Stephen muses that if it weren’t for sneak­ing a few bot­tles from his mother’s wine col­lec­tion at an early age, he may never have devel­oped a taste for wine. (The team at Fid­dle­head is glad for this early indis­cre­tion!)

Stephen amuses us every day with his dry sense of humor, his extremely diverse love of music and his cool, calm and col­lected demeanor. Just when Kathy thinks things are wrapped up, he has a knack of putting for­ward a most pro­vok­ing ques­tion. Never miss­ing a beat – he is thor­ough, inter­ested in the chal­lenge, and is always will­ing to go the extra mile.

A life­long res­i­dent of Lom­poc, Stephen barely migrated out of the area as he attended the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Santa Bar­bara. While there, he expanded his oeno­log­i­cal pur­suits by work­ing in a local wine shop… there he expanded his appre­ci­a­tion for the diver­sity of wine and wine regions (beyond his mother’s cel­lar) and devel­oped an under­stand­ing of the wine busi­ness, espe­cially with relat­ing to con­sumers. This expe­ri­ence makes it very easy for Stephen to jump in and address tech­ni­cal ques­tions with vis­i­tors, share har­vest sto­ries with a tast­ing room tour, and run the cash reg­is­ter flaw­lessly (unlike Kathy!). And as his for­mer employer still stocks Fid­dle­head, we’re pretty sure they’ve for­given us for steal­ing him away.

Join­ing the Fid­dle­head team in 2008, Stephen has worked his way up through the ranks, start­ing out as lead grape sorter for har­vest; then onto a per­ma­nent posi­tion as cel­lar rat. Now as the exalted Assis­tant Wine­maker, he works closely with Kathy on even the most crit­i­cal wine­mak­ing deci­sions.

Stephen main­tains an active lifestyle, includ­ing com­pet­i­tive league bas­ket­ball, run­ning and bik­ing (even after a gru­el­ing day of work!). These days he often runs on the glo­ri­ous grounds of our local Santa Ynez Mis­sion and bikes through the scenic Los Padres National For­est. In the near future we intend to toast him with Fid­dle­head when he suc­cess­fully com­pletes his first marathon.

With music, Stephen and Kathy often bat­tle it out as to what they should lis­ten to in the cel­lar. In Kathy’s words, his taste in music ranges from the most inco­her­ent and bizarre to mag­nif­i­cent clas­si­cal com­po­si­tions. He could just as eas­ily be found at a post-punk con­cert as he could at an art open­ing cel­e­brat­ing local cul­ture. He is also secretly a movie buff. While Hitchcock’s Ver­tigo is his top choice, Stephen appre­ci­ates any­thing from the screw­ball clas­sics of the 1930’s, to the boom of Amer­i­can inde­pen­dent films in the late 60’s/early 70’s, with the French New Wave being his absolute favorite period of films.

In his words, “it’s the ‘hands-on’ approach at Fid­dle­head that I love best.” He is directly involved in every aspect of pro­duc­tion; from vine­yard to cel­lar, from bar­rel to bot­tle… shar­ing in the pride of the exquis­ite results! And when the busy days of har­vest roll around and he is up at 3am to pick grapes, fol­lowed by a long day of cel­lar work and evening punch downs, Stephen just needs to grab a bot­tle of Fid­dle­head and all the fond mem­o­ries from that par­tic­u­lar vin­tage year come flood­ing back, refresh­ing his pas­sion for all things Fid­dle­head.

In the end, Stephen is a per­fect fit for Fid­dle­head, and we applaud his con­tri­bu­tions in keep­ing our wines in the top ranks.
Thank you Stephen!

Oh Fid­dlestix! How could I not have fun when it came time to name my Vine­yard?! After all, there are all those “stix” in the ground and there is that nat­ural con­nec­tion to all my other “fid­dle” names…fiddlehead, fid­dlechix, fid­dle­friend, fre­quent fid­dle club…..!

Fid­dle­head is all about sense of place. I cre­ated Fid­dle­head to focus on Pinot Noir and the place it is grown is essen­tial to the per­son­al­ity of the brand.

In the early years, 1989–1993, I was lucky to be allo­cated a per­fect lit­tle block at Sierra Madre Vine­yard in Santa Maria…I was even luck­ier to have my wine selected for the White House Cel­lar (and yes, they even paid for it!). After Sierra Madre sold, there was lit­tle Pinot Noir to be had from Santa Bar­bara County, and even less that was the top qual­ity that I demanded for Fid­dle­head. I knew the only way I could progress my com­mit­ment to Pinot Noir was to invest in the devel­op­ment of bare ground.

