Firesteed - 1995 Awards and Reviews Barbera d'Asti D.O.C

Reviews and Awards by Vintage:

2000 | 1997

General Reviews

Firesteed 1995 Barbera d'Asti D.O.C. Awards

Gold: Barbera - 1998 Indy International Wine Competition
Silver: Barbera - Hilton Head Hospitality Association's WineFest 2000
Silver: Barbera - 1999 International Wine Challenge
Silver: Barbera - 1999 Indy International Wine Competition
Silver: Barbera/Reds - 1998 World Wine Championships
Silver: Italian Reds - 1998 International Eastern Wine Competition
Bronze: Barbera - 1999 Intervin International Wine Competition
Bronze: Barbera - 1999 International Eastern Wine Competition
Bronze: Barbera - 1999 Dallas Morning News International Wine Competition
Bronze: Barbera - 1997 Indy International Wine Competition
Bronze: Barbera - 1997 International Eastern Wine Competition

Firesteed 1995 Barbera d'Asti D.O.C. Reviews

Howard Rossbach had a surprise for me. I'd never guess, he said with a wry smile.

I did, of course, and was wrong. Drat! Fooled again.

I should stop here and explain just who Howard Rossbach is. You may know him best by his bestselling Oregon Pinot Noir, Firesteed. It's one of the few Oregon pinots that have consistently provided great quality for less than $10. You have, no doubt, found Firesteed recommended here many times and also in my "50 best values," which appears in The Seattle Times' Pacific magazine each year.

Rossbach's wife, Katie, calls Firesteed a "virtual" winery because there is no winery. The whole thing began with Rossbach, a Seattle resident and Oregon Pinot lover from way back, who developed the label. Others grow the grapes in Oregon's Willamette Valley, and the wine is made at Flynn Vineyards south of McMinnville. The Rossbach takes over as a master marketer. Firesteed, which began locally as an unknown label, is at 30,000 cases and recognized nationally.

Which brings us back to Rossbach's surprise. He had a new wine, he said. Naturally, I assumed he had expanded the Firesteed Oregon brand and included a white - a chardonnay or sauvignon blanc perhaps. That's where I was wrong.

I should have suspected that if you can have a "virtual" winery in Oregon you could have one anywhere in the world. Why not Italy? Which is exactly where Rossbach struck next. While on a trip to the Piedmont in Italy's northwestern corner, he sipped a Barbera there he rather liked. It was supple, mouthfilling, brimming with fruit with no harsh edges or heavy tannins. In short, it was easy and enjoyable to drink. Funny, that's exactly how one might describe Firesteed Pinot Noir.

Apparently, the Seattle resident had similar thoughts, because the next thing he knew he was negotiating to bring this tasty Barbera to the consumer under the Firesteed label. It is called Barbera d'Asti (named for the town and area of Asti in Piedmont). The region is probably best known for Asti Spumante, but is also responsible for great Barbera.

The Firesteed Barbera d'Asti is from the 1995 vintage, considered a fine one for the variety. The plummy fruit flavors are nicely preserved along with a hint of spice from oak aging. It is a wine that is truly inviting - inviting you to take yet another sip.

"I wanted something that could be drunk everyday," says Rossbach.

And that you can do, at an affordable price of around $9. Not bad for a "virtual" winery.

The winery is virtual, but the wine is for real
Tom Stockley, The Seattle Times January 1, 1997

This wines aroma showed us dry fruit, leather and tobacco - classic Pinot Noir attributes. It was bone dry and well structured with big tannins. Tannins are the chemicals in grapes that give wine character and structure. Too much tannin content can make your mouth pucker and you teeth feel gritty. With the meal, this wine dominated the food… the experts in my wine-tasting group did not like the pairing with food, but the amateur tasters really liked it.

Frank Sutherland "Red-wine fans have holiday options" The Tennessean; Dec. 1997.

…The wine was full of dried fruit and cherry flavors …The chicken salad made the wine softer, reducing its impact in the mouth. So, yes, you can drink red wine with chicken salad.

Frank Sutherland "Wine Completes the Chicken Salad" The Tennessean; June, 1997

Firesteed 1995 Barbera d'Asti, $10. A Northwest negociante, Firesteed brings in, among other things, this Italian wine. A light rosy red, with sweet cherry aromas. Slightly vegetal, gamey flavors behind the cherry. Lightweight, agreeable.

