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.