Santa Cruz Mountains region loses two winemaking legends

Two pillars of the Santa Cruz Mountains wine region passed away late last year, taking their stories with them: Robert (Bob) Mullen, who founded Woodside Vineyards in 1963, and Dr. Thomas Fogarty, renowned inventor of the balloon catheter, who also founded Thomas Fogarty Winery in 1981.

Mullen died on Nov. 24, 2025, after celebrating his 99th birthday in February. “He wanted to make it to 100,” says his wife, Marsha Campbell. “But his body just gave out.”

Campbell is planning a 100th birthday party in his honor on Feb. 12 in Menlo Park. A celebration of Mullen’s life is set for Feb. 14 at 2 p.m. at Woodside Village Church, where he supplied communion wine.

Born in Ohio, Mullen joined the U.S. Navy as part of a college training program at Purdue University and Miami University (Ohio) before he was called to serve at sea during World War II. After completing college post war, he began a long career as a sales rep with Armstrong World Industries, working in the Building Products Division. When the company moved him to San Francisco, he discovered wine at a work dinner. Charles Krug Grey Riesling so entranced him that he immediately went to a wine shop and bought himself a bottle.

After being called back to the Navy during the Korean War and surviving a torpedo attack that killed 26 of his crew, Mullen and his then-wife Polly moved to Woodside in 1960, where he partnered with the Groetzinger family to make wine from the La Questa Vineyard, which was planted by Emmet Rixford in 1884 above Cañada Road. Unlike his peers, he bottled wine in pint and quart bottles, not jugs. His wines enjoyed worldwide acclaim, including a gold medal at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

Campbell says the region was filled with over 1,000 acres of vines before Prohibition. The original 37-acre La Questa Vineyard, subdivided into three parcels, survived its ravages.

Encouraged by the quality of the La Questa cabernet, Mullen decided to make his own wine and purchased a property with an acre of vines near La Questa that had been planted in 1926 on Kings Mountain Road in Woodside. “When he and Polly bought the property, building a winery was a priority over building a house,” says Campbell. “The grapes were getting ripe, and they didn’t want to haul them to their carport, where they’d been making wine.”

Woodside Vineyards was established as a bonded winery in 1963. Only two other wineries existed in the Santa Cruz Mountains: Bargetto Winery in Soquel and Ridge Vineyards in Cupertino. David Bruce Winery on Bear Creek Road would be established in 1964.

Woodside Vineyards sold its first wine to Roberts Market in Woodside in 1968, which has carried it since.

Campbell tells us that Mullen was a big supporter of the San Mateo Historical Society and has an exhibit there focused on the region’s wine history, which he encouraged his good friend Fogarty to help fund.

Mullen was also a major supporter of the Woodside Village Church, where he and Campbell first met. After relocating from Hayward, Campbell soon found herself working at Woodside Vineyards, a job she describes as a combination of good wine and great company. Most of the staff had been with Mullen for decades.

“Wine is such a great way to meet people and build community,” says Campbell.

She remembers how longtime winemaker Brian Caselden, who was with them 35 years, made La Questa cabernet sauvignon. “It was only produced during really great vintages, and usually a very small amount.”

In July 2025, Jerold O’Brien of Silver Mountain purchased the assets and inventory of Woodside Vineyards. Campbell says they held a celebration at Neely Winery. It was bittersweet, but at least Mullen was there to enjoy it.

At his 99th birthday celebration last year, Mullen declared the secret to a long life was “a bottle of chardonnay a day.”

Thomas Fogarty founded his eponymous winery in 1981, where a prototype of his balloon embolectomy catheter is displayed. He also invented the Hancock tissue heart valve and the AneuRx endovascular aortic stent graft, and in 2007, he established Fogarty Innovation on the campus of El Camino Health to further advances in medicine.

Fogarty died Dec. 28, 2025, in Portola Valley at age 91.

In a Facebook tribute, his eldest son, Tommy Fogarty Jr., called him “a genuine contributor to humanity. Truly a fascinating human being of rare talent with a huge, unconventional and powerful intellect. He gave us opportunities most never see.”

He said his father knew no boundaries and believed anything was possible.

“That made him challenging, at times, to those closest to him,” said Fogarty Jr. “He had moments when he could be a bear and he could be tough, but he didn’t want that reputation. He was sometimes gruff in a joking way, and it got misinterpreted.”

The eldest of four siblings, Fogarty Jr. recalls that one of the best things his father did was to tell them all, “You guys should not feel pressure to be a physician. The industry has changed a lot, and is not the same as when I started. Many doctors have kids and expect them to be doctors.”

All four siblings worked at the winery at some point when they were growing up. Fogarty Jr. went on to an early career in audio and recording engineering, after which he went to Sonoma State to study wine business and marketing. Soon, though, he was lured away to a racing career that took him all over the world. He then became a racing instructor and coach before returning to the winery.

Fogarty Jr. says his sister became an equestrian and instructor, and his brother Pat pursued a career in medical device development in Europe before returning home to be briefly involved in the winery. The youngest sibling, Jon, pursued a very successful career in racing, including many records for IMSA prototypes. He is now retired and living in Sisters, OR. Fogarty Jr. remains involved in Fogarty Winery.

Winemaker emeritus Michael Martella, was hired at Fogarty Winery when it first opened in 1981. Martella, who retired in 2019, considered Fogarty a brother, a friend, a mentor and at times a father figure.

“He saw something in me that was hidden. Of course, he had invested by hiring me, and he wanted me to succeed, but it was far more than that: He wanted to see me grow as a person.

“Tom loved to create and was never afraid to try new things,” Martella adds. “He did not linger in having to make a decision. He would say to me, ‘It was better to make a wrong decision and then have to correct it, if needed, than not to make a decision at all.’”