Dentist-turned-vintner turns a dream into reality

When I spoke with Doug Hauck recently, he was in the middle of two crown appointments, a couple of teeth cleanings and an implant at his Newport Beach dental office.

All in a day’s work for the USC Dornsife alumnus, though his day usually doesn’t end there.

Aside from teeth, Hauck tends to something quite different: grapes. For the past eight years, Hauck and his wife Kim have owned and operated HammerSky Vineyards and Inn in Paso Robles, Calif., 50 acres of rolling land a four-hour drive from their home in Orange County.

The property includes a vineyard, a tasting room, a barn that can be rented for weddings and a four-bedroom inn built in 1904 for a Mennonite minister and his family. The vines were planted in 1997 in soil that draws comparison with the Bordeaux region of France.

Doug Hauck draws a sample of his wine in a storage room stacked high with oak barrels. Photo credit ©Mark Rightmire, The Orange County Register.

“HammerSky is estate-grown, single-block, single-vineyard only,” Hauck said. “That means we only get grapes from our place. It gives our wine a certain flavor. We’re Bordeaux-centric; we do cabernets, merlots, petit verdot and zinfandels. Personally I love the cabernets, that’s my thing.”

The winery was written up in Vogue magazine last month in addition to being featured in The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. Pottery Barn has used the property for its photo shoots. Recently their estate wines have received very impressive ratings — 93s and 94s on a hundred-point scale — in major publications like Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast.

 Life as a “nonstop creative guy”

Of course, most dreams don’t come to fruition without a lot of hard work.

“[When I bought the property] I didn’t realize the business was really five jobs,” Hauck said. “There’s the winemaking, the growing, selling the wine on-site and to restaurants, running the inn and doing events. It’s a lot of moving parts.”

He still works three-and-a-half days a week at his dental office, trekking to Paso Robles every other weekend. Sometimes he leaves Orange County at 5 a.m. to beat traffic, get to HammerSky and open the tasting room by 10. But it’s all a labor of love, and a love of new challenges. A self-proclaimed “nonstop creative guy,” Hauck has forayed into everything from film production to house flipping.

Doug Hauck in his dental office in Newport Beach. Photo courtesy of Doug Hauck.

The Newport Beach native entered USC Dornsife as a sophomore transfer student and was a member of the ski team and the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After earning his economics degree in 1981, Hauck spent some time “schlepping around cords and wires for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg film student understudies” as he put it. He even earned a certificate in motion pictures and business from UCLA before concluding that the film industry might not be the most stable option for his long-term career.

At 27, he followed in his family’s health-care footsteps and entered dental school at University of the Pacific in San Francisco. Three years later, he was establishing his first practice in Beverly Hills and teaching in the field of fixed prosthodontics at USC’s Ostrow School of Dentistry. He even coached the USC ski team for a few years.

And the transition from dental crowns to grape vines?

“I always enjoyed a good glass of wine, and I have a palate,” Hauck said. Like many Californians, he and his wife had mused about the romance of owning a winery. Unlike others, however, they actually bought one.

“People always ask me, ‘Why did you do it?’ But for me, it was ‘why not?’”

Paradise found

It took him 10 years to find the perfect spot. He wanted a property that was on a wine trail in an area with some wine tourism growth, and one that had good existing vines so he wouldn’t need to plant any, a water source, a rolling topography and an old house. The property in Paso Robles fit the bill to a tee.

Hauck was traveling in Mexico in 2007 when he put in the offer without telling his wife. He was fourth in line, they said.

Doug Hauck on his tractor. Photo credit ©Mark Rightmire, The Orange County Register.

“When I got back to Los Angeles, I told Kim I was going to the store for some milk, drove up to Paso and took a look around the property, then waited for the guy to come out to the mailbox to get his mail. Eventually he came out, we met, shook hands and struck a deal right there at the mailbox.

“I had to press the flesh, as they say in Hollywood.”

When he bought the property, it was in need of some serious TLC.

“It took me several years to rebuild the place, but now when we’re there doing a wedding or see the property on TV, it definitely has a certain spirit and visual pop. And when you’re standing there watching a group of people enjoying it, it’s like ‘wow.’ That’s the kind of investment return you don’t get back from a stock or bond.”

I left my heart at USC

Hauck still loves USC sports and has fond memories of his experiences in Beta Theta Pi. In fact, he and his fraternity brothers are planning a reunion at HammerSky this spring.

“We still get together — that was a great bond, a great network of friends. ’SC is where my heart is.”

As an undergraduate Hauck worked in the President’s Club, pouring wine for all the VIPs at the private parties.

“It was fun because I could meet really important people and exchange business cards. At the end of the day, that’s what dentistry is — networking — and that’s what winemaking is. You have to push and get your name out there and you have to be creative. Otherwise, you’re not going to get anywhere.”

In that spirit, Hauck maintains an open door policy at HammerSky for anyone interested in learning more about winemaking and what he does.

“If anyone wants to come up and get dirty being a winemaker for a day, they can contact me. They can borrow my journey.”

Also, he said, all USC graduates taste for free.

Editor’s Note: Members of the USC Beta Theta Pi fraternity who wish to attend the planned reunion can contact Casey Griffin ’82.