Katrina Frey
A Winefullness Interview
Frey Vineyards has been a place I've wanted to visit since I first discovered the beautiful region of California that is Mendocino, and I've been lucky enough to be granted a little time to chat with Katrina Frey but first, who are Frey?
Apart from being America's first organic and biodynamic winery, they combine the best of modern and traditional winemaking methods in an effort to produce wines that are distinctive and welcoming in any glass.
For four decades they have been crafting wines without added sulphites, synthetic preservatives and all those other elements that worry consumers.
Their wines are respected throughout the wine community, and the plethora of awards they receive are a testament to a winery that has been at the top of its game for quite a long time, and that continues to nurture the 300 acres of grapes that are blessed to receive the loving attention of the winemakers at Frey.
As I roll up at a new tasting room that is near completion, but that has a few months to go before the insides are complete, Katrina waits patiently for me wearing a broad smile and a welcoming air. I'm late because Mr. Satnav directed me to the old location that was swamped by a fire recently, and it's thanks to a helpful worker that I've been able to find my way here.
Outside the Frey Tasting Room
The Wonderful Katrina Ferey
Winefullness Magazine: I know you've got a good reputation for the wines you make, but I don't know much else. I'm hoping to be enlightened.
Katrina Frey: We pronounce it Fry. My father-in-law convinced me. My husband and I founded the winery, and we're organic. We don't use any artificial ingredients.
Winefullness: Was that a deliberate policy from the start?
Katrina: It took us two years. My husband had a bad experience once with sticking his head in a barrel full of sulphur gas.
Winefullness: Did he pass out?
Katrina: No but he had a terrible headache, and it was enough for him to question about going in a direction to grow the grapes organically. So he and his brother spent that first decade trying to figure out how the heck do you make the wine stable without the sulphites. It's was all about understanding wine chemistry, and of being able to get a sound understanding of that process.
Winefullness: Did you learn this at UC Davis?
Katrina: They just read everything and they went to Europe and talked with some European winemakers.
Winefullness: About biodynamic elements?
Katrina: Yes. All the property is certified biodynamic. We were the first US label to do this. We achieved this in 1996, and that probably was when our reputation started.
Winefullness: This winery looks new. How old is it?
Katrina: It's all been built in the last three years. It's still a construction zone. There are people working as we speak.
Some time this summer we're going to finally have a tasting room again. We had to slow down last year with the precipitous drop in sales. Our cash flow was challenged.
Winefullness: Napa and Sonoma are taking big hits with a drop in sales and customer flow also. Is it the same for the wineries of Mendocino?
Katrina: It is. We're fortunate in that we have this really well-defined niche, and once people find our wines they'll often buy a second bottle, but nonetheless we're still down.
Four Little Beauties
Compared to the overall wine industry we're not down quite as badly.
Winefullness Magazine: What would you say that's down to?
Katrina Frey: Well, we're down from a bad year last year to about 8% below.
Winefullness: Is it just people turning off wine?
Katrina: Covid was great for us. We had people buying wine from all over the country. We did very well during the Covid years. No, I think the world is awash in wine right now so it's a global situation. There's so much wine out there, and then there is interest in cocktails and other alcoholic beverages.
Winefullness: I notice a piano in the tasting room.
Katrina: We also have a baby grand.
Winefullness: I saw at the old place, by the restroom, you had a piano there.
Katrina: We're a very musical family. We all play stringed instruments.
Rocking in the tasting room
Winefullness: You've also got your nephew who does comedy. I saw some of his videos on your website.
Katrina: They can be a little raunchy but they're funny. I've read some of your work and I appreciate a sense of humour. I find myself chuckling.
So the offices are going to be upstairs, and we're trying to get our workers in because they've been used to working from home.
Winefullness Magazine: Are you having trouble getting your workers to come in?
Katrina Frey: Well people are comfortable. We're going to have some wine in kegs that people can see as they taste, and this will help to set the scene. It's not like Napa where they get fifty to 100 people a day. Every time you open that bottle, sometimes three days later you have to pour it out.
Winefullness: Don't you use things like the Coravin?
Katrina: Yes we do, but the kegs even better.
Winefullness: So this is going to be quite a big tasting room when it's complete?
Katrina: Hopefully, we'll have a wedding or two. I'll also like to offer it to nonprofits in the area. I won't get too political but with the current administration we have to help out where we can.
Winefullness: What is your story?
Katrina: Well I moved out to see what California was all about from Michigan, after college, and got a job with social services that I just hated. I found it very depressing.
I moved to the Bay Area, and one day I was reading the newspaper and there was a photo of this group of young people with pitchforks in this faraway place called Mendocino County that we're studying biodynamic agriculture, and I gave a little sigh and thought, 'Oh I wish I could do that'. A few minutes later my best friend was reading the same paper and called me up and said, 'You should go do this. This is what you're always talking about'. I drove up here, and there was Jonathan, my husband, also checking it out. He grew up right here in Redwood Valley.
We studied under a wonderful teacher of master horticulturists named Alan Chadwick, and he was British and he was responsible for introducing biodynamic agriculture to the United States.
It was a classical education. We had a lot of hard work, but we also learnt things like deportment, and we would learn Shakespearean sonnets. He was a member of Royal Shakespeare Society, and he was a musician and a fascinating guy. A genius really. His whole concept was home in the garden, and it was such a privilege.
