Jan 23, 2014
First watch the video showing off the first VintageView wine cellar. Then read on to learn more about how Doug McCain founded VintageView. Or read first, watch later. Either way, we recommend a good glass of wine by your side. There will not be a quiz at the end.
With a background in real estate investing and construction, businessman Doug McCain founded VintageView in 2001 out of his garage in Castle Rock, a beautiful mountain suburb about 45 minutes south of Denver.
But VintageView's story began a few years earlier when Doug, a long-time wine collector, discovered that a family friend had stolen the most prized bottles from his personal cellar and replaced them with replicas. Since traditional wine racks store bottles with the top facing out, it was years before he discovered his wine was missing.
Doug's sudden need to see each label and know where his wine was, led him to create a label-forward wine rack that focused on displaying the wine, not just storing it. After spending countless hours designing, cutting and welding steel, Doug perfected the design for what is now known as the W Series Wine Rack, aka, the original "vintage view" wine rack.
The first display system, which held over 3,000 bottles, was installed in his personal wine cellar (↑↑↑click video link above↑↑↑ and word quickly spread about the innovative wine display he had created. Soon friends and family began requesting their own label-forward racks and Doug began producing and selling them out of his garage, laying the groundwork for VintageView to become an award-winning, household name in the wine industry.
For the next several years, Doug grew the company, added new products and developed strong international manufacturing relationships. In 2006, the VintageView Wine Storage System was awarded a U.S. Patent. (Several additional patents on that and other racks since.)
In 2009, Doug partnered with businessman and wine lover Charles Malek to take over the leadership of the company while still overseeing new product development and manufacturing
To date, more than 4 million bottles of wine have been stored using VintageView wine racks, which have been sold nationally and internationally with dealers in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Belgium, United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, France and New Zealand to name a few.
Product lines have expanded to include:
- Vino Series (patented)
- Vino Series Post System (patent pending)
- Evolution Wine Tower
- Evolution Wine Wall
- Case & Crate bulk locker storage
- and more ...
Doug is an avid fly fisherman and car enthusiast. He enjoys traveling all over the world with his wife Sally. They recently returned from a safari in Africa where Doug was able to capture some great wildlife photographs.
He still works on VintageView product designs out of his garage.
(UPDATE: Doug retired in 2019, and Charles remains as owner and CEO).