Sad News @ Harrington Wnry

When I was at dinner w/ BryanHarrington in the Bay area a few weeks ago, he revealed that he is shutting down Harrington wines. This is some of the saddest wine biz news I’ve heard in some time.

Bryan has always operated on the ragged edges of profitably (and sanity). He was recently informed by his landlord that his rent was going to be increased by over 4X. He felt that he could not sustain that kind of a rent increase and remain in business, so has decided to pull the plug. He has not yet made a formal announcement of such, but the Harrington WebSite has apparently been taken down and I know a number of folks in the wine biz are aware of it. So it’s probably OK to share this information now. He has not yet made a formal announcement to his mailing list, but one should be forthcoming eventually. He just decided it was too late in life to start all over in a different venue and plans to return to his art work, which is what he did before he embarked on his winemaking career.
He crushed no grapes this vintage & I understand he is in the process of selling off his winemaking equipment. He still has some unreleased wines that will be offered soon. In Nov & Dec, he will have two sales events to blow thru his remaining inventory. This should be a great opportunity to pick up some great & interesting wines at good prices. Come Dec 31, that’ll be all she wrote. But there’ll be a lot of Harringtons that will live on&on in cellars across the country.

I’ve followed BryanHarrington (almost) from the very start. KenZinns gave me a head’s up way back when that Bryan was making some very good Pinots in the industrial bottoms of TheCite. I liked the Pinots quite a lot. But then Bryan sorta went off the deep end (the ragged edge of sanity I referred to above) and started pursuing odd-ball varieties, mostly Italian with a passion nobody else in Calif has shown. For several yrs, he would journey to Italy and arrange to have sent back to FPS at UC/Davis some of these unusual varieties that interested him, where they would be cleaned up for viruses and then released, Bryan, being this silver-tongued devil, would then convince growers (like RonSiletto in Gilroy and the Bushes at SumuKaw) to plant them for him. One of Bryan’s recent efforts has been to make sure these growers have a market for these off-beat varietal grapes and are not left holding the bag.
This aspect of Harrington wines has been the one that’s excited me the most. I’m tremendously interested in how some of these somewhat obscure Italian grapes will perform in Calif. By and large, at Bryan’s hand…very well. When I visited ElisabettaForadori several yrs ago, I took a btl of Bryan’s Teroldego to share with her. She was favorably impressed by it (“but not as good as mine” was her retort).
One of the grapes Bryan brought back was supposed to be NerelloMascalese from Sicily. But the subsequent DNA tests indicated that it was nothing in their data base of over 28,000 grapes varieties. So Bryan made a wine he called “Misteri” that was actually quite good and interesting. I’m curious where thes grapes, planted up at SumuKaw vnyd, will eventually go to. I hope they find a good home.

One of the exciting projects that Bryan has pursued is making a no-SO2 wine, under the Terrane label, using a Swiss grape-derived product that acts as an anti-oxidant. I’ve not made enough side-by-side comparisons to come to an opinion on the efficacy of this product.

Anyway, given his small production level, Bryan has not received the recognition he deserves in the wine industry, especially in his passionate pursuit of unusual varieties…except from some of us nut-cases on WineBerserkers. I dearly hope someone will come along and pick up Bryan’s mantle.

So…that’s my sad story for today. Be on the lookout for his close-out sales come Nov & Dec. There will be some great wines, ones of a kind, to be had.

I’m sure I’ll see Bryan in the future at our get-together dinners there in the Bay area. But I’m sure going to miss the flush of adrenaline when I open up a new HarringtonWines offer. Bryan is a very bright & passionate guy and will assuredly do well in the future. But his closing is going to leave a big hole in my wine adventures into to obscure & unknown. It was a great run while it lasted.

Tom

This is indeed sad to hear. Such a challenge for small wineries, driven by passion, not profit, to succeed in this marketplace, and obviously when a landlord quadruples the rent on them, it spells disaster. It’s difficult to earn Tom Hill’s respect, and I know Harrington has always had it, for good reason.

This is indeed sad news. I have enjoyed most of the wines that I have had from Harrington over the years. Just last week, I was in the cellar and noted that I only have a few random bottles left and that I needed to reload this fall. I will be stocking up when he sells off the remaining inventory.

It’s a real shame and this type of rent increase seems to be pretty common in SF. Always have enjoyed Bryan’s wines and talking to him at wine events.

