Advanced Tasting Club
November 25, 2003
An open letter:
Dear WineSmith Devotees, Afficiados & Fans
As you may be aware, WineSmith exists principally as an oenological playground
for the Smith family and its team of winemakers, whose day job consists of offering
their wine production consulting services to many of California's top wineries.
Because of its experimental and playful nature, WineSmith tends toward tiny lots of
superb quality wines, attentively nurtured by a firm artesinal hand. Ordinary wine
is simply not worth our time. We regard ourselves as a "winemaker's cooking school"
and our wines generally demonstrate some esoteric point designed to impel our winery clients in new directions.
Over the last decade, WineSmith has accumulated a number dedicated fans who, frankly,
love everything we make. These groupies complain that they sometimes miss the chance
to sample new releases before they are sold out. In their interest, we have launched
an Advanced Tasting Program to provide an early opportunity to taste all new releases.
In some cases, ATP clients may also be treated to exclusive bottlings not released elsewhere.
The bad news is we do not make the same wines every year. In 2000, sadly, we lost access
to the fruit which made our '99 Crucible, and have been unable to reproduce it since,
although we are hopeful that Steve Krebs' new plantings (shown on our website winesmithwines.com)
will provide future vintages.
The good news is that we have a series of delicious Cabernets of lesser stature which will be
available at far less ruinous prices. The other good news is that we now have in house three
successive vintages of two tremendous varietal programs.
Hot on the heels of the groundbreaking 2001 Faux Chablis, we have just bottled our 2002, an
even-more-convincing chardonnay in this beautiful style. Like its predecessor, this vintage
eschews obvious oak aromatics and malolactic butter in favor of the penetrating fruit, firm
structure and mineral depth of which the grape is entirely capable in California if so
directed by a courageous and capable wine-growing team. When Steve Krebs of Napa Valley
College replanted most of this block in 2003 to Cabernet ("baby Crucible"), only the
best portion was left standing - the added richness is evident in the 2003 vintage,
just now finished fermentation.
In 2001 we also began making Syrah from Renaissance Vineyard's high altitude pesticide-free,
living granite terraces. The 2001 was vinified in an affable Australian style. Its wild
lavender & herbal perfume is so reminiscent of the "garrigue" of southern France
(rather than the pure varietal fruit of subsequent vintages) that we elected to bottle
it under the new proprietary designation "Syrano." In 2002, we chose to experiment
instead with some new French elevage techniques. The result is wine of tremendous
pure fruit depth and fine but aggressive tannic structure. We are presently engaged
in refining this monster through careful incorporation of oxygen, oak elements and yeast lees.
In Gods, Men & Wine, William Younger contends that the Romans, with their millennium of
winemaking experience, did not use sulfur dioxide in winemaking. It occurred to us that
the mineral vitality and vibrant tannin of this Syrah fruit might enable us to eschew sulfites, too.
During these two vintages we successfully experimented with single barrels without sulfites, and
much to our surprise, obtained wines of greatly enhanced personality. In 2003, we elected to
vinify the whole lot in this way. To date, we are extremely excited by this dense, luscious
wine, our best since the '99 Crucible.
These wines will range in price from $30 to $75. Exact pricing and release dates are not
available in advance, and will vary according to the wines' merits and proclivities.
Just for fun, we have also created a second label at $6 called "CheapSkate". This is
partly made possible by long-term contracts with Lodi growers at sustainable prices and
partly by eliminating the distribution tier, which adds 50% to pricing. We will soon be
releasing a deliciously spicy Pinot Noir and a rich, luscious Cabernet Sauvignon under
this label. We cut no corners with these wines and apply the same winegrowing principles
as our top offerings, so you can buy with confidence. CheapSkate will provide you an everyday
satisfying quaff so you can save your pennies for WineSmith on special occasions.
If you would like to participate in the Advanced Tasting Program, please supply us with your
credit card number. We'll register you in the program, and forward you a bottle of each new
release.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Clark Smith
Susan Mayer-Smith
Owners
www.winesmithwines.com
winesmith@ap.net
707 824-4600
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