationery, it said two lines, it said "Save the date for September lalala, we're having a music festival for mental health."
Shari Staglin:
And I started getting calls and I got a call from one woman who I never heard of and I wasn't responding to her cause I thought it was just, you know, but I finally... she wouldn't give up and finally she said, oh, this is Jean Robertson and my husband is on your wine list and I have two sons that have, uh, a brain disorder. One has Schizophrenia, one has bi-polar disorder and they're twins and I wanna support you and we'd like to give you $25,000 and I was like, "What?"
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shari Staglin:
It was only 750, seven, $75 for the day, wasn't it then?
Doug Shafer:
Right, yeah. Shannon: Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
75 for the day and it was a hundred for dinner. So that's where we started.
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shari Staglin:
But, we did get a good outcome and we got our Rutherford neighbors right around us to pour their wine and, uh, we got somebody to do hor d'oeuvres, which it was a local chef and I can't remember, it's probably Cindy. Shannon: Maybe.
Doug Shafer:
Probably.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah. Shannon: Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Probably.
Shari Staglin:
So it, it was, but then we had a wine tasting around the tent where the, the concert was and that was the, uh, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra was off-season, so he hired them. Then we had to deal with unions and stuff, but it all worked out. Garen and I did everything, we were running around in our shorts, you know, putting chairs out-
Doug Shafer:
Yeah
Shari Staglin:
Telling the guys where to put the poles for the tent and, um, getting ice for the white wines, and we did everything.
Doug Shafer:
You did it.
Shari Staglin:
And then we didn't, really look that dressed up cause we were still (laughing)-
Doug Shafer:
No, but look what you did and you haven't looked back.
Shari Staglin:
No.
Doug Shafer:
And so if folks out there were interested, where- how would they get more information?
Shannon Staglin:
So-
Doug Shafer:
Through the website?
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, there's a-
Shari Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shannon Staglin:
Website called, well it's, they can go to the One Mind website.
Shari Staglin:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
Um, which is OneMind.org.
Shari Staglin:
And look for events.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
Yep. Yep. Or um, there is the musicfestival.org website, which is-
Shari Staglin:
Music-festival dot org.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, music-festival.org.
Doug Shafer:
Okay. All right, and if you- anybody out there didn't get that just call the Staglin Winery and they'll give you all the information.
Shari Staglin:
Absolutely. We've got it.
Doug Shafer:
Always pick up the phone. So, okay, so how is One Mind connected with this? 'Cause I wasn't sure about that. Is One Mind separate deal, or is it part of the wine-
Shari Staglin:
It's a totally- it's a 501C3-
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
IRS designated.
Doug Shafer:
Got it.
Shari Staglin:
It always has been. So all the money that comes in, 100% of it is for donations.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
We have very few staff, but they're housed there. It's been more and more successful as we go through.
Doug Shafer:
Super.
Shari Staglin:
We sold out last June for a September events, September 14th this year, next year it's the 12th.
Doug Shafer:
Boy that's a lot to organize.
Shari Staglin:
I've already sold two tables for next year.
Doug Shafer:
Look at you.
Shannon Staglin:
(laughs)
Shari Staglin:
Yeah. You want to buy one?
Doug Shafer:
I knew- I knew it was coming. I knew that was coming. All right. Well that's, that's fantastic. And speaking of your beautiful home, something else happened in 1997. Hollywood came calling.
Shannon Staglin:
They did.
Doug Shafer:
What was that all about?
Shannon Staglin:
The movie The Parent Trap, uh, the second, or the first remake that Disney did that had, uh, Lindsey Lohan and Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson.
Shari Staglin:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Shannon Staglin:
Was filmed at my parents' house. It was the summer before I left for college. So, I was there for the first three weeks of filming. And then missed the last week, uh, to go down to UCLA. But it was, um, you know, it's interesting because now, like today people that grew up watching that movie, when they come to Napa Valley they want to know where this house is, and they want to come to the house and come inside the house. And (laughs) you know-
Doug Shafer:
Oh my god. It's to this day- they still do?
Shannon Staglin:
Oh, yes. It's-
Shari Staglin:
Oh yeah. It's still on the Disney Channel and people watch it all the time.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
So what hap- so they're knocking on your door?
Shannon Staglin:
I mean, we- we have a gated entrance to the property, which we never closed-
Shari Staglin:
Thank god.
