Last Saturday my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting with Evan of Fogline Vineyards. Fogline was on our “can’t miss” places to check out due to the WOTY recommendation of his Sun Chase Vineyard Pinot Noir. I did not reach out to Evan ahead of time and fortunately a reservation is not required, which has it’s own very special story regarding smart due diligence on their part.
Upon arrival I realized I had left my pen in my car and went to retrieve it, at this time Evan asked my wife how we came about stopping in and she mentioned I frequent Wine Berserkers and Evan was delighted! This was fortuitous as it really opened up a fantastic visit for us and allowed us to try some special items. Unfortunately, I have misplaced the lineup we tasted through so I cannot share that with all of you.
That being said, we tried the Sun Chase and it was phenomenal. Evan is also crafting a Rose of PN and a Chardonnay that I thought were both dynamite, unique and purchase worthy. In my amateur opinion, every wine we tasted through was very, very good. We ended up purchasing a mixed case and joining the wine club.
Once the tasting room cleared, Evan took us on a tour of the facilities showing us his sorter and de-stemmer machine, the tanks he currently is using and showed us to some wines in barrel. We had an opportunity to taste from barrel his experimental whole cluster Pinot Noir that really rocked my world. If this was available for purchase, a six pack or case would have been in order. I am quite excited to order this when it comes about.
Evan was an extremely gracious host, full of energy and passion and someone we could have spent the entire day with. As we were making our way to taste a second barrel the tasting room started to fill up again and since Evan was working solo, instead of making anyone wait, he grabbed a bottle of what we were to taste in barrel and opened it for us and what appeared to be some friends who had arrived. This was a blend of Syrah and Petite Sirah and was quite rich and very good, after a couple/few years this will really be looking good.
Hats off to Evan for a top notch operation and much thanks for taking extra time and going above and beyond for my wife and I. This was one of the highlights of our trip.
David- sounds like you’ve had a great trip. We had a very similar visit with Evan a few weeks ago. The wines are very good and easy to support with someone as enthusiastic and passionate as Evan is. That’s a great location they have off 101. I like their club logic as well. Buy what you want, mix and match your call.
Evan is proud of his destemmer. He took me back to see it as well. The day I visited he was in back working but stopped what he was doing to pour nearly his entire lineup. He great energy and passion and the wines don’t suck either.
Thanks David, Brian and Fred. I finally have a chance to catch up on messages midway though shipping season. Berserkers are my favorite visitors.
I’m meeting with an old ILM Art Department friend tonight to assign him the art for the label for the 50% whole cluster barrel. He can probably knock it out while we have a few beers. I am thinking of a line drawing of the Bacchus doll in his specific style. After that we just need to decide on the labeling method and will be off to the races. I’ll let everyone know when that is available. I may continue this line and have my other art dept. cohorts do different renditions each year.
I don’t think I had you try the tiny PS I Love You barrel. Syrah and Petite Sirah from Grist Vineyard on Bradford Mountain. When it was stemmed at harvest it caused quite a stir in the winery. The aromas coming off the stem bin were unreal. I bottled 8 mags and 2 cases. The rest went into the blend. FCFS, I’ll be sending out an email soon.
This weekend I finally made it out to Fogline’s new tasting room. I only had previously tasted the 2012 Sun Chase PN that Frank made so legendary here.
Evan is a modest and knowledgeable host who walked us through the full lineup. What struck me was how Aromatic his pinots are. He explained this is an attribute of California clones (I forget the exact clones) that very few others take advantage of, but have evolved to tolerate the higher heat than Burgundy and are quite aromatic. I lost myself in the nose of the '12 Sun Chase as well as the barrel sample.
Between my friends and I, we walked out with a case and 2 case of this whole cluster pinot as futures.
It was a real pleasure to take you through the lineup. We are still considering bottling the 50% WC from our Hillside. The artwork is done and I just need to get a few things tied up, like how I’m going to find the time to hand-stamp all the labelsl I can’t help my freaky-deakey-art BG.
AFA the bouquet. I appreciate that you get this. Our goal by sourcing from “Fogline Vineyards” is to get the balance right and hopefully(if mother nature cooperates) have wines with more flavor and bouquet earlier in harvest. This is even evident in Sun Chase. Sun chase is all Dijon and at under 14 it will show more bouquet, but I think you were remembering my comments about our Hillside estate that is incredibly perfumed. I’m fairly convinced that the Mt. Eden clone is creating that prettiness. We shall see as now that we have our own place I can tease it out by separating our blocks. FWIW the 14 Hillside is getting my “Wow” barrel sample comments going through ML the same way that the 12 Sun Chase did. Exciting times ahead. I look forward to seeing you out our way again soon.
So I believe that nearly everyone that tasted the half-whole cluster half stemmed Pinot barrel had a chance to get some and did so. I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone. I really wanted to have this be available for BerserkerDay but I felt that it was crucial to give the Wine Club and those that visited firsties. I was taken back at how fast it sold out. I was expecting to have at least 10 cases to sell but it wasn’t to be. I am going to send down a bottle for Falltacular via Rob Winn so that at least folks can get a taste. If I’ve missed you, please let me know and I’ll see if there are folks that don’t take all their wine.
We checked in on the 2012 Sun Chase last night with some friends who came with us on our visit in 2014. Double decanted then brought to the restaurant. It continued to open in the glass as we took about an hour to consume. Really good wine right now. Great nose to start things off and it’s showing well but still plenty young with some good grip and modest firm structure.
Evan- I’m sure this was asked before but do these see any whole cluster ?
I’m glad the wine showed well for you and your friends.
No WC for the SVDs. At least not yet. We started experimenting in 13 when we were renovating our winery. Part of the idea of being above the fogline is that the vines see more sun and hopefully more lignified stems allowing us to consider that as part of the program. Our 2013 Fogline Neighbors has about 30% whole cluster. The 2013 one barrel Bacchus has about 50%. Not sure if you ended up getting some of those. We just released the 13 Neighbors to the tasting room and I’m excited to see what people think. It is lighter in color but more funkily complex. The Bacchus is darker and more brooding. I’ll bring both down to Falltacular. Going forward the same 14s were done in a similar way but the 14 Neighbors is a knockout already, that is what made me comment about 14’s being the best of the past 3 vintages. In 15 we were so short that we did no WC. And by short, I mean extremely short as we made no Neighbors blend or Bacchus. Something else to consider is that we dropped out of Sun Chase. I would have liked to stay but the fruit cost went up about 33% and we felt customers would not have liked a $20 increase in the price in one year. 2013 is our last vintage there.
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I can’t help my freaky-deakey-art BG.![[drinkers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/82916bed5ad74ac8470bc04089d9758b0c80c9fa.gif "drinkers"){kind=small}