Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 8:24
PM
Subject: Wine at Orangewood Consulting - 40
To Our Wine Aficionados,
Introduction
It has been a while since the last
newsletter and we have lots of excuses. The good news is that we won’t
bore you with them. July and August are slow months for wine sales.
Restaurants sell down their inventory and re-order only when they have a
critical need. Nevertheless, on a year over year basis, we are
substantially ahead.
Box Score
New restaurants - none
New sales people - minus one
New Wineries visited - six
Events Feedback
Red Kangaroo - Scottsdale
Red Kangaroo - Chandler
Wine Concepts
Sales Staff Change
Visit to Westberg Cellars
Rambling Man
Visit to RustRidge
Rambling Men
Feedback
Event Feedback
Red Kangaroo, Scottsdale - July
25, with Steve Krum
On this Friday Dyane had her first go at being THE Orangewood
representative at an event. Pouring Marinda Park wines and RustRidge
Zinfandel to the sounds of Steve Krum, she did great. Steve does a fine
job, too. He plays well-known as well as his own songs, and together with
his outgoing personality adds substantially to the ambience. Thank you to
Dyane, Steve and to all those who showed up. We understand that Steve
will be there again this Friday evening. It could be fun!
Red Kangaroo, Chandler - August
8/9
With the weather hanging in the low 110 degrees, Dick and I took a day
each to pour Marinda Park and Noceto wines with Roger, the owner of this Red
Kangaroo. This event serves more as entertainment while customers stop by
for a bottle or two of wine, so the place doesn’t fill up. However, Roger
is planning to get some beer on tap…
Wine Concepts, Phoenix - July 11
and 18
Davina signed up Wine Concepts to feature Noceto wines on one Friday
and Chateau Benoit wines the following Friday. The place is set up more
as a restaurant, so rather than people stopping by a pouring station, the
pourer must go to each table to pour and describe the wines. It is fun
but hard work.
Sales Staff Change
Davina, who started with us less than two months ago, has decided that she
would really prefer to have a job with a little more income. She worked
very hard for the two months and left us with a bunch of leads and several new
accounts. The summer is not the best time to get a significant amount of
wine sold in Phoenix.
This has reinforced our notion of what we are looking for in a sales
person. First, they must be enthusiastic about our wines. Second,
they must be in a position that the income is not critical.
Visit to Westberg Cellars
Early last week I climbed into our trusty 1994 Celica and headed west to
California, the land of no gas lines. I was headed to Paso Robles to meet
Tom and Peggy Westberg. As I was driving alone I needed a simple route,
so I went along Interstate 10 until the middle of Los Angeles when it becomes
Route 101. Heading north though Hollywood, I looked in vain for the
famous sign on the side of the hill. Route 101 leads through Santa
Barbara to Paso Robles. Not only is the navigation easier, the scenery is
wonderful. Turning off the 101 at Paso Robles, I drove past Peachy Canyon
(where Tom used to work) and several other wineries on the way to Westberg
Cellars. The Westbergs are on top of a steep hill - the vineyard is
terraced. I was met by Lili, Peggy’s granddaughter, who introduced me to
the 5 cats, Phoebe, Buster, Meatloaf, George, Catalina, (organic gopher
control) and a dog, Rudy, (organic burglar control). Peggy came out and
showed me the miniature de-stemmer that they have. This is a small
operation - producing less than 50 cases of each of the wines they make.
When Tom arrived home from his job as winemaker at Echelon wines, he told me
more about the vineyard, including the “soil”. He said the “soil” is
mostly shale - he showed me some. It had fossils on it. Tom said
that to plant the vines originally (12 years ago) he and a friend used an augur
on a long pole for leverage. Even with the pole, when the auger hit a
serious rock, he and his friend started spinning counterclockwise around the
augur. Not the best day in his life, he told me. One of the things
I am learning about winemakers is that they are first and foremost farmers:
take care of the grapes as they grow and they will take care of you in the
winemaking process. We ate at the Bistro Laurent, where the wine list seemed
to feature wines from Paso Robles only. The fine meal and conversation
took me past my bedtime, so I was delighted to find the quaint Paso Robles Inn
nearby. What a great place to visit. Thank you Tom, Peggy and Lili
for your hospitality!
