Folktale Winery takes over Chateau Julien with affinity for fun, music and dogs:Kurt cobain quotes a

HYDERABAD, India - July 30, 2015 - PRLog -- Folktale Winery takes over Chateau Julien with affinity for fun, music and dogs: Kurt cobain quotes and The extended cut.

Last night an Icelandic pop rock concert broke out in a Carmel Valley barrel room.

If that seems like atypical behavior at a winery, that's about right.

Brand new Folktale Winery & Vineyards in Carmel Valley—and its sister company Alcohol by Volume—do things a little differently, which translates to good news for local wine lovers and social souls in general.

The first hint to that end arrived long before Kaleo, on tour from home base in Iceland, started bouncing sounds off hundreds of gallons of wine last night. (Former local favorite Ryan Bisio opened.)

ALC/VOL's landing page, for instance, features a YouTube video of a kid wailing away on some drums and the line "Welcome to ALC/VOL. It it's too loud, you're too old."

Elsewhere on the website—underneath a Kurt Cobain quote reading "Punk is musical freedom. It's saying, doing and playing what you want"—announces ALC/VOL is the outgrowth of its co-founders' desires to shake free of corporate restraints to construct a company that allowed for more self-determination.

Its seeds were sown in recession-era 2009, when they set out to create quality bottles that could sell for less than $10. Maybe not so renegade as Henry Rollins screaming on the microphone, but edgy enough for a buttoned-down industry that raises its sniffer at anything under $20.

The fact that it’s helped lead to a fun and progressive concept at Folktale, in the former Chateau Julien, has me hankering to listen to more NOFX and Ramones myself.

ALC/VOL’s first label was Alias. They kept costs low by maintaining a lean, low-overhead team where everyone wears a lot of hats, investing money on grapes over advertising, and signing longer term contracts with trusted growers who could meet minimums for style and quality.

“With good growers and good grapes, making great wine is a lot easier,” says co-founder Greg Ahn, who has lived and raised a family in Monterey for a dozen years. “The sales side is where it's most difficult.”

On that front the nuclear team used smart label design and industry contacts to build relationships with vendors moving from the East Coast west, adding new brands along the way.

ALC/VOL continues to buy Monterey County and Napa grapes and bottles them under popular labels like Aviary, Bread & Butter, Manifesto, State of Art and Des Amis.

The group recently acquired the upscale Le Mistral Rhone-blend brand from locally based Ventana Vineyards, which does a Syrah-Grenache red blend and a Viognier-Marsanne white.

But the game changer was the purchase of Chateau Julien this April by a partnership between ALC/VOL partners Ahn, Jonathan White and Matt Scarlett and silent partner local grape growers.

Tell me the last time a local winery did that.

Before the show various VIPs and wine industry people threw bean bags on corn hole decks, relaxed on pillows beneath trees on the patio and tried tastes of soft Rosé, mineral-accented Mistrals and a meaty flagship Pinot.

The place opens to the public with a party 4:30-7:30pm Friday, July 31, (and then stays open 11am-8pm daily).

Fred McCarty will furnish the classic rock/county music because apparently punk heroes Bad Religion were booked.

To capitalize on the valley sun and comely grounds the Folktale crew encourages visitors to taste al fresco in the front yard area they call the “wine garden,” at tables around the fire pits (which should arrive this week) or on the modest lawns with blankets.

Visitors can also taste at the pretty 26-foot single slab cypress wood communal table in the winery's solarium or the redesigned gallery where Chateau placed its tasting bar.

A hostess greets visitors at the garden with a sparkling wine, one of six wine tastes for $20 (waived with purchase of two bottles) poured by the resident wine educators.

Wines also come by the glass ($9-$14) or bottle ($28-$45), with optional food pairings—Lula's Chocolates, Cheese Shop cheese, Salumeria Luca charcuterie and Monterey Meringues sweets ($10-$22/plate).

Folktale will ultimately feature seven Monterey wines, with a focus on the Carmel Valley Road estate grown Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but the first vintage of grapes grown there at the former Chateau Julien (2015) hasn't been bottled yet.

Chateau Julien's wines largely underwhelmed, so here's hoping—and expecting—a Folktale restart translates to improvement.

The collection of collaborators appears promising.

Winemaker David Baird is a Carmel native with recent experience at Paso Robles' Justin Winery and Santa Ynez's Fess Parker. He also gets input from two rising stars of the craft, consulting winemakers Sabine Rodems of Wrath and Scratch fame and Jamey Whetstone, who made wine with respected Turley in Paso Robles and also consults for Coastal Luxury Management co-owner Charles Banks’ Terroir portfolio.

For the Folktale label, they currently source grapes from Mission Ranch and Ventana in Arroyo Seco for a sparkling Brut, Rosé, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, to go with the white and red Rhone blend Le Mistral across the tasting flight.

The Folktale name and label took months to develop.

“It came down to storytelling and being a place where discovery is happening,” Ahn says. “As a grape growing region, Monterey still hasn't had its time in the sun.”

The music-and-mingling tradition continues 4:30-7:30pm Friday and Saturdays and 2-5pm Sundays for what they're calling "Sip, Sample & Be Social."

The lawn games like cornhole and horseshoes encourage interaction to go with the entertainment like John Sherry Aug. 1 (request his Game of Thrones theme song) and Bleu doing vintage blues Aug. 2.

Dogs are welcome. Ahn even envisions building a dog park in the front yard of the winery.

Again, not crazy rebellious Dead Kennedys stuff, but doing things with a different tact.

"Our primary goal is to create a local social environment," Ahn says. "We want to build a town square spirit where the community can gather."

They are planning food truck days and guest chefs from local restaurants and catering outfits, with Director of Hospitality John Fitzgerald's primary job duty being to create a welcoming and communal vibe.

"Wine should be fun," he says.

Things at Folktale already are.

Url: http://quotesdna.com/kurt-cobain-quotes/