About Row Eleven Wine Company
Our People
Richard de los Reyes, Founder/Winemaker
Richard de los Reyes is one of the most experienced and, if you polled other winemakers, probably one of the most beloved winemakers working today. His unique and unduplicatable career has given him unparalleled knowledge of west coast vineyards and winemaking experience from Chile to Oregon. He has helped many of California’s top winemakers create their own brands and wines. In 2004 he founded Row Eleven, Stratton Lummis and Civello. Rarely sold in wine stores, these three exciting brands are some of the most interesting and best wines found in America’s greatest restaurants. Here is a list of just a few that have served his wines: The Four Seasons Hotel Group, Alain Ducasse, Wolfgang Puck’s Postrio, Cut and Spago, Emeril’s Table 10 and Delmonico’s, Melissa Kelly’s Primo, Charlie Trotter’s, Michael Mina’s Knob Hill, Charlie Palmer’s Steak, Jean Joho’s Eiffel Tower and Everest Room, Bobby Van’s Steakhouse, Jean George Vongerichten’s Spice Market and JG Steak, The Fountainebleau Miami Beach, St. Regis Hotel NYC, High Cotton and many more.
Ken Conner, Founder
Ken is a veteran entrepreneur and private investor with over twenty five years of hands-on experience nurturing and developing growth companies. After co-founding Lombard Investments in 1985, Ken's leadership was instrumental over the next fifteen years in building the firm to over $500 million in committed capital and investments on three continents. With expertise in start-ups, acquisitions and operations, Ken has successfully guided numerous investments in many sectors, including the food, beverage, real estate and media industries. He and his partners started Row Eleven Wine Co., LLC in early 2004.
Craig Boggs, National Sales Manager
Craig Boggs has over twenty years of experience in marketing and sales. His last twelve years have been dedicated to developing new beverage alcohol brands. As a twenty one year-old Lieutenant in the Marine Corp., Craig’s first assignment was to run the one hundred and ten-man external security force guarding the American Embassy in Lebanon.
Upon completion of his military assignments, Craig joined Gallo as a field marketing manager on the east coast, just as Gallo launched into the premium sector there and in the mid-Atlantic region. After five years he was recruited by Pepsi to represent its portfolio of premium wines and spirits, and, specifically, to focus on the repositioning of Stolichnaya Vodka. Two years later, in 1994, he launched his own company, Better Beverages Importers, which focused on specialty spirits, beer and European wines. Craig is considered an American expert on Scotch Whiskey.
Craig sold Better Beverages Importers in 2000 and opened a consulting firm, Whisper Consulting, which also dealt in distribution. The company was ahead of the curve in foreseeing demand for the then new product, hard lemonade. The company succeeded in distributing the One Eyed Jack brand to forty one states in a mere ninety days. Eager to get back into the wine business that he always loved, Boggs joined Row Eleven as National Sales Manager in 2005. He immediately opened fourteen states in one of the most difficult distribution times in the history of the wine industry. When he is not flying across the United States selling Row Eleven wines, he lives in Philadelphia with his wife and four daughters, where he spends any free time he has watching the basketball team of his alma mater, North Carolina.