I had the pleasure of speaking with Vincent Fritzsche from Vincent Wine Company. Back in 2020, when I was doing A.J.’s Happy Hour, Vincent decided to join us. Before the virtual meetup, I met Vincent for the first time in the parking lot of New Seasons so I could deliver wine to everyone. I also have to shout out to Andrew West, who said we should have Vincent join us for the Happy Hour!

Over the years, I have kept in touch and tasted at his winery in Eola, somewhat near Brooks. Vincent’s background comes from academia, but in casual conversation, you would never guess how well read and down-to-earth he is. Being a one-person show, Vincent’s wines fall under the “If You Know, You Know” umbrella. There is no allocation or membership. Visiting the website, there is a form to sign up for his mailing list, and that’s it. He sends an email in the Fall and Spring, and if you want wine, great! If not, wait until the next release to see what strikes your fancy.

My conversation with Vincent felt like sitting with a friend to catch up. We got a little long-winded, but what struck a chord with me was how Vincent’s Wine Epiphany was at the age of five. We also dive into Team Flip Flip, and his Napa Project. Below are all the links and an outline of our talk. I hope you enjoy and it helps me so much when you do all the likes and subscribes on YouTube, Apple Podcast, and Spotify (so many platforms to keep happy). Also, if you don’t email me telling me the interview was awful, I will assume it was the best interview ever!

Transcription – Vincent Fritzsche

Vincent Fritzsche: Cheers

A.J.: to another episode of a wine note podcast on your guide, PJ wine Jule on this journey of story, showcasing the people behind the wonderful world of wine, where we dive into conversations ranging from PIR, viticulture to favor music, superpowers, and more. Please enjoy this episode of the winos podcast.

A.J.: All right, Vincent. Uh, thank you so much for taking the, the, the time today. I can’t, uh, thank you enough for taking time outta your schedule. I know you’ve been traveling all around and all about, so I imagine you’d have quite a bit on your plate.

Vincent Fritzsche: Yeah, no, I appreciate it, AJ. It’s great to be here. And, uh, yeah, we’re finally getting back to doing some sales travel in earnest after really a couple years of doing very little.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, and so I was in Chicago and I’ve been down California and, um, soon the Sunday to head out for a three week, uh, I, uh, trip to the east coast or six different states to different markets. I almost joke that I should have, you know, spring two or tea fairs printed up. Uh, cause it’s, it seemed like a good idea to put it all together in one trip.

Vincent Fritzsche: And now I look at it and it’s all in one trip and it seems overwhelming, but my life could be worse. It could be

A.J.: way worse, you know, and it’s just glad to get glad to, uh, be able to get out and, you know, ex and do this stuff again,

Vincent Fritzsche: which is great. Yeah. And, and really renew connections in the industry, uh, distributor relationships that have survived to kind of, uh, the, the COVID situ.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, but to truly see these people again for the first time in a couple years and go to the restaurants and shops that are continue to sell the wines and, and, uh, going to Chicago recently was, was quite, um, you know, to overplay it. But I, I wasn’t sure would anyone remember me? Would, would they be like, oh yeah, we still like your wines or would we just be starting over and have lost all this momentum?

Vincent Fritzsche: And, and it was really gratifying that, that actually the, the trip went better than ever. It seemed like we were building on the past work that hadn’t gone away, even though it had been a couple years. Um, and so we’re actually very reassuring, uh, that, that, that we, we had this interruption that it, it isn’t, it isn’t, uh, for good.

Vincent Fritzsche: Uh, so we’ll see. Yeah,

A.J.: no, that, that is great. Um, yeah. So if you don’t mind, we’ll kind of like take a, that stab at the, the very, very beginning, um, it looked like, you know, at, uh, from what I’ve read and understood. You had your first, uh, epiphany, you know, in the wine world, like when you were four and you were out with your parents.

A.J.: Yeah. Uh, wine tasting. And then, you know, many years later you went back to COA and you, you know, had that same, uh, sense of smell with the wine and the barrels and everything.

Vincent Fritzsche: I realized I’d been there before. And I, I was in my early twenties and thought we must have come to what was Ingle N and at that time was COA.

Vincent Fritzsche: Maybe they called Ingle N again, but whatever the case, in fact that we had been there and we had turned out, had gone to Christian brothers as well. The one time I ever tagged along with the family, going to wine tasting and, and you know, a little kid, it meant a lot of time in the car. It wasn’t exciting to me, but I remember how it smelled.

Vincent Fritzsche: And, uh, and that, that got into me and the, I remember coming back to wineries in my twenties, and being like, wait, that’s familiar. That’s in there deeper than I than I than I guess. So, yeah, wine, right? My wine epiphany was truly when I was, I think, five years old. Uh, so we’ll call it five. I didn’t taste on that trip, but the aroma hooked me

A.J.: well, that that’s the important part is the aroma and the sin.

A.J.: That’s right. Everything else. It’s, it’s all about,

Vincent Fritzsche: oh yeah. The emotion to pro provokes, the memories, uh, all those things that, that, uh, it was great. Those years later to have that sort of formalization of like, wait a minute, I’ve been a wine lover for years. I just never knew it.

A.J.: Yeah. So, so were your parents big into wine or anything at that point?

A.J.: Or like how, how,

Vincent Fritzsche: yes. Yes and no. They, they definitely enjoyed wine and, and drank some, some nice wines on occasion, but for the most part, uh, I’m the youngest of seven. They were both, my parents were both born and raised in the depression. Um, so while we had wine, they, this, we, they, they lived very economically.

Vincent Fritzsche: We had a lot of, uh, lot of coupons and blue chip stamps, not, not, uh, Not, not, you know, fan fancy Bordeaux though, once in a blue moon there a nice bottle would come through. And I remember my parents and my dad especially be like, oh, you know, shots of de pop, your grandfather likes this or something. And, uh, I recreated this, you know, I’ve understand now later, but, but for the most part, it was, uh, you know, table wines, uh, wines with dinner.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, and, uh, and so I always grew up around wine, but it was, again, one of those things that might have smelled okay. Like a like ground coffee smelled good. But, but coffee was horrible, right. It’s a little good and, and wine might have smelled. Okay. But, uh, the taste was horrible, but later. Truly did have my own epiphany.

Vincent Fritzsche: Yeah. That’s sort of baseline of a family that was wine interested, if not, you know, with a lot of cash to throw around at, at fancy wines. Um, and I think the ethic of my family was very much like wine is, is, is a great thing, but you know, you, we weren’t gonna spend too much cuz that seemed kind of frivolous.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, so, uh, so there was very much a kind of a good table wine at

A.J.: home home. Right? No, and yeah. And there there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s, you know, oh, hundred percent. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and to have those special wines, I mean, it just makes it even the experience even more cherish, you know, you can cherish that moment so much more.

Vincent Fritzsche: That’s exactly right. I really feel like my wine basis came from wine being and every day or kind of a not special thing in the sense of it being a food. Um, but that then there could be very special wines in the world of, of more special wine and more handmade. Wine, um, kind of opened itself to me and, and, and, and my family as well.

Vincent Fritzsche: Those who are interested in wine certainly are, are intrigued by my journey. And those sometimes they’ll say, oh, don’t waste the good stuff on me. You know, I, I, I can’t tell it’s good. And I’m like, come on, anybody can tell I, one thing I like about wine is it can hit you as much as like I’m, I’m not a clothes horse.

