I've returned from my trip up north having set out to accomplish two broad goals. The first was to meet with the Fess Parker people about moving my wine there and operating out of their facility. The second was to get some samples of my wine as well as tell Sal I was moving out in a month or two. Of course I wasn't going anywhere if the meeting at Fess Parker's didn't go well or didn't happen at all.
I had been to the Fess Parker custom crush facility twice previously: once when I was to meet Dave Potter (assistant winemaker and owner of his own wine venture) and taste some barrel samples and then subsequently to meet with Armando the facility manager to discuss my then theoretical custom crush requirements. I had signed up for wine futures of Dave Potter's new label, Municipal Winemakers and his debut red, entitled Bright Red. I had called him and he'd invited me to the facility to taste some barrel samples of other wines he was working on.
I never purchase wine futures by the way. Futures programs
vary widely, from fat cat
The catalogue is fun to read and it's interesting to catch up on what the local luminaries will be releasing in the next few years. Occasionally the Wine Cask will provide a showcase for some new producers who they feel are worthy of exposure, despite their wine not necessarily being in what you might call the "rare and collectible" category. Bright Red was one of these and I think it was by far the least expensive red in the catalogue, going for $14 for the futures (it would be $21 upon release). I liked the description (an easy drinking Grenache-Cinsault-Syrah blend) and the idea of getting some futures somehow appealed top me at that moment. Especially low priced ones. So I signed up for ½ a case, the minimum futures order.
I emailed Dave shortly after I placed the order - he'd established a website and encouraged all interested parties to contact him. Although Dave skipped our meeting I did discover this gigantic facility and learned from the receptionist they indeed did custom crush. Although I had vaguely known in the back of my mind that Fess Parker had an additional facility besides the picturesque winery in the middle of the Santa Ynez Valley, I had no idea they did custom crush. Thus my wine consumerism has led me to an avenue that is directly related to my nascent production side.
Like any industry that promotes luxury goods, nice milieus
are an essential part of the wine industry. A comfortable tasting room, soft
music playing, eloquent descriptions of what you're drinking and why. Pretty
knickknacks, all manner of logo
clothing, coffee table books. These are essential to promote the product
although truthfully, even back in the day the flowery tasting rooms filled with
potpourri were not really that appealing to me. In my new role I much prefer
hanging out in the down and dirty of a humming production facility: wet cement
floors, tanks and barrels lined up ready for action, talking trash about barrel
samples. The
The same day I had arranged for the meeting at the facility
I'd picked up my Bright Red allocation at the Wine Cask in
I sat down with Maurice, the chief operating officer and
Kathy, who specialized in compliance and we started talking about my little
venture and its requirements. I could see that my presence was a source of some
puzzlement to the two of them; the
During the meeting Maurice had to take a phone call. Kathy looked at me quizzically and asked if I was just getting into the wine business. The answer, as we know, is yes. She remarked that she'd been in the business for some time and couldn't understand why someone would want in. She apparently wanted out. What could I say? I shrugged and explained that, yes, it was a romantic thing and, yes, making wine is one of the silliest endeavors you could get into from an economic standpoint. I ticked off some other futile business ventures that regularly attracted entrepreneurs who might be classified as naïve: restaurants, airlines, racing cars. "It's a romantic thing", I said again, almost apologetically. She nodded silently - she's seen this movie before.
When you make or sell alcoholic beverages there is a lot of
paperwork to do to satisfy government regulations. The Feds have one set of
rules and the state has another. Two things I've always observed when dealing
with the federal government compared to the state is that the feds seem to be
more organized and they seem to charge less for filing forms, nothing in most
cases. The federal authority over most things alcoholic is the TTB, which
roughly stands for Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. They were formerly
known as the BATF, which stood for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
I can understand somewhat the connection between tobacco and alcohol but the
firearms connection has always left me puzzled. In any case the TTB still
handles firearms regulation and taxation, although they've removed it from
their name. The
The TTB requirements are not too daunting (especially compared to the ABC's). Since technically I'm just a wholesaler all that's requiredis to file an Application for Basic Permit, get an employer number from the IRS, get label approval and file a DBA. The Fess Parker people do the latter two so I completed the first two this morning - it was painless (and free!) Of course if I were starting a real brick and mortar winery there would be bond and tax issue, EPA issues and various additional permits.
