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French wine? Yes, no
By JOHN BALZ, Times Staff Writer
CROSS CREEK -- Bob French loves a traditional wine as much as the next person. But French also likes to experiment, and as a wine-maker he's mixed more than just grapes. He's thrown bananas in with the chardonnay, peaches in with the zinfandel, pepper in with the cabernet. Women loved the chocolate merlot. Like port with a square of Hershey's that lingered on the tongue. Five years after buying his first grapes online, French, a former tech executive, is looking to turn a part-time hobby into a full-time job with the opening later this month of his new store, Wine-Not, at 5116 E Fowler Ave. "Find what you like," said the 37-year-old, referring to how wine should be enjoyed. "There's no rule that you must drink the heaviest cabernet on hand or the best pinot noir in the world." Until recently, French was content to make wine in his Misty Creek home and give it to his friends as gifts. His two children helped bottle it (they didn't drink it!). His goal wasn't -- and isn't -- to produce $100 masterpieces. But he wanted something better than $6 "chateau screwtops," which is how he refers to the typical selections found on grocery store shelves. "Everyone tells me how wonderful my wine is, so I said, 'Why should I point them to a Web site; why don't I open up my own shop?' " he said. French, admittedly, is a bit of wine snob. But he can crack a joke, too. "Aspirations," he said. "That's what I've always called my wine. It aspires to be something better than it is." Wine-Not's premise is fairly simple. It is a bit like a wine nursery. The customer picks out her own selection. French helps nurture it into something drinkable. The less he helps, the less the customer pays. On average, a 30-bottle batch runs between $115-$150 and takes 6-8 weeks to produce. According to the California-based Wine Institute, per capita wine consumption in the United States is roughly the same as it was 10 years ago. Only Californians and New Yorkers drink more wine than Floridians. When he was growing up in Detroit, wine, beer and straight vodka were the norm in the French household. As the owner of a small technology company called Ceta2, French frequently visited the west Coast on business trips and made sure to stop by Napa Valley's vineyards. "When they came out with (Global Positioning System) in the rental cars, that was a beautiful thing" he said. "I just plugged in the wineries and just let it take me there." But business dropped off precipitously once the tech bubble burst and French found himself forced to think about career options. Wine-making was at the top of the list. He keeps nearly 300 bottles in a climate-controlled wine cellar that was once a walk-in closet. He buys his grapes from Canada and has picked up most of his wine-making know-how from books and the Internet. Wine-making is considerably easier than, say, beer-brewing. In addition to hops, barley and yeast, beer requires heat and pressure. Wine simply requires the yeast -- and the grapes, of course. French's first batch turned out lousy, so he added sugar and fruit and served it as sangria. Today, his favorite is the always versatile red zinfandel. -- John Balz can be reached at (813) 269-5313 or at balz@sptimes.com
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From the Times |
