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Prison-inspired wine

Winery owners
Two corrections officers at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California (Bergersen is recently retired, Quesada is still active) launched their own line of wines in 2014, aptly named Solitary Cellars Wine Company.
Prisons and the wine industry don’t have a whole lot in common. Unless you’re Greg Bergersen and Rick Quesada, that is.
The two corrections officers at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California (Bergersen is recently retired, Quesada is still active) launched their own line of wines in 2014, aptly named Solitary Cellars Wine Company.
“I used to make wine at home under my own label, Bergindi Cellars.  Bergindi Cellars was a combination of my work nickname, Bergie and my wife’s name, Syndi.  As a home winemaker, making wine was a hobby I enjoyed,” says Bergersen.  “I was a member of a local winery’s wine club and we would talk about winemaking. As a member perk, they would test my projects in their lab, which was quite small.  From there we were asked if we would be interested in developing a brand, and of course the opportunity was too great to let pass.  And from there Solitary Cellars was born.
Before long, their wines were outselling the winery’s own wines and the winery owner started to put restrictions on the duo, which caused a bit of a conflict.
“So we decided to go into business for ourselves,” says Bergersen about the partnership with Quesada. “We’re cut from the same cloth and we work well together. Working in a prison setting allows us to see each other in various situations and under different pressures.  We having been tested in critical situations and we see things similarly, so it seemed like a good fit. I deal with the wine, Rick deals with the customer service and loyalty. We just wanted to build a professional business we could be proud of and which represents the standards of all law enforcement professionals.”
Neither of them had any business background, so they basically learned on the job, by trial and error, which Bergersen admits was a “laborious process,” especially the seemingly endless paperwork.  “Our business model is simple and tested, make the best wine from the best fruit possible, present the finished product at an appropriate value and provide the absolute best experience.  If we do that, the rest will fall into place.”
Solitary Cellars’ wines are produced using grapes from several of California’s best wine-growing regions, including Sonoma County, Lodi, the Santa Lucia Highlands, Lake County, Santa Barbara County and, of course, the Central Valley.
“Our business model is to focus on the regions that grow the best varietals,” says Quesada. “There’s the old saying, ‘All good wines start with good fruit,’ so we focus on the growers. We establish relationships with growers. We want to work with the growers with dust on their boots.  Our Tempranillo and Albariño are from Markus Bokisch Vineyards who was voted 20 Most Admired Wine Grape growers in North America by Wines and Vines magazine.”
“When people come in, they’re shocked at the quality of the wines,” adds Bergersen. “We attribute that to great growers in great growing regions.”
The Solitary Cellars current portfolio consists of the 2014 Code Three (a red wine blend) (Lodi); 2012 and 2013 Liberty Oak Tempranillo (Lodi); 2014 Solitary Cellars Albariño Lodi ; 2013 Evasion Syrah Rosé (Fresno); 2012 and 2013 Solitary Cellars “East Block” Old Vine Zinfandel (Lodi); 2013 Santa Lucia Highlands Syrah; 2013 Shenandoah Valley Barbera (Amador); 2013 Monterey Pinot Noir.
The wines are targeted to consumers directly in the tasting room, online and in select restaurants and wine bars.
For information, go to https://www.solitarycellars.com/home.html