Trade Tasting and Unified Symposium

Finally back in the office after another week away.

Tuesday I helped Anne pour our wines at the Santa Cruz Mountains Trade Tasting at Farallon Restaurant in San Francisco. Farallon is an institution in SF and Peter Palmer,wine director at Farallon, is a true class act and one of the really good guys in the wine business. It was a nice event and a great way to get our wines in front of a number of wine buyers from restaurants and retail shops from all over the city. We poured our '06 Gewurztrmainer, '05 Chardonnay SCM, '06 Pinot Noir SCM, '04 Merlot SCM and the '03 Lexington Meritage. All were well received and someone even commented that this was the strongest lineup of Fogarty wines they had tasted in a while!

After the trade tasting it was up to Sacramento for the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium. This is the industries biggest trade show and also features a number of talks and presentations on all aspects of the wine biz. It also serves as a great chance to catch up with friends and old classmates.

The highlight of the show, outside of the numerous parties (the Scheid Vineyards after hours party is legendary), is the trade show. Vendors with products ranging from mechanical harvesters to corks all present displays showing off their wares. It is overwhelming at first as the Sacramento Convention Center is overflowing with booths, people and noise. Once the initial blast of stimulation wares off one can begin to attempt to get down to business.

I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday morning wandering the aisles, visiting suppliers i know and meeting with new ones. I quickly learned our barrel prices are going to go up, not only because we pay in Euros. The supply of top quality French Oak is limited and demand continues to grow. I was shopping for a new pump, a 2" Diaphragm or "bump pump". They are great for barrel work and an extra pump would come in handy during harvest.

Thursday at 2 Pm the rain began to fall in Sacramento pretty heavily, that was my cue to get on the road as I was meeting Michael and some fellow winemakers for a Friday on the slopes of Northstar, we were halfway to Tahoe after all. The drive was miserable, but Friday was an amazing day on the mountain!

Fogarty has been the subject of some great press lately. Laura Ness recently wrote a really nice article on Michael for Appellation America, check it out.

Wine and Spirits Mag also included Fogarty in their SCM Syrah article in the current issue, and while we only make 200-300 cases of Syrah a year it was great to be included.