Founded in 2014, Markus Wine Co. was launched from Lodi’s first boutique winery, Borra Vineyards. Swiss-born winemaker and owner Markus Niggli selects from wisely-planted ancient vines and newly-planted unusual offerings throughout the Lodi region to craft small-production bottlings in our warehouse winery located in Victor, California, 3 miles east of Lodi.
We sum up our winemaking in two words: fruit and age. We want wines to be “zeitlos” – ageless and memorable – to drink young or with a decade or more of age, and still be absolutely elegant. Our wines are fruit-driven, but balanced with higher acidity than you find in many wines, and with soft, integrated tannins, to be enjoyed with meals. We believe real winemaking happens out in the vineyard, so that in the winery we do as little as possible, using natural yeast and natural ML.
For what’s on the bottles, Markus explains, “People, like wine, are shaped by unique places,” which is why each label brings together a location from Markus’s past with the current grape source. Creative expressions of the locations are realized through a long-term collaboration with label designer Michael Leonard and his students at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
Markus Niggli
Winemaker, Owner
Swiss-born Markus Niggli was brought on by Steve Borra in 2006 to handle the cellar for Borra Vineyards, but Markus steadily climbed the ladder to winemaker in 2010. Markus was an early believer in natural winemaking with a goal of expressing the vineyard and each vintage as authentically as possible, resulting in his first releases of critically-successful fresh and racy whites. These show his European influence with higher acidity, rather than the typical rich, full-bodied California style.
He’s made a fan in noted wine writer Randy Caparoso, who wrote: “Borra now produces the most ‘contemporary’ style wines grown in Lodi today, period.”
But Markus does much more than make about 5,000 cases of wine each year. He works with designers to come up with new labels; manages the cellar crew; and most importantly handles all wholesale and direct wine sales.
Pre-wine, there’s a depth of travel-industry sales and management experience that Markus picked up from American Airlines and from what is now the world’s leading tour operator, Kuoni Travel, based in his native Switzerland. At one point he was managing up to 75 people.
But travel is a brutal industry, which lead him to places such as Perth on the west coast of Australia, where he landed a position working both in the cellar and vineyard for Edgecombe Brothers, before moving on to Napa’s Atlas Peak and then Borra Vineyards, and now his own Markus Wine Co.
Markus and his wife, Diane, are raising a family together in the City of Lodi.
Diane Niggli
Co-Owner
Supporting Markus Wine Co. is Markus’s wife, Diane Niggli who is a California native. Assisting in the business operations and future growth for the consumer market, she is an influential part of the program. Her own experience as an independent meetings consultant is a nice compliment to her passion for both wine and the tourism growth of Lodi.
Jon Bjork
Co-Owner
All of us wear many hats, and as co-owner, Jon Bjork focuses on marketing and red-tape compliance for the winery. (He also handles this website and all social media.) Previous to co-founding Markus Wine co., he and Markus had been working together with Borra Vineyards for more than a decade, where Jon managed the wine club and social media. Jon also currently operates his own wine compliance consulting business, having helped to establish many Lodi wineries (Estate Crush, Fields Family Wines, McCay Cellars, Oak Farm Vineyards and more).
Formerly “The Lodi Wine Guy,” Jon wrote a weekly 600-word wine column for local newspaper The Lodi News-Sentinel. Other past positions include General Manager of Jessie’s Grove Winery and 6 West Design, where he worked with Jeremy Trettevik (Jeremy Wine Co.) to support his studio as it completed designs for many of Lodi’s best-known wine labels.
With a degree in Neurobiology from the University of California at Berkeley, Jon entered the wine industry after a 15-year focus on hi-tech as VP of Operations at Dantz Development, makers of Retrospect backup software, and as Materials Manager at Jasmine Technologies, a major Macintosh hard drive manufacturer.
Jon currently serves on the Board of Lodi’s destination marketing organization Visit Lodi!, is on the Lodi Wine Country Committee of the Lodi Winegrape Commission, and he and his wife, Molly, are raising a family together in the City of Lodi.
Mike Bogarin
Cellarmaster
Working alongside Markus, Mike completes much of the cellar work needed to produce our wines. When he is not helping with making wine, Mike grows a range of fruit on his family’s farm where he lives, to the southeast of Lodi. You can taste and purchase Mike’s excellent peaches, plums and other fruit during Lodi’s seasonal downtown farmer’s market.
