Fogarty Winery a throwback to another era
The Wine Guys, by Tom Marquardt & Patrick Darr
San Marcos Daily Record
April 23, 2008
Today not many small to medium sized wineries produce wines — using eight different grape varieties — like Thomas Fogarty, and do it successfully. Nor have many long-lived wineries employed the same winemaker, Michael Martella, for 27 years. Owner Dr. Thomas Fogarty is an eminently successful vascular surgeon, professor of surgery at Stanford University and inventor/ businessman.
Among Dr. Fogarty’s 63 inventions are the balloon catheter as well as an entire line of vascular clips and clamps. Fogarty farms two distinct estate vineyards, both in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. They sit atop the Santa Cruz Mountains that parallel the chilly Pacific ocean to the west, and overlook Palo Alto and San Jose to the east. The 25-acre Skyline Estate is a cool climate site which is best suited to pinot noir, and chardonnay. While the 14-acre Gist Ranch Estate site is still in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA despite being 17 miles south, it is a much warmer site than the Skyline vineyard. This vineyard is more amenable to Bordeaux varieties such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc.
Both of these estate vineyards are divided into micro-vineyards of .25 - 5.25 acres in size, and some are bottled and labeled with the micro-vineyard designation.
We recently met with Michael Martella to taste some of Thomas Fogarty's wines and learn more about the not often seen Santa Cruz Mountain AVA.
