Dave Phinney: Winemaker and Entrepreneur

Dave Phinney says he got into wine by accident. And thank goodness he did. At just 45, Dave is one of the most accomplished and creative winemakers in Napa, California.
He started Orin Swift in 1998. Dave says the name came from his parents. Orin is his father's middle name. Swift is his mother's maiden name and Dave's middle name.
Orin Swift is one of the few brands in the world that actually puts great wine in eye-catching labels. Dave says the wine has to be as good if not better than the label, while the label has to be as good if not better than the wine.
Dave's first zinfandel back in 1998 was so bad, he says, he bulked out the wine and started from scratch.
But in 2000, he created The Prisoner, a zinfandel-based red blend in the $40 range that has had enormous commercial success.
Dave says when someone buys a bottle of his wine, he looks at it like they've formed a partnership. If you're going to give him your hard earned money, his job is to give you value for that money.
Dave eventually sold Prisoner to Huneeus Vintners in 2008 for a reported $40 million.
In 2016, Gallo bought Orin Swift, but Dave stayed on as winemaker. You can have any title you want at Orin Swift, he says, but you can't be "winemaker." It's something he's very proud of.
I met Dave at Articles of Style in New York City, a custom men's shop in SoHo where Dave is an investor, to chat over his wines, which Dave swears he doesn't drink. He says he's never made a wine he really likes because he knows all of the things that could've been done better.
But during our interview, he couldn't stop tasting his 8 Years in the Desert Zinfandel blend. The name is a subtle and respectful nod to the fact that he couldn't make zinfandel for eight years after he sold the Prisoner brand because of a non-compete agreement.
But now Dave's back at it, trying to master zinfandel, which he calls his first love.
He says he's changed his approach to the wine, trying to pick certain varietals at a lower sugar. He says he's less concerned about the alcohol and more interested in trying to preserve the aromatics.
Dave has also gotten into spirits, creating Savage & Cooke, a label that makes good use of a bad real estate purchase. He has an amazing piece of property in Alexander Valley, California, with a spring that has unbelievable water, he says. Unfortunately, other than the water quality, Dave says, the property is pretty useless.
His advice: Don't buy a property when you're hung over.
Dave uses that spring water in the American whiskey, bourbon, and two tequilas he now makes, finishing it off in wine barrels. Unsurprisingly, he's taken a winemaking approach to spirits, growing his own grains and building his own distillery.
Making wine, spirits, and bottle labels are all driven by Dave's unique quest for perfection.
The joke he has with his group is: if it costs a lot of money, takes a lot of time, and is really stupid, they should be doing it because no one else will.
Dave also has Locations, which basically takes the best grapes from a certain country or location, throws out all the rules about how that wine is traditionally made and creates something delicious.
Bob Parker, the legendary wine critic, has called Locations some of the finest wine values you could hope to find. Several of them have a 90-plus rating and cost less than $20.
-ALISON MORRIS
www.orinswift.com
www.theprisone...
www.huneeuswin...
www.gallo.com
www.articlesof...
savageandcooke...
www.locationswi...
#wine #spirits #napavalley #zinfandel

[@italitally2989]

puked in my mouth watching this.