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Wine Country with a Change of Altitude

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SPRING 2011$6.95 us $8.95 can

Fair PlayAmazing vistas, people, dining, and . . . Wine

2 Sierra High Spring 2011

CaliforniaFair Play

Spring 2011 Sierra High 3

Wine Country with a

Change of Altitude

Written by Brian FitzpatrickPhotography courtesy of FPMG and Cathy O’hagainLarge Photo: View of Fair Play from Seven-Up Ranch; Small photos left to right: Perry Creek Winery Cobra cars and wine; Perry Creek Wine team; Winemaker Suite with panaoramic view at Fitzpatrick Lodge; Friday Night Pizza at Fitzpatraick Winery

Since becoming its own appellation in 2001, Fair Play has developed a

reputation for high quality wine grapes that yield deeply flavorful, intense wines from an amazingly diverse range of grape varieties.

Wineries of Fair Play offer the wine enthu-siast a unique opportunity to experience and enjoy wine in an atmosphere that is friendly and inviting. Family owned wineries , beau-tiful vineyards and affordable wines make a visit to Fair Play a must.

Fair Play is located in the Sierra Foothills of California and consists of a contigu-ous area of granitic sandy loam soils in the “mountainous uplands” of El Dorado County. Within an hour’s drive from Sacramento, you will find vintners who take pride in their land, their wines, and their customers.

The terrain is generally composed of roll-ing hillsides and rounded ridge tops. At an elevation of 2,000 to 3,000 feet, each vine-yard’s topographic location in relationship to the immediate surroundings is of utmost importance to minimize the negative effects of late spring frosts. Most of the vineyards are situated on ridge tops or hillsides, allowing cold air to drain to lower ground.

Fair Play BeginsBack in 1986 when there were just four wineries in Fair Play, I started to write an application to establish Fair Play as a Federally registered AVA (American Viticultural Area) just like Napa Valley, Sierra Foothills, and others. What moved me back then was how tightly we shared so many attributes of what is supposed to make up an appellation (or AVA as we called it in the USA) compared to the Napa Valley, the North Coast, the Sierra Foothills. Don’t get me wrong; on a macro scale these regions identify large differences

between each other and share similarities within their respective borders. But these are macro similarities like large scale geography and political identity. But within their borders

4 Sierra High Spring 2011

more diversity exists in soils, climates, eleva-tion, etc. than similarities. But Fair Play AVA epitomizes what an Appellation (AVA) can (and from my perspective) and should be: a wine region that shares more similarities than differences.

But a few of the winery owners, at that early time, decided we needed first to show solidarity to our ‘mother appellations’ the El Dorado AVA and the Sierra Foothill AVA. I use the term ‘mother appellations’ to show the hierarchy of this system of AVAs. Fair Play AVA is a part of El Dorado AVA which is a part of the broader Sierra Foothill AVA which of course is a part of California, USA, North America, Planet Earth—you get the point.

By 1999, four wineries had grown to eight wineries with another six looming on the ho-rizon just within the proposed Fair Play AVA. The rest of the Sierra Foothills was growing too as was the wine industry all over. On a per square mile or per capita, Fair Play was leading the pack in increasing number of wineries by far.

That same feeling reawakened to put Fair Play on the AVA map. And at the prompting of then new winery owner Charles Mitchell and the support of the Fair Play Winery Association I resurfaced my application for

review, rewrote and prepared a new applica-tion for submittal.

During our 90 days of public comment in the Federal Register, a petition was filed by Elliott Graham, who today is owner of Busby Cellars, to include his neighborhood imme-diately adjacent to our proposed boundaries. Upon review it became obvious that the ge-ology, soils, geography, climate and history were the same and most convincingly was the historical kinship that this neighborhood just north and east of Somerset shared with the rest of the Fair Play AVA. That boundary adjustment, having been made, led to the ap-proval of the Fair Play AVA by 2000.

