Who is John Tyler?

Tyler Heck and John Bacigalupi

By far the most common question that we get when we are out pouring wine or at an event is: “Who is John Tyler?” Well, besides being the tenth President of the United States, John Tyler is also the namesake of our family’s wine label–two first names combined to represent one common goal: John Bacigalupi and Tyler Heck.

John Bacigalupi is my father and also the vineyard manager for the  Bacigalupi Vineyards located in the Russian River Valley. Our vineyards were founded in 1956 by his parents–Charles and Helen. The Bacigalupi family has provided fruit for some of Sonoma and Napa’s most well known wineries–most notably, the 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena that won the Paris Tasting in 1976. Dad is in charge of all the day-to-day activities of our estate vineyards, managing over 150 acres of grapes.

Tyler Heck is my dad’s nephew (my cousin) and also our winemaker. Tyler’s father (Patrick Heck) and my mom are brother and sister. Like the Bacigalupi family, the Heck family also has a long history in the wine industry. Our grandfather–Paul Heck– and his brother were the previous owners of Korbel Champagne Cellars. My uncle Patrick also worked in the wine industry under many companies including Korbel, Adler Fels and Scott Laboratories. It is from his father and grandfather that Tyler’s interest in wine and winemaking was first realized.

Eventually, both my dad and my cousin started to toss around the idea of starting a family label. In 2001 they did a trial run with one barrel of Pinot Noir and commercialized the venture in 2002 with the first official vintage under the John Tyler label.

Creating the name for the label was one of our more difficult tasks.  We wanted a name that would convey our history, family unity and the integrity of the vineyards.  To help us with this project we looked to Elizabeth Slater, columnist for Vineyard and Winery Management and owner of In-Short Marketing; a company that specializes in helping wineries create marketing strategies to sell their wines directly to the consumer. It didn’t take Elizabeth long to come up with a concept for the label name. While sitting around out dining room table at one of our meetings Elizabeth took one long look at my dad (John) and another at my cousin (Tyler) and said, “Why don’t you call the wine John Tyler?”

The name was obvious. It is simple and gives credit to the two men whose goals and hard work had finally became a reality.