Meet the Gang
For a year and a half we worked like serfs under him, but we learned a lot. At the end of that we came back to his (Jonathan's) family's place where there were a few acres of grapes and we used to say were organic by neglect. We thought we were going to be market gardeners, but we decided we should start a winery because we're in wine country, and very naively we started out in 1980. I say naively because we just didn't understand the complexity of how to grow grapes. I think we understood winemaking, but just the whole complicated three tier system in the United States, licensing and being employers and things like that, but we managed.
We made 2000 cases that first year, and last year we made 220,000 cases, so we're not a tiny winery. It's been a wonderful journey and it's been one foot in the organic products industry and one foot in the wine industry. I've enjoyed it because I've always felt like I couldn't play the snobby wine game. I hope that's paid off because our wines are excellent, winning 90+ points from Wine Enthusiast.
Winefullness: Are your tanks new?
Katrina: Yes this is all new. So we've got shiny new tanks.
Winefullness Magazine: How much did you lose in the fire?
Katrina Frey: We lost our winery, but we didn't lose our warehouse with our bottles in, but I'm optimistic because in Mendocino County we don't have light industry other than wines and tourism, and that's about it.
Winefullness: So do you get a lot of tourism in this area.
Katrina: Yes, particularly on the coast. We're a little bit off the beaten track, a little bit far for a day trip from the Bay Area and people tend to come and spend the weekend. It's such a wonderful place to be, because to me there is such an air of camaraderie here between all the winemakers, and we share practice, and this all helps to attract more visitors.
We have a Mendocino Wine Institute that's composed of both wineries and growers, and they have classes and meetings. They also have tailgate parties and things like that.
Silver and White
Winefullness: How do manage with predators?
Katrina: We have fences. Deer can be predators, and they can sneak in pretty easily. We're lucky that we don't have flocks of birds going through like other parts of California. The occasional bear comes through once in a while.
Winefullness: Now you're getting me worried.
Katrina: It happened a couple of miles up the road. I guess it liked red grapes.
Winefullness: What about snakes?
Katrina: Yes. We have rattlesnakes. If you live here you're constantly aware. They're not aggressive. They're really very sweet, and they eat the ground squirrels. I would love to have more rattlesnakes to take care of the squirrel problem.
Winefullness: Is that why your vines are so high up, to stop the squirrels and the rabbit going after your grapes?
Katrina: No. It just makes them easier to pick. I don't know how people manage with all the bending down.
Winefullness: Have you heard any predictions whether it's going to be good?
Katrina: No I haven't heard, but things look pretty nice though.
Winefullness: How soon into the year would you know if you're going to have a good harvest?
Katrina: After things flower. They're getting ready to flower right now. This is the time around here when we can have these little thunderstorms, and little rains, and that's a worry sometimes. It can come down hard when they're flowering. It's the life of a farmer. You just don't know what's going to happen, and if it's super hot that's problematic with sunburnt grapes. We don't do a lot of thinning of the canopy. We don't have to because there's plenty of heat, so we like the canopy to offer some shade.
Katrina now takes me to the front of the tasting room
There is going to be a lawn in front of the winery. We're just waiting for the irrigation system to come in and then we'll plant it. It'll use a low amount of water and by next year we'll be ready to roll. We're going to have a stage. Definitely have events here. What a gorgeous view right? People say that it reminds them of Tuscany.
And with that it's time to leave. Katrina's time is precious, and as she has shown me around I realise that there is still a lot to be done before the new tasting room is ready at Frey. I would love to be here when it opens, and I can think of nothing better than sharing a glass of wine with Katrina at that opening. I wish them all the best and look forward to the next time I'm in this area.
The Tasting Room Bar
Recommendations
Frey 2023 Malbec
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​ Taste those relaxing blackcurrants and dark Plums and it's like meeting an old friend.
The lack of sulphites is a blessing and means there's no headache if you over indulge.
It's smoother than a secondhand car salesman, and the balance of black cherries and black pepper caressing the hints of wood and smoke are welcome.
What a tasty beauty!
Frey 2023 Pinot Noir
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A really smooth and enjoyable wine that has everything in the right place.
Cherries, slight liquorice, hints of cola, and black pepper lay the foundation for plum, cream and a little earth.
It's organic, carefully nurtured and has a lot of breeding.
Frey 2022 Biodynamic Syrah
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The colour is deep, almost ruby, and accompanied by cherries and berries of the darker kind.
Is that a hint of fig in the mix, a waft of pepper and a touch of vanilla?
There's a nice plume of smoke and raspberry about this and the tannins are calmer than a buddhist priest
Frey Fizzy Chardonnay
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Don't be put off by the name, or the bottle. This is an attempt to grab the attention, and I think Frey have succeeded.
It's so refreshing that one sip might not be enough, and the apples and pears seem to be enhanced by this attempt to appeal to a wider demographic than the usual wine drinker.
Hang on because the citrus flavours are arriving and grapefruit and lemon come out to play.
When you drop in to the new tasting room at Frey, don't think that you're meeting some hicks from the sticks, because the wines they make are classy representations of the winemaking art. They are also organic, biodynamic representations of what can be achieved if one has a vision and the willingness to take the time to let the wines speak for themselves, and don't forget that there's no headache if you overindulge!