The Fair Play AVA is truly the best example of an appellation with the most attributes in common. But let us not forget that we are part of the El Dorado wine country, we are just east and higher up than our neighboring Shenandoah Valley which we share so much kinship with too, and part of that macro AVA (appellation) called the Sierra Foothills in which we so proudly farm.

Fair Play is truly the best

example of an appellation

with the most attributes in

common.

Above large: View from the restaurant deck of Fitzpatrick Lodge; left: Giovanni Gaudio, chef and owner of Bocconato Trattoria with guest;

center: Brian Fitzpatrick, winemaker and owner of Fitzpatrick Winery & Lodge; right: Dieter Jeurgens, winemake and owner of Perry Creek, barrel tasting.

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Fair Play FestivalIt was 1984 when Fair Play’s first three wineries thought of coordinating the dates and public-ity for their annual open house celebrations and held the first Fair Play Wine Festival. The Fair Play Wine Festival holds the honor of the oldest ongoing winery association event in all the Sierra Foothills. Unique to the Fair Play Wine Festival’s beginning was, instead of all the wineries setting up in one location, the Festival goer visited each participating winery and experienced each winery’s individual ex-pression of the Fair Play Wine Festival.

The fans of Fair Play wines couldn’t help but bring their friends, fueling the success of the Fair Play Wine Festival for two decades. What started with three wineries, peaked with ten wineries participating, every year delivering good times and great wines to thousands of supportive fans. The dynamics of the Festival have changed greatly over the years but the format evolved only a little. The wineries are crying out for something new. Each winery brings with them ideas reflec-tive of their own creativity and vision for their future; and the possibilities for the future are as many as there are wineries.

Today’s annual Fair Play Wine Festival is the first weekend of June and the overwhelm-ing majority of Fair Play wineries participate. Wine lovers are in for a big treat with two days of great wines, food, music and fun.Ticket’s are online at www.fairplaywine.com

According to local tradition, the name arose from an incident in which an appeal to

“fair play” forestalled a fight between two miners.

Although Fair Play was at first only a mining camp, the town later became a trading center and post office for drift and hydraulic mines in the area. Provisions were shipped to Fair Play and to Slug Gulch to the east, over steep mountain roads.

In the 1880’s, agriculture was the principle economic activity, although a stamp mill still operated.

The California gold rush came to an end when the State Legislature restricted hydraulic mining, leaving only a few surviving hardrock mines. Most mining camps like Fair Play dwindled and all but disappeared, except for the occasional store and school to serve the remaining farm-ers and ranchers after the miniers drifted on. Only two businesses (the grocery and hardware), the former schoolhouse (now a residence), and the old cemetery remain.

While the mining may have been on a downturn, agriculturally, things were beginning to look pretty good. Several ranches in the vicinity were gaining local acclaim for the quantity of the vegetables that they produced. By 1969, a vineyard and orchard had been planted. The first commercial vineyard and winery was established in 1887 by a Civil War veteran and Wisconsin native, Horace Bigelow. Near where today’s Seven-up Ranch is located, Bigelow planted 2,000 fruit trees and 4,000 grape vines.

As far as viticulture is concerned, for most of the 20th century it was pretty quiet around Fair Play. A de-clining population, coupled with the difficulty of transporting fruit and

wine to distant markets had taken a toll on the farmers and ranchers in the more remote portions of El Dorado County. The reawaken-ing of Fair Play as a wine growing region didn’t really occur until the

planting of an experimental vineyard on Ben Simm’s Diamond Bar Ranch in 1967 (This vineyard is now owned by Charles B. Mitchell). By studying the trial vineyard, it was determined, that among others, but most notable, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay could be expected to produce excellent dry table wines in the Fair Play region. Currently, the total acreage of wine grapes is ap-proximately 350 acres, of which about 250 acres are currently in production.

