Napa earthquake unleashed new water source on property
Nestled into a hillside, Fritz Winery is harnessing the idyllic beauty of Dry Creek Valley to lure new visitors to its underground tasting room on Dutcher Creek Road.
Situated in northern Dry Creek Valley, along an undulating stretch of Dutcher Creek Road, the Fritz estate is 120 acres of hills and forest, with 16 acres planted to grapes.
Tasting room and marketing manager Katie Ambrosi started working at Fritz in August of 2014 and said she was awed by the natural beauty of the estate, but puzzled at why it wasn’t being shown to customers.
“We have this amazing estate, with such a variety of natural beauty, from vineyards to orchards, lakes, redwoods and even our own spring,” she said. “I just had to take advantage of it.”
Ambrosi created what many wineries have done in the area, going beyond the typical wine tasting experience and bringing customers from the bar to the vines, with the Fritz vineyard hike.
The low intensity hike takes about 45 minutes, with the seated tasting that follows rounding the experience out to about an hour and a half, Ambrosi said.
The estate is rich in water, she said, with a natural spring providing much of the winery’s irrigation requirements.
This wealth of water seemed to double on August 24, 2014, when the magnitude 6.0 earthquake in Napa caused a second spring to burst forth, temporarily flooding Fritz’s pumpkin patch.
At the source of the spring, redwoods soar upwards while the temperature drops several degrees, providing a respite from the heat often present in northern Dry Creek Valley during the summer months.
“People like to just stand here and listen to the water,” Ambrosi said, her voice hushed.
The path for the hike also skirts the edge of several vineyards and Fritz’s organic garden.
Fritz Winery is family-owned, since the late founder Arthur J. Fritz Jr., a businessman from San Francisco, bought the land and established the winery in 1979.
That year saw the U.S. impacted in the second energy crisis of that decade, with oil prices up and long lines forming at gas stations, and so Fritz’s winery plans incorporated an almost austere approach to energy use and consumption.
The recently renovated tasting room is underground, giving it the appearance of a hobbit hole. The winery goes deeper still into the hillside than the tasting room and maintains a wine-friendly chilly temperature as a result.
The facility’s crushpad, where fruit is received and processed, is higher up the hillside from the winery, Ambrosi said, to utilize gravity and reduce the amount of pumping to take the juice to the barrels, a design decision that was intended to both be energy-conscious as well as limiting the amount of stress put on the wine.
Best known for its zinfandel and sauvignon blanc, Fritz’s estate wines are typically characterized by acid, according to winemaker, Brad Longton.
“It’s very acid-driven and fruit-forward, but also very balanced,” Longton said. “I try to let the vineyard show through in the wines, rather than try to force some other character that the land isn’t presenting.”
Fritz wines can also be found in Windsor at the Windsor Tasting Lounge, alongside partners Valpredo Wine Company, Lost Canyon Winery, Jenner Vineyards and a line of Italian imports.
Like many small wineries in the area, Fritz is primarily a direct-to-consumer business, with visitors to its tasting room and shipments going out to wine club members driving most of the revenue. This can be a challenge for Fritz, located off the strip of wineries along Dry Creek Road, Ambrosi said.
“Some people think it’s strange that we have a Cloverdale address, when places like Sbragia, that are so close by, have Healdsburg addresses,” she said.
On Saturday June 13, Fritz celebrated its tasting room’s grand re-opening with a party celebrating the new remodel. For information about events or experiences at Fritz email Tasting Room & Marketing Manager, Katie Ambrosi at
ka***@fr*********.com
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