Vincent Fritzsche: I. I don’t, I don’t wear fashionable clothing though. Maybe I should. I don’t know. But, uh, but I know good fabric when I feel it, you, you don’t need to be versed in the stuff to know, like, that’s the good stuff. I kind of think of the same way you can taste the wine, be like, whoa, wait a minute. That’s not the normal stuff.

Vincent Fritzsche: And, uh, I like that about wine. It, it, it is mysterious in all these things, but it’s a common beverage. And at the same time, the specialness can sometimes. Slap you upside the head without you having to know much. You’re just like, wait a minute. What is this? exactly it. Art of any kindness, that way music and whatnot.

A.J.: Yeah. Right. I, I, I couldn’t agree more. So when you went back, you know, in your twenties or whatnot, um, , you know, you’re like, wow, I was, I was here again, you know, and just kind of remembering, uh, but did you know, like your career path was that academia at that point, or

Vincent Fritzsche: actually I’d been an English major and loved it so much.

Vincent Fritzsche: I went to grad school for literature and, uh, I honestly just felt like I hadn’t, I hadn’t read enough. I couldn’t believe they’d given me a degree and I hadn’t read, you know, tons of stuff. So I kind of went further, got a master’s and I really wanted to be, and I worked for many years in publishing and, uh, I worked for Simon and Schuster in the bay area, sort of an imprint of Simon Chu.

Vincent Fritzsche: And, uh, but figured perhaps I’d work at a university press or some kind of academic academia connected. Uh, job, as it turned out, I ended up, uh, being a faculty member. Um, I ended up being a faculty member, uh, at two different universities in Oregon, uh, and running education programs where I was not the teacher usually, but I would hire teachers.

Vincent Fritzsche: And otherwise, like I did in publishing, you know, where we were working with the authors to try and figure out what we would publish, uh, working with teachers to figure out what our, what our classes would include, what the programs would include. Uh, and so I always have taken kind of an editor’s approach to this kind of work.

Vincent Fritzsche: My wine interest was very much outside, all that. And, and I always like to say, you know, I, if I ride bicycles that I don’t need to build them. And if I like bike or if I like wine, I, I never thought, oh, I need to make it. But I did fall in, uh, unexpectedly with some people making wine and they were like, come help.

Vincent Fritzsche: And I thought, wow, I’m so lucky. and I like to think that we’ll take anyone at harvest time. If you’re willing. Now, if you have a pulse you’re in, uh, and yeah, I had a pulse and I showed up and I kept showing up and I, for whatever reason, I had an aptitude for it. And, uh, and it really took, so wine is the unusual interest I’ve had where I’ve really gotten in and, and, and now make it, um, I, I always have been more of, you know, surf, but I don’t, you know, make surfboards or something.

Vincent Fritzsche: uh, but wine surprising to me. I really just fell into the making of it and felt that I found I’d love it. .

A.J.: Yeah. Yeah, no, I can only imagine. And so you actually started making wine in 2009, or is that like when you were like doing a full

Vincent Fritzsche: time? Yeah, that’s when I, I, I first worked in a winery, really a volunteer job, uh, in 1999, I was living in California, uh, and in the next year as part of the plan and part for one though, it wasn’t the first reason.

Vincent Fritzsche: Uh, I moved to Oregon with my family truly to raise a family in Oregon. Uh, the area where we’d lived was great, but we were just really wanted to be in Oregon. I also secretly thought, you know, there’s so wine dream and I think it’s an Oregon wine dream. Uh, for me, I think that there’s an excitement here.

Vincent Fritzsche: There’s something about the spa valley that I found to be true, but that I suspected was where I wanted to be to make wine. Um, but I had, I had fallen in with someone who had met a Homeland maker and then had already launched a commercial winery and had become successful very early on and has gone on to great success, which was fantastic.

Vincent Fritzsche: But their model was, if you can make good wine, you know, make commercial amounts of it more than you need. It’s hard to make five gallons of good wine. Um, it’s like making a tiny cake. You know, you kind of, you don’t have enough proportion or a tiny loaf of bread. It’s almost a trick. You. Um, but so to make barrels of wine, um, work with commercial vineyards, you know, do your best to meet growers who will sell to you, do nothing to cause them trouble, pay them, make sure you’re a good customer and you’d be surprised you might be able to work with really good fruit.

Vincent Fritzsche: And make wines that probably will be better for working with good fruit. And, uh, and that you wanna kind of do that perhaps as your apprenticing and continuing your learning and wineries. And I essentially followed that loose plan for the next decade. So from the year 2000 to launching my own production in oh nine, and I worked in wineries at harvest time flexing in my day job, working bodily days, filtering days, any day, I could kind of help out the seller and make it work with the day job I was making home wine from serious vineyards, including Xena vineyard that I still work with.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, right. And so I was able to make home wines that I was proud of and I would still serve them as part of my collection, part of my library. Uh, and so I felt really good about that. That here we’re making wine. It’s good wine. It’s not some hope that it’ll be good someday. Uh, and by oh nine, I really felt confident that I could make wine in a commercial facility that therefore was legal to be sold.

Vincent Fritzsche: And that we weren’t just. We’re taking enough chances, but I knew I could make good wine. And, uh, and so in oh nine I started with just 225 cases, nine barrels of Pinot noir. Um, and now I make about 2200 cases. And, uh, in 2015 I was able to leave the academic and publishing work full time and go into wine, I should say, full time and left my other careers at that point.

Vincent Fritzsche: And, uh, have not looked back. And at this point, I, I suspect I’m not very employable outside of what I do and wine, so it better keep working.

A.J.: I, I, I think you’re totally fine. I mean, it’s, it’s, uh, you know, I it’s, you know, it’s, I think you’re one of those kind of unknown secrets. Like, you know, if you know, you know, kind of, kind of right producers and, um, yeah.

A.J.: No, you’re welcome. It’s when I first heard about you, I was like, how, how in the heck did I not know? But, you know, once you kind of get into the inner circle in the group, uh, you mean, you know, the, the wines that you create are outstanding and great, and you’re so approachable and you know, everything you do is, is top notch.

A.J.: Um, well, I appreciate that. So, I mean, if you could give yourself any advice and like go back to 2009, is there anything that you would, you would tell your, your younger self?

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, that’s a great, that’s a great question. I, I, I can’t, I, the wine making adventure has been the most unusual thing for me, because I never felt like I was that great at stuff, and I’m not that great at wine, but I clearly is working enough that fooled enough people.

Vincent Fritzsche: Ha ha ha that, uh, so it’s, it’s it’s I would’ve, I would say to my younger self though, apparently I was, I was willing to give it a shot, but I, I would tell that 2009. Me definitely do it. Do not let people tell you this is crazy. Um, the smart thing I think I did was I was able to start it as a side thing.

Vincent Fritzsche: And the worst thing that would’ve happened if I had to wind it down was it was just the, you know, sort of the, the shame or whatever. I would’ve lost some money with a lot, but I hadn’t, you know, mortgage the farm or the house. Right, right. I was. And so I would re I would say that was a smart thing to do.

Vincent Fritzsche: Don’t to be all in, in something you don’t have to literally be all in because you could really lose everything and you don’t need to. So just kind of work at it, ratchet it up and really, uh, understand that the, the long term goal. If, if I always tell people this, if your long term goal is to be in wine, then start now.