The original settlement of Fair Play is attributed to two gentlemen, Charles Staples and N. Sisson, who arrived there around The story goes that some time after that the two apparently fell into a disagreement

that grew into what must have been a not- too-gentlemanly fight. The fight ended when some of the other newly arrived residents appealed to them for “fair-play.” Thus, we’re told, the town became known as Fair Play. 3

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Back in 1986 when there were just four wineries in Fair Play, I started to write an ap-plication to establish Fair Play as a Federally registered AVA (American Viticultural Area) just like Napa Valley, Sierra Foothills, and others. What moved me back then was how

tightly we shared so many attri-butes of what is supposed to make up an appellation (or AVA as we called it in the USA) compared to the Napa Valley, the North Coast, the Sierra Foothills. Don’t get me wrong; on a macro scale these regions identify large differences between each other and share similarities within their respective borders. But these are macro simi-larities like large scale geography and political identity. But within their borders more diversity exists in soils, climates, elevation, etc. than similarities. But Fair Play

AVA epitomizes what an Appellation (AVA) can (and from my perspective) and should be: a wine region that shares more similarities than differences.

But a few of the winery owners, at that early time, decided we needed first to show solidarity to our ‘mother appellations’ the

El Dorado AVA and the Sierra Foothill AVA. I use the term ‘mother appellations’ to show the hierarchy of this system of AVAs. Fair Play AVA is a part of El Dorado AVA which is a part of the broader Sierra Foothill AVA which of course is a part of California, USA, North America, Planet Earth—you get the point.

By 1999, four wineries had grown to eight wineries with another six looming on the ho-rizon just within the proposed Fair Play AVA. The rest of the Sierra Foothills was growing too as was the wine industry all over. On a per square mile or per capita, Fair Play was leading the pack in increasing number of wineries by far.

That same feeling reawakened to put Fair Play on the AVA map. And at the prompting of then new winery owner Charles Mitchell and the support of the Fair Play Winery Association I resurfaced my application for review, rewrote and prepared a new applica-tion for submittal.

During our 90 days of public comment in the Federal Register, a petition was filed by Elliott Graham, who today is owner of Busby Cellars, to include his neighborhood adjacent to our proposed boundaries. That boundary led to the approval of the Fair Play AVA.

Left: Bruce Champion the pilot and his Real Estate office which sits atop Fair Play; right: View f rom the Vina Dorado Vacation rental; below: Sonya Champion with the llama.

Spring 2011 Sierra High 7

Where to Stay in Fair FlayFitzpatrick Winery & Lodge

Overlooking Fair Play’s wine country, Fitzpatrick’s country-style inn sits at the 2500 elevation and commands spec-tacular 360-degree views of the Sierras and the foothills. The handcrafted massive log lodge

sits atop the underground wine cellar and houses the wine tasting room and five guest rooms all with private baths. Choose from five guest rooms and enjoy a made-to-order full breakfast, Irish hospitality, and winetasting. There is a Celtic gift shop, a 25 meter lap pool, and a spa on-site. (fitzpatrickwinery.com)

Vina Dorado Vacation RentalPerfectly located on ten stun-ning acres between two of California’s best wine regions, we invite you to treat yourself, family and friends to a leisurely vacation getaway in the Sierra Foothills surrounded by oaks

and pines and rolling pastures. Viña Dorado features two bed-rooms with large baths, including a luxurious spa tub overlooking a delightful secluded garden. (vinadorado.com)

Above: Map of the Fair Play District, courtesy of Fair Play Marketing Group. In addition to the 28 wineries and wonderful casual and fine restaurants, you will find there is plenty to do for the whole family.

Fair Play is located in the Sierra Foothills , about an hour east of Sacramento, California

Varietals in Fair PlayThe grape varieties grown here in Fair Play are as varied as the local winemakers and grape growers have rushed in from all over to make Fair Play their home. Although Zinfandel anchors the list, world classics like Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Sangiovese, Barbera, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Viognier and more are planted here.

Additionally, miniscule quantities of wines are made from lesser known varieties grown in this area, and are usually only available from the wineries’ tasting rooms. The wines of Fair Play are distinct and ready to be enjoyed by wine enthusiasts who want to taste the dif-ference of terroir with a change of altitude.3

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