Sent: Saturday, July 06, 2002
6:34 PM
Subject: Wine at Orangewood Consulting – 21
To our Wine Aficionados,
We are rapidly approaching the worldwide retail release of
the Marinda Park Wines. On July 12 at Epicurean Wine, there is a tasting
event at which you can try the wines. They will also be available for
purchase from that time. See more details below.
The remaining content of this newsletter is as follows:
Sales
Events
Wine tasting (Marinda Park release
at Epicurean Wine)
Wine and Cheese Party (At
Territorial Bar and Grill)
Wine Tasting (feedback from AZ
Wine/RustRidge event)
Restaurants
Our Gang (Insider information)
Portfolio
Marinda Park (Overview)
Feedback
Sales
Events
Wine Tasting (Marinda Park release
at Epicurean Wine)
On July 12 (next Friday) at
Epicurean Wine (7101 East Thunderbird) between 5:00 and 7:00 PM, you will have
the opportunity to taste some of the Marinda Park wines. The Chardonnay
is ready to drink and will be there. The Pinot Noir is close to being
ready to drink. Breathing for an hour and decanting results in a well-made
and tasty wine. I plan to have a couple of bottles suitably prepared by
the start of the tasting. The owners of Marinda Park tell me that the
Merlot is significantly less ready to drink. I plan to bring a single
bottle that has breathed over night. Think of this as barrel
tasting. There will also be some Noceto Frivolo (Moscato Bianco) open for
your summer sipping delight.
For more background on Marinda
Park, see below.
Wine and Cheese Party (At
Territorial Bar and Grill)
The restaurant that first signed
up to carry Orangewood Consulting wines is having a party on Tuesday, July 16th,
from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. They will be featuring wines from the menu at half
the usual by the glass cost. The Noceto Sangiovese will be available to
drink. Laurie and I will be available and checking out the cheese.
Wine Tasting (feedback from AZ
Wine/RustRidge event)
The wine tasting was well
attended. AZ Wine has a wine tasting every Friday night, so they have
gathered a local crowd, even when the temperature is 110! The tastings
are always free. We sampled our way through 3 bottles of each of the RustRidge
wines. This also means that the rest of the staff are now familiar with
the wines. One person told me that her boyfriend’s father is winemaker
Susan’s husband’s brother. We figured out that this means that vineyard
master Jim is her boyfriend’s uncle. The set up at AZ Wine is relaxed,
with chairs and a sofa. Afterwards, I joined Laurie at BOB as the Arizona
Diamondbacks beat Toronto 4-3.
Restaurants
Our Gang – 9832 North 7th
Street – Insider Information
Laurie and I stopped by Our Gang
for dinner one Thursday evening. We asked for the Vino Noceto Sangiovese,
but our waitroid had not heard of it, nor did it help when she asked “the
manager”. Naturally I called the next day to see if they needed more
wine. I was told that it was saved for “Special customers”. To be a
special customer you need to ask for Dino and make the request to him.
Next time we’ll know – you will too!
Portfolio
Marinda Park
For those of you who have not
received this newsletter since issue number 1, and for the rest of you who
don’t memorize everything, it seems like a good time to summarize what has
happened here. Mark Rodman used to work for Measurex, but did not
continue there for very long after it was purchased by Honeywell. He and
his wife, Belinda, decided to move to Australia and start a winery. Later
he recruited Norm and Fanny Winton (Norm also an ex-Measurex guy) as partners
in this venture. Norm and Fanny live in Hawaii and are responsible for
the world-wide marketing of the product. As best I can tell, Mark
and Belinda picked an excellent part of Australia – on the Mornington
Peninsula, which sticks out into the straits of Tasmania. In a climate
similar to that of Oregon, they are focusing on Chardonnay and Pinot
Noir. They have also produced a little Merlot, and for the second vintage
will add some Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris. They have retained
consultants to advise on vineyard management and wine making. The first
vintage has resulted in high quality wines. Last October Sam Hawkins (an
ex-Honeyweller who has his own personal vineyard in Oregon) put me in touch
with Mark. Three hundred and twenty one emails and a trip to Hawaii to
visit Norm later, we now have the majority of the first vintage wines in our
warehouse in Phoenix. Orangewood Consulting is the USA importer (it’s on
the ATF approved label so it must be true). We are ready to ship to any
distributor in the US – so of course the first sale looks as if it will be to
Mexico! For more information check their website at http://www.marindapark.com/
.
Feedback
Please keep those cards and
letters coming.
Richard and Laurie