Two vintners build a new story — and friendship — at Peacock Family Vineyard
ST. HELENA — As you follow the written directions on the hills of Spring Mountain west of St. Helena, your smartphone’s map will stop working.
That’s how you know you’re on the right path.
At the end of the winding road, overlooking the Napa Valley, while feeling transported to another country entirely, Rebecca Peacock Fogg warmly greets every visitor, knowing they’re likely to soon become friends and participants in the story of Peacock Family Vineyard.
It starts with Sauvignon Blanc that tastes like sunshine in a glass and ends with the textbook Cabernet Sauvignon that started it all. In between, there’s deep conversation meandering from topic to topic like the hills and mountains the property overlooks.
“I tell Rebecca this all the time, but she creates a space for people that’s so special,” said Meghan Vergara. “You create this space for people to be their authentic selves and laugh and have a great glass of wine.”
Three years ago, Vergara was a first-time visitor who found that Napa Valley dream tasting experience. The two women, both of whom had experienced hardship and loss, also found lifelong friendship, business partnership and, they say, a signal from the universe that it was time to start again.
“It means so much to me, being here and partnering with Rebecca,” Vergara said. “It reminds me of the way it should be, and that’s a very special feeling.”
“It gave me hope and direction in the sense that I know I can do this, and I can do this in a really positive way,” Fogg added. “I can create a new story.”
The Peacock story
Fogg’s parents, Christopher and Betsy Peacock, purchased land in Spring Mountain in 1991. The hilltop estate was so isolated that some of the landscaping had to be flown in by helicopter, but through vision and hard work, they were ready to move into their scenic home four years later.
“I’ve done a lot of different things in my life,” Peacock is quoted as saying on the vineyard’s website. “One theme of my life has been finding places in this world which are remote, wild and serene. I wanted to go back to the land and felt I could combine that longing with the world of fine wine, another passion of mine.”
Initially, Christopher Peacock sold the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from the property’s 6.5-acre vineyard to other winemakers in Napa Valley. When he saw how highly regarded the wines were, Peacock decided to try his hand at producing wine for himself, eventually connecting with winemaker Craig Becker to produce some of Peacock Vineyard’s first vintages.
“They immediately hit it off,” Fogg said of the relationship between her dad and the winemaker. “They were thick as thieves.”
Peacock largely approached wine as a hobby, Fogg said, selling whatever vintage he liked best that week to people he knew at a variety of prices depending on the friendship. When he grew tired of losing money, he called his daughter up and asked her if she’d be willing to join them in Napa Valley.
At the time, Fogg was working in fashion in South San Francisco. She loved the travel that came with working for a French-focused boutique, but the fashion world was burning her out.
One of the first moves Fogg made when she started overseeing operations at the vineyard was adding two wines — a Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir — to the label’s lineup. The Sauvignon Blanc, in particular, was a need Fogg saw as she hosted guests outdoors on Spring Mountain and began the tasting with heavy reds as the sun beat down on everyone.
Fogg still remembers approaching her dad about adding the white wine. All the spreadsheets, connections with great grape sources, and potential contracts weren’t working — he was still dragging his feet on the idea.
She scheduled a meeting with Peacock and played the only card she had left, the daughter card, to get the project up and running.
“Then he loved the wine so much, and it made a profit almost instantly,” Fogg said. “So, nine months later, it became his idea.”
As the years progressed, Fogg became the primary host at the vineyard, with the company focused on building deep relationships with each guest and club member. Occasionally, while she was in the middle of sharing her parents’ story and pouring wine, Fogg said her father would don his Panama hat and use a walker to go out and interact with visitors.
Sometimes, Peacock would even do his exercises in the pool while visitors listened to his stories and drank wine.
“They ate it up,” Fogg said with a smile.
In March 2023, Christopher Peacock died. Fogg said she believes her father truly got everything he wanted out of life.
“My dad and I were very close, and I miss him every second of every day,” she added. “He lived a very full, rich life.”
Longtime visitors and new clients alike would always ask about Peacock when Fogg hosted them at the Spring Mountain property. Still in the midst of that grief, she said she had to create a new narrative to connect people to Peacock Family Vineyard.
“When my father passed away, I had to find a different way to share the story,” Fogg said.
‘Drinking the story’
As an Army brat, Meghan Vergara called dozens of places home. She found wine before finding the first place that truly felt like home, Napa Valley.
Well before she had any formal wine education, Vergara was working at a French restaurant to put herself through college at Ohio State University. She quickly realized that patrons loved it when she talked about wine, which led to more sales and tips, which encouraged her to start studying in her downtime.
One night, the classically trained chef at the restaurant, who had noticed Vergara’s interest, asked her if she’d like to stick around after her shift to talk wine over a meal. The chef opened a bottle of Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon, and they began chatting.
“It blew my mind; I didn’t know anything could actually taste like that and have all that going on,” Vergara said. “Wine felt so special. You put your phone down, you engage, and you really feel something.”
With a lifelong passion for studying combined with a fully sparked love for wine, Vergara received formal training in New York City through the Sommelier Society of America. Over the course of her career, she worked in some of the world's top wine markets, while remaining dedicated to sharing her knowledge and passion.
“When I was studying to be a sommelier, it really struck me,” Vergara said. “You read a book, you hear about it, and then you taste it. And when you taste it, all your neurons are firing on what you just learned. It feels like you’re drinking the story.”
While living in Southern California, running her wine company Veritas Consultants, Vergara said she was compelled by the chaos in the world brought about by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to do the one “scary” thing she had always dreamed about doing — becoming a vintner with her own label.
