Winery Focus: Krutz Family Cellars
It’s a small world after all.
Ever start chatting with someone and you just can’t figure out where you know them from?
I spent the first five minutes of meeting Patrick Krutz not being able to focus because I knew I had seen him before. He just looked so familiar. I half-listened to his introduction as I flipped through my mental rolodex. Jackson, Mississippi native, he attended school in Oxford at University of Mississippi, then transplanted to California and into the industry. My brain got sucked into family, aunts, uncles, and cousins who all elongate their vowels the same way. His deep Delta drawl brings up memories of hot summer evenings catching fireflies and running with my cousins.
I missed part of his story, distracted by my own mental scan. Then I rudely interrupted, feeling my Southern ancestors frown at my lack of decorum.
“Do you know Chuck *******? Maybe from college in Oxford?”
“Yes… We ran around together.”
“He’s married to my cousin. I knew I’d seen you before.”
We couldn’t quite figure out when we would have met – honestly, I may have just seen his face on Facebook commenting on my cousins’ lives. But I really couldn’t concentrate until I settled that mystery.
And I wanted to concentrate. Because the aromas wafting out of my wine glass told me that I was going to want the story about this guy. I was going to be telling people about these wines for a long time.
Patrick Krutz fell into the wine business. Just like most of us do. I have yet to meet a six-year-old who wants to be a winemaker. Patrick was supposed to go to law school. He was not supposed to be a winemaker. It had never crossed his mind. He grew up in a house that loved wine. His parents took vacations across California’s wine regions, shipping wine home to enjoy all year long.
When Patrick graduated with his Bachelor’s degree, he wanted a break before diving into the stresses of law school. On his father’s recommendation, he found a job working at the counter of The Cheese Shop in Carmel, California. Just for the summer. Just for the season. Enjoy the coast, unwind and go back to Mississippi in the fall. That was the plan.
Patrick’s job at The Cheese Shop was fun. He met people in the wine business and made some friends. Then he started working in their cellars… originally just to help out. But then he was asking a million questions and reading up on winemaking in his spare time. He never made it back to the University of Mississippi for law school. He found his true passion on the California coast: Winemaking.
Initially, it was a small project. Patrick bought a ton of grapes to make his own wine. It would just be for the family. Then another ton… for friends. But with the connections Patrick made, he kept getting better and better fruit, and making better and better wine. And more of it! By 2011, he had given the wine bug to his brothers too. Krutz Family Cellars is a family endeavor. It might not be my family – but he’s from the town over from my mom. It’s practically the same thing.
The labels of the winery’s bottles pay homage to Patrick’s home state. Embossed with a magnolia bloom, the state flower of Mississippi, the labels are clean and simple. There is also a Magnolia line of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon that is generally reserved for restaurants to serve by the glass.
Krutz purchases fruit from fantastic vineyards and focuses on small lot production. The wines are all exquisitely made. They are willing to declassify rather than risk the reputation they are building when smoke is a potential hazard. Stylistically, the wines are bright, lush, and bursting with fruit with balance that keeps them from being fruit bombs. Patrick isn’t a formally trained oenologist (winemaker), but you wouldn’t be able to tell when tasting the wines.
Krutz Family Cellars focuses on Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The winery is located in Sonoma Valley, but they purchase fruit up and down the coast of California. Due to the small production size, the wines are generally only found in restaurants or small boutique wine shops. My favorites right now are the bottlings of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir coming from the Soberanes Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands. I recently discovered that they are also buying fruit from Krupp Brothers and the Stagecoach vineyard… but you’ll have to order directly from the winery to get them! Those bottlings aren’t in Texas currently.
As always, if you want to try any of the wines mentioned, drop me a line and we’ll have it delivered to your door.
