Vintner Patty Bogle Dies at 59

Built California winery from small vineyard to value powerhouse

Tim Fish
Posted: February 16, 2011

Patty Bogle, who helped transform a small family farm into the California wine powerhouse Bogle Vineyards, died Feb. 11 after a lengthy bout with leukemia. She was 59.

“Her business was her second child,” said her son and winery president Warren Bogle Jr. “She was instrumental in the growth and success of the winery.”

Based in Clarksburg, located south of Sacramento in California’s central valley, Bogle began as a modest vineyard in the early 1970s and grew into one of the country’s most successful value-oriented brands, with a current production topping a million cases annually.

Born Patty Schiewe on June 27, 1951, in Portland, Ore., she married Chris Bogle in 1973. Early on, she worked with her husband and father-in-law, Warren Bogle Sr., tending a few acres of Petite Sirah and Chenin Blanc.

At first the family sold grapes to other wineries but launched the Bogle brand in 1979. Patty Bogle focused on winery operations, while her husband oversaw grapegrowing. Chris Bogle died of heart and kidney failure in 1997 and with the help of brother-in-law Warren Jr. and her children Jody and Ryan Bogle, the winery grew at a rapid pace in the past decade.

In 2007, Bogle was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Reducing her involvement in the family business, she began stem-cell replacement and other treatments. By 2008, she was in full recovery, but in October 2009 doctors learned the leukemia had returned.

Bogle is survived by her mother, Gloria Schiewe, three children and nine grandchildren.