Vincent Fritzsche: But at the same time, you, it doesn’t all have to be right now. If you all of a sudden were a full-time winemaker, you have a winery in like five years from now, you might be like, well, I’m done with that. I’m tired of it. You know? Uh, I don’t know, but in a way, uh, you know, if you’re really into something you’re, you’re gonna be, or you should be into it 10, 20 years from now, so don’t worry.

Vincent Fritzsche: It doesn’t all have to happen right now. And in a way it takes pressure off this vintage being everything. Or if this wine isn’t the best wine ever, I’ll never live another day. Like, no, no, no. There will be another vintage in some. The experience has, has really, I mean, I don’t, there’s a ton of romance in wine.

Vincent Fritzsche: I hate it when people say there’s, you know, don’t get caught up in the romance. Like why not? I mean, there are other ways to make a living. This is a pretty good one. Uh, tastes good. You know, the view is usually pretty nice around vineyards, you know, could be worse, right. But, but at the same time, it’s a very serious business.

Vincent Fritzsche: And the truth is that, uh, the next harvest, the next growing season will come before you know it. And so when we get all wrapped up and what this wine needs to be, or what, you know, we just put a lot on any one thing in our, in our work, we have to remember, there will be more years, there will be more vintages almost to the point where it’s unrelenting and here comes another vintage, like another base.

Vincent Fritzsche: Right. And you’re like, wait, do we. Do we need another vintage? Have we sold enough wine? Do we have, you know, do you know, do we have food for the new baby? It’s, it’s almost a similar feeling like you almost there’s a, a, you won’t wanna be a responsible producer by not making too much, you know, it’s also good business.

Vincent Fritzsche: Right. But, but you almost feel emotionally like, wait, where am I gonna put this all? And you know, I’m not taking care of everything, right. If it’s, if it’s too much. So I would just remind that early person be you’re in it for the long haul. Stay true to what you’re doing. Be about something. Try not to make wine for everyone, cuz you won’t have enough for them anyway.

Vincent Fritzsche: So you might as well focus on what you’re trying to do and try and do it well. And look for the people who’d be interested. And once in a while that’ll be somebody who’s like, yeah, I’m not interested. And you have to be like, okay, that’s fine. It’s not a personal front. Um, but it is true of any, you know, if you’re a graphic designer or whatever, you know, you’re looking for the people it works with, it doesn’t have to be everyone.

Vincent Fritzsche: So right. No, I it’s fun to think back .

A.J.: It is, it is, it is fun. It’s, uh, it is fun to, to think back and look upon, you know, what you’ve accomplished and you know, where you’ve gone. Um, you know, it’s, I think, you know, kind of early on your, your grassroots marketing was a bunch of, you know, online kind of bulletin board systems or not bulletin board system, but like message boards and whatnot.

A.J.: And

Vincent Fritzsche: yeah, and I had a blog actually, one of my own directors at, at, uh, Portland state university said he was trying to challenge me one. Uh, in his own old, in his British way, he was this great guy, Victor Walsh, who was a fantastic mentor, but he essentially said, you know, if you’re all about this wine stuff and, you know, you ought to be writing about it, you know, you should start a blog.

Vincent Fritzsche: And it was the best idea. This was literally like 2004, you know? So I felt pretty early in sharing what I was essentially learning. I called it , which in wine is the education of wine, the, the sort of raising of the wine from the wine making stage to the bottling, mostly aging. Um, but here I wasn’t education and I joked that this was, you know, how I was getting schooled by one and by wine making.

Vincent Fritzsche: And I just wanted to share that, uh, and I, through writing my blog posts for years, um, it was a great outlet when I had such an interest in being in wine and I wasn’t in it. So I felt like, well, here’s something I can be doing to make it happen now. Um, it’s interesting. I have more to blog about than ever, but no time and just kind of, and I don’t have that outlet.

Vincent Fritzsche: Like I need to read a book, something else that’s an outlet away from wind out. So it’s interesting there, the blogging has gone away, but, um, but it was really important for me to basically share what I was doing and to have people who were looking for what I ended up doing, they would find me, they weren’t looking for Vincent Frichy winemaker and Oregon.

Vincent Fritzsche: They were like natural wines or, you know, nothing added or whatever. They might be searching in terms Ofir then they might find me. And I found the power of the internet was people finding my content and not looking for me. And then they’d be like, wow, this is interesting. And I learned very early on, I put a thing on my site saying, Hey, if you want to get on my list and I’ll be in touch with you over time about wines, I make et cetera.

Vincent Fritzsche: Subscribe to my list, you know, get on my list and it’s been the business plan ever since basically make an invitation to anybody who’s interested to join my list. And then once they’re on my list, I can write to them and you know, sure it’s marketing, but basically once you get an order that I figure, I, if you’re interested in wine, I’ll, I’ll make you offer some wines.

Vincent Fritzsche: And if you’re interested come taste, I won’t charge you. Um, and if you wanna buy, buy, and, and it’s turned out to be a pretty good organic business model, invite people to be a part of what you’re doing and then give them offer opportunities to purchase. And never force ’em to do anything. And, uh, they seem to like that yeah, no.

Vincent Fritzsche: Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. And, and, and so from oh nine to, to today, direct sales have always been a key part of my business. Uh, but certainly I distribute a lot as I’m started by saying have a whole bunch of distributors and around the country and in Canada and the UK. And, uh, so a part of the fun and part of the work is to go visit and work with them and, and really, you know, make those connections too.

Vincent Fritzsche: So both sides of the business are really interesting to me.

A.J.: Yeah, no, I, I can only imagine, oh, I could be totally off on this, on this kind of next segment, but it looked like about five years ago in 2017, you were working on, on some code to, uh, it was like, um, a Google spreadsheet that you’re trying to email attach as.

A.J.: As a PDF. Do you recall that at all? I

Vincent Fritzsche: don’t. What was,

A.J.: um, you don’t okay. Well maybe, I mean, maybe there was somebody else, you know, maybe there was somebody else out there that was portraying you and it was like, wow, you were doing actual code in 2017. And like, that doesn’t seem like you. So I was just, I was really curious.

Vincent Fritzsche: Yeah. Well, no, I, I, I’m not sure about that though. It might have been, I I’ve dabbled around in these kinds of things, but I it’s funny, actually in recent years I was trying to redo a website and I’ve, I’ve come to the understanding both in the mix of things I have to do. And, and I want to do of course, uh, my skills in terms of code and, and really the, the current generation of websites and things like that.

Vincent Fritzsche: It’s like out of my league, it’s sort of. Leveling up. I think I got to high school. I used to play little league baseball and it was pretty good. And I got to high school and I went to this like fancy high school where sports was a big deal. And I went out to travel for the team and I had like jeans on and a t-shirt and there were kids with like their own uniforms.

Vincent Fritzsche: Like this was like private, you know, semi pro children. , you know, it’s like, I’m out, done. I feel that way with, with any web or, you know, trying to update code on my side. Okay. I’ve reached my limit. We are done this is jump off. So, so that may, I’m not sure if that was part of it, but I, uh, I, at this point, definitely not a coder

A.J.: Yeah, no. And, and I can totally understand that, but, uh, you know, so I got that, I found that off of a stack overflow and, um, you and whoever was, uh, writing the answer was like, Hey, once I slept on it, you know, I was able to figure out what was going on. And so the actual question that I was going to ask was, has there been anything in wine making where like you’re stumped and like you just a good night’s sleep and you wake up in the next morning and you’re like, oh yeah, I need to do this.

