“I'm sitting here with papers all around me and wines to taste,” says Kathy Joseph, when asked if this was a good time to talk. “I have wine notes to do, so that means I have to pop the bottle and write a description.”
Sounds like a tough job! Joseph, owner of Fiddlehead Cellars, wears many hats. “I have the gratification of participating in everything and I enjoy the diversity,” she says. Her enthusiasm for both her wine and her position as Head Fiddle is evident, even over phone lines. And fortunately, she does have time to talk.
“Just looking at the wine stimulates impressions,” says Joseph, who established Fiddlehead Cellars in 1989. She writes for a diverse audience, readers and wine drinkers who are curious about the chemistry and history of wine. “I allow myself to talk about what makes a wine special in ‘Kathy’s Corner’ (her wine notes).
“We’re in the middle of the blending process and have moved the wine from individual barrels to blending tanks. I want to make sure the first bottle is just like the last bottle,” she says. “For me, it’s the most stressful time of year. This is the last opportunity to make it just right.”
Getting ready to bottle means lots of prep work, which includes gathering supplies, scheduling the crew, checking that the wine temperature is correct and writing the wine notes.
“The great thing about my job is that I do one of everything,” Joseph says. She also makes sure that vines are pruned properly, oversees repairs, takes a month-end inventory, schedules marketing events and increases awareness of Fiddlehead Cellars with events such as the High Museum Wine Auction in Atlanta and the Charlotte, N.C. Wine and Food Weekend.
Joseph receives several requests a day to participate in events, but is selective. “I have to believe in the cause or look at an event from a marketing perspective. I like smaller events where I have more contact with people,” she says.
Thousands were introduced to Fiddlehead Cellars when it played a key role in the movie, Sideways. “The movie discovered me,” Joseph says, explaining that she crossed paths with the director, who loved her wines and decided to write them into the script. Fiddlehead Cellars Hunnysuckle, a Sauvignon Blanc, was described accurately, she says, but it was the sales of Pinot Noir that rose substantially because of the movie. On the small screen, Fiddlehead also was featured in the final episode of The Sopranos, when Tony Soprano sipped a glass of Pinot Noir on an airplane.
Before “deviating” into winemaking, Joseph was a pre-med student. “My background is microbiology and chemistry and I was mentored into feeling that science was a form of art,” she says. In her early winemaking years, Joseph made Merlot, Chardonnay and Zinfandel, before focusing on Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. She enjoys working with Pinot Noir grapes from two distinct districts – the Santa Barbara Valley and the Willamette Valley, Oregon – and owns vineyards in both areas. “They are classic growing regions for Pinot Noir,” she says.
Why name it Fiddlehead? “Making wine was easy, but naming it was difficult – it took two years,” she says. Joseph didn’t want to use a family, foreign or geographical name. While gardening one day, she remembered the roots of Botany 101, which inspired the idea of Fiddlehead. She likes the melody and the symbolism of the word. “It’s a delicacy in cooking; it unfurls once a year like a new release; it’s an elegant plant and is special.” The stylized “f” simulates the design of the fern and the name.
“We bottle 5,000 cases (full size and half size “little fiddles”) and hold to that number. Early on, I decided to center the brand around more reserve types of production,” Joseph states. Bottlings include wines with clever names and special meanings.
Fiddlehead Cellars Seven Twenty Eight is named for the mile marker at Fiddlestix Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills area where the Pinot Noir grapes are grown.
Lollapalooza is the word that pops up when people taste the best of the cellar – truly a “wow” wine.
Her single-barrel, stand-alone “phenomenon” is named Doyle as a tribute to her husband, a Sacramento attorney. “He completely supports my mission to make great wine,” she says.
Sweetie is a sweet, romantic wine with a dramatic label, a “friend-maker for everyone,” says Joseph. From the Santa Ynez Valley, it’s a late harvest Sauvignon Blanc with a hint of Muscat Blanc added.
Joseph calls Happy Canyon, a Sauvignon Blanc from a “sweet spot” in the Santa Ynez Valley, a crowd pleaser, noting that it’s the most versatile of her Sauvignon Blanc wines. Others include Goosebury, a more fruit-forward wine, and Hunnysuckle (with the Winnie the Pooh spelling), a richer, silkier wine.
Joseph’s next project is a partnership of three or four small wineries that will have a rural focus. With a target date of sometime in 2009, the grouping of wineries will have a small but warm feel, Joseph says.
Her real pleasure in winemaking is watching someone enjoy the wine or hearing a message with favorable comments. “That’s sort of a glory moment. It gives me encouragement to do it again,” Joseph says. No matter how many hats she wears, she’ll find the time.
Wine Notes
Fiddlehead Cellars wines are available at several wine shops
– Backroom Wines, Napa; Corti Brothers, Sacramento; and Capitol Cellars, Roseville; and through Fiddlehead Cellars’ two wine clubs
– the Frequent Fiddle club, comprised of current releases, and the Stradivarius club, which offers limited, exclusive wines.
FiddleHeadquarters Tasting Room and Winery is located in the “Lompoc Wine Ghetto,” 1597 East Chestnut Avenue, Lompoc. Hours are from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday to Sunday or by appointment.
For details, visit the Web site at fiddleheadcellars.com or call 805-742-0204.
