Woodside winemaker: Bob Mullen of Woodside Vineyards has been growing grapes and producing wine in Woodside for 40 years Woodside winemaker: Bob Mullen of Woodside Vineyards has been growing grapes and producing wine in Woodside for 40 years (November 05, 2003)

By Jane Knoerle
Almanac Lifestyles Editor

They didn't stomp the grapes as they sometimes did in the early days, but old friends and business associates of Bob Mullen gathered last month to help him celebrate Woodside Vineyard's 40th anniversary.

There were appreciation wine tastings, dinners and picnic lunches on the brick terrace of his Woodside home overlooking the vineyard and against the background of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Guests flipped through photo albums from the 1960s, when friends like the Aldiges, Bueltemans, Eisenhuts, Noacks, Ivies, Groetzingers and Georges gathered to pick grapes and celebrate the harvest.

Anniversary guests sipped the chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir and zinfandel the winery is noted for, recalling those early "days of wine and roses."

"Most of us belonged to Woodside Village Church, had kids in school, and were struggling to pay for our $30,000 Woodside houses," says Mr. Mullen with a laugh.

At an appreciation dinner for Mr. Mullen's clients, George Roberts noted that Roberts market was the first wine shop to sell Woodside Vineyards wine; the Village Pub was the first restaurant. Today, Buck's is the winery's best customer. Other local restaurants that sell the wine include The Little Store, John Bentley's, Mountain House, and Parkside Grill.

Bob Mullen, who grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, never had a glass of wine until he moved to California in the 1950s. He was working for Armstrong World Industries when he was transferred from Chicago to San Francisco to become western regional manager.

"We were in Sabella's (in San Francisco) and my boss ordered a bottle of wine: Charles Krug gray riesling. I said, 'I don't drink wine.' He said, 'You're in California now -- you'll drink wine!' I liked it so well, I bought a bottle on the way home."

Bob and his wife, the late Polly Mullen, who lived on Martin Lane in Woodside from 1954 to 1962, became friends with Bob and Beverly Groetzinger, who were growing grapes up the road at century-old La Questa Vineyards.

"I started helping Bob make wine at La Questa and, eventually, we became partners," says Mr. Mullen.

Mr. Mullen, Mr. Groetzinger and friend Bob Ivie spent more than a year driving all over Northern California looking for land to put in a vineyard and winery. "But we never could decide who would quit his job to run it," says Mr. Mullen.

In 1970, the Groetzingers moved to Europe, where Mr. Groetzinger continues to be associated with the wine business.

Driving along Mountain Home Road one day, Mr. Mullen spotted a vineyard property for sale. The land, originally part of the Jocelyn estate, was owned by the Avenali family.

Mr. Mullen ended up buying a portion of the land that included the vineyard.

"Buying the property in Woodside was a good compromise," he says. "I got to keep my job and stay in Woodside. If Armstrong had transferred me back to the home office in Pennsylvania, I would have just been waiting for retirement, so I could come back to Woodside."

To learn more about running a winery, Mr. Mullen took a one-week course in winemaking and several weekend courses at the University of California at Davis. "It's a long learning curve if you're not a graduate of Davis," he says.

He could work only on weekends, but was able to turn his residential vineyard into a commercial enterprise and produce high-quality wine. "We were on the cutting edge," he says. "There were 121 wineries in California when we started; today there are 880. Two or three spring up every year."

Through the years the winery built a solid reputation for its fine wines. Made on the property with old-world, labor-intensive methods, the wine is aged in oak barrels, many imported from France. Woodside Vineyards produces 1,800 cases of wine a year.

A new winemaker

While a tasting room is not allowed in Woodside, the winery does hold tastings, traditionally over Memorial and Labor Day weekends, and barrel tastings on two weekends in December.

"Every hour on the hour, Brian (the winemaker) takes visitors in the back room, takes samples from the barrels, and talks about the wine," says Mr. Mullen. "It's our most popular event; people just love thinking seriously about the wine they're drinking."

Brian Caselden has been Woodside Vineyards full-time winemaker since 1990. He grew up in agriculture, working in cherry orchards in Saratoga as a kid. He took classes in viniculture and enology from UC Davis, working part time at Congress Springs, Kathryn Kennedy and Cinnabar wineries, before coming to Woodside. Today he lives in the winemaker's house on the property.

"I leave the winery entirely up to Brian, but he lets me taste the wine," says Mr. Mullen.

Today, what does Bob Mullen do at the winery? "I do everything nobody else wants to do," he says with a laugh.

Picking the grapes

One thing he always enjoys is having volunteers help with the grape harvest, which ended this year on November 1. "November 1 is as late as you pick," he says. "After that [because of the cold nights] the crop's not going to get any better."

Volunteers arrive early in the morning and are driven to the various vineyards to pick the grapes. They finish by noon, then kick back with a picnic lunch and wine, while grapes are rushed to the crush. The workers each take home a bottle of wine and a T-shirt. Dottie Fifield is the all-time champion picker; she's been doing it for 26 years.

Vineyard management

Over the years, local vineyard owners have looked to Mr. Mullen for advice. As having one's own vineyard became a status symbol of the 1990s, more and more Woodside estate owners wanted to plant grapes, then have someone look after them. To fill the need, Mr. Mullen and Mr. Caselden started a vineyard management business in 1991 that plants new vineyards, manages the acreage, and then buys the grapes for their wines.

"We are now taking care of 22 vineyards -- 19 in Woodside and three in Portola Valley," says Mr. Mullen. "Many owners want a turn-key operation. They are all very cooperative and just wonderful to work with. They accept us as the experts," says Mr. Mullen.

Mr. Mullen is trying to find some way to perpetuate the winery: "I would like to see Brian continue to operate it indefinitely. He's the son I never had."

After 40 years, Mr. Mullen says, "I still get a kick out of going to a restaurant and ordering my own wine." (He prefers chardonnay.) Looking back, he says, "It's been a great lifestyle."