Vincent Fritzsche: Yeah. Yes and no. In that I, sometimes I I’m, I’m concerned that I might come off as a little too nonchalant or. like, if I were hearing me, I would be really annoyed. So I don’t know how quite to express this, but I I’ve really some, the most surprising thing and most profound thing about wine making is that I’ve I really do very little and I have learned that the more I don’t do the better it is.

Vincent Fritzsche: And so really the point of fact answer is I may have gone to bed thinking I’ve got a problem with a ferment, or I’ve got a barrel that’s highly reduced and smells like, you know, like your foot in a plastic shoe. And you’re like, Ugh, it just smells, you know, we need to right air that out or do something and make it better than that.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, and honestly the problems that I, uh, almost invariably resolve themselves, they’re sort of transitory things that might equate it to a cake is baking in the oven and you’re looking at it through the window and you think, oh no, something’s not right. You know, I would almost just say time out, pretty much nothing you’re gonna do by opening the oven.

Vincent Fritzsche: By moving the, the baking cakes that are still mostly liquid, like nothing is gonna help right now. In fact, you’re just gonna ruin it. In fact, yeah. You’re just gonna make it worse or open the oven. Don’t touch the cakes, just let ’em be. And, uh, and not that, that means the cake’s gonna be great, but, uh, but wine, I really found to be that for the most part, what I’ve had to do is step away retain kind of an emotional clarity and usually almost invariably not do what you think you’re supposed to do.

Vincent Fritzsche: Like something’s wrong react. And I like to equate it to raising children. Uh, we, you know, we’re, I’m not a careless parent. The kids don’t play in the streets, but, uh, but they will play in the front lawn and some people like, oh no, I’d be too dangerous. Like, no, I don’t think that’s crazy. Um, and so what we’re trying to do with the wines is, is guide them to be what they are going to be to the best of their ability.

Vincent Fritzsche: But a lot of the intervention might end up hampering or tying their development and be more about our fears of what could possibly go wrong or, or, or, oh, I wanted to go to law school now, little, little, Billy’s gonna go in my place. sometimes we as winemakers sort of wanna fix our old wrongs by the new wine.

Vincent Fritzsche: And I’ve learned that stepping away, taking a deep breath, um, will often a lay the, that need to react and so much in my wine, making this about allowing the wine to be. And, uh, and I I’m honestly, I’m surprised that early me would’ve heard, did hear from people. Oh, you’re kind of a di that you’ll learn.

Vincent Fritzsche: Like you can’t approach it that way. Or you can maybe if you’re a home winemaker, but you can’t, if you’re a commercial winemaker with a real business, I’ve only learned that the, the bigger I go into this, the, the easier it is to let go, because, well, one, there’s a ton of ferments that you do even a small winery has a ton of different lots that they’re making each year.

Vincent Fritzsche: And so any one of ’em could possibly screw up and you won’t be out. Um, but the other side is that I I’ve, maybe once we no, a couple times that basically had to throw wine. Um, but I tell you, the batting average for success is way better than I, I would’ve expected. And I don’t know any winemaker and couldn’t look back in their career and say, oh yeah, the 2012 cam like, Hey, yeah, that was a, Hey, don’t talk about that.

Vincent Fritzsche: You know, so everybody’s got one or two. And so of course I really found it to be true that the beauty of wine is that it, it is a more forgiving medium. It’s, it’s, it’s not gonna have back, you know, bacterial growth. It hurts people. It’s either gonna be good or not. And for the most part I found, I, I want to do less and.

Vincent Fritzsche: and I’ve only learned that more and more over the years. Not like less. It’s not like you, I started idealistically and changed. I’ve adopted how , how true it is. Right, right. And onward we go.

A.J.: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you know, you’re talking about parenting and you know, your, your son Martin. So if I understand correctly, he’s going to college in, in Hawaii.

Vincent Fritzsche: Yes. He was a freshman or just finished, I guess we call him a summer grader now his second year and I have a daughter who just graduated. So yeah, college days right now. That is awesome.

A.J.: Oh yeah. Did Martin learn how to, to surf from you? Or did he like take that? Oh, you know, does he even have an interest in surfing or

Vincent Fritzsche: he totally does.

Vincent Fritzsche: Yeah, he totally does. And, uh, and he did, I, whether he learned from me, I literally one time was yelling at him and the surf, like paddle harder cause it made sense to me as the parent and I I’m being a self-deprecating winemaker at the same time, I basically was like yelling at the grapes, like firm match, you know and it’s like, you know, this isn’t.

Vincent Fritzsche: Those are gonna learned from me. So I may have turned him off to, to surfing at that point. But, um, uh, that is true. If you wanna get into a way, really get into it, but, but the point being, he, he has learned probably in spite of me to answer your question, uh, and a lot of surfing, I think of with a lot of things, uh, but surfing, especially, you just need to get out there and do it, uh, almost better if nobody’s watching, um, especially dad.

Vincent Fritzsche: And so I am Martin and I definitely like to surf when we’re together at a place where we can go surfing. And, uh, but part of my advice to him of college was, you know, to read the ocean, like an independent study, um, go to all your classes, but don’t skip surf class. Uh, and so get that ocean a few times a week.

Vincent Fritzsche: I like to say when you’re at sea level, um, and you are invariably at the ocean. There was one time I was in the Puget sound and you could see mountain Rainier. And I was literally on the, on the shores of the Anderson island and the Puget sound. And, and I thought, it’s not often you can be at sea level and see the hole of a mountain.

Vincent Fritzsche: Like you usually don’t see the hole of the mountain. So literally that also how, you know, I’m an English major. I like metaphor just these sort of images. Um, and I just thought, man, C level gives you a chance to see the hole of something. If you’re a sea level, you might have a better chance of like good clarity, good like perspectives, kind of a good baseline kind of place.

Vincent Fritzsche: Right. Um, and I, I was like, yeah, get, get to sea level, get that ocean. You will get schooled by it. Um, and, uh, and so he’s really taken lots of heart and, uh, and, and has been surfing quite a bunch. And so we went out recently and it was fun cuz I was out further. And he caught a wave and then was, was inside of me, but I could see him standing from behind the wave and it was just so cool seeing him just surf across the wave and just be like, that’s my God.

Vincent Fritzsche: so yeah, no it’s yeah. I feel like a proud dad for sure.

A.J.: Yeah. Yeah, no, I, oh, I have a 24 year old stepson, you know, he’s just doing some amazing stuff in his life and cool. Oh, You know, your, your heart does nothing, but just gleam with joy when you see that sort of stuff. Right?

Vincent Fritzsche: Absolutely. And it’s all the cliches I found with parenting are true or being an uncle or an aunt or, or whatever relationship any of us might have with, with younger people, if they aren’t quote our own.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, but that, uh, that they, you know, the growing change, they grow like weeds. They, the things that they’ll say, oh gosh, this five year, old’s got the wisdom of the world already. You really can, or, you know, your 24 year old stepson and you just see the things they do as this adult in the world. Uh, and it’s it’s yeah.

Vincent Fritzsche: All the cliche are true. It’s amazing. It’s, it’s incredible. And, uh, I never lacked for purpose, but definitely when the kids came along, it was like, well, if I ever thought I lacked for purpose, like now I know I definitely have purpose. Yeah. And that will never end, which is great. Even as they have their lives.

