Archive for July, 2016
Six From Vincent
July 25th, 2016 | 
Author: We’ve made a lot of friends and acquaintances via the internet since Gang of Pour first went online in 1996, and a fair number of those folks are winemakers. Some, like Brian Loring and Jim Lester were making wine well before we met, and some were enthusiasts who followed through on their passion and picked up the craft after we got to know each other. One of the latter is a fellow by the name of Vincent Fritzsche, who is doing good things in Oregon’s Willamette Valley with his eponymous Vincent Wine Company.
We first met Vince at Zap ’99; he even contributed a page of notes to our report from that festival. He and his family moved from the Bay area to Oregon several years ago and he established his winery in 2009, after years of apprenticing with producers in California and Oregon. A few months ago, Vince sent us 6 of his wines to try, and here are our impressions of them. The grapes are sourced from sustainably-farmed vineyards in the Willamette Valley and made in small batches at Grochau Cellars in the Eola Hills.
We tried the four Pinot Noirs in pairs, and the two whites individually.
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Backroad Rhônes
That rascal “Backroad” Bob Summers showed up at Gang Central on his motorcycle at 8 AM in the morning on July 4th, looking for some breakfast and a place to lie low for 24 hours or so. We had an idea he might be coming, since he’d sent a box of wine the week previously, so we couldn’t very well turn him away. I should clarify that the “box of wine” was a 6-pack of really good shit, not a Franzia 3 Liter; Bob’s pretty good about those kinds of things.
We first met Bob back in 2004, at a memorable “offline” tasting in Cincinnati; we renewed acquaintances three years ago when ol’ Backroad showed up at my gig at The Bluebird in Leland, and then again two years ago around this same time of year when he spent a few dazzling days with us here in Day-twah.
It turned out to be a fine 4th of July indeed. We enjoyed a succession of fine foods, we drank our share of amazing wines and we drank some of your share too. There were two that stick out in my mind; both were northern Rhônes, 17 years old and were retrieved from Backroad’s 6-pack. Here are my impressions of each.
My Kind of Zin
We don’t drink near as much Zinfandel as we did back in the day. We cut our wine teeth on some beautiful Burgess Zins back in the ‘70s, and we discovered Mr. Ridge at around the same time. I reported on the 4-day ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates and Producers) festival in 2003, when my enthusiasm for the variety was still high, but after that, our interest started to drift more and more towards red Rhône varieties, and Zins showed up less and less in our reports. These days, we’re most likely to pull the cork on one of these when we get together with our partner-in-crime, Alan Kerr aka Canadian Zinfan. (Click on images to enlarge.)
Case in point; a few weeks ago, Chef Kerr let it be known that he’d be in town for one night, and I thought it would be fun to honor his Gang moniker with something good, so I stopped by Holiday Market in Royal Oak and found a real beauty languishing on the shelves with a very affordable price tag affixed to it. As far as I can tell (or remember), the last time we tried an Edmeades Zin was in 2003, and that one was so enjoyable, I figured, “How bad can this one be?”
It turns out that it’s every bit as good as that 1998 model.
2013 Edmeades Mendocino Zinfandel, 15% alc., $18.99: Clean and dark in color, with a lovely, rich “zinberry” nose; rich and creamy chocolate textured on the palate, with a ripe core of fruit anchored with earthy undertones and accented with shades of briar and bramble. My notes read, “This is Zinfandel the way I like it;” it’s big, more old school than otherwise, and just a pleasure to drink. It’s also a terrific value; in case you didn’t notice, this one costs $2 less than that 1998. It has the structure to age and develop for several years, and both CZ and I have invested in four bottles each. I plan on buying more so that I have a few to drink in the near term while the others rest in the cellar. (I’d LOVE to get my hands on some of their single vineyard offerings to see what they are all about!) Find this wine