Shannon Staglin:
But now we do, we have it closed. (laughs) So, um, and you know, we- for hospitality purposes, we're, we're very limited in the number of people that we can see, uh, per day by our use permit.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
Uh, so we um, you know, we- we graciously, you know, share kind of our limitations with those that are interested in coming to visit the home. (laughs) So-
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
It goes with the territory I guess. But we never imagined that it would hang on this long.
Doug Shafer:
Well, so Shari you had the, did they like clean, did they clean your whole house out and bring in new stuff? That must have-
Shari Staglin:
Uh, only- yeah, sort of.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
They took our, a lot of our art down.
Doug Shafer:
Oh, your beautiful art. Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah. They wanted to put things up like rowboats and things that looked like a bachelor.
Doug Shafer:
I see. (laughs)
Shari Staglin:
And so they paid to move the- by art movers to move it out. And they took out all of our living room furniture and our piano and put in beige corduroy furniture that looked like a bachelor. And-
Doug Shafer:
(laughs)
Shari Staglin:
Anyway, it was kind of fun to see, it was funny actually. And they told us when they were gonna, they wanted to make the movie there, I- they said they wanted us to leave. We'd have to move out. And I said, "No, we- we live here and we work here. We're not leaving." Well then your dogs will have to go to a kennel. "No, they live here too and they're not leaving." So, they did it anyway. So we got the watch the takes once, 'cause they did everything five times.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shari Staglin:
Then we'd go back about our work.
Doug Shafer:
What- did- was it fun for you, Shannon?
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, I mean it was, it was interesting to see how a movie is made, right?
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
And the number of people that are required, and uh, just the infrastructure that they bring in. And everything, it's intense. You know, and uh, but it was, um, it was a fun experience. You know, I was in, I was in between senior year in high school and freshman year in college. And so-
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
This is when I would like to sleep until 11 o'clock every morning, right?
Shari Staglin:
No chance.
Shannon Staglin:
And uh, one morning they were filming in the kitchen at like 6:30 in the morning. And my bedroom is above the kitchen. And so, of course it woke me up, and I kind of came down the stairs in my boxers and T-shirt, which I slept in-
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
To a hallway full of people looking at me. (laughs) So, I made my way up to kind of the apartment above the garage to go back to sleep. But (laughs) ...
Doug Shafer:
That's pretty funny.
Shari Staglin:
Garen and I would run around the vineyard every morning with our two dogs, our Jack Russells. And um, stop and have breakfast in the catering tent. We could have anything we wanted. And then we go on up, and whenever they were doing takes they would, they would pick the dogs up so the dogs wouldn't bark or anything or get into the take of the filming. And the dogs got really used to it, or they'd feed them. And uh, they got very spoiled and fat while they were there.
Doug Shafer:
(laughs)
Shari Staglin:
The director had to put out a notice to quit feeding the dogs.
Doug Shafer:
That's pretty good. So, 2015 you had a chance to expand your property. You add some vineyard?
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, we-
Shari Staglin:
Oh that's right.
Shannon Staglin:
We purchased a section, um, in between where my parents' property is and the highway.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
It's five and a half acres. There was owned by the Farig family.
Shari Staglin:
The Farig.
Shannon Staglin:
And under long term contract with Pine Ridge.
Shari Staglin:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
So they had been farming it and using the grapes from that property. But it was also the home sight for the Steckter's daughter that my mom was mentioning earlier.
Doug Shafer:
Okay. That's great.
Shannon Staglin:
Um, we have, uh, we're actually in the process right now of replanting it. Um, and then as my mom mentioned we're gonna break ground in the spring to build a, a home for myself and my husband and our two children.
Doug Shafer:
Oh great.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah. So we'll, we'll have, it'll be a nice commute to work. (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, exactly. Especially these days.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
That's cool. Full circle.
Shannon Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Doug Shafer:
So how many acres total you guys have now?
Shannon Staglin:
Uh, well inc- including that it's like, 60-
Shari Staglin:
And then we bought the hillside later too.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shari Staglin:
Because I didn't want to take out any vines to build a house. So, we-
Doug Shafer:
Got it. Okay.
Shari Staglin:
Bought the hillside and, and we put our house on the hill and our winery under the hill. So all in we're just over like, 66 acres, 68.
