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Winemaker of the Year Eric Aafedt on ‘Magic’ Barrels and No Regrets

Steering the winemaking at Bogle through three decades, Eric Aafedt continues to look forward with one of the more impactful sustainability initiatives of the year.

Eric Aafedt was just a teenager when he started moving irrigation lines and driving tractors for wineries in California’s Livermore Valley where he grew up. Today, after three decades of making wine for Bogle Family Vineyards, where he led the building of a cutting-edge facility in Clarksburg while developing a diverse lineup of brands, Aafedt is being honored with a Wine Star Award for Winemaker of the Year.  

“We work closely together,” he says of the Bogle family and his mentor Chris Smith, the Director of Winegrowing who hired him in 1994. “It’s great to be in a family environment. We’re not corporate. We can be very reactive very quickly. I can walk down the hall to Warren and Ryan [Bogle]’s office and say, ‘What do you think, yea or nay?’ It makes for a very effective winery.”

A native of Pleasanton, Aafedt went from his teen days at Stony Ridge Winery to Concannon Vineyard, where he was encouraged to pursue higher education. Working at the winery on weekends and through the summers, he graduated with a degree in chemistry from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, then found his way to the Bogles.  

The family, which planted its first vines in 1968 and released its own brand a decade later, was then producing about 40,000 cases of wine annually. Under Aafedt’s direction, that amount skyrocketed, now eclipsing more than 2.7 million cases per year. Despite that explosive growth, the wines remained popular and critically acclaimed.  

“We grow about 40 percent of the acres in our Bogle Family Vineyard line,” says Aafedt. “That helps us maintain consistency and value.”

For a number of years, Bogle processed their wine at numerous facilities around the state. “We got to learn a lot from all those winemakers,” says Aafedt. But they wanted to control the whole process, so Aafedt was challenged to develop a winery on the family’s land, which broke ground in 2009 and opened two years later. It was an intimidating project, but the positive impact was immediate. “Now we make every drop of wine that we bottle in Clarksburg,” says Aafedt, who today is the Vice President of Winemaking. “That helps us keep our price where it is. We’ve improved quality over the last 15 years, and we’re tasting our wine all the time, trying to make improvements.”

He credits their 96,000 barrel program. “Aging wine in a barrel is not just about getting oak flavors,” he says, explaining all of the evolution that happens inside. “That barrel is almost like a magic vessel. It helps to concentrate our wines and create more varietally correct wine with a fruit-forward profile.”

In addition to the Bogle Family Vineyards brand, Aafedt created the Phantom line, which includes a red blend, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as well as the Juggernaut wines, which feature Hillside Cabernet Sauvignon, Russian River Pinot Noir and Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. In 2023, they added a Sauvignon Blanc to the Juggernaut lineup, all the way from Marlborough in New Zealand. 

“We wanted a winemaking family that owned vineyards,” he says of partnering with te Pā Wines, whose proprietors hail from the country’s indigenous Maori heritage. “I get to go down there and make blends and put the finishing touches.”

Aafedt’s latest project is Element[AL] Wines, packaging Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir and rosé in Burgundy-shaped, aluminum bottles. 

“They are so much lighter,” says Aafedt of the environmental benefits of aluminum versus glass. “For every one bottle of glass, you could ship 1.5 of aluminum. The aluminum itself doesn’t require nearly as much energy to make, and it will likely get recycled because of the redemption on it.” Element[AL] Wines just hit the market in the spring of 2024. “The jury is still out,” admitted Aafedt of whether consumers will embrace the eco-minded project. “But we’re really hopeful. The wine is fantastic.”

He hasn’t regretted a day of his 30 years. “It’s been so exciting,” says Aafedt. ”We’re just not doing the same thing we used to.” Nor is he, having become a father later in life, now with a nine-year-old daughter. “It’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” he says. “She’s fantastic.”

Wine Star Awards Award

25th Annual Wine Star Awards

Monday, January 27, 2025

The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square


Please join us in celebrating the 25th anniversary of Wine Enthusiast’s Wine Star Awards and congratulating the 2024 winners at the annual black-tie gala in January. Register for tickets and tables HERE.

For event inquiries on the annual Wine Star Awards gala, please contact LaShana Daniels at LDaniels@wineenthusiast.net.