Tom

I have one bottle left, a 2005 Gap’s Crown Pinot. I may have to open it this weekend in honor.

I, too, have one bottle of Harrington in the cellar - '13 Nebbiolo, from BerserkerDay. Will try to drink it sooner than later

Haven’t opened the 17 McEvoy Ranch Syrah from Berserker Day. Will do so this weekend.

Thanks for your post, Tom. Just want to clarify one thing - the Harrington Wines website is still very much online, and lots of the most recent wines are available for purchase there. There are tentative dates for the last two open house events but I don’t know whether they’ve been finalized yet. Probably one in mid-November and the other in early December. If you’re on the Harrington email list, he’ll be sending out info on all of that.

Hmmm…my browser times out on trying to reach the Harrington WebSite. I’ll try it at home on my iPhone.
Good to know it’s still up.
Tom

Oh so Sad…

Just last night there was part 6 of a blind tasting of 05 Pinots versus the 05 Burgs. Groups #1 and Wes’ #1 was 05 Harringington Lund. So sad I missed this tasting and so sad I’ve really just started collecting Harrington wines. Love the uniqueness of varietals and the style. I know I will sadly miss his wines…

Sean

Paul Gordon mentioned this a couple weeks ago. Sad news indeed. He was flat out one of my favorite wine makers anywhere. I hope he doesn’t exit the wine business entirely!

It was the group #1, as well as mine. I’ll have to stick a McHenry in the lineup if we do another. That’d slaughter all.

He’d love to be able to continuing to bringing in new-to-here varieties, it if can be made to make economic sense. He’d also be happy to consult matching the right varieties to the right sites.

But, he does want to get out of the city and off to the coast somewhere. As a kid, he’d go down to his aunt’s place in Santa Cruz every weekend. He surfed for decades, and has a love of the coast. Then, without the constant interruption of sales duties he can get back into the creative headspace and paint again. His New York broker is still in business.

I share his desire that the right people take up the reins on a lot of this stuff.

So sad to hear this news. I’ve really enjoyed his wines and hopes the seeds/cuttings he has spread will find winemakers as experimental as he is.

Always sad to hear of a colleague who has decided (or faced the fact) that the bottom line is not making sense.

It’s tough out there.

Yup…The Harrington WebSite is, indeed, up and running. Lots of great wines there available to purchase at very good prices. The Syrah is a no-brainer. The Falanghina is also quite good.
Tom

I’ve been emailing Bryan and while it’s unfortunate there are new doors opening for him personally.

If all goes well there will be an opportunity in the near future for all wineberserkers to celebrate and pay tribute to a true berserker!

Never forget

I’d like to say that it’s been a great experience working with Bryan Harrington all these years. I’ve had the opportunity to work with over 50 grape varieties and to help make wines using a number of techniques - skin-fermented whites, partial-carbonic reds, foot-stomping, fermenting in an amphora and in concrete, etc. And all without a bin dumper or forklift rotator - we moved the grapes, must, and pomace the low-tech way with pitchforks, shovels, and buckets! A lot of tough manual work but it sure helped keep me in shape. Fellow Berserkers Al Osterheld and Wes Barton plus a couple of other core helpers were invaluable in getting us through crush every year.

Bryan’s decision to close down his winery was pretty unexpected for those of us who have been helping him out during crush each year. It’s been hard to be mostly on the sidelines this year, though I’ve been able to help out a little at other urban Bay Area wineries when they’ve needed an extra hand. I think that Bryan is really looking forward to moving on to his next phase, most likely returning to the art world as mentioned above.

Thanks to all the Berserkers who have been fans and supporters of Harrington Wines! As noted above there are still a number of recent releases available. Cheers!

From what he said, he actually had some clients as an artist and traction in that field is even tougher to get than in the wine business. But he made good and interesting wines. He’s still welcome to stay with us if he’s in town though!

I will really miss his wines. Whatever he made, it was interesting and often eye-opening.

And thanks for your contributions too, Ken and Wes!!

Heard from my Mission grower earlier this year and spoke to Ken Zinns about it via email. Didn’t want to mention it until it was official from the “horse’s mouth”, so to speak. But very sad to hear. I’ve enjoyed his wines for years and they’ve always been expressive, interesting and very well made.