Shari Staglin:
67 or eight. Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah. So do you buy any fruit or just use your own?
Shannon Staglin:
So the Staglin wines are 100% estate.
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
Uh, the Salus wines, which-
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that.
Shannon Staglin:
Those are estate, but also some non-estate fruit, but from very high quality uh, ranches in the Napa Valley. So, uh, when we started to produce Salus we wanted to tie that into our philanthropic work. And-
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
So the Roman goddess, uh, Salus is the goddess of health and wellbeing. And we donate all of the profits from the sale of the Salus label, both the chardonnay and the cabernet back towards brain health research.
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah. So, um-
Doug Shafer:
That's great.
Shannon Staglin:
You know, we're, we're limited in what we can produce off of our estate.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shannon Staglin:
And so we wanted to kind of expand the production within reason, still quite small of the Salus label, so we do purchase some fruit from some great properties like, uh, we've historically purchased from Hudson and Hyde for the Chardonnay, from Beckstoffer Jordan the third for the cabernet. So-
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, those are all great ones.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah. Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Oh, man. Good for you. That's so, Salus the- there's a Chardonnay and a Cabernet?
Shannon Staglin:
Correct, yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Got it. And in Staglin there's a couple Cabs?
Shannon Staglin:
Uh, we only have one. So, or there's uh, the Staglin Chardonnay and the Staglin Cabernet and then we have two very small production wines that we do off of the estate. Uh, one is called Stagliano uh, or Stagliano which is our Sangiovese. We have an acre and a half of Sangiovese.
Shari Staglin:
The original family name is- Dad was born with that.
Shannon Staglin:
And um, that was planted in ninety...
Shari Staglin:
Oh gosh you're taking so long time to propagate it. Uh, but we had a fully producing vineyard by ‘93 was our first. No, ‘90 is the first time. ‘93 is the first time we released it.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Tough grape to grow.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, you know about that.
Doug Shafer:
Oh man, tough wine to make.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah. Originally we got it from Biondi Santi and later we got some from Firebreak.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, I mean I got some from Pepi and he said it was Biondi. Who knows what was going on there-
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
-everybody. There's about a million stories about budwood from here.
Shannon Staglin:
We only have an acre and a half so it's manageable.
Doug Shafer:
That's, that's, that's a good move right there.
Shari Staglin:
Yes, yeah. And it's kind of become, it's a little bit of a unicorn wine like people are like "oh the Sangiovese."
Doug Shafer:
Oh I know it's great.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah and then um, we also have a label that we call Ineo, which is a Bordeaux blend that is more Cab Franc prominent comparatively to our Staglin Cabernet. Very small production, anywhere from 50 to 100 cases of that. The first vintage of that was 2006 and we, it came out of an auction lot for Auction Napa Valley. It was the first auction lot to ever sell for a million dollars at the auction.
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shari Staglin:
Which included some of this wine uh, as well as a trip to France so... (laughs)
Doug Shafer:
I do remember that day, it was a big day.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah, it was a shock. And it was so hot in, remember that?
Doug Shafer:
It was a hot day, somebody dropped a million dollars.
Shari Staglin:
We had never met before, until that day.
Doug Shafer:
Look at you, look at you guys. How do you repeat that? You can't.
Shari Staglin:
Mike Thompson, our congressman, was going around with wine in a basket like he does-
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shari Staglin:
-and and, Garen pulled one of our wines out and, and poured it for the tables around us and that was one of the, that lady is the one that bought the uh...
Doug Shafer:
You never know.
Shari Staglin:
You never know.
Doug Shafer:
Good surprise. You guys, it's great but, but Shannon back to you 2015, besides new vineyard what happened to you? You ran, you ran to some guy in, in Florida?
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah so I was there working the market and Artie Johnson is my now husband, um, he was working in Miami. He'd been there, I think for seven years running wine programs and uh, I was, we were Augustan Wines and the sales rep Rachel that I was working with was awesome and she put together this really great lunch. So instead of going to visit a bunch of accounts everybody met at the River Oyster Bar, which is kind of like the "Cheers" of Miami for people in trade.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
And Tim Brickell. And so did lunch, Artie was there, met him, he was very thoughtful and asked some great questions and was also good looking but I didn't really think much of it other than that.
Doug Shafer:
(laughs) I love this.