I tasted my way through a myr­iad of Pinot Noir dis­tricts and was impressed by just how deli­cious some of those old San­ford & Bene­dict wines tasted and was chal­lenged to invest in a little-known, cool-climate dis­trict. Many more years into my palate devel­op­ment, I learned that it was the clay soils that I found to be most inter­est­ing in their impart­ing a sprier, broader, more lay­ered com­po­nent to these finicky, del­i­cate, entic­ing wines. Hence, my search for land turned to what was then known as “the west­ern, cool cli­mate dis­trict of the Santa Ynez Val­ley”, and more specif­i­cally the Santa Rosa Road cor­ri­dor, where clay soils make their home.

After what seemed like an eter­nal search, I spot­ted a flower farm, not on the mar­ket, directly across the street from the his­toric San­ford & Bene­dict Vine­yard. In 1996, I wrapped up “secret” nego­ti­a­tions to pur­chase the old Bodger prop­erty and found myself with 96 poten­tial, glo­ri­ous acres just wait­ing for Pinot Noir!

I took almost 2 years to explore clones and root­stocks, the soils and the water, row direc­tion and trel­lis sys­tem options and farm­ing choices. I selected 6 clones (Pom­mard 4 and 5, Dijon 113, 115, 667, 777), 3 root­stocks (mostly 101–14 and 3309 and a lit­tle 110R) and designed a plat of 35 unique blocks.

The first blocks were planted in 1998 with dor­mant grafted vines and the first tiny crop of Lol­la­palooza was pro­duced in 2000! In 2001, a group of us local wine­mak­ers suc­cess­fully earned the Sta. Rita Hills AVA des­ig­na­tion. Now world renowned and rec­og­nized for its ideal, cool cli­mate for Pinot Noir, this uniquely east-west ori­ented val­ley was per­fect for Pinot Noir.

96 acres is clearly more than my petite brand wanted to pro­duce, but Fid­dlestix pro­vides exactly the qual­ity that Fid­dle­head needs and wants. So it was very easy to spread the love to other small, hands-on pro­duc­ers that take it upon them­selves to sing the praises of the place. There are now 14 wine­mak­ers that I sell grapes to who share the love of the fruit and join together every year to share their entic­ing nec­tar. We call it “Fid­dle­Fest” and we gather in the mag­i­cal barn, in the man­i­cured Fid­dlestix Vine­yard, in the glo­ri­ous Sta. Rita Hills, on the wind­ing Santa Rosa Road. We each add our indi­vid­ual cre­ative hand to these lus­cious wines, and at the same time show­case the thread of sim­i­lar­ity, hav­ing all come from that mile marker 7.28 on Santa Rosa Road. We use this oppor­tu­nity to cel­e­brate with Pinot Noir lovers, give recog­ni­tion and sup­port to our farm work­ers who help us make it hap­pen, and we enjoy the local fla­vor of the Sta. Rita Hills with live Fid­dle­Tunes and wine coun­try cui­sine that cel­e­brates both fresh and local.

This event hap­pens only once a year and it’s my way of shar­ing my lit­tle place in par­adise. Please join me on Sat­ur­day, June 18 for cama­raderie and an edu­ca­tion of a life­time. Read more about it at: www.fiddlefestatfiddlestix.com.

10. There’s no bet­ter way to start out a great Vint­ners’ Fes­ti­val week­end (than with a trip to the Lom­poc Wine Ghetto!).

9. When else do you get to see men strut­ting their styl­ish pink shoes?

8. You are sure to be wowed by Wine Club mem­ber and Win­ery friend Theresa Anderson’s cup­cake cre­ations (which in our book are award win­ning). At least 4 dif­fer­ent fla­vors to please your palate…sub­mit your fla­vor request, today!

7. Fun PRIZES for the best cos­tumes!

6. There are many bad rosés out there. But we are always get­ting feed­back that ours deliv­ers more (prob­a­bly because the entire grape is devoted to this wine). Many tasters are sur­prised they like it!  

