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Bios

Vic Bourassa, Proprietor

Growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts, Victor Bourassa learned winemaking from one of his Italian-immigrant grandfathers and inherited an entrepeneurial spirit from the other. The former made wine from grapes that he purchased at street markets; the latter built a grocery store from the ground up. Vic’s father eventually ran the store, operated a gas station and worked as a contractor-builder. Along the way, Vic learned to appreciate the value of hard work, optimism, integrity and tradition.

After serving in the Navy in Vietnam, Vic moved to Southern California. He earned his commercial pilot’s license from Orange Coast College, then made a career out of working in real estate and start-up companies. He visited the Napa Valley for the first time in the early 1980s and moved there permanently in 1996. He worked in a couple of wineries, took wine-related classes at UC Davis and Napa Valley College, and became an avid home winemaker and president of the Napa Valley Home Winemakers Association.

Then, in 1999, lightning struck. Vic recalls the bolt out of the blue.

“Robert Mondavi came to my house, introduced by a friend. We sat down in my backyard with some bruschetta and a bottle of 1998 Pinot Noir. I had made the wine in a funky little hand press. I bottled it that day and a made a label on my computer. So there we were, Robert Mondavi and I, drinking my wine and eating bruschetta.

“I had a glass, and he had one. Then, he had another…and another. After he finished the bottle, he declared that I should be making wine commercially. When I said I thought it was too late to start, he told me that he hadn’t begun until he was 52, and look what he’d accomplished. He basically took away my excuse – at 50 years of age.”

In October 2001 Vic released his first commercial vintage, the 2001 Bourassa Harmony3, a complex Bordeaux-style blend made from valley-floor Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and Howell Mountain Cabernet Franc.

Today Vic continues to grow Bourassa while continuing to raise a glass to toast his straightforward philosophy: Celebrate life!

Gary Galleron, Winemaker

Gary Galleron grew up playing in the vineyards along Galleron Road, the street named for his French-immigrant grandparents, who settled in the Napa Valley in 1918. Gary worked in the family vineyards since he was a child, learning every aspect of the wine industry literally from the ground up.

He experimented with home winemaking while in high school, graduated from Cal State University Fresno with a degree in viticulture and enology in 1976, and then went to work with Mike Grgich at Chateau Montelena. Eager to test his new skills, Gary made a late-harvest Riesling in stainless steel drums in his garage and won “Best of Show” at the Napa Valley Home Winemakers Association competition at the Calistoga Fair. Since then, he has produced award-winning wines for some of the most prestigious vintners in the valley, including Whitehall Lane, Grace Family, Hartwell, Vineyard 29, Del Dotto, Seavey and William Harrison Vineyards.

Gary’s passion for his work (“It’s not my job; it’s my life,” he says) has led him to seek out the best grapes from the finest vineyards in the Napa Valley and to remain a hands-on artisan who is among the valley’s most respected winemakers. Soft-spoken and more inclined to speak about great grapes than winemaker wisdom, he is equally at home working in a vineyard or a lab, or breaking the cap at 2 a.m.

At Bourassa Vineyard, Gary and Vic Bourassa have partnered to create the barrel recipes for the Bourassa Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, the latest Harmony3 Meritage, and Bourassa’s unique Zinfandel-based, brandy-fortified Primitivo Port. With Gary behind them, the excellence of these wines is assured.

Efrain Barragan, Director of Sales & Marketing

Just like Gary, Efrain Barragan grew up playing in the vineyards. Seeking a better quality of life, Efrain’s parents moved from Fresno to the Napa Valley when he was only two years old. At age 13, he began his education by helping his father tend to a Vineyard on Pritchard Hill. Under his father’s strict tutelage, Efrain learned every aspect of the grape growing process. He did everything from harvesting the grapes, to planting vines and everything in between. After three years of vineyard work, he decided to try his luck in winery operations and winemaking at Chappellet Vineyards.  In the winery, he learned how to bottle, do cellar work and a little winemaking. By 1997 he had graduated High School and decided to go off to college to earn his degree in Business. During his college years, he worked as a store manager for a famous clothing retailer called Brooks Brothers. The job was only temporary since his true passion was wine. 9 long years later, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Sonoma State University. 

After graduating college, he decided to go back to his roots (no pun intended). He found a job at a small winery called Casa Nuestra. His official title was Marketing Assistant/Wine Club Manager, but his business card read “Go to Guy” because he pretty much could do everything.  After a couple of years, opportunity came knocking at his door, Vic Bourassa of Bourassa vineyards was in need for a Marketing Director and decided to recruit Efrain. On January 1st 2008, he started working for us and boy! are we happy to have him. He runs the Direct Sales and Marketing department and even scrubs the floors!  His experience in viticulture, Winery Operation, and business will be a true asset to this company.  Feel free to stop by and say hello or hola, the next time you visit the winery.