Shannon Staglin:
Then I was back there in, later that year actually to do a, to a di- do a dinner at the St. Regis in Bal Harbor that came out of that lunch that I did earlier that year and that's when we really got to know each other better, we'll say (laughs). And he moved to Napa shortly thereafter in June of 2015 and then we got, no sorry this was before that. So that was in 13, uh, June of 2013. And then we got engaged in January of ‘14, we got married in May of ‘15, we had our first child in March of ‘16.
Shari Staglin:
It all happened so fast.
Shannon Staglin:
Our second child in July of ‘17 and we're done now with, with babies, but now we're building houses so you know and we're launching wine brands and all that (laughs).
Doug Shafer:
You're, you guys I've, I've spent a little bit of time with Artie, he's a kick. Whenever I see him at events he's, it's great, it's like "hey", he goes "hey." And so we always have a nice chat but, but I was just thinking about you guys this morning you know, cause Cicily is how old?
Shannon Staglin:
Cicily is just over three and a half.
Doug Shafer:
And Artie?
Shannon Staglin:
Arthur is just about two and a half.
Doug Shafer:
You know I'm, just the thought of that just kind of scares me shakes, you know I've, I've live through, I've lived through it. I've lived through it a few times but it's still like - I was just thinking about you and Artie-
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah?
Doug Shafer:
And these two little kids.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
And you're running a winery.
Shannon Staglin:
Yup.
Doug Shafer:
And traveling. I've, it's just like, how are you doing this?
Shannon Staglin:
It's, I...
Doug Shafer:
How you doing it?
Shari Staglin:
Grandparents.
Shannon Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
Well...
Shannon Staglin:
Grandparents are very helpful, um, but yeah it's an intense time and it, it - uh, our children are Cicily and Arthur and um, Artie my husband, has started his own wine label so that's called "Artie, Le Artie Shasic." So it's the combination of our three family names "Artie, Shannon and Sicily." And uh, I'm in YPO, which is a professional organization. I'm actually chair of our chapter which is just a one year responsibility but it's a lot and then I'm also launching a new wine brand, a very small project with our winemaker Fredrik, uh, hopefully before the end of the year so...
Doug Shafer:
That's exciting.
Shannon Staglin:
It's just kind of a building time in our lives (laughs). There's a lot happening and I don't know how I keep it all above water but I try (laughs).
Doug Shafer:
Well, congratulations, but I will, I will give your parents, the grandparents you know, a little, some credit because I was somewhere with Garen and uh, it was hilarious he was like "oh, oh." He might have getting a cup of coffee. I go "what?" He goes "oh Jesus." He was just, you know I love your Dad, and your husband. And uh, I said "what?" And he goes "Shannon and Artie are gone for the weekend so we're covering the kids." I say "well that sounds great. What's it like?" He goes "oh my gosh they're running all over the place". And he had a little video of one of them. He goes "look at this" and this kids like, screaming down the hall you know, trying not to knock over stuff and Garen's chasing him. So I would, I had a good chuckle but uh, I'm about uh, run in to that roll myself real soon here but....
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah they're definitely toddlers.
Shari Staglin:
Handful. For sure.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah (laughs).
Doug Shafer:
Just amazing. It's why you're busy. You're busy busy busy. So, family owned business, Shari you been growing it for a long, long time, um, Shannon you been on board for quite a while now, you're all working together it's, it's working well, it's successful, you've got exciting plans for the future, you got all the family involved, you all get along. What's, what's the secret to a successful family business and family members working together?
Shari Staglin:
I think it's... We're very lucky that we all respect each other and in 2005 we sat down and wrote a family mission statement, and all four of us immediately agreed on everything we thought we should be doing in our lives. What, what are the values we should be looking at to make decisions, and it took us one hour from 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning we had it all written down, we were ready to go.
Doug Shafer:
Wow.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah, so, I think because we share the same values and we care about the thing, same things, like making sure that, uh, we are doing things environmentally that the vineyard will always go on, family will always come first-
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shari Staglin:
That was the first statement,
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shari Staglin:
We take care of our community, what are some of the other ones... we had like five.
Shannon Staglin:
I guess world-class quality wines ...
Shari Staglin:
Yeah, definitely part of that (laughing).
