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Confessions, Opinions and Words of
Wine Wisdom Brian Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick Winery & Lodge E-newsletter |
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| Welcome to the first edition of
'Uncork the Magic'. I have procrastinated for years to launch our
E-newsletter, feeling a little techno-phobic, wanting everything to be
perfect before I dare start. Forgive me now if I dive in over my virtual
head. I may botch up my HTML here and there but I promise to deliver a
good read for your enjoyment. Let me rip wide open your perceptions of
the world of wine without crushing anyone's feelings. All in good fun
we'll uncork the magic of wine, the romance along with the bullshit.
Expect my random ramblings to show up once a month, at first; then more
often when production and delivery flows more like water than a rock
tumbling down a stream. Sure, you can expect a little bit of self
promotion, alerting you of upcoming events, new wines releases, special
offerings and the like but rest assured I'll cover many interesting
topics to entertain and exercise that mushy mass between your ears. I
certainly invite your comments, suggestions, questions too; but don't
get too worked up over my grammar or misspellings.
Empower Yourself - You're the greatest Judge of all! Those strong words bear mostly true in the world of wine. Hey, did you hear? Fitzpatrick's 2001 Estate Grown Zinfandel won the Grand Award at the 2004 Amador County Fair. That means our own Zin took the coveted Best Zinfandel away from our Zin brothers next door in the Shenandoah Valley (actually the competition is open to all wines produced by wineries all over the state and beyond if the grapes are grown within the Sierra Foothills - 380 wines entered this year). After tasting all the other red wines, the judges retasted their Gold medal winners and Fitzpatrick 2001 Zin won the Best of Show - Red. All in fair play, the wines are tasted blind. No, the judges aren't blind folded; each wine bottle is bagged beyond recognition but numbered. That's not the end of it in this wine tasting decathlon. All the judges, one more time, gathered all the elite wines that they just picked for each categories top awards, like Best of Show -White, Best Amador Zin, Best Dessert wine, etc., and tasted once more after a long day to pick the one wine that gets the Grand Award. Statistically, the probability of each wine entered of winning the Grand Award is daunting. In Fitzpatrick's quarter century of winemaking, such a Grand Award has been bestowed on us twice - once before in 1985 Amador County Fair for our 1982 Rock Hill Vnyd. Zin (a wine some of you old timers will fondly remember). Well, that's the Puff about it but let's look a little closer at competitive wine tastings in general. I have fond memories getting together way back in the early 80s with good friends, some of them winemakers, to taste wines in a comfortable social setting. Our host, which would round-robin each time, got to pick the varietal and theme of their choice and buy the wines. All of us then had both the pleasure of tasting these 6 or more wines blind and sharing the cost. The price of the wines might range from $5 to $50. The scene was good friends jovial and engaging until all of a sudden, as we sat down to begin tasting, our lively conversations ceased. The seriousness and formality of judging wines demanded intense introspective efforts. We had a job to do and we were not allowed to eat our potluck dinner until we finished this task. And the pressure increased as a few speedy tasters passed judgements on the wines in record time and pushed the rest of us to wrap it up so they could eat. I always, even back then, said we should judge wines as we eat because wine IS food and typically is enjoyed with food. Yet that argument never got anything but polite nods. These social types of tastings usually ask each person to rank the wines first to last. When everyone is done, as the master mathematician tallies up all the rankings and releases the group ranking starting from the last place first, discussion sharing snipits of our tasting notes precedes the unveiling of each wine. The math master shares with us more details of how many rank this wine last and if any first and so on. First? How could a wine that ranks collectively last have anyone ranking it first? Shocking but true, it happens all the time. I can remember a group of 20 winemakers tasting Merlots and the results were nothing short of Democrats and Republicans squaring off on opposite sides. Even professional winemakers perceive wines and their subtle components differently. Biologically some people have more developed organoleptic sensors (your sense of smell, taste and mouth feel), others have trained themselves or just think they have a good palate. The overall experience of wine, and foods in general, is the combination of your sense of smell, taste, feel and sight. Comfort foods are those of familiarity that immediately