Sad News @ Harrington Wnry

[Markus_S]

I thought this was another death. Only a loss of a business. Not so sad, but a little sad. Glad to hear he’s alright though!

[TomHill]

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.

Well, Adam…maybe not from the horse’s mouth…more like the horse’s a$$. Bryan gave me the OK to post about his closing.
Tom

[J_a_y_H_a_c_k]

I thought I had never had their wine until I looked it up and found this note. I guess I should have bought some:

• 2013 Harrington Trousseau Siletto Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Cienega Valley (11/15/2015)
  Traded with someone (CT from Louisiana) I did not know for a bottle of 2000 D’Armailhac as a result of FMIII’s proposal on Wineberserkers that we swap bottles with someone to expand our horizons. or for some other reason I do not recall.

This is an excellent wine. Not quite a WOW factor to poke its nose into the outstanding category but still excellent. I had never had a Harrington wine and the only Trousseau I had before was a bottle that was severely flawed. Pop and pour. Very nice. I liked it a lot. The first flavor I got was spicy pepper and then berry fruit on top of that. Strawberry, but a wild, tart strawberry, and maybe a bit of cherry. Light acidity and no sharpness. I suspect there is not a lot of acidity, but the website needs some work, and has no useful information about this wine. Once it took on about 90 minutes of air, it took on some depth and smoothed out a bit. (89 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

[Al_Osterheld]

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!

Yes, it’s been fun over the years and it does feel odd to not be working as the harvest starts. As far as his art career, he claims he made much more money as a painter and sculptor, and he’s still in contact with some of the galleries that carried his work.

-Al

[Wes_Barton]

I thought I had never had their wine until I looked it up and found this note. I guess I should have bought some:

• 2013 Harrington Trousseau Siletto Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Cienega Valley (11/15/2015)
  Traded with someone (CT from Louisiana) I did not know for a bottle of 2000 D’Armailhac as a result of FMIII’s proposal on Wineberserkers that we swap bottles with someone to expand our horizons. or for some other reason I do not recall.

This is an excellent wine. Not quite a WOW factor to poke its nose into the outstanding category but still excellent. I had never had a Harrington wine and the only Trousseau I had before was a bottle that was severely flawed. Pop and pour. Very nice. I liked it a lot. The first flavor I got was spicy pepper and then berry fruit on top of that. Strawberry, but a wild, tart strawberry, and maybe a bit of cherry. Light acidity and no sharpness. I suspect there is not a lot of acidity, but the website needs some work, and has no useful information about this wine. Once it took on about 90 minutes of air, it took on some depth and smoothed out a bit. (89 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

It’s not too late to pick some up. There are some wines bottled, but not listed on the site. Not sure if the '18 Trousseau is listed. The best way to see what new there is is to check CT and sort by vintage. Then call or email Bryan.

[Ken_Zinns]

Looks like Tom Hill scooped Esther Mobley of the San Francisco Chronicle on this story - this just came out on their website today:
Harrington Wines, one of SF’s last great urban wineries, to close at the end of the year

Just confirmed the final open house dates at the winery - Sunday November 17th and Saturday December 7th. Details to come.

[TomHill]

Looks like Tom Hill scooped Esther Mobley of the San Francisco Chronicle on this story - this just came out on their website today:
Harrington Wines, one of SF’s last great urban wineries, to close at the end of the year

Just confirmed the final open house dates at the winery - Sunday November 17th and Saturday December 7th. Details to come.

Actually, Ken, I knew she liked Bryan’s wines and sent her a copy of this WB post.
I’m really glad she followed up on it with a story.
Tom

[Ken_Zinns]

Looks like Tom Hill scooped Esther Mobley of the San Francisco Chronicle on this story - this just came out on their website today:
Harrington Wines, one of SF’s last great urban wineries, to close at the end of the year

Just confirmed the final open house dates at the winery - Sunday November 17th and Saturday December 7th. Details to come.

Actually, Ken, I knew she liked Bryan’s wines and sent her a copy of this WB post.
I’m really glad she followed up on it with a story.
Tom

Thanks, Tom.

[Tom_G_l_a_s_g_o_w]

Looks like Tom Hill scooped Esther Mobley of the San Francisco Chronicle on this story - this just came out on their website today:
Harrington Wines, one of SF’s last great urban wineries, to close at the end of the year

Just confirmed the final open house dates at the winery - Sunday November 17th and Saturday December 7th. Details to come.

Actually, Ken, I knew she liked Bryan’s wines and sent her a copy of this WB post.
I’m really glad she followed up on it with a story.
Tom

#humblebrag

[Adam_Frisch]

Behind a paywall.

[Ken_Zinns]

Behind a paywall.

Someone else let me know they were not able to access the article either. Don’t know how the SF Chronicle website paywall works but I’ve had no problem viewing the article and I don’t pay for a subscription - same is true for a number of other people I sent the link to.

Not sure if this might work any better for you, but see if accessing the article webpage through the Chronicle’s Facebook link might help:
Harrington Wines, one of SF’s last great urban wineries, to close at the end of the year (SF Chronicle Facebook link)

If you still have problems and want to read the article, send me a PM and I can email you a pdf of the article.

[Adam_Frisch]

Ken, I’ve reached my “monthly limit of free articles”. Hmm, strange, because I don’t recall going to SF Chronicle much… If you could find a way to link it as pdf, that would be great!

[Ken_Zinns]

Ken, I’ve reached my “monthly limit of free articles”. Hmm, strange, because I don’t recall going to SF Chronicle much… If you could find a way to link it as pdf, that would be great!

Don’t think I can link a pdf here, but I’ll send you a pdf via email.