Welcome back. As you read this I’m probably sipping Chambertin and nibbling on Fourme d’Ambert. Of course, everything in moderation. I’m in Burgundy at the moment so my replies to your replies may be delayed.
Before I took off I wrote a piece about an engaging husband/wife team making delicious Napa Valley wines. Meet Julian and Kathryn of Greater Fool Wines below, and members: I have a great deal for you - 25% off my two favorite wines, their Sauvignon Blanc and Petite Sirah (3 of each). Discount code is as the end of the email. Before the story and the offer, events announcement.
A PAID Substack subscription = Eat Drink Cook Social Club Membership.
$12/month or $120/year
Bring A Bottle of Pinot Noir Dinner Party “On The Farm”
Saturday, October 10, 4 PM
at Umbel Roots Farm, Highway 37 near Lakeville Highway.
One bottle of Pinot Noir admits 2 + $50/club member, $75/non-member.
Special guest: Kurt Beitler of Boheme Winery (read about Kurt below) with a couple of his single-vineyard Sonoma Coast Pinots. Umbel Roots owner William Henpenn and I do some crafty fire cooking. More info and Sign Up
“Toasts for Hope” aka Eat Drink Cook Wine Tasting Showcase #4
Thursday, October 15, 5:30 to 7:30 PM
Paula Kornell, Crocker & Starr, La Sirena and Honig Wineries
A joint production with, and at, The Napa Valley Wine Train (at the station).
Proceeds donated to North Bay Cancer Alliance in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Members pay $30, non-members $40. BUY TICKETS HERE.
(Members, ask me for the discount code before you get your tickets.)
Taste and learn about BURGUNDY
I’m teaching Burgundy at the new Hospitality Training Center at Napa Valley College. Four classes, all on Wednesdays (October 21, November 4, 11 and 18). 6 PM start. SIGN UP HERE ($90/class, $325 for all four.)
Fourth Fridays at Folklore
Friday, October 23, 5:15 PM. (skipping September)
These tastings are so good. Last month we drank Crèmant de Bourgogne, Vouvray, Cassis, Saint-Julien and Douro. Taste, learn about the wines and have a good time. $25/person. Fourth Fridays are for Social Club members.
Info and Sign Up
Road Trip to Truchard and Post & Vine
a Field Team 6 Fundraiser
Saturday, October 24, 11 AM to 3ish PM
$125/person, 100% donated to Field Team 6.
”Register Democrats - Save The World”
More info and reserve your spots (3 left)
Eat Drink Cook Road Trip to LODI
Saturday, November 14, 11 AM start
I’ve never toured Lodi Wine Country. Come do it with me.
We begin with a tasting at Bokisch Vineyards under one their gazebo. We’ll taste, have a little lunch and a good time. Our next stop is TBD, as is the final price. Expect a great day. Price will be around $80/person - $40 for social club members). Info and sign up.
Everything Will Work Out
Within the big picture of wine industry troubles are myriad stories of success and positivity. Well-established wineries following the Napa Valley luxury playbook that target the point-five percenters are doing well, for example. Not surprised. More interesting to me are the people who dare to live the dream of making wine and build a brand and a business - wine sales headwinds be damned.
I recently went to a tasting and talk by Hardy Wallace, the co-owner/winemaker of Extradimensional Wine Co Yeah!, a brand that succeeds through ingenuity, strong marketing and uniquely tasty wines. Asked for advice on how to start a winery now, Hardy emphatically said, “from a start-up cost perspective, there’s no better time than now to start a winery!” It’s a buyer’s market on the production side – affordable for more dreamers than in years past. If there’s passion and deep belief that buyers will support the dream, and the rough patches can be survived, then yes now is a good time to get started.
My story today is about a husband and wife team that celebrated their first harvest 7 years ago, which is testimony to the long term commitment required just to get going in the wine business.
Meet Julian and Kathryn of Greater Fool Wine
Julian Christian and Kathryn Seigfried launched Greater Fool Wine with the 2019 vintage. They arrived in Napa Valley in 2017 from Canton, Ohio. Julian worked at Bouchon Bistro – front of the house, and Kathryn worked for Barnett Vineyards on Spring Mountain. Julian’s first winery production job was Cakebread Cellars, followed by Hourglass and Buccella. Their first wine, a Viognier/Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay co-ferment, is a product of lots of planning and a big leap of faith. “We could have kept waiting, kept planning, but when the chance came to make wine in 2019, we went for it. We believed then, and we believe now, everything will work out.”