The state ABC requirements tend to be more involved. The one Kathy insisted on was the "Application for Seller's Permit". That's the one she wants complete before I move my booty on in. I spoke to the ABC people previously and they mentioned several other forms. After filling out the forms it's then required to show up in person for a quick interview, I guess to see if I had the requisite level of insanity and deep pockets to participate in the wine industry. The ABC people had mentioned that I needed to bring in forms 253, 255, 256-LLC, 140, 217, 208A and 208B. There's no doubt these are all very important and I guess I have to revisit them and find out what they actually mean.
Our talk went well, although at one point I started raving about barrel fermentation again, causing more confusion among the other two. Barrel fermentation? I could see going through their minds. I stressed I only wanted to do some experiments with it but clearly my obsession wasn't buying me credibility.
Soon after, Dave Potter was called into the meeting: the same Dave Potter who made the wine in my car, and who had inadvertently and unintentionally turned me on to the facility. Dave is the winemaker for the custom crush facility, which means he makes the wine for the custom crush clients. I'm not sure he makes the Fess Parker wines, since there are (at least) two other official Fess Parker winemakers. Dave seems easygoing although he's very serious minded about wine making as you would have to be overseeing such a large facility. We talked about bottling schedules and my expected load next vintage.
The bottling line at Fess Parker has a capacity of 90
bottles per minute, so accommodating my 500 or so cases wouldn't stress their
system. Since a lot of clients use the facility for bottling services it is
imperative I reserve now - they don't bottle during September or October (crush
time) and the August slots are already filling up. This means I have to design
my label, get it approved and buy glassware, capsules and corks. I suggested
that I could perhaps piggyback onto the Fess Parker winery acquisition process
and just use whatever they use, a suggestion that Maurice approved. That would
be great, as there is no way I could get rates as low as Fess Parker Winery,
not on my own soliciting quotes for a 500 case run. Whereas I would be on my
own dealing with a dysfunctional business organization in
One of the things that had struck me about the Fess Parker
facility when Armando had given me a rate sheet (lo those many months ago when
we were young) was how reasonable the rates were. Their standard custom crush
rate is $450 a ton - by way of comparison I'm paying $650 per ton for my 6 ton
lot and $950 per ton for my smaller lots. Similarly, my bottling run at Fess
should be around $1750 whereas the quoted rate up North is $3000. The facility
up North relies on the bottling truck, a portable bottling line in a tractor
trailer that makes the rounds of wineries and does bottling runs. The bottling
trucks are widely used in the
To add to the benefits Fess Parker is also much lower on case and barrel storage - $6 per moth versus $10 for barrels and $.15 per case versus $.25. To be fair though Fess Parker will nickel and dime me at every juncture for things that Sal throws in, such as barrel samples, topping, etc. So let's call it a toss up once bottling fees get removed from the equation. My real motivation is having my fledgling enterprise take advantage of an infrastructure where everyone knows exactly what you have to do to get that wine out to some thirsty consumers. Of course the people up North know, but they don't really care about me getting my wine out there - nor did I expect them to when I signed up.
The eventual upshot of the meeting is that the Fess Parker
people would be glad to store my barrels and bottle my wine. As far as handling
smaller lots of red wine, they just weren't interested. My goad is to grab hold
of a few 1 to 2 ton lots of red grapes in
My general plan includes doing 1 or 2 whites next year that I would release at the same time as the reds, so at least the white wine program will have a home.
I was off to points North; Sal was expecting me the next morning. I'd requested 2 half bottle barrel samples each of my three wines, and I wanted to tell him I was moving my wines out. I hoped he wouldn't take it personally but I couldn't see why it would matter to him in the slightest. In my various lives as musician, programmer and (now) wine negociant I know ego can easily get in the way of rational thought. Since the notorious email exchange I've had a distinct feeling of walking on eggshells when dealing with Sal and I know he must feel the same way.
I rolled into GV late morning on Friday, a typical gray, chilly December morning. There was a small group of workers playing around with some hoses at the winery entrance; Sal was upstairs. All else was quiet, with the exception of Sal's dog barking at what seemed to be an invisible presence.
I'd never been upstairs to the tasting room at this winery before; Sal was in the office behind the bar, apparently working on my storage contract. He came out and showed it to me, averring that it wasn't quite finished yet. I told him I was moving the wines south to the Fess parker facility. This made him happy, or perhaps relieved. I could tell that relations between us had just improved considerably. I was a pretty small customer and, what was worse, I wasn't his customer. This was really the crux of the problem - I was the winery's client but no one at the winery besides Sal knew I existed. Sal had his own clients to service that were a higher priority than myself.
