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www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER SEPTEMBER 2015 19 "Lesser-known varieties are like having a third pitch in a baseball pitcher's lineup," said Miller, and added that they allocate one position on their tasting room lists to a lesser-known variety. "We can sell about 1,000 cases that way, so I make around 250 cases of different varietals wines from cultivars like Dolcetto, Barbera, Tempranillo, and such, and rotate the wines on our tasting room list." He noted that they match the varietal being tasted with the weekend. For example, they may list Pinot Noir for Spring Barrel tasting weekend because of its softer approach, yet choose a bold varietal for a wine club weekend with more serious wine drinkers. Some wines may be offered for tasting only at the wine club level and never listed for general tasting. "We'll use it for a club release party and include it in a wine club shipment and then have it disappear," he said. Miller explained that with his fruit-forward wine style, he sells his lesser-known wines, which are ready to drink, for profitable price points—$25 to $32 per 750ml bottle. For his accent wines, he uses nearly 100 percent varietal with minimal other blends and neutral oak barrels, and he ages the wines for 10 months in oak. By making small amounts, club members can learn about lesser-known varieties. Big scale For growers and wineries wanting to take less- er-known varieties to a bigger scale, Miller pointed to the success of Abacela, a southern Oregon winery that specializes in growing and making Tempranillo and Albariño wines. "I failed miserably at selling our lesser-known vari- etals in a wider distribution than our tasting rooms," he said. But Earl Jones, owner of Abacela, has successfully marketed Spanish varietals since 1995 and annually pro- duces about 2,200 cases of Tempranillo and 1,500 cases of Albariño. Passion is needed to take lesser-known varietals to a scale like Abacela, says Miller. "And, you need to know what the wines taste like on a global scale." Abacela's Jones regularly visits Spain and benchmarks his wines against the best Spanish wines, according to Miller. "If a winery wants you to plant 50 acres of something like Tempranillo or Cabernet Franc—if they are that ambitious to take it to a national scale—then they'd bet- ter have the passion of Earl Jones," he said, and warned against such a large-scale planting for an unproven win- ery. "If you lose that winery and market, there are few other customers for that kind of quantity of lesser-known varieties." Miller believes that lesser-known varieties have a place as accent wines in small production lots of 50 to 500 cases and for blending purposes. "We can't sell more than 1,000 cases of lesser-known varieties with the exposure that we give them," he said. "But varieties like Mourvèdre, Grenache, Malbec, and Petit Verdot can be great blenders." • Marcus Miller, co-owner and winemaker of Airfield Estates winery, uses wines of lesser-known varieties to spice up wine club shipments and add uniqueness to the lineup of wines offered for sampling in the winery's tasting rooms. Call us FIRST for the largest selection of trees and rootstocks available Future contracts for cherries, pears, & apples; ALL ROOTSTOCKS. NEW APPLE rootstock! 1-800-421-4001 Phone: 503-538-2131 Fax: 503-538-7616 E-mail: info@treeconnect.com Web: www.treeconnect.com INC. Representing Over 30 Leading Nurseries in the U.S. and Europe From the breeders of Bud 9: • Vigor between M-9 T337 and M-9 Pajam®2 • Yield efficiency similar to M-9 T337 • Dwarfing • Cold hardy • Disease resistant • Fireblight tolerant B10 ® cv. Mich 96 USPP 21,223 Services are FREE TO GROWERS!