A.J.: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, it seemed like recently you just had a, another, you know, kind of Bondy moment of, uh, team flip flop out in, uh, out in Napa .

Vincent Fritzsche: That’s exactly right. So yeah, Martin, Martin and I were driving a sister’s car back from her college, uh, graduation. She’s blown off to Europe for some fun. And, uh, we had a, we had a little inside joke at the winery with actually the winery crew, cuz I, I have a facility that I lease with a friend he’s now my landlord, which is great.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, and then I have a few people who make wine and under me or under my bond and license. And so. But one was, uh, particularly interested in wearing flip flops. So we joked that we were team flip Flo. And so anytime I catch myself wearing flip flops in the wine setting, which usually in the vineyard, you don’t want be in flip flops.

Vincent Fritzsche: It’s certainly not in the winery. So it’s a tongue and cheek that team flip Flo usually means we should be putting on our socks and boots. But, uh, but it also on a sunny day in Napa, when we’re just checking to see flowery, it was fun. yeah. Yeah. But that’s how we do it. I mean, it’s, you know, you gotta have some fun and yeah, you,

A.J.: you definitely do.

A.J.: And it’s, it’s, it’s bonding and it’s bringing memories and all of that. Right. It’s, that’s something that you’ll never forget and he’ll never forget either.

Vincent Fritzsche: Exactly. No, that’s exactly right. And, and, and be it that, or yesterday we had a, a group in California customers, um, do new customers to me that, but connected to me by people.

Vincent Fritzsche: And so people I’ve never met, but they come to the winery, we taste. We talk, they learn about the wines. They have questions they’re at, you know, they love Oregon. This group comes every year, apparently. And, and, and you just have these bonding moments, whether they’re, you know, my son and me in the vineyard, or it’s brand new customers from out of state or, or somebody I’ve known my whole life, it, it just, you, in the context of our winery, the wine production, obviously tasting, enjoying the wines.

Vincent Fritzsche: We just that’s how we do it. And, uh, I, I think in businesses run that way where they, they they’re the same way to their customers as they are inside to the each other. Uh, so there’s not like a difference, you know, front a house, back a house or front, you know, out, out in the public or, you know, back in the back in the stock shelves.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, and it’s the most natural way kind of to, to live and work. And so we try and exude that without even trying. But I think we achieve that where it’s always serious work, but it’s, we’re always, yeah. We better be having some fun and, and making it or allowing for it to be memorable. Those kinds of connections are really are what it’s all about.

Vincent Fritzsche: But honestly, I, I, wouldn’t be surprised if, if not, no pressure Martin, but you know, what if 10 years from now, he’s like, you know, dad, I always want to join you in this business. And I’d say like, I wonder why like, well, cuz you never push. We’d have fun when we do it. Like, oh, well, yeah, wasn’t trying to do that.

Vincent Fritzsche: But maybe that’s also part of it. So it’s just, uh, my dad always had his advice was always, you know, leave doors open don’t don’t uh, you know, don’t, don’t cut things off. It’s never gonna be this. Or it has to be that he was always like give yourself options and in a way we work that way. So there’s always the option of somebody saying, this is great.

Vincent Fritzsche: I want more and uh, right. I’d like to think that’s how we make the wine. And I’d like to think the wine hopefully exceeds that too. So

A.J.: yeah, no it’s, uh, again, you know, just the, uh, Uh, you know, I’ve tasted with you, uh, a couple times and, you know, on, on the zoom. And, uh, I remember, um, just, you know, just some, some random things, uh, you know, when you, you know, joined the zoom, you know, it was, you know, during lockdown and everything and oh yeah.

A.J.: Everybody was like, oh wow, you let your hair grow out and everything . And, uh, you know, then I saw some earlier pictures of you. I’m like, no, that’s not Vincent. That’s not the Vincent that I

Vincent Fritzsche: know it’ll, I’ll be back. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, it wasn’t a, it wasn’t a COVID hairstyle. It was already, the joke was, uh, a few years ago I was saying, oh, I’m, I’m gonna get my haircut.

Vincent Fritzsche: And my, my wife and, and the kids, you know, probably closer to high school age at that time, they were like, what? It’s just getting good. And of course, mortally wounded, like, what do you mean? My hair looks terrible. And, but they, they were like, oh no, you look better with longer hair. You should let it grow.

Vincent Fritzsche: And so I let it grow and then COVID happened. And I think my wife was like, uhoh and I’m like, well, I’m not getting cut now. No, no. So at this point I figure, you know, I had long hair when I was younger. So this is definitely a midlife crisis second, but, uh, at some point it will come off. I, I literally had long hair until I got married.

Vincent Fritzsche: And I, I remember thinking this might be the one time we hire a photographer. I, I, my oldest brother, he’s a he’s. He is a great guy. Rock, rib, conservative, unlike me. . But when he was a teenager, he had long hair and his long hair photos have been up at my parents’ house since then. And I’m sure he’s like, I could have gotten a haircut, like, you know, my, my right.

Vincent Fritzsche: So I always like, if I’m gonna hire a photo photographer, it’s gonna be with a hair kind of more normal as I normally would have it. Well, these days I work for myself. We’ll see. But one of these days I’m gonna get tired of it. We’ll cut it off. And I’ll probably be the end of long hair. So I’ll be back. No, no, that would be so sad.

Vincent Fritzsche: Well, yeah, it’s, it’s fun. It is a funny thing. I, it is weird because actually it says, I, I, you know, my physical appearance rarely calls attention to me. People aren’t like, you. You know, there’s, I’m not wearing crazy clothes or trying to call attention, but when you have long hair, especially as a guy in his fifties, people just like, oh, Hey, look at you.

Vincent Fritzsche: Oh, Hey, Hey mountain mad hippie or whatever. So it is interesting that it, it draws attention in a way that I don’t usually like engender. Um, but you know, yeah, it’s

A.J.: fine. It, it, it, it is fun. And I was, uh, out at Diane vineyards earlier this year. Oh, great. And. You know, Beth was talking to me and he was like, you know, do you know Vincent?

A.J.: I’m like, yeah, yeah, I know Vincent. And she was like, yeah, one day, you know, uh, we saw, you know, some random hippie out there in the middle of the vineyard, just walking. And they were like, who is that? And, uh, then they’re

Vincent Fritzsche: like, oh wait, that’s Vincent. Yeah. Right. I was literally there yesterday, uh, talking to Beth, I get outta my car and I almost still feel like I have to say, Hey, it’s me.

Vincent Fritzsche: Like people don’t don’t necessarily, but now they recognize me with longer hair. So it’s funny. So no, I worked with, to for years with a great old site. And, uh, I worked with Chardonnay and Pinot GRE there and, uh, definitely out looking, uh, we had the frost issue LA or I guess now it’s April and, uh, two months ago.

Vincent Fritzsche: Right. Uh, and, and definitely some frost. Uh, at ion, um, but not as bad as I feared at all. And in fact, the, you know, I saw death and she’s like, oh, frost. And I’m like, heck, you know, I was thinking it was a total loss and this is not that at all. So we should be looking pretty good, but there’s definitely 20, 30% loss.

Vincent Fritzsche: We’re, we’re figuring hard to know until, until the food sets next month. But, uh, once we get there, we’ll have a better idea. But, uh, one, one thing after another lately with the, with mother nature, I’ll tell you the crosses a tough one. It, it has

A.J.: been interesting to see the cross, uh, I’ve seen, you know, some vineyards where, you know, sections of the vineyard are totally fine.