Shannon Staglin:
But I think a, a couple things to add to that. So, one is that, you know, my brothers seven and a half years older than I am, and I always wanted to be, you know, I wanted to run the wine business, but that kind of made me concerned about how that would make him feel-
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
And so, we had a very meaningful family meeting. That was after we wrote the mission statement, I think, and really talked through, like, what, what our desires and wishes were and Brennan was fully supportive of me wanting to do that and, um, this was before he was really involved with One Mind and, uh, but you know he's-
Shari Staglin:
He also could not drink alcohol, because of his meds-
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah, correct.
Shari Staglin:
Uh-huh
Shannon Staglin:
Exactly, so, uh-
Shari Staglin:
So it made sense.
Shannon Staglin:
So it works out well that, you know, my passion is wine, his passion is brain health and we can both lead in, in those respects, and then also I think, in the wine business in particular, I think one of the challenges is that, if the first generation or founding generation is going to pass it on, they have to be willing to, um, pass on decision making ability and be trusting of maybe if I'm thinking of doing something different than my parents would-
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Shannon Staglin:
You know, we, we do disagree (laughing), um, and as long as I can provide, you know, sound reasoning as to why I think we should do something in one way versus another, they're usually supportive of that, and I think that that's really key and maybe one of the challenges that I see with people that are in my generation or slightly younger, really getting to have some real responsibility and effect change for the right reason in their business.
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, well kudos to you and Garen for listening and-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
I had the similar situation with Dad.
Shari Staglin:
Really?
Doug Shafer:
Yeah, people say, you know -
Shannon Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Doug Shafer:
Kinda looking for dirt.
Shannon Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Kinda questions like, well, how's it going with your Dad and, you know, any issues, you know, waiting for him to say, uh, you know he won't let me do this, he won't let me do that, just like to say, well, everything's fine, you can think-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
We kinda agree on everything-
Shari Staglin:
Exactly.
Doug Shafer:
And even when we don't agree, it's like, okay, I got, I see your point, I see your point, okay. Let's, let's make a call.
Shari Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Doug Shafer:
That was that way for, forever. It was really, it was - I didn't realize how special it was-
Shari Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Doug Shafer:
As I've gotten older and hear more family business-
Shari Staglin:
Yeah
Doug Shafer:
Horror stories sometimes, so.
Shari Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Doug Shafer:
It's all about trust and, and letting go.
Shari Staglin:
Yeah
Shannon Staglin:
Mm-hmm (affirmative)-
Doug Shafer:
So Shannon, you've got this great, these great line-up of wines, um, and some new ones coming. What, kind of philosophically, when someone grabs a bottle of Staglin wine and opens it, what, what do you want them to experience?
Shannon Staglin:
I think it's the wines that we're producing off of our estate are very special and we take a lot of pride and care in what we're doing every day and so does the entire team, right, that is helping us produce these and, um, you know, how, how is Staglin, we'll just talk about cabernet, different than a lot of the Cabernets that, that people might come across from Napa Valley and I think that, um, we remain true to our site and the beauty of our site really shows a lot of elegance and finesse in the way in which the cabernet can be experienced. And so Napa can be known power and extraction, uh, whereas I think our cabernet is, um, it has beautiful fine-grain tannins, um, lovely fruits, some herbal components and so, I think that it is, it can please both the old and the new world palettes, uh, because it can deliver on both sides of the spectrum, um, but I think restrained finesse, and elegance.
Doug Shafer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And I'm, I'm glad you brought up your site, we haven't talked enough about your site, it's that, your vineyard is in, you know, prime location in this valley, you know, on the western bench, right there in Rutherford Oakville. It's great, great, great piece of property, great heritage-
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
You know, going back to the BV days.
Shannon Staglin:
When I was looking for it, I got to find that out, I didn't, we didn't know anything about anything. And I was the one that did all the vineyard shopping-
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
And, uh, I, I hired a consultant. And he, he's the one that said, you know, you just got a... if you wanna get a really good vineyard, he said, all you timers knew when they came out here that the Western Bench lands were the best, because they had the volcanic-
Doug Shafer:
Yeah.
Shannon Staglin:
The deep volcanic soils that is so good for cabernet, and he said, but they never change hands because families, you know, they pass them down.
Doug Shafer:
Right.