With a now-or-never mentality, Vergara said she shook off the self-doubt and moved back “home” to Napa Valley. She founded M Vino Wine, taking a very slow, deliberate approach.
“With all my knowledge of the wine world and sometimes watching people go too far or do too much, I said I was going to do something I think is a good investment that I know people need and want,” Vergara recalled.
She set her sights first on a niche she saw in the wine market for a purposefully made rosé — something Vergara said she “geeks out” about regularly — instead of the wine that she sees as almost an afterthought that pervades store shelves and restaurants. The resulting rosé of Pinot Noir from Bacigalupi Vineyards in the Russian River Valley is a complex, balanced wine full of texture, wild strawberry, white cherry and fresh peach.
Vergara worked to build deep connections throughout the valley and beyond with wine consumers who quickly became champions for therRosé. Along the way, she got to know one of the many drivers tasked with delivering wine tourists from tasting to tasting.
“Our drivers are our heroes in Napa Valley,” she said.
The driver, Eclectic Tour owner Darren Schauer, told Vergara that she had to meet someone in Spring Mountain, adding that the two shared many similarities.
Friendship and joy
Vergara’s scheduled meeting with Rebecca Peacock Fogg in November 2023 was just two days before what was supposed to be her wedding day. She was still processing the breakup, and she said she was hesitant.
“I just said, ‘Nope – I’m a professional, and I’m going to go out there and see what else the world has for me,’” Vergara said. “So, I got all dressed up and went up to meet her.”
Still learning to live with the grief of losing her dad, Fogg was also recovering from an engagement that resulted in a breakup. She said she had been avoiding Schauer, knowing the driver would immediately sense she wasn’t doing well.
When Fogg and Schauer finally linked up, Fogg said she was having a particularly rough day. Over wine, Schauer sent her on a path she likely wouldn’t have chosen otherwise.
“He said I don’t have to do this alone,” Fogg recalled. “He said I needed help and that he knew this great gal. I did need help, but if he hadn’t said those words, I don’t know if I would have sought help.”
When the two met, it didn’t take 10 minutes before they clicked and became inseparable. There was laughter and tears over common experiences, shared love of good wine, and an immediate understanding that the two would move forward as business partners.
“That’s another thing I love about you,” Vergara said. “We got to the end of it, and you weren’t trying to play it cool or anything, you were just like, ‘Let’s do this.’”
Fogg and Vergara began their friendship and business partnership in the slow season for wine, which allowed them both the time to approach things methodically through the same lens of relationship-building they both prioritize.
This March, the two launched their first joint venture, MVP Sparkling. The name is a natural play on both brands, while the label features subtle nods to M Vino's illuminated text-inspired lettering alongside peacock feathers.
The 2021 vintage is mostly Chardonnay with a touch of Pinot Noir, which gives the wine its golden hue. Vergara said the wine was made in the true Champagne method, which takes years to produce properly and yields golden pear and baked apple tart aromas.
MVP Sparkling has been a resounding success, with the duo receiving praise from longtime customers and even converting some stalwart red wine drinkers to the joys of bubbles.
Moving forward, Fogg and Vergara plan to focus on keeping things natural and moving at a slow, steady pace as the professional relationship continues to develop. They plan to release a Chardonnay in the near future, along with other projects they aren’t yet ready to share with the world.
Their friendship remains the glue that binds the two women together.
“Sure, we’re trying to make money. But it’s more about this beautiful lifestyle, the friendship and the joy of doing it together,” Vergara said. “It was fated, much like finding the love of your life is fated.”
Memory, resilience and new stories
The male peafowl were originally imported to Napa Valley from India in the late 1800s as decorative status symbols at large ranches and private estates. Thriving in the climate, they outlived the estates that brought them and can still be found throughout the county.
A peacock making its way up the hillside landscapes of Spring Mountain, though, was a rarity. Less than a month after the death of Peacock's longtime winemaker Craig Becker, a peacock appeared at Peacock Family Vineyard on May 13, 2025 — Christopher Peacock's birthday.
Fogg said the bird hung out on the property for close to a month.
Sometimes it would stare through the window at Peacock’s former caretaker, Dennis, who still takes care of Betsy. On another occasion, Fogg said the bird went to Betsy’s bedroom window and fanned out his long, iridescent tail feathers.
After saying hello to Betsy, Fogg said the peacock went and sat down in front of her dad’s office.
The following day, Vergara was visiting with Fogg, and the peacock immediately approached her. Both women said it felt like the bird was sizing Vergara up, as if Peacock himself were there, protecting his daughter.
Peacocks carry symbolic meaning across cultures. In Roman tradition, they’re associated with renewal. In Greek myth, with watchfulness and memory through the figure of Argus Panoptes. In South Asian iconography, with beauty and resilience.
The visitor at the vineyard could certainly represent any or all of those timeless symbols. But, for both women, it served as a crystallizing moment that they could move forward, and that doing so together was something closer to destiny than chance.
“I think it was partially for everybody, but mostly for me,” Fogg said. “It was telling me that everything is going to be OK, and that’s beautiful.”
“It was so special,” Vergara added. “I see peacocks everywhere now.”
Vergara said the two are still working through what their story will look like. At its core, though, are two women, passionate about wine and community, paving a new path while honoring the pasts that brought them to this moment.
“We never want it to appear as a sad story because there’s been so much resilience, beauty and joy in what we’re doing,” she said. “Our partnership is deeply rooted in authenticity and so organic; this is a beautiful evolution forward.”
“They were the story, and I came in to tell the story,” Fogg added. “We get to honor them and still tell stories about them. But now we’re the new story.”
You can reach reporter Keith Cousins at 707-256-2212 or keith.cousins@napanews.com.