Rambling man
After wandering around Paso Robles for a while, I continued on Route 101
towards San Francisco. For miles and miles there are grapes
planted. Twenty years ago, Peggy had told me, there were none. Hmm,
glut? Route 101 takes you right into the heart of San Francisco, but kind
of leaves you there. You have to drive through 93 traffic lights to get
to the Golden Gate Bridge. The clouds were low or the fog was high
because all I could see of the bridge were the towers disappearing above me as
I crossed. With the power of cell phones, I met up with my son-in-law,
Mike, to make a couple of winery visits. In between wineries he asks if a
greasy hamburger would suffice for lunch. It would. He takes me to
a cattle auction near Santa Rosa, where Mike’s Burgers is located. We
ordered guacamole burgers by saying “Go Jets”. Mike must be from New
York. When we asked for cutlery we were called wimps. The staff
must be from New York, too! Good grub, good fun. I noticed a website
address www.mikesburgers.com.
Check it out. (Mark can also check out www.mikesburger.com for the sliders.)
Visit to RustRidge Ranch
On my way to RustRidge I stopped for lunch in Davis, the home of UC Davis,
which to my mind has been a major factor in improving the quality of today’s US
wineries. I stumbled across Murder Burger (a.k.a. Red Rum Burger) not far
west of Interstate 5. But I digress…
At RustRidge Susan Meyer and Jim Fresquez (the owners) welcomed me and
introduced me to two of their Bed and Breakfast guests, Alex and Barbara, from
Virginia, who have been visiting RustRidge for 7 years. Alex offered me a
Boddington’s Ale and told me he was born in Bristol, England. Strolling
through the 450-acre ranch, I was guided by Tosca, a 3-year-old Labrador.
She led me by the Thoroughbred horses that Jim breeds and trains. Two of
the horses are yearlings and very personable; they cantered over to greet me and
enjoyed getting their withers squeezed - wouldn’t you? At the end of the
stroll was the winery. When Dick Kirkpatrick arrived, Susan and Jim
showed us the winery and gave us a taste of the upcoming vintages. I’m
particularly glad to tell you that the 2000 Zinfandel is as awesome as the
1999. It is still not clear when exactly we will have the latest vintages
in Arizona. When they do arrive they will have the new labels on them
featuring a picture of Man o’ War, a great racehorse from the 1920’s as well as
being the father of War Admiral and the grandfather of Seabiscuit. Dick
and I were invited to stay at the ranch for the night. There was a
barbeque for dinner, and the family style dining room, together with a 1998
Cabernet Sauvignon and a 1999 Zinfandel, facilitated an evening of
conversation. Jim’s stories about racing horses in Arizona suggested to
me that we should plan an event around the next one. The loyal return
visitors to the ranch reflected the high opinion that I formed about RustRidge
as a place to hang out for a while. Check it out at http://www.rustridge.com/. Thank
you, Susan and Jim, for your hospitality!
Rambling Men
Following a continental breakfast at RustRidge (we saw the full breakfast and
almost delayed our departure), we embarked on our next workday. We
visited Jim and Suzy Gullett at Vino Noceto. They have been giving us
good PR in the area, so we had three winery visits lined up. The upcoming
vintages from Vino Noceto, from the barrel, are even better than the current
ones. Jim is another winery owner who trusts his grapes and, in his
words, does not perform unnatural acts to produce the wines. It’s amazing
to me that Jim, a farmer at heart, actually has a full time job in the banking
industry, as well as providing direction to the winery. He excused
himself to rush off to a volleyball practice he had to coach. Dick and I
continued to the other wineries that you will be hearing about in future newsletters
and on wine menus in the Valley. Dick told me that he used to do this
kind of winery visiting and thought that he was drinking too much. Now he
thinks he is working too hard. This is tough stuff. Under the
influence of our work, I hear lots of things about Dick that could form the
basis for future newsletters. However, my memory was also overworked and
all I remember is something about an old dog he had called “Yellar”.
Feedback
I heard from Mary (thank you) that Alberto’s in Cave Creek has Vino Noceto on
their wine menu. This is pretty interesting because we haven’t sold any
wine there! A little research suggests that Alberto used to run Rosti on
Camelback. It went out of business - but he must have taken the wine to
the new location. We’ll check it out.
We also had a number of emails about our accident and our move. Thank you
all for your support. We are still working on selling the old house, but
the new house is getting close to being ready for us.
Cin-cin, alla salute!
Richard and Laurie
Richard (newsletter writer) and Laurie Corles
(editor)
Orangewood Consulting LLC
602.906.9566 or 602.410.3774
http://www.orangewoodconsulting.com/wine.html