The Wine Iconoclast, August 1999

Firesteed 1995 Barbera d'Asti...Garnet red, this wine has an amazing aroma of mint chocolate - like After Eight dinner mints. Bright flavours of chocolate and mint with jumpy acidity and ripe fruit in the mid-palate. Ends with cranberry and early season rhubarb flavours. Would be good with tomato-sauced pasta dishes.

Jim White "The Magic Winery" Winetidings; November, 1999

Look ma! No land, no vines, no bottles! (How do they do it?).......What do Microsoft, Starbucks and the tiny, wannabe winery Firesteed have in common? Each is based in Seattle, Washington, and each has made it their mission to reach well beyond the Pacific Northwest to change consumer perception - and our buying habits.

Microsoft and Starbucks you know all about. Howard Rossbach, the 45-year-old entrepreneur behind Firesteed, would love to have his company following suit.

His goal is to turn us on to really good Pinot Noir - are you ready for this? - for under $10 US a bottle! and to introduce us to Italian DOC Barbera d'Asti for $8 US a bottle! (Let's hope he succeeds. We conducted a tasting of his wines and they're appealing for the price. See sidebar.

Rossbach's wines are available in Canada from Ontario west to British Columbia. His Oregon Pinot Noir retails for about $17 Cdn., his Italian Barbera for about $15 Cdn.

Rossbach operates what he terms a "virtual winery," for he has no land, no vines and no bottling equipment. Just long term contracts with growers and a custom crusher to produce his wine.

Departing a wine sales job at the start of the decade, Rossbach decided that what the world needed was really good, really cheap Oregon Pinot Noir. He negotiated long term contract with ten growers in the Willamette Valley, crushed and blended his first wine at Knudsen Erath and brought to market a 1992 Pinot Noir that caught the fancy of wine buyers.

In seven years, Rossbach has built his Pinot Noir business to 25,000 cases - 2,000 of which wind up in Canada, 500 in Ontario.

How does Rossbach produce such inexpensive wine? For one thing, his Oregon wine doesn't spend time ageing in costly oak barrels. Instead, he briefly marinates oak chips in his bright, supple Pinot Noir. Therefore, "Oak ageing" at Firesteed is measured in weeks, not years.

"I want the fruit character of the grape to be the star," says Rossbach. "I go to great lengths to keep the tannins under control. The result is a bright-tasting, fruit-filled wine that is slightly pale in colour by Pinot standards."

Unlike so many wines of Oregon, which rarely see market shelves outside the Pacific Northwest, Rossbach makes an effort to move his wine into a larger market.

"Ninety-five percent of our sales are in Canada, Europe and US markets outside the Pacific Northwest," he says.

Rossbach's love of Barbera drove him to find 60 growers in Asti, in northwest Italy, with whom he has negotiated long-term contracts for supply. Barbera accounts for more than half the wine produced in Piedmont.

"Barbera is a fabulous tasting, everyday wine. We hired four oenologists to manage our crop and control the leaf canopy. Left untended, excessive canopy creates Barbera that it too tannic or too acidic," notes Rossbach who travels to Italy three tines a year to survey production and once to blend the wine to be bottled.

Firesteed's first Barbera was 1995. Canadians will soon see the 1997 vintage moving into stores. This wine sees some oak barrel ageing. Not much, but some.

Although he spends his days marketing inexpensive wines, Rossbach is a collector of serious, fine wine. The Bronx-born businessman, who majored in botany and initially thought he would become a plant taxonomist, has 1,500 bottles in his Seattle cellar, the largest sections being first-growth Bordeaux and old red Burgundies.

We asked Rossbach what treasures he might drag up from his cellar for the pending Millennium dinner.

"I have identified several candidates," he says. "We'll have the 1929 La Gaffelière (St. Emilion) and the 1921 Château Rieussec (Santernes) for sure. I'm also eyeing the 1976 Knudsen Erath, Erath Vineyard, Pinot Noir (Oregon) and the 1990 Covey Run, Celilo Vineyard, Chardonnay (Washington State). "They're exceptional wines."

Jim White "The Magic Winery" Winetidings; November, 1999