Passion for Wine Making

Doug Hackett Discovers Passion for Winemaking

By Toni Carrasco and Marysa Cordova

Travelling from the East Coast to the Southwest to attend ENMU was no small distance for Doug Hackett (BS 89); however, the opportunities Eastern provided were worth the journey. ENMU gave him the chance to be a part of a collegiate football program as well as the Kappa Sigma Fraternity while pursuing a degree in communications, a department with an excellent reputation.

Photo by Megan Clouse Photography

While working with KENW-TV, Doug gained real-world experience as a weather reporter and camera operator. In his junior and senior years, Doug was given the position of head news anchor. He believes the education and knowledge he gained at ENMU contributed greatly to his current success. “The beautiful thing to me about ENMU was the hands-on experience,” he said.

Photo by Megan Clouse Photography

After graduating with his bachelor’s degree from ENMU in the spring of ‘89, Doug attended the University of Montana to work on a master’s degree in history. While in Montana, he successfully started his career working for a television and radio station. In the spring of ’91, he received a job offer he could not refuse; Harry Wahl and Joe Mauro, friends of Doug, had launched a cable company in California known as Cable One and had asked that he join the team as the vice president of Marketing and Sales.

Doug eventually left Cable One and started his own company called The Hackett Group, a radio and television production firm. When asked about his firm, he recalls, “We would produce TV ads, documentaries, radio ads, and print. We were a full service ad agency production firm.” Doug did a number of promotion and marketing assignments for wineries in the California area and soon became very intrigued with the wine business. He then decided to attend the University of California Davis’s Extension Winemaking Program. In 2002, Doug decided to open a winery, named Dogwood Cellars, with two friends acting as silent partners. Doug does all the work himself, and there is no staff, but even with a humble start, the winery continues to grow. He soon found that marketing wasn’t for him and making wine was his true calling. When asked about his venture into wine, his passion and respect for it are more than apparent. He explains, “I would say that I found something that sings to my heart. Winemaking is an art that I happen to have a talent for. I can say it is the hardest thing that I have ever done that comes easy for me ... learning every day is a challenge ... wine is a living thing and you have to listen and guide the wine along its path. You cannot impose your will upon it ... Winemaking is a good life lesson.”

Photo by Megan Clouse Photography

In 2007 Doug sold his ad agency to work fulltime on the winery. He produces 3,000 cases per year all by himself. Doug is very proud of his work and delighted to be in the wine industry. “It’s so rewarding to create this art, then to see the look on people’s faces when they try your wine and how it fills people with joy.”

While ENMU prepared Doug for his first career in marketing, he also believes that the University contributed to his overall success in life. “My time at ENMU shaped me during that transformation of discovery that one goes through from the end of high school to when you leave academia for ‘life’. The challenges and diversity of being on my own and having to make it happen thousands of miles from where I grew up forces one to become self-reliant, which has become a basis for all that I have done in life.” Doug concludes, “My time at ENMU has been part of the foundation of who I am in life.”

To learn more about or to purchase products from Dogwood Cellars, visit their website at www.dogwoodcellars.com.