5. We serve a lot more than just pink wine…you never know what Kathy is going to pull out of her cel­lar!

4. Steve’s paella.  Enough said.

3. Dis­counts on Fid­dle­head wines this night for atten­dees only.

2. It’s an excuse to get out of that stuffy shirt and dress up in cos­tume! We all need a good laugh and you are guar­an­teed to leave with new friends.

And the num­ber one rea­son.…

1. It’s a rare oppor­tu­nity to dine with the wine­maker (and wait ‘till you see her cos­tume!).  And she is tons of fun to boot!

Space is lim­ited to only 50 guests — Get your tick­ets today!
800–251-1225 or www.fiddleheadcellars.com/events

Tags: Fiddlehead Cellars, Kathy Joseph, new release, Pink Fiddle, Pinkie & Paella, Pinot Noir, Vintners' Festival, Wine Ghetto, Wines

I had a crazy idea — I would like to con­nect with you guys more often and in a more acces­si­ble way. So every once in a while I am going to hang out at a restau­rant and open a bot­tle of Fid­dle­head and share sto­ries of the day!

I am start­ing the New Year with a visit to Biba Restau­rant in Sacra­mento on Tues­day, Jan­u­ary 18th from 5:15 — 7:15pm. Pull up a chair and share a taste of Fid­dlestix Pinot and more; I will order the first round of apps and you can com­pli­ment the restau­rant by stay­ing for dinner!

In addi­tion you may catch me on one of my mar­ket trips to your state. My list of stops to date is shown below. And be sure to email me (info@fiddleheadcellars.com) if you would like more details on my mar­ket visit.

COLORADO (the Moun­tains): Feb 1 — 3
DAVIS, Fid­dle­head Ware­house: “New Release Party”, Feb 5
DAVIS, Mon­davi Cen­ter: “Women, Wine and Choco­late”, Feb 12
SANTA BARBARA: Par­adise Cafe Meet & Greet, Feb 15
SHELL BEACH: World of Pinot Noir, March 4 — 5
NORTH CAROLINA: March 8 — 10
SAN FRANCISCO: Kathy Meet & Greet, Mid-March — stay tuned!
NAPA VALLEY (Healds­burg): “Pigs & Pinot”, March 18
ATLANTA: High Museum Auc­tion and more, March 23 — 26
LAS VEGAS: March 29 — 30
LOMPOC: “Pinkie & Paella”, April 15
LOMPOC: Vint­ners’ Fes­ti­val and Open House, April 16 — 17
OHIO: April 19 — 21
CHICAGO: April 25 — 28
OHIO: Wooster Wine Fes­ti­val, April 29 — 30
DAVIS, Fid­dle­head Ware­house: “Library Wines Tast­ing”, May 21
ORANGE COUNTY: Kathy Meet & Greet — post­poned — stay tuned for new dates!
LOS ANGELES: Kathy Meet & Greet — Cork­bar, June 1st 6pm-close
LOMPOC, Fid­dlestix Vine­yard: “Fid­dle­Fest”, June 18
NEW YORK: June 21 — 24

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Tags: Doyle, Fiddlehead, Fiddlehead Cellars, Kathy Joseph, Pinot Noir, Wine

RECIPE AND WINE PAIRING!

Do you have a bot­tle of Hun­ny­suckle hid­ing in your cel­lar that could use a culi­nary com­pan­ion? Try this exquis­ite Baked Onion Soup from the kitchen of Babette Joseph (Kathy’s mom!). This is a per­fect Fall recipe that is sure to be a crowd pleaser!

Tags: Fiddlehead, Fiddlehead Cellars, Hunnysuckle, Kathy Joseph, Sauvignon Blanc, Wine

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Tags: Fiddlehead, Fiddlehead Cellars, Fiddlstix, Kathy Joseph, People Helping People, Pinot Noir, Vino de Suenos, Wine

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Tags: Fiddlehead, Fiddlehead Cellars, Fiddlestix, Fiddlestix Vineyard, Kathy Joseph, Pinot Noir, vineyard, Wine, Wine Club

 

My job is crazy…but good crazy!
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Tags: Fiddlehead, Fiddlehead Cellars, Fiddlestix, Fiddlestix Vineyard, Kathy Joseph, Wine

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Tags: Fiddlehead, Fiddlehead Cellars, Fiddlestix, Fiddlestix Pinot Noir, Fiddlestix Vineyard, Harvest, Kathy Joseph, Pinot Noir, vineyard