Meet the Family

The story of Waugh Family Wines is one of Hopes, Dreams, Fate, Passion and True Love!

Ryan Waugh was born and raised in Newberg, Oregon and Crystal (Kettle) Waugh was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Ryan had aspirations to be a surgeon and followed that dream to Santa Clara University where he graduated with degrees in Biology and Chemistry. Crystal enjoyed business and fashion and attended Texas A&M where she achieved a bachelor degree in Marketing and Business Administration. After graduating Crystal entered the Executive Training program at Neiman Marcus. Quickly climbing the ladder, soon Crystal was in charge of the college recruiting program.

During Ryan’s freshman year at Santa Clara, a friend’s father shared a bottle of wine with Ryan from the year he was born. The bottle was a 1976 Stags Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Lot 2, which hangs in a shadow box in the Waugh’s living room. This wine sparked an intense passion within Ryan who found a job working in a vineyard near Santa Clara University. During his sophomore year, Ryan attended a career fair at UC Davis and landed a part time job at a Napa Valley Winery, Chateau Potelle. After graduating, Ryan moved to Napa and became the full time cellar master at Chateau Potelle.

As fate would have it, Crystal was recruiting Santa Clara students on the campus in the late 90s for Neiman Marcus while Ryan was still attending the University. They were not destined to meet quite yet. It was not until March 5 of 2004 where their paths would finally cross. A girlfriend of Crystal had her bachelorette party in Napa Valley. The group of 10 girls checked into their hotel in Yountville, The Villagio. Ryan was pouring his “boutique” wines in the lobby of the hotel. Crystal walked up to Ryan and asked for some Zinfandel, they were engaged to be married a year later.

Together, Ryan and Crystal have grown their Waugh Family Wines business from the 100 cases and one label produced out of Ryan’s garage starting in 2000 to 4000 cases produced, consisting of 3 different labels, a sparkling wine called Crystal and grapes grown from 17 different vineyards between Napa and Sonoma. They also built a custom crush winery called The Caves at Soda Canyon and a distillery in Texas called Texas Ferments.