Winemaker's notes
Notes from the Winemaker
"THE STORY OF CHRISTOPHER"
When Tim Frania, founder and visionary of Fox Hollow Vineyards, passed in 2008, I wanted to produce a wine to celebrate his life and folk hero status. Little did I know what a special journey I had begun.
My first thought was to produce a red wine from Fox Hollow that would reflect the Appellation, Terroir, and Tim's vision of what could be grown here in the Grand River Valley. Everything changed when in 2009 and 2010, we had a spring frost that ravaged the vineyard. The result was two years of very low yield but high quality fruit. The structure of the fruit was unlike anything I have ever seen in the GRV.
At first, the plan was to make two vintage wines and you may even notice some of the bottles have a 2009 cork in them. If you know me, it’s just one of the things I do, move too quickly. After tasting the two wines, I decided to combine the vintages and make a vertical blend (cuvee) of all the red grapes harvested from Fox Hollow in 2009 and 2010. I believe Tim would have done it the same way.
What makes Christopher so special is that Mother Nature, and as far as I'm concerned, Tim, decided everything about this wine. Isn't that part of the terroir no matter how radical the outcome? She decided the crop size with the spring frost, the growing seasons, and even the harvest date in 2010 was decided by a fall frost in October.
I named this wine Christopher. As the story goes, when Tim was born, his parents named him Christopher but because the family was Protestant-Irish, no one liked the Catholic name and it was changed to Timothy. So I named the wine with his birth name, "Christopher."
This wine is a reflection of the crazy, insane passion that Tim Frania brought to all of life and I am proud to have the chance to offer it to you. Please enjoy. I know Tim did!
The artwork on the label is an abstract photo I took of Christopher as it was being racked from oak barrels into a stainless steel tank. Please come and visit the winery for a look at the artwork in the tasting room.
Larry Laurello