Shannon Staglin:
And we really got lucky, cause this one was never on the market, but our realtor's name is Jim Warren, he was in a winery partnership with John Brian across the lane-
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
Bella Oaks and he had been offered it by, uh, the Sullivans', which was Dagmar duPins and her husband, Walter. Couple years before because their children had no interest in the wine business or, or the vineyard business, and so, and John said well what do I need with another million dollar vineyard. And which, that's what, you know, that's about what it cost in those days. And but Jim knew about it, and so he told us about it and he said it's not for sale, really. I can try, and he worked at it for quite a while.
Doug Shafer:
That's-
Shannon Staglin:
And finally-
Doug Shafer:
That's great to hear.
Shannon Staglin:
We talked him into it.
Doug Shafer:
And you know its good to hear that Jim Warren had to work to sell something (laughing). Because Jim Warren is the guy my father met in 1973 or ‘72 when he came out here, dad came out here looking for vineyard. And he and Jim Warren ran all over the valley, couldn't find anything, and then Warren finally says, ‘cause dad had some wild idea about hillsides. And Warren goes "What if the old Phillips place down Stags' Leap it's been on the market five years, maybe, you know, let's go take a look". And dad tells a story, he drove up the driveway and said, man this is it. So, boom. So I'm glad Mr. Warren had to work hard to sell something. It's good to know.
Shari Staglin:
Well Father's Day of 1985, I brought Garen out to show him this vineyard. And we had to sneak around, because they said, he said, you know, it's not for sale and none of the neighbors need to know, they can't know-
Doug Shafer:
Oh, that's funny.
Shari Staglin:
So we, he had to park his Jeep way down the road. We walked up, we got to the top the vineyard, looked down and Garen said, "It doesn't get any better than this."
Doug Shafer:
There you go. If people wanna get a hold of your wine what's the best way for them to do it? I mean you're distributed all over the world probably but ...
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah we sell 70% of what we produce direct to our wine club and mailing list on allocation so, the best, most, there's the Salus wines you can purchase online on our website which is Staglinfamily.com uh, the Staglin-
Shari Staglin:
Email info@staglinfamily.com
Doug Shafer:
Okay.
Shannon Staglin:
Uh, the Staglin wines are sold on allocation so the best thing to do is give us a call at the offices. We, somebody always answers the phone within two rings. Or three rings.
Shari Staglin:
(laughs)
Doug Shafer:
Wow you guys are good.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
We're about four here.
Shari Staglin:
And they're real people.
Doug Shafer:
Um, well good. I'm sure people will look for them. They should, they're great wines.
Shannon Staglin:
Thank you.
Doug Shafer:
And uh, boy you guys have done some wonderful things.
Shari Staglin:
Thank you.
Doug Shafer:
So we've got, is there anything new coming or, it sounds like there's plenty going on right now.
Shannon Staglin:
There's a lot happening yeah so... (laughs) We're um...
Shari Staglin:
Well her new project Resa is coming.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah so uh, Fredrik Johansson our winemaker and I, with the blessing of Carissa Mondavi, his wife, I had set them up on a, so, that was, I've only match made once and it's, so I have 100% success rate. Both Carissa and Artie are kind of supporting us in this project as well as my family to do a, uh, it's a single bottling of Grenache and a single bottling of Pinot Noir so...
Doug Shafer:
Oh fun.
Shannon Staglin:
Kind of lighter bodied red varietals and uh, from some, some really great properties, uh, over in Sonoma and Petaluma Gap area, uh, so that, uh, will be launching, uh, hopefully as I said, later this year. Uh, or before the end of the year and that's called Resa, it's "R-E-S-A." Uh, which is Swedish for "journey" which uh, Fredrik is of Swedish descent, and I just love the word and the notion that, you know, we're all on our journeys right? And some of our paths cross temporarily and some for a lifetime and often times in our world it involves wine so I thought it was a, a great name.
Doug Shafer:
It is a great name. A great story.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah.
Doug Shafer:
Well good luck with that.
Shannon Staglin:
Thank you.
Doug Shafer:
It sounds very cool. You two, Shari, Shannon, thanks for coming in here. It's been a lot of fun.
Shari Staglin:
You're so welcome.
Shannon Staglin:
Yeah thanks for having us.
Doug Shafer:
All right guys, thanks for coming by.
Shari Staglin:
Thank you.
Shannon Staglin:
Thank you.
Doug Shafer:
See you soon.