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Watch the trailer for Chef Flynn: he opened his first restaurant at home when he was 16-years-old and his first in New York at just 19-years-old.Al Frediani was known for his love for his old vines, his meticulous farming and his sharp sense of humor. Born on his family’s Napa Valley farm, he spent his life working on the property. Frediani died Oct. 18, 2018, a month shy of his 97th birthday.
The 20-acre Frediani vineyard, tucked away in the northeast corner of the valley on a quiet road near Calistoga, is planted to prized Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignane, Valdiguié (a French variety locally dubbed “Napa Gamay”) and Petite Sirah, which Frediani called by its old winegrowers’ nickname, “Petty Sarah.” Producers including Relic, Conn Creek and Stags’ Leap Winery have purchased his grapes. The nearest neighbor is the famed Eisele Vineyard, which was purchased in July 2013 by the owners of Bordeaux first-growth Château Latour.
“Al was in love with his vines and loved spending time in the vineyard,” Relic winemaker Mike Hirby told Wine Spectator. “He farmed the old way, which meant dry-farming and organic farming of the simplest kind. He let the vines do the rest, which is what it is all about.”
Frediani’s father bought and planted the site after emigrating from Italy in the early 1900s. Frediani was born there Nov. 23, 1921, and was raised on the land, helping his father in the vineyards as a child and then returning to the property after serving in the Army during World War II. Since then, not much has changed in the way the land has been farmed, except that tractors have replaced horses, much to Frediani’s dismay.
Hirby says Frediani liked to talk about those horses. “He got his first tractor in 1953, and how he missed working the horses, although they kicked him and ran away often. He was a gentle spirit with a lot of heart and a great sense of humor, always happy.”
Frediani did not irrigate and he didn’t believe in spraying pesticides in his vineyard. If he saw a weed, he would simply pull it out with his bare hands. Even when his age slowed him down, he continued to do as much in the vineyard as possible, with help from his son Steve, who lives in his own house on the property.
Winemaker Jeff Cohn says he will remember Frediani as a “true character.” Cohn said, “The first time I met him was in the front of his home. He was skinning a jackrabbit to use [as bait] to attract the yellow jackets [away] from his house. It was a good-sized knife.”
“Grape sampling with Al was always interesting,” added Cohn. Frediani had an old Coke can with the top cut off. “He would take a bunch of berries, crush them up [in the can] and use an old refractometer to see the Brix. I have a feeling this refractometer had not been calibrated since John F. Kennedy was in office. It used to amuse me, how close his numbers were to what I would get at the lab.”
The vineyard’s old, gnarled vines were scattered among piles of wood, old cars, washboards and buckets of walnuts from a handful of trees Frediani planted years ago. “That was a mistake,” Frediani told Wine Spectator about the walnuts in an interview in 2014. “They don’t pay much.”
Frediani’s hard work and commitment to his vineyard was as legendary as his grapes. “I feel so lucky to have been able to work with him over the last decade,” said Hirby. “He taught me so much about what is important in vineyard work, wine, and in life.”
Frediani is survived by six children, 13 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.
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Check out the famous cheesecake and other desserts from Albert Adria’s sweets-only London restaurant Cakes & Bubbles that celebrated its opening this week.Overlooking Australia’s Willow Creek Vineyard in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula wine region, Doot Doot Doot celebrates terroir through seasonal cuisine and a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence–winning wine program. The restaurant is housed in the Jackalope Hotel, a sleek, contemporary destination with dramatic art pieces including a glass-enclosed working cellar at the center of the lobby. Doot Doot Doot’s 250-selection wine list highlights Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, showcasing plenty of local examples from the property’s vineyard and beyond. When it comes to sourcing global selections, head sommelier Marcus Radny generally restricts himself to vineyards that are the same size or smaller than Willow Creek Vineyard, which is 27 acres, though he does make exceptions for rare labels. Like the wines, the five-course tasting menu for $80 celebrates the region, offering an array of local specialties. Chef Martin Webster changes the menu every two weeks, and the wine pairings—which cost an additional $146—change with it, creating a hyper-seasonal experience.
After its hotel and bar opened last month, NoMad Las Vegas will debut its restaurant Nov. 14. The NoMad Hotel, a collaboration between restaurateur Will Guidara, chef Daniel Humm’s Make It Nice Hospitality Group and the Sydell Group, has two other locations with Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence–winning restaurants in New York and Los Angeles. Make It Nice also includes Grand Award winner Eleven Madison Park.
“We’re trying to keep the DNA of what we did in New York and L.A. as a common thread, but also really embracing the fact that we’re in Las Vegas and people want to go a little bit bigger,” wine director Thomas Pastuszak told Wine Spectator.
The wine list will have a core focus on cool-climate, mineral-driven and high-acid wines from regions such as Champagne, Burgundy, Piedmont, the Finger Lakes and the Northern Rhône. Pastuszak will also showcase California wines, playing off the menu’s roasted meats with plenty of spicy, robust reds. The restaurant will open with about 700 wine selections, but NoMad Vegas’ storage space will allow for substantial growth, with the potential to exceed the 1,900 and 1,700 selections offered in New York and Los Angeles, respectively.
