Fritz Stuhlmuller talks about grape growing, winemaking and family
Following a successful career in commercial real estate and inspired by his early experience working in his family’s vineyard, Fritz decided to establish an estate winery bearing the Stuhlmuller name. In addition to his active role in the vineyards and winery, Fritz oversees all sales and marketing, including the managing and distribution of 12,000 cases throughout California and 20 other states.
What do you remember most about spending vacations and summers at your family’s vineyard property when you were a teen? How does this support your work today?
I was about 10 in 1982, when my parents, Roger and Carmen, purchased our 350-acre property in the Alexander Valley. It was an awesome place to grow up. I’d race around on my four-wheeler, go to the river and float down it in an inner tube, hike the hillsides, wander around the vineyard and drive the tractor. What I realize now, is that because I grew up there, I know every inch of our vineyard. That’s a huge benefit—it takes years to really know a vineyard. I also remember the barbecues and family gatherings, and the way wine was an important part of those celebrations. That was a huge influence as well.
When your family celebrated its 30th anniversary being on the land last year, to what did you all ‘raise a glass’?
We never had a big public celebration, or party, to mark our 30th anniversary, but we acknowledged it as a family. I think my father is proud that I’ve joined him in his love for the vineyard. And I look at my twin boy and girl, and my daughter, who just turned three, and I watch them play in the vineyard, and I realize that when it comes to wine, 30 years can be just the start. I’d raise a glass to that.
How has your family’s ‘boots on the ground’ grape growing experience enhanced your production of fine wines?
We don’t know any other way. Aside from some amazing old Chardonnay vines, we’ve replanted almost our entire vineyard over the past three decades, and we’ve also added an additional 40 acres or so. This is our home. We know every inch and every vine. This kind of experience makes a huge difference in quality. Even our winemaker Leo Hansen has been with us for almost a dozen years now, so he knows our vineyard just as well, and he’s like family.
Take a moment and brag about your winemaker, Leo Hansen.
It’s easy to brag about Leo. I think he’s one of California’s most exciting winemakers, and he has one of the best palates I’ve ever known. Leo was born and raised in Denmark as the son of a chef and hotelier, and started out as a European-trained sommelier. This background really informs Leo’s style—there is an elegance, purity and sense of place to all of Leo’s wines, even when they are rich and bodied. He’s a perfectionist. I’ve actually seen other winemakers laugh at the attention to detail Leo puts into his winemaking. He’s also incredibly strong willed. He has clear ideas about what’s right and wrong for our wines, and if he doesn’t like my opinion, he sure doesn’t mind telling me.
What wines do you recommend for the holidays and why?
When it comes to the holidays, I believe in breaking out the reserve wines. While our 2009 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and 2011 Reserve Chardonnay are rich, lush and expressive, they both have the structure and acidity to be great food wines. That’s not always the case with many wineries’ reserve offerings, but that kind of poise is something you see in all of our wines.
You said the 2010 and 2011 growing seasons had as many twists as a Quentin Tarantino movie, and that 2012 was a classic. If you were making a movie about this year’s season and harvest, what would you call it?
Like 2012, I think 2013 is going to be another fantastic vintage. Let’s call it “American Beauty.”
Who inspires you and why?
It might sound like a cliché, but I’m inspired by my father—his dedication to life, his belief in hard work and the fact that he is completely a self-made man, who has made his own choices all throughout his life. He grew up on a small farm in Pennsylvania and was a top college basketball player who was drafted by the pros, but he decided to go into business instead. Early on in his career, in the late-1960s, he worked for an ad agency representing Inglenook, which is when he got his first taste of wine country. It stayed with him, and he always had the goal of having his own vineyard. He made that happen, and that led me to finding my own path with the founding of Stuhlmuller Vineyards.
