A Father's Day Reflection From Cartlidge & Browne
Thoughts from Stefan Cartlidge about his father, Tony
SANTA ROSA, Calif., June 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- As June begins, thoughts of graduations and Father's Day, along with the upcoming harvest, are top of mind at Cartlidge & Browne, producers of award-winning wines from California's North Coast region.
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Stefan Cartlidge, son of wine industry legend and founder of Cartlidge & Browne, Tony Cartlidge, recently graduated from Oberlin College. We asked him to reflect on the lessons he has learned from his dad.
When your father looms larger than life, does that inspire a son to grow bigger too?
"Much of what my father taught me he never endeavored to teach. As a kid I obsessed over the stories he told me about his life: racing through the streets of London in a taxi truck, hitchhiking across Europe, camping in Morocco and the former Soviet Union, and last, but not least, abandoning his English sensibility in order to come to America. Growing up, I thought to myself there was no way I could do half the things my dad had done before turning 23. When I told him this he looked delighted and said 'What a relief!'"
The stories Tony Cartlidge tells are seemingly endless, told in a meandering way that is endearing, thought-provoking and often hilarious. After several attempts at different occupations and a few fortune hunts, he fell upon an idea to become a vintner. The inspiration to make wine came to Tony unexpectedly while he driving a cement mixer in Washington State. He had just finished reading Robert Benson's Great Winemakers of California (1977) and decided that the wine business might be more fun than operating heavy machinery. Although he knew virtually nothing about wine, he hopped into his 1960 Rambler and struck out for Napa Valley.
After talking his way into a winery tour guide job, there was no stopping him. In short order, he was producing his own wine label with a winemaker who had never made wine before, bankrolled by a financier with a government pension. In 1980, Cartlidge & Browne (C&B) was not so much launched as spontaneously created. It sold faster than imagined, garnered plaudits more usually lauded upon bottles with higher prices and fancier pedigrees and wound up changing the winemaking establishment for good.
As Stefan tries to explain this approach to life, he quotes another uncompromising iconoclast.
"Unsurprisingly, my dad adores Dylan and never hesitates to quote him to me when he can. 'There's no success like failure, and that failure's no success at all.' It's easy to live a comfortable life if you never risk anything for something you want. But is that life satisfying? Probably not. My dad, unlike most people, tries to remember his successes more than his failures. After all, it makes for a better story."
The story of Cartlidge & Browne is one of taking chances: following your dream or even your hunch. Stefan has watched his father live his entire life without compromise, saying: "Risks are like the hidden roads to a destination, they're everywhere but most people don't take them."
How does a young man follow in a father's footsteps that lead off the beaten path?
"My problem was I saw my father's anecdotes as pieces to the whole jigsaw puzzle that was his life story: every piece of the puzzle seemed to fit perfectly into the larger pattern of his successes. As I grew older, I began to learn more about the pieces that never fit, about the failures. The first thing my dad ever tried to sell in America, well before wine, was a red sequin dress that nobody would touch. The older I get, the more I treasure stories like the one of the sequin dress."
Cartlidge & Browne was one of the earliest adapters of an American "garagiste" tradition. Originating in Bordeaux, this term was used to disparage small lot winemakers, sometimes working in their garages, who refused to follow the rules. Now, of course, it is a full-fledged movement responsible for making some of the world's best wines. In that same tradition, the founders of Cartlidge & Brown broke with the expected to pursue winemaking on their terms.
Tony Cartlidge is the first to admit that his enthusiasm sometimes eclipses his resources and he realized to keep the label alive he would need additional capital (or as he describes it, "adult supervision"). In 2011, the family-owned, Sonoma-based wine company Vintage Wine Estates, stepped in and set about to restore the iconic brand with a new package and aesthetic to bring the origin story to life.
Today, Tony Cartlidge is still on the road, although no longer in a 1960 Rambler. He travels for his name-sake brand on behalf of Vintage Wine Estates, introducing an innovative new package for the North Coast appellation Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay and speaking to a renewed dedication to making critically acclaimed wines.
In addition to his ambassadorship for the Cartlidge & Browne label, Cartlidge has launched a family venture. Dancing Crow Vineyards produces a limited-release Sauvignon Blanc from Lake County California. The legacy continues as Stefan enters the wine business upon his graduation this May from Oberlin College with a Bachelor's degree in English and Literature.
"Throughout my college career I have witnessed the uncertainty in my peers' faces when they discuss their futures. Like I felt with my father, when many of my friend's hear of another's success it only highlights their own failures. No one teaches kids how to fail in college, and how to fail with grace. The surprising thing, as I learned from my dad, is that the people who don't fail are the ones who have never tried. To make matters personal, had my dad not risked humiliation and failure in order to come to America and start a business like Cartlidge & Browne, I would never have existed."
About Cartlidge & Browne Winery
Cartlidge & Browne Winery was founded in 1981 by Tony Cartlidge and David Browne. One of the earliest adapters of an American "garagiste" tradition, the founders of Cartlidge & Brown broke with the expected to pursue winemaking on their own terms, achieving critical and commercial success. Cartlidge & Browne was purchased in 2011 by Vintage Wine Estates, a family-owned collection of wineries in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino, who continue the tradition of creating affordable, well-crafted critically acclaimed wines from North Coast growing regions of California.
For more information contact: Mary Ann Vangrin 707-738-0338
About Dancing Crow Vineyards
Dancing Crow Vineyards is the culmination of generations of wine experience and the collective energies of the Forni-Cartlidge family. Founded in 2013 by wine industry icon Tony Cartlidge and sons Dr. Adam Forni and Stefan Cartlidge, Dancing Crow Vineyards produces a limited-release Sauvignon Blanc from a 28-acre, certified organic vineyard in Lake County, California at the foot of Mt. Konocti near Clear Lake.
For more information contact: Tony Cartlidge (707) 287-4495
SOURCE Cartlidge & Browne
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