We commenced chatting a bit about typical wine minutiae,
followed by tasting my wines. They're all in barrel now. The Grenache seems to
have entered a closed phase, the Mourvedre has developed some
Sal suggested perhaps adding a bit of Petite Sirah to the Mourvedre. He makes a small line of his own wines and had too much Petite Sirah, so he was looking to sell off some bulk, and here I was, with some Mourvedre that needed pumping up (the wheeling and dealing never stops. I love it). Peteite Sirah is one wine that rarely needs pumping up - what it usually needs is toning down. We poured a bit of his extra strength petite into the mourvedre and the blend was immediately transformed into...Petite Sirah, with no trace of the Mourvedre discernible. So that impromptu experiment didn't work.
Things were relaxed, I gave Sal a bottle of Dave Potter's Bright Red (he returned the favor with a bottle of his Tempranillo so I made out slightly there) and I was off, in possession of 6 ½ bottles of barrel samples - Ritual Wine Company has inventory!
On my way home I stopped over in the Santa Ynez Valley, as
Laurie, a friend from the winemaking class, had alerted me to a slate of winery
open houses. I was up for a bit of a party, having accomplished what I set out
to do on the trip, and Saturday morning I bee lined down to Laurie's place in
It's an easy hop over to
He married Morgan several years ago and when you're married to a well known winemaker, why not start a wine company? She did, and pursued Viognier, which also happens to be among my favorite white varietals. I have a vague plan to try to produce some in 2009, but that's another story.
In an amusingly odd twist to the wife as winemaker story, very shortly after Morgan debuted her wines, another new wine label appeared: Verdad. Verdad is the brainchild of Joanna Lindquist and specializes in wines produced from Spanish varietals. Why is this relevant? Joanna Lindquist is the wife of Bob Lindquist. Bob Lindquist and Jim Clendenen make wine in the same facility at Bien Nacido Ranch (which is also home to almost 1000 acres of top quality vineyards and an additional winery besides Jim and Bob's); Bob started his venture (Qupe Cellars) at the same time Jim started Au Bon Climat and Bob is not only a Santa Barbara County pioneer like Jim but also a Rhone varietal pioneer: Qupe was one of the very first California wineries to make a large scale commitment to syrah; today Qupe makes a number of syrahs as well as a slew of other wines from Rhone grapes. Bob and Jim have been friends for many years and have done collaborative wine ventures over the years as well as having shared their facility.
Thus I found it interesting that Morgan and Joanna both got into the wine biz at roughly the same time. Did one inspire the other? Were they hanging out and decided it simultaneously? Is it a coincidence? Did Jim and Bob place a bet to see which wife could produce wine first?
As a final family footnote Bob's son Ethan also produces wine now as
well, a very tasty sangiovese and sangio-syrah blend. I believe he has another
son that's the winemaker at Tres Hermanos winery in
I've always liked Morgan's Viogniers and she was pouring 5 or 6 at the open house, which is roughly 5 or 6 more than most wineries have on offer. We recognized some fellow winos from the area (one of the other recipients of the Vandale Sangiovese, David the home winemaker, was in fact pouring for Morgan), so I decided to bring in my little carafe of syrah. I had brought it for Norm to try (we were hitting Norm's next), but I thought I'd bring it in for some people at the open house. After getting lubed on Viognier (there's a phrase you don't hear often) I was feeling expansive and naturally, in a room full of industry players I decided to show that I was a player too. I poured some small sips all around, and even offered some to complete strangers - good times all around.
The syrah met with positive response although I didn't expect anyone to come out and insult it. I was vaguely reminded of the my old musician days, when meeting prospective bandmates involved pulling out a cassette and playing it, while everyone nodded and listened. You would praise whatever music was being played, even if you hated it, just because musicians are so sensitive about those things, and so it goes with something like a neophyte's barrel sample.
Following a sample of the very nice Arcadian pinot noirs it
was off to Norm's open house. Norm was showing off his ever expanding line of
pinot noir, including a 2008 barrel sample that was my personal favorite, from
a new vineyard near
We had a great time at Norm's and closed down his open house,
helping to finish up all the stray wine. Laurie and I ended up at dinner with a
few others in Los Olivos; I brought a bottle of (yep) Dave Potter's Bright Red.
The Bright Red was serving me well in a variety of social situations -I left a
bottle for Jason, who had let me use his
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