Lovely translucent burgundy color; cherry, spice nose; cranberry, black cherry, sour cherry, plum, spice, green tea, menthol, refined oak on the palate;
tame tannin and balanced acidity (3.69 pH). Sour cherry predominates, especially on the finish. This is command-your-palate’s-attention wine. If you like the challenges of a sour, precise wine you will enjoy this bottle; if you are more into etherial fruit and gossamer flights pinot noir can achieve, then not so much. This reflects the Santa Cruz terroir.
Thomas Fogarty is a pioneer in the Santa Cruz mountains south of San Francisco and San Jose. Dr. Thomas Fogarty came to the area in 1969 to practice medicine at Stanford Hospital and develop medical devices, but he fell in love with the rugged terrain surrounding his new home. By 1977, he had purchased more than 300 acres and needed to do something agriculturally with it. He settled on grapes. Fellow Stanford physicians urged him to plant pinot noir and chardonnay. As the experiment went forward he teamed with Michael Martella, a fourth-generation grape grower. Martella became the vineyard-winery’s first employee in 1979, and for the next three decades the team developed the operation into a signature Santa Cruz maker.
Dr. Fogarty’s son, Tom Jr., runs things today. He snagged a degree from the wine marketing program at Sonoma State, but he also has worked in the brand development automotive sector for the likes of Ferrari, Bentley, Masserati, and Lamborghini. Nathan Kandler joined the team in 2003 after earning a enology degree from Fresno State; he has been the winemaker since 2012, the year this bottle was born. Distinctive, more interesting and intriguingly challenging than delicious, this is best suited for mature, sophisticated palates. $31-36
Thomas Fogarty website
Second photo: Fogarty vineyards
