Fiddlehead Cellars

Kathy Josephs is the respected winemaker of Fiddlehead Cellars,
known for her Oregon and California Pinot noir and California Sauvignon Blanc. She splits her time between Southern California and Oregon, making big, complex Pinot Noirs of concentration and finesse and rich, crisp, refreshing Sauvignon Blanc.

Kathy Josephs

A graduate from UC Davis, Kathy was mentored by the great winemaker, Zelma Long, of Simi Winery. Kathy and her partners recently planted 133 acres in the Santa Barbara area, out on Santa Rosa Road in the western end of the Santa Ynez Valley across from the Sanford & Benedict Vineyard. Since Kathy lost access to the Santa maria Valley grapes she used to make her California Pinot Noir, this new vineyard will provide fruit for her wines, starting around 2003.

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From the Connoisseurs'
Handbook of California Wines
by Roby & Olken:
" spectatcular Pinot noirs, Oregon Pinot noir rated 93 points."
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I f this is September, Kathy Joseph must be in Santa Barbara County, picking grapes and making wine. Next month, she will do the same thing in Oregon. Her business cards could read, "Have barrel, will travel."

Instead, they say "Fiddlehead Cellars." It's the label of the most itinerant vintner in the West. Joseph loves Pinot Noir, and for her money the two wine-grape regions with the best potential for doing well by the variety are Santa Barbara County along California's south-central coast and the Eola Hills near Salem in Oregon's Willamette Valley. She could have the grapes shipped to a winery near her home in Davis, about midway between the two appellations, but she feels she can withstand the rigors of the trek better than the fruit can, so she is the one to hit the road.

The Pinot Noirs she crafts from the two regions are remarkably different. Her current release from Oregon, the Fiddlehead Cellars 1994 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($33.50), is the huskier of the two -- thick with tannins, sassy with black-pepper spiciness, plump with cherry and blueberry fruitiness. It's a wine for gamey foods like venison, and pastas with heavy cream sauces.

The Fiddlehead Cellars 1993 Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir ($25), on the other hand, is lighter in color but more earthy and complex in aroma. It has a velveteen and supple texture, with flavors finely layered with all sorts of exotic associations -- tea, anise and truffles as well as a long and round fruitiness, more suggestive of strawberries than blueberries.

"I don't need a lot of tannin with my wines, I need to get a depth of texture, which holds the flavors in your mouth," said Joseph of her stylistic goals.

Of the two Pinot Noirs, she finds the Santa Maria more versatile with food. She especially likes it with lamb, salmon, grilled halibut, tomato-based pastas and "stew-type things."