Will miss Andrew, one of the good guys…Early on, when he knew I was going to be getting together with Brian Loring in California, Andrew gave him some AP Vin barrel samples to give to me to try…Nice guy, nice wines Was sad to read his email the other day…
I first met him when he was doing the Pinot Posse in the early days. What a fun time that was! Miss those events, and here’s a toast to Andy got great wines and great times! 
I find myself agreeing with Greg, this shouldn’t sound like a eulogy. Winemaking is like the restaurant business-nothing lasts very long.
Really? Talk to German vintners whose families have been making wine since the 1800s or earlier.
He was one of the first to “start-over” in wine in the early 2000s and it inspired me. Sorry to see him stop making wine. I also think it points to how hard it is to make a living making and selling Pinot, even with years of good reviews.
I just saw several older vintages of his wines at a local shop the other day… might not be a bad excuse to go grab them
Sorry to hear this. The wine business is not easy.
Sad to hear. Dain and I dropped in for a visit when I was in California for a harvest visit. I liked the wines a lot, but the 08 crisis hit right around when I was hoping a distributor would pick him up locally.
I got really melancholy about this last night.
Didn’t sleep well at all.
Driving up to The Ghetto [or was it The Prison?], with my brother, and barrel tasting all afternoon with Andrew, was one of the funnest things I ever did in my life.
Andrew couldn’t have had contracts on much more than four or five vineyards, with maybe a single barrel from each vineyard, but all of his barrels tasted completely distinct from one another - all were showing utterly unique terroir signatures - with no hint of spoof whatsoever.
There were rows & rows & rows of Loring barrels & Cargasacchi barrels, stacked from the floor up to the ceiling - Andrew was climbing through them like Spiderman - and I remember thinking to myself, “Boy, if they get a Richter 6 tremor up here, there’s gonna be red wine flowing through the streets…”
And the countryside was so beautiful.
Gosh, those are good memories.
I hope there’s a wonderful future out there somewhere for Andrew & the Mrs, whatever they end up doing after this.
.
Andrew definitely started before Russell, by 3 years, IIRC. Russell started in 2005, if I recall, his barrels were aging next to ours, before he moved operations to Napa.
I think Andrew’s first release was 2003 Garys’ Vineyard.
It was indeed. I believe total production was about 150 cases, and, like Loring, used black plastic corks!
Fall 2004, I was in Lompoc to visit Brian Loring. Ended up there for pressing off some of the 2004 vintage, working alongside Brian, Andrew and Peter Cargassachi (I know I got that spelling wrong). Fun times!
I had his wine several years ago at Blackbird in Chicago, and based on that bought a case of it. Then my tastes shifted over the next couple years so I didn’t re-up. I did enjoy his wines though- best of luck to him in whatever he does next.
Was able to dig up a few photos back in 2008 when we visited Andrew at his winery in SFO, and no less with Greg P, as an included bonus.
Some names here brought back some memories. I have an Outlook folder of all my wine purchases. That was a trip down memory lane.
Frank, the other fellow in your photos is Erik Pounds.
Ken, whatever happened to Erik? You know?
Andrew makes terrific wines and is a wonderful host. Godspeed to whatever is next for him.
Jason
Erik is still around, still lives in the East Bay, and I see him from time to time. I think he went to a barrel tasting of Greg P’s wines in San Francisco this afternoon.