A.J.: Why other sections, you can just see there was, there was like zero growth and it’s like,

Vincent Fritzsche: wow. Yeah. And, and even now you’ll see it, it’s growing, but it’s all second shoots and they just don’t produce the same. And, and, uh, but they’ll grow. For next year, cuz uh, it’s important. We have the growth, but I, it really, uh, it was alarming how widespread it was.

Vincent Fritzsche: It’s very unusual for us and uh, and it’s while it’s not something I, I would expect every year. I, I certainly don’t wanna say, oh, it probably won’t happen for another 40 years. Uh, who knows what these, he thinks could happen twice in three years and then not in for 40 years. So who knows, but uh, but quite an unusual one and I hope, I hope the last we see of that, but of course, you know, fire smoke, there’s all kinds of maladies that can happen.

Vincent Fritzsche: We just seem to be getting them all lately. Um, yeah. Yeah. And, uh, so it’s not, you know, you gotta sand your toes. Yeah. Most, most definitely.

A.J.: Yeah. So you decided to kind of dive into Napa a little bit and

Vincent Fritzsche: start a project out there. So it’s yeah. And it goes back. I appreciate you bringing up the earliest. My early, my earliest wine epiphany was tagging along with my parents to Napa wineries.

Vincent Fritzsche: I’m from California. I’m proud of that. And not, not, I, it sounds funny to say that now, but there was a time when it seemed like, you know, California’s like, ah, Californians, but, uh, but I, you know, it’s a, it’s obviously a fantastic state with such a rich history of wine. Um, for all these years though, I’m the Oregon guy.

Vincent Fritzsche: I’ll go back to my native Southern California and they’ll be like, oh, it’s the Oregon guy. And I’m like, no, I, I grew up near Santa Monica, like I’m from around here. but I’m the Oregon guy. And I love that cuz I literally represe. this place, the Willamette valley, the volcanic soils, the Marine sedimentary soils, this vineyard, that hillside, um, and then the fruit that we grow and how we make the wine.

Vincent Fritzsche: And, and, and so it’s all embodied in this Oregon experience and I’m so proud of that and, and that is not changing. However, um, I’ve always felt, and my family’s heard about this, uh, like a parallel life that, uh, it’s as if there’s a parallel life for me, that where I never left California, perhaps even never left coastal California, where I grew up surfing and just kind of such a different life.

Vincent Fritzsche: And yet it’s, you know, I imagine I’d be a, a grownup, like I am, I would have a job like I’ve had, but I might have gone surfing more after or before work. Uh, unlike living in the valley here where it just, you just, I just don’t do that. Um, right. And, uh, and so I’ve always wondered, like, huh, what if I, a parallel life I could write this, you know, Fake biography, autobiography of my life.

Vincent Fritzsche: If I had never left, you know, California coast, well, that person might have actually left the California coast and ended up making wine in Napa. And so I kind of have this idea had this inspiration a few years ago, during COVID lockdown, I ended up tasting some Napa wines from Steve Methin of Methin wines.

Vincent Fritzsche: Definitely a well known name among the kind of COE of, of Napa wines these days. But, but certainly not, not of the level of Robert Mondavi or some common household name, but Steve Methin has been growing and, and makes just fantastic wines, not just of Cabernet Sok, but certainly Cabernet Ammar load of base ones.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, and, and I just really had kind of a wine newcomer epiphany, you know, we had a bottle of wine with dinner of Cabernet and it reminded me of meeting somebody like the grandchild of somebody who you’d known. I guess this might, we have to be an older person to have this example, but essentially I felt like I tasting Methia Cabernets and then a few others from say, Kathy chorus.

Vincent Fritzsche: And among others, I felt like I was tasting a hundred percent contemporary, modern wines. These are not like karaoke or trying to be a Renaissance fair of a wine, like a throwback, but they, but they were, they had the same jaw line of, of, of great grandmother, you know, such and such in the family lineage.

Vincent Fritzsche: And so I could tell in these modern ones, the lineage of the past, that. I’m really interested in, um, and, and interested in maybe working in that, in that heritage and, and making wines that, that speak of a Napa history that I, that I know that I was inspired by, and rather than trying to sort of undo history and go back to that, or, or, or, or sailed all this terrible wine in Napa these days, cuz it’s been fashionable to, to say, oh, Napa is terrible.

Vincent Fritzsche: It was high, high price. And it’s all ego and there’s fantastic wines being made there, but there are a lot of wines that I would describe as kind of like overcooking the steak a little, like I wish it’s all good, but if they could just pull it off the grill a few minutes earlier and crafted in this case, the farming.

Vincent Fritzsche: So if you’re farming to pick a little earlier, you’re picking a little earlier to preserve and get a little more of an Aveta or kind of a rare quality in the grapes rather than that sort of well done heavy. Kind of quality. Um, if you’re farming with that intention and then picking that intention, then you can maybe perhaps make wines that speak.

Vincent Fritzsche: Uh, more of the tradition. I, I just got really fired after the past couple years without saying, you know, I really wanna explore that thread and that says nothing to change the Oregon work I do. And it’s certainly, uh, not, not, not, not, not abandoning, uh, Oregon for California or vice versa, but what we’re gonna do is work with fruit from Napa, bring it to the Oregon winery and make the wine here.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, starting this year 2022. And while I’m only working with one vineyard, uh, now ideally we’ll work with a few. I think a classic Napa Cabernet is a blended one and it’s such an interesting connection to, I have the Oregon, my Oregon winery in my Oregon life and is really focused on. On place, you know, this vineyard that vineyard, the soil type, that aspect and I’m, and, and Cabernet certainly responds to those things as well.

Vincent Fritzsche: But my vision for the Cabernet project, the Napa project is to, is to make a singular Napa valley Cabernet ion from a few sites that would be reflective more of the valleys terwar rather than one specific location or one specific, you know, kind of clone of, of Cabernet or what, whatever it may be. Um, and so it’s truly a yin yang kind of connection or, or deviation from that single vineyard focus of Pinot noir and Chardonnay that I do here in Oregon to a little bit more of a, of a Napa broader kind of focused Cabernet.

Vincent Fritzsche: So we’ll see what we get it’s it’s it’s to me, incredibly exciting, and also kind of culmination of even that, that five year old kid who just got a whiff of the barrel seller thought. I want more of that. Well, it took almost 50 years, but we’re gonna get more and I’m really excited.

A.J.: Yeah, no, that, that is really exciting that you’ll get fruit this year.

A.J.: And like in so 20, 24, 20, 25 will actually actually, you know, get to

Vincent Fritzsche: see that that’s right. Yeah. So with, with my, with my Oregon wines, everything is barrel aged for a year to about a year and a half, depending on the wine, depending on sort of the selection. Uh, I like to say that the wines that, that, that my Pinot noirs, for example, that Asian barrel for a year and a half, they do so.

Vincent Fritzsche: Because they kind of deserve it. They need it. Um, it’s, it’s sort of like something that will benefit from that extra time in barrel. Well, when I’m making Cabernet, it’s a, it’s, it’s just a grape with more, with more tannin, more color, more essentially to work out in, in the Aleva and that barrel time. And so it’s no, no, uh, accident that the tradition is, you know, a year and a half to two years in barrel, or even more depending on you know exactly how you do it.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, so making the Cabernet, it’s certainly not something that will be ready by next spring. So, no, you’re right. I am, we’ll make it this year. I would expect to barrel age at at least a year and a half to a couple years. Bottle it by then we’ll have made 23, maybe even be making 20, 24 wine. And so before we even have anything to show the public, we’ll have a few vintages, uh, together.