Overseen by chef de cuisine Mike Rellergert, the menu will highlight luxury ingredients like foie gras and truffles. Vegas exclusives include tuna and steak tartares made tableside, and a raw seafood platter to share. Pastuszak wants to cater to locals as well as visitors. “What we’re really passionate about, and we try to really do it in New York and in Los Angeles, is embrace the neighborhood,” he said. “And I think that Las Vegas is an amazing community of people who really want to eat and drink well.”
The bar, which opened with the 239-room hotel Oct. 12, offers a more casual dining experience, with a wine list of about 50 selections all under $200, and more than 20 wines by the glass.—J.H.
A second location of the Washington, D.C., Best of Award of Excellence winner Fiola opened its doors in Miami Nov. 1. It’s the first venture outside of the capital for restaurateur Fabio Trabocchi. “I guess it’s a challenge, but it’s a fun challenge,” wine director Casper Rice told Wine Spectator. “I think our product attracts people everywhere.”
The new restaurant will offer more seafood than the flagship D.C. location, but its 850-selection wine list will maintain Fiola’s focus on Italy, Bordeaux and California. “The cellar space in Miami is in my favor, with very big storage space for wine,” Rice said. “We have a great opportunity in Miami in that we have big shoes to fill, and we’ll slowly fill them in.”—B.G.
On Nov. 7, Miami entertainment mogul David Grutman and musician Pharrell Williams opened dual dining concepts in Miami’s Design District. Grutman’s Groot Hospitality Group includes Award of Excellence winner Komodo.
On the first floor of the new two-story space is Swan, a restaurant and bar with a garden and a D.J. booth. Upstairs, Bar Bevy has lounge-style seating with another D.J. booth and an outdoor terrace, and serves small bites and shareable plates. Chef Jean Imbert executes the menus for both concepts.
Wine director Collin Bleess told Wine Spectator that both Swan and Bar Bevy will have an abbreviated version of Komodo’s 360-label wine progam, similarly geared to Miami’s high-end clientele, with 120 selections. The list emphasizes American, French and Italian wines while also representing other major regions around the world such as Spain, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Expect several first-growth Bordeauxs and other premium wines. There are currently 15 by-the-glass options, and Bleess hopes to add eight to 10 more in the next month or two with the rollout of their Coravin program.—J.H.
The San Francisco outpost of Il Fornaio Cucina Italiana closed Oct. 28 after 30 years in business. A press release cited a challenging economy and the neighborhood’s “overall declining business occupancy” as reasons for the closure. The restaurant was known for chef Francesco Gazzana’s Italian cuisine and its 90-selection wine list with strengths in Italy and California. Il Fornaio still has 19 Restaurant Award–winning outposts across California, Colorado, Nevada and Washington.—J.H.
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Learn how to make little smokies with barbecue sauce, in the slow cooker, and wrapped in bacon and dusted with brown sugar. This is an epic appetizer!The Taub family, owners of Palm Bay International, one of the nation’s leading wine importers, is expanding its presence in California. The family’s Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon brand Heritance has purchased Saracina Vineyards in Mendocino from John Fetzer and his wife, Patty Rock. The deal, which closed in early October, includes a winery, 250 acres of land with 100 acres planted to vines, along with the Saracina brand and its second label Atrea. The sale price was not disclosed.
The deal gives the Taub family an established winery and a foothold in Mendocino. They plan to move production of their Heritance, Au Contraire and Angry Bunch brands to Saracina’s winemaking facility. Winemaker Alex MacGregor will continue to make the Saracina and Atrea wines.
Marc Taub, CEO of Taub Family Companies, which includes Palm Bay International and Taub Family Selections, had been looking for a home for his growing roster of California brands. “Marc was familiar with the Saracina ranch and loves the property,” Bethany Burke, senior vice president of corporate communications at Taub Family Companies, told Wine Spectator.
Fetzer and Rock will no longer be involved in the winery, but they have retained part of the Saracina property, including a residence. The eldest of 11 siblings, Fetzer launched Saracina in 2001—nearly a decade after his family sold Fetzer Vineyards to spirits company Brown-Forman (Fetzer and its affiliated brands are now owned by Chile’s Concha y Toro). The couple built a tasting room and wine cave on the 600-acre former Sundial Ranch near the town of Hopland, and tapped MacGregor and consultant David Ramey to make the wines.
Saracina makes wine from a variety of grapes including Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc from its sustainably farmed estate vineyards and purchased grapes. The winery produces around 7,500 cases of wine annually.
Once one of the foremost dynasties in California wine, the Fetzer family has been divesting its wine holdings in recent years. In 2017, the family sold its 80-acre ranch in Redwood Valley, the site of the original Fetzer winery, to cannabis distributor Flow Kana. The Saracina sale leaves third-generation vintners Jake and Ben Fetzer as the only family members with their own wine label, Masut, in the Eagle Peak appellation of Mendocino.
Marc Taub’s father, David, who passed away in 2012, launched Palm Bay in 1977, importing Italian wine. The family now imports and produces nearly 90 wine and spirits brands from 17 countries around the world, with a focus on Italy. In 2014, Marc turned to California, launching Pinot Noir brand Au Contraire in Sonoma. They later added Heritance, which was founded by wine-industry veterans Bernard Portet and Don Chase.
The Taub family doesn’t plan to make any change to the Saracina wines but they will add new projects down the road. “We definitely want to take advantage of what [Fetzer and Rock] have been doing here,” said Burke. “Marc is looking at this as a long-term opportunity to lay down roots for his family.”
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