please all these senses. But are these inherited traits or developed by what we eat, drink and don't? How many times have you swirled, sniffed and tasted a wine but just couldn't put into words what you are tasting? Herein begins the sport of wine tasting. And like any other sport it takes training and lots of practice. You may be gifted with some natural talent but your true potential will never be reached without effort to improve. Nevertheless, not all wines will be perceived the same by all wine tasters. You could rely on the supposed experts whose palates may or may not reflect yours or rely on yourself. However, one of the greatest dangers, and not uncommon among winemakers, is too drink almost exclusively the same wines or your own wines. Why? Because you've trained your senses to love and be comfortable with that wine(s) and its characteristics and narrow your ability to openly evaluate wines in general. For most of you that's not a problem. A winemaker, however, can be so in love with his or her wine from consuming copious amounts daily that they become sensory blind to its flaws. So for you and me both, drink plenty of wine of many varieties from many producers and places and your palate will continue to develop. Identify, with help from conversing with fellow wine drinkers, winemakers and wine salespeople, the good and not so good characteristics in wine. Yes, wine tasting is serious business for some but without having fun it's not worth the effort. So get out there and do your exercises: swirl, sniff, taste, drink and enjoy. Before you know it you'll become your own expert and need not rely on whether the wine won medals or was reviewed by wine columnists. Empower yourself, enjoy what you enjoy, you can be your own biggest fan and critic too! Next 'Uncork the Magic' the topic will be the Pricing of Wines, an in-depth expose on the smoke and mirrors behind the price tag. This article will be worth a hundred times its weight in 750s. ########################################### Soon to be released - 2003 Sangre de Montana, our new dry rhose made from our estate grown Syrah and Cinsault. I spell rhose with an 'h' because ours is made from Rhone varieties in a French style. Dry roses are not yet common in America but enjoy widespread popularity in Europe. I'll be experimenting with pairing our rhose with foods 2003 Sierra Dreams, a new vintage of our blush-rose, reminiscent of white zinfandel with lots of berry luscious fruit with ample sweetness and good balancing acidity making for a handsome socializer. ######################################## Unannounced Tasting Room Specials happen every week. I just chalk up a sandwich board with something catchy. The past two weeks I'm having "There's nothing Odd about it" sale where you can buy the 2000 Cab in even numbers starting with two and we'll double it. For instance, buy 2 and get 4; buy 4 and get 8 (that's 50% off if you play the game right). As an inaugural special to kick off our E-newsletter I'll extend this "There's nothing Odd about it" sale to include 2001 Cab/Shiraz too. Reading this newsletter will always be worth your while. If you can't stop by the tasting room, just call in your order at 800-245-9166 or email me brian@fitzpatrickwinery.com to get the same deal. ######################################## Attention everyone! I need your assistance please. You're email address is obviously on our e-mailing list because we asked for it when you made a reservation with us, purchased wine at the tasting room, you're a member of our Wine fellowship or you actually signed up on our web site. I'm asking each and everyone of you to take a few minutes and go to www.fitzpatrickwinery.com and type in your email address in the sign up box and hit enter. Then proceed with updating your information but most importantly check off the categories of our wines you are interested. Check them all if you like. Because we will reward those that do with very special offerings over time. Zin lovers will hear about their favorite-Zins, Rhone afficiandos will get Rhoned, General Interest won't miss a thing and so on. Do it today or whenever you have a few precious minutes to spare. I'll make it worth your while. Thanks.. If you want off our e-newsletter list just send us an email saying so to removeme@fitzpatrickwinery.com but please rest assured that we do not share, sell or make available this list to anyone ever. All rights reserved (but feel free to copy it, post it, quote it, think about it and forward it to other). That's all the news that FITZ!
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Volume 1
Number 1 Fitzpatrick Winery & Lodge 7740 Fair Play Road Fair Play CA 95684 Brian Fitzpatrick Diana Fitzpatrick Katie Fitzpatrick Lodge Reservations Wine
Sales
tasting room Inquiries Friday Night Pizza Reservations Wine Fellowship Gold & Green Club brian@fitzpatrickwinery.com 800-245-9166 W. 'Hank' Schuyler Mary DeCoste Dennis Nelson Tasting
Room Hours
Fitzpatrick
Winery & Lodge |
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