Vincent Fritzsche: And, uh, and again, it’s just, it’s really exciting for admittedly what is now still an idea? I mean, it’s happening, but we, we brought the food in, it was great though, to be in the vines last, last week in Napa and, and see actually the fruit set and, and really see these tiny pee berries on the vine. But recognize like, this is it.

Vincent Fritzsche: This is, you know, like picture the baby from the ultrasound. You’re like, oh my goodness. Yes. We’re it’s that? No.

A.J.: And that yeah, it it’s. Yeah, no, it’s exciting. When you get to, you know, dive into new projects and explore and kind of push yourself outside, you know, what you’ve been doing for so long? That’s right.

A.J.: Yeah. I’ll say that. I’m I’m very much looking forward to, you know, your expression of, of a cab and to see where it comes about. Um, you know, I, I have a couple bottles of Tony so’s last cab that he made, which was a, an oh seven. Yeah. And just, you know, it’s tho those are precious little memories and to hold onto those.

A.J.: And, uh, yeah, I, I I’ll just say I can’t

Vincent Fritzsche: wait. Mentioning Tony is a great one, cuz there’s, you know, there’s these connections in the past of, uh, of California winemakers or people who’ve made wine in California who come in that case back to Oregon. Uh, but who made Cabernet in Napa and Cabernet base wines, which are more broadly speaking of Tony’s Tony’s experience, but then also to be making Oregon Pinot noir and to be so revered for Oregon Pinot noir.

Vincent Fritzsche: I’m certainly going the opposite direction. You know, the old story of, of the pioneers here in the sixties and seventies was, it was mostly Californians who come here against better advice. Oh, go to Oregon. You can’t get fruit. Right. Well, that turned to be wrong, but right, you have this, the story of Oregon wise, often these Californians who came here and here I am, California, who came in years later.

Vincent Fritzsche: But I do think it is sort of novel and, and maybe turn about being fair play as the British, like to say, to have the Oregon producer now go to California, usually would seem to go the other way. And, uh, and I’m like, no, no, no, we’re gonna, you know, mercury and retrograde or something where we’re, we’re going to Napa and of all the places I’ll, I’ll tell you, uh, one of the, this wasn’t a reason for the inspiration, but it was more.

Vincent Fritzsche: When I was thinking about how crazy is this idea to do a Napa project? I, I, I got kind of some ballast or boost from thinking, honestly, you’ll hear a lot of newer, certainly younger winemakers in California and say, oh, I’m making, you know, Chasta Las from the Sierra foothills or, or just some, some less common grade from a less, you know, famous growing region.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, and, and, and the idea being like, cuz well, Napa, you know, it’s so expensive and it’s a Cabernet dominant. Like if we’re gonna do fun stuff, we, we can’t do it there. And I was like, wait a minute, we’re gonna, we’re gonna make serious wine here, but we’re gonna do it the way we make wine, which is a very simple, it’s not about the technique.

Vincent Fritzsche: It’s not about heavy ripeness or heavy use of new wood. Um, it’s a very gentler, lighter approach, but not light in that. You know, you don’t need to make a Tenderloin tender, it comes tender. And so, uh, I don’t need to make a wine heavy. It can have Hef and intensity and all this, but what we’re not gonna do is kind of overdo it.

Vincent Fritzsche: Right? And so I wanna approach really frankly, fancy rarefied fruit, Napa Cabernet, but really approach it as you would, some less, you know, more VE from the Sierra foothills where we’re going to, you know, just sort of make it in a much more free way. I, I really want to bring that kind of freedom to the wine making, to even the fanciest, most expensive fruit.

Vincent Fritzsche: And really I should have money, you know, kind of put your money where your mouth is. If, if. If that’s really the right way to produce wine, I think it is. And if the better the fruit, the less you have to do to it, well, we’re gonna, we’re gonna make Napa wine that way. And I, I do think at the other end of it, you’re gonna hopefully get a wine of exceptional purity.

Vincent Fritzsche: Um, and, uh, and, and, and ultimately deliciousness. Um, yeah, I never want overlook that, but that it, it will truly be, wow, this one it’s both rich and yet not heavy. I, I want kind of thread that needle. Um, so that it’s, it’s a real Cabernet and it’s a Napa cow. Right. And yet it’s not like, you know, it’s chocolate ice cream, but it’s not like tripled chocolate palette destroyer, you know, it’s no, no, which just want good chocolate, you know, like, right, right.

Vincent Fritzsche: That’s

A.J.: powerful. You know, so yeah. It’s yeah. It’s not the

Vincent Fritzsche: just don’t let it don’t leave well enough alone. So that’s my goal with this is, is really let it shine.

A.J.: Yeah. No, that, that will be great. Yeah. Oh, we’ll see. How about we’ve wrap kind of wrap things into some rapid fire questions. You bet, uh, during harvest, who is your favorite, favorite artist to listen to?

Vincent Fritzsche: true stories. Jerry Garcia band yeah. If we could put on little cats under the stars that that will, that will, but the evening work and the winery is gonna go much better if, if we’re putting that on. So

A.J.: very nice. Um, what is your favorite indulgent food?

Vincent Fritzsche: Favorite indulgent food. Goodness gracious. I would say Dungeness crab.

Vincent Fritzsche: Oh, yeah. Okay. I mean, I don’t know how maybe that’s indulgent, but you know, or scout like that, that like rich seafood, that thing you’re gonna eat a lot of it. You’re gonna probably drink good wine with it. Probably some butter and fall. So there you go. Yeah.

A.J.: Yeah. And you’d be like, oh, I hate too much afterwards.

Vincent Fritzsche: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. How am I gonna do this again tomorrow? I better, I better say that. No, I could not. The pinchy

A.J.: oh, your harvest notes. Are they digital

Vincent Fritzsche: or handwritten? Everything’s digital into the phone? I honestly true story. I, I am a, I’m a mostly left-handed person, but I think people put the pen in my right hand cuz I was educated by nuns growing up and they literally would give me C minuses for my handwriting.

Vincent Fritzsche: And I used to joke like that was charitable cuz my handwriting was terrible. I’m convinced I should have written with my left hand. My right hand was never that great. Over time. They taught me how to type in high school. They’re like, now you, and now we we’ve taught you to type. Now we expect all the papers typed.

Vincent Fritzsche: I’m like, oh, okay, great. But it, it saved me because I’m a typer, I’m a notetaker digitally. And then I have access to it everywhere. So people in the winery think I’m crazy. We have a bunch of younger people who I look at them and think, oh, they’re all digital generation people. And they have like fancy composition notebooks.

Vincent Fritzsche: And I’m just into the phone, right? No, I think that’s the best thing to do it. I think, I mean, I in 2017, my harvest guy was like, we have to use a book. I’m like, okay, we’ll use a book. And I was like, no, that just didn’t work. So wow. I’m anion guy, love books, look print. I’m all digital, right?

A.J.: it’s so I’m just, I’m just outta curiosity.