The Rest of Our Staff
We’ve got Suzanne, our bookkeeper, and that’s about it. You’ve met everyone now. Basically, Markus and Mike do all the real work.
(That’s one reason we don’t have a tasting room. Half our staff is full-time making wine.)
Steve & Bev Borra with the Borra Family
Borra Vineyards
We could not have started Markus Wine Co. without very generous support from Steve and Bev Borra and the Borra Family, and we honor them here.
Steve Borra began making wine for his family in the basement under his home in 1967, and the results were quite good. After nearly a decade of success, Steve formally started Borra Vineyards with his wife, Bev. A backyard shack with a covered patio was bonded in 1975, becoming Lodi’s first boutique winery, producing Barbera and Carignane wines from grapes they grew in their home ranch.
In 1992, the Borra family purchased 200 acres of ideal vineyard property that runs along the north bank of the Mokelumne River. Now called the Gill Creek Ranch, the vineyard produces some of the finest varieties that flourish in the Clements Hills area of the Lodi Appellation. The low hills of this region receive an extra dose of cooling winds from San Francisco Bay, and the grapes have a freshness of flavor that makes this among the most popular and renowned sub-appellations in Lodi.
We lost Steve in March 2020. He is greatly missed.
From the Lodi News-Sentinel:
Stephen Juvenal Borra was born on February 9, 1943. He was raised in Lockeford on a small family farm. Steve attended Lockeford Schools and graduated from Lodi High in 1961. Fast cars were his signature, as he would recall stories of the 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury. In 1964, Steve married his true love, Beverly Bowman. They made a home together and started their family on the ranch where they have been for 54 years of marriage. Together they had two children, a son, Steve Jr. and a daughter, Gina. Family was everything to him. He loved spending much time together and celebrating his Italian heritage. Often over a plate of pasta or more often over a bottle of wine, Steve would take time to remind us with words as well as by example of the importance of a strong, loving family.
Steve served for 4 years in the National Guard, then enrolled in Electrical Design School. The goal was to become an electrician, but at graduation time, electrical jobs were scarce. He joined the ranks of Pacific Bell and quickly climbed to management, but his passion for farming kept calling. After 17 years, when offered early retirement in 1982, he took it. This allowed him time to develop Borra’s Cellar (est. 1974). A year later, he happens upon his first irrigation pipeline needed on the family farm, which he installs himself. Shortly after, neighbors begin asking him for help installing pipelines for them and in 1983, Lodi Irrigation was born.
An amazing gift that Steve had was a technical mind that was continually able to solve uncommon problems. He was exceptional with his hands. With Bev at his side in the business, the two of them committed many years of blood, sweat, and tears building their company. The 90’s introduced drip irrigation to Ag and Steve was ready. He quickly perfected water hydraulics and irrigation design. For the next decade, this self-taught irrigation designer brought water to wine in Lodi. In the late 90’s, Lodi Irrigation expanded to include Lodi Pump and North Coast Irrigation. All combined, LPI had grown to service water needs in Northern CA, the North Coast and Central Coast when the family sold the business in 2018.
Steve’s greatest passions were winemaking and farming. When asked why he opened the first bonded family winery in Lodi in 1975, his response was simple. He would say with a smile, “Well, I just really liked to drink it…” And he would immediately follow with “great wine is made in the field”. Turns out those fields made more than great wine, they made him a great man. Steve’s signature hat, customary jokes and political persuasion were sure to entertain all. He came a long way from the days of the late 70’s where he would join with local restaurants pouring his signature Barbera for free to dining patrons just for the chance to introduce the wine. Steve’s dedication created wines that received high accolades. In 2008, Borra Vineyards was honored to be included in the Wall Street Journal Wine Club. In 2012, Borra Vineyards was awarded Lodi Winery of the Year. Steve was so honored in 2018 to be inducted into the San Joaquin County Agricultural Hall of Fame and for his induction into the Lodi Community Hall of Fame in 2019.
Following a brave and humble battle with lymphoma, Steve was gracefully lifted up to Heaven on March 2, 2020. We are grateful that he is healed and toasting to us all from there with the finest wine that Heaven can make. Steve is survived by his wife Beverly, children Steve (Tina) and Gina Granlees (Mike), grandchildren Dominic, Trevor, Gabriella and Chantz, and his sister Gloria Duffy. He was preceded in death by his parents Steve and Lucille Borra.
If you’d like to get hold of us, click here:
CONTACT INFO