Greater Fool uses The Caves at Soda Canyon for winemaking, barrel storage and hospitality. It’s a gorgeous facility, 4 miles up Soda Canyon Road from the Silverado Trail, with a view towards San Francisco. “You can see the Sales Force Tower on a clear day,” Julian tells me. Welcome to the 21st century.
“Toxic Positivity”
I stand on The Caves crush pad, front and center, with a glass of “Toxic Positivity” Rosé Napa Valley ($39) in my hand. The joyful name, like “Greater Fool,” is a counterpoint to the doomsday outlooks we read about the wine industry lately. We look at 3 half-ton bins full of grapes. “It’s a special day…this is our Cabernet from Kathryn’s mom’s vineyard north of St Helena,” Julian proudly announces as he pulls a cluster from the bin for us to taste.
Kathryn joins us on the crush pad as the Greater Fool Sauvignon Blanc is poured. Her “day job” in winery shipping compliance gives her more time flexibility than Julian, who now runs hospitality for a luxury wine brand across The Valley from The Caves. Mondays and Tuesdays are his days to focus solely on Greater Fool and family. By the way, big thumbs up for their Greater Fool Sauvignon Blanc “Frediani Vineyard” Calistoga 2024 ($39), a wine that marries texture to refreshment.
Love all the reds, especially the Petite Sirah
After a walk through the caves of this working winery we sit at a long table with the hum of harvest 2026 in the air. Four red wines in front me: a red blend, two Cabernets and a Petite Sirah. Julian excuses himself twice during my stay to tend to those Cabernet grapes we tasted outside (at The Caves, winemakers don’t do it, rather they give instructions on what to do). The wines are a steady progression in richness and concentration. On the Cab front, the Greater Fool Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2024 ($89) is lush and approachable: a pleasure to drink now. The Greater Fool Cabernet Sauvignon “Durbin Vineyard” Napa Valley 2023 ($125), Mom’s vineyard if you will, is so structured and youthful I would have guessed it is mountain fruit.
My favorite wine of the four is the Greater Fool Petite Sirah “Frediani Vineyard” Calistoga, Napa Valley 2024 ($79). Incredible dark, lip-smacking berry fruitiness, gum-coating tannins, a finish longer than an Alaska day in June. One of the great wine mysteries of my life is why Petite Sirah isn’t more popular.
Our tasting and visit bounce from the wines to the business back to the wines to family (their son Julian is 8, daughter Jane is 4), to the wines again. If Julian and Kathryn are freaked out running a high-cost business in a downturned industry, they don’t show it. They know their wines are delicious, well-priced for Napa Valley and diverse in style to please different palates. They’re set up for success, although this business makes no promises even in the best of times. “We don’t know where this adventure is going to take us in two, three years, but we’re doing everything we can to keep it going now, and thrive down the road,” Julian tells me.
On that note, production is modest at around 600 cases a year. With a sea of available grapes at discounted prices available, I’m sure it’s hard to resist buying a little more here and there. But Greater Fool is wisely playing tortoise for now. “We’ve gotten smaller so we can take advantage of a better opportunity when it comes along,” Julian says. But it has to be the right opportunity because “making wine is easy. Selling wine is hard.”
“We are already winning.”
It’s an interesting blend of pragmatism and Pollyana at Greater Fool. Julian and Kathryn have worked around Napa to have witnessed the glory and the pain. They get it. On the other hand, living the dream is no dream at all if you don’t savor the moment. Julian: “Like the pink sunglasses on the Toxic Positivity Rosé, we definitely are looking on the bright side of things. Just to be involved at this level, hand crafting wines of our very own, we feel like we are already winning.”
Greater Fool Wine can be purchased on their website, greaterfoolwine.com where you can also reserve a tasting with the Julian and Kathryn. The tasting is $50, waived with 3+ bottle purchase. Obviously, with their family and work commitments, flexibility and planning ahead in making an appointment is a good idea.
Greater Fool Wines Special Offer - 25% OFF
For Eat Drink Cook Social Club Members
3 Sauvignon Blanc “Frediani” Napa Valley 2024 ($39)
3 Petite Sirah “Frediani” Napa Valley 2024 ($79)
ORDER HERE