A.J.: What do you use on your phone to, to like record all, all your

Vincent Fritzsche: notes, apple notes. I just type in the notes. Just in the notes. Yeah. Alright. But it’s searchable or just findable as I like to say, right. Stuff is just findable and, uh, yeah. Yeah.

A.J.: If you could choose a superpower, what would

Vincent Fritzsche: it be superpower? Um, without getting into the, you know, ripping the space time fabric apart, but time travel.

Vincent Fritzsche: Definitely. If that’s the superpower, it should be, it should be definitely, should be. It should be, uh, otherwise. How about x-ray vision. So I could identify all the Morel mushrooms and S mushrooms. So you could just look at the forest and it would just glow wherever you should go. That would ruin it though.

Vincent Fritzsche: Cause we love to look for these things, but dang it. Sometimes you’re like, I know they’re out here. What if we could just, where

Vincent Fritzsche: are they? exactly. Exactly. So that’s my superpower mushroom finding ability.

A.J.: That would be awesome. Uh, your favorite

Vincent Fritzsche: superhero, favorite superhero? Um, ah, totally, totally pandering, but wonder woman. I’m sorry. Wonder woman. She was always awesome. She obviously looked good, but she was like, she was absolutely, you know, fantastic.

Vincent Fritzsche: Uh, but then I, my woman, I met my wife. She, she had a photo of herself dressed up this wonder woman. I was like, okay, you’re the one you’re done. We’re good. That

A.J.: sounds terrible. But, uh, I wonder, no, no, you know, no, it’s not, no, not bad at all. She, the transparent

Vincent Fritzsche: jet, I mean, she had, she had the bracelets and the

A.J.: lasso and

Vincent Fritzsche: the last yeah.

Vincent Fritzsche: And I mean, it’s just, everything worked too. And she just, she, she, she could, yeah. Yeah. Everything just to complain about.

A.J.: Exactly. And then the final, rapid fire is, uh, the last book that you read.

Vincent Fritzsche: The last book that I read is streets of Laredo by Larry McMurry, part of the lonesome dove. Nice quad GY. I don’t, you know, I’m, I’m working through those books.

Vincent Fritzsche: They’re actually, uh, not actually, but they’re fantastic. I’d always heard that MC RYS a great writer, but you know, I, I, I don’t know. Uh, perhaps when I was younger, uh, lonesome dove came out as like a miniseries on TV at a time when I didn’t have a TV or it just was like, in that probably I was 20 or 25, or I was like, ah, see a television it’s much garbage.

Vincent Fritzsche: And, uh, and I just always equated it. I was like lone and dove, like the worst wine name, like, oh, whispering, dove or lonesome meadow, or, you know, it just seemed horrible. And then it took me some years to realize it’s, it’s actually one of the, one of the great of. 20th century American writing. And, uh, wow.

Vincent Fritzsche: So I judged a book by its name, if not it’s cover and the fact that it was some Tory sort of miniseries there for a while, but, uh, but it’s really good. So, uh, yeah, streets I’ll,

A.J.: I’ll have to check that

Vincent Fritzsche: out. Yeah. Highly recommend. In fact, I, one of my winery mates team flip flop made Jessica Wiles of, of, uh, sunshine effect wines and, and other labels.

Vincent Fritzsche: Uh, she told me I have to read Coman moon, which I think is the last one and the whole series and I was gonna read it, but I realized I have to read the other ones to get up to it. So I got a book recommendation from team flip flop to read McMurtry, and that’s what we’re doing so nice. it all ties that that is

A.J.: together.

A.J.: Everything ties together. It’s just, it’s, it’s uh, phenomenal health, you know, it, it all does tie together. Absolutely. . Yeah. Yeah. Well, is there anything, you know, that you, that you, uh, would like to mention that I maybe left out or anything or

Vincent Fritzsche: nothing that I can think of other than saying, I one, it’s a pleasure being on your podcast.

Vincent Fritzsche: Uh, but, uh, I thank you. I did meet you through your tasting group. Uh, and I remember, you know, AJ’s happy hour and, and I sort of logged on originally, but that was yeah, a couple years ago. man, there were like 30 people there, like , you’ve got a crowd and they were just locals, you know? So, uh, so it’s, it was really, you you’re quite a connector in the wine world, uh, organically.

Vincent Fritzsche: And now through the pod, uh, this is, uh, I just think it’s great. And I mean, this sincerely, uh, I was listening and I think I even mentioned, oh, Hey, I heard you on another pod or whatnot. You’re like, right. Well, we should have you on this. And I’m like, well, that’d be awesome. But yeah. Uh, I’m, I, I, I admire what you do and I’m, uh, glad to be a part of it.

Vincent Fritzsche: So today, well,

A.J.: I, I really appreciate, you know, having you on and you, you taking the time and, uh, oh, you know, So, let me see your mailing list is@vincentwines.com. Vincent

Vincent Fritzsche: wine company.com. Okay. Is our specific URL. And, uh, there are a lot of Vincents in the wine world, so, but there’s no other Vincent wine company, but Vincent being the patrons state of winemakers, that’s a common name in the world of.

Vincent Fritzsche: So, but yeah, you can sign up for my mailing list, Vincent wine company.com and it, it doesn’t, it functions like a club that you don’t have to buy anything, but essentially you get on the list. We, we write our newsletters throughout the year, but make special offers on, on, you know, pre-release pricing on upcoming wines.

Vincent Fritzsche: So people on the list get the first shot at it. They get the best pricing. Um, maybe the only shot in the case of some that sell quick or just aren’t there isn’t much of. And so for me, it’s how I like to buy. I love being on people’s lists. I love not having to buy. But I love getting something and then they’re like, man, that’s cool.

Vincent Fritzsche: I need that. And then I buy, right. And I find that people interact with me much the same way. And so you can be on the list and never purchase and you might learn stuff. You might see fun photos who knows. And that’s great, like no problem. And, uh, yeah. And, uh, but if you wanna be a customer we’re ready.

A.J.: yeah, no. And you know, I think, uh, a bigger thing to even point out is, you know, you’re the pricing of your wine is crazy affordable, you know, very approachable and, you know, the, the quality is like topnotch in there as well. So, I mean,

Vincent Fritzsche: thank you. Yeah. I feel inspired by the classic wines of the world. Not just the Avantgarde kind of natural wine or, or whatnot.

Vincent Fritzsche: I really feel like our work fits into the world of wine past and present. And ideally for. . Um, but yeah, it’s just, uh, I feel like, you know, the wines have really found an audience and, and, and I’m ultimately surprised if I was a singer, I would say, I love to sing, but I wouldn’t necessarily expect anyone to like the, the music, you know?

Vincent Fritzsche: Right. And so here I’m making wine and that, you know, I, I can only hope people tolerate it. Right. It seems to be going right. And, and I feel so lucky because I really wanted to make wine. And I, and I was really hoping people be into it, but I, you know, you can’t make that be. And so I, I feel so fortunate that people are interested that hardly day passes where somebody isn’t like, Hey, put me on your list.

Vincent Fritzsche: Or I want to talk on the pod, or I want to know more about what you do. That’s the most flattering. Amazing thing. And so, uh, I’m here for it. yeah,

A.J.: no, I, yeah, no, keep up the great work and, you know, thanks. Wait to see what happens for you in, in the

Vincent Fritzsche: future. Uh, you bet, you bet. I appreciate it. Yeah, no, thank you so much.

Vincent Fritzsche: All right.