Have you ever wanted to know the story behind the Brutocao and Bliss brands? Well, that is what today’s post is all about.
Once upon a time...
Back in 1939 Irv Bliss (my great grandfather) bought a ranch in Healdsburg, CA. Irv was previously a metallurgist but hated that and wanted to take up farming. He knew nothing of farming at the time, but loved nature, the outdoors and beautiful land. As it turns out, around the time he bought his land in Healdsburg, he and his brother drove through Hopland, CA and stopped on ‘Old Toll Road’ to stare in awe at the beauty of the ranch in that valley. Over the next 3-4 years Irv continued to farm his land, growing prunes and grapes as well as raising cattle. One day, he read in the paper about a tax auction in Hopland for a 450 acre ranch. He didn't have time to check out the land, but went directly to the courthouse with $2,300 cash in hand. The rules stated that you must have 10% cash down to buy the land, and as fate would have it, Irv won the auction and the land for $23,000. After the auction was over Irv drove up to Hopland to see his new property and stood, as he had 3-4 years earlier, on ‘Old Toll Road’ looking at his beautiful new ranch!
This land has now been in the family since 1943, and is known as the “Bliss Ranch.” We have 193 acres of grapes planted between Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and some Port varieties.
More on how the two families became one.
Irv had 3 daughters, Marty Bliss being the middle child. She met Leonard Brutocao (We call him Nonno-Italian for Grandpa) when they were in college together at UC Berkely and got married. This brought the Bliss and Brutocao families together. Out of college, Nonno and his brother Al started a construction company, Brutoco Engineering, in Southern California. In 1976 Nonno and Al purchased the Bliss ranch from Irv farming and selling grapes to local wineries. In 1980 the price of grapes dropped so low that they couldn’t sell all of the grapes, leading Nonno and Al to try making wine themselves. throughout the 80's this happened a few more times and in 1990 Brutocao Cellars was officially formed to start producing estate wines.
In the years following 1976, Brutocao Vineyards and Cellars has grown to include 4 separate ranches, each with many micro-climates. These micro-climates are very advantageous to producing a variety of wines. In total now there are now about 500 acres of grapes planted which is enough for our Brutocao and Bliss labels as well as to still sell to other wineries.
Grandma and Nonno had 5 children, 3 of which work at Brutocao now. Their oldest son David is one of the winemakers, their middle son Lenny is in charge of the vineyard management, and their youngest son Steven is the CEO. 4th generation family include Kevin Brutocao primarily working in the tasting room, but he can be found wearing many hats throughout the business. Also, I recently started with Brutocao doing marketing and sales. *cough cough* (if you want to buy wine or know someone who does- e-mail me!) RyanBrutocao(at)gmail.com
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