My dad, Fred Ottoson, is the gentleman pictured on the label. To honor him for his help in the winery over the years I've created Dad's Daily Red, a blend reminiscent of the wine California's Italian immigrants made for their own tables. During the 1930's and 40's this same wine style was marketed as a popular field blend labeled Claret or Burgundy and sold in traditional gallon jugs.
The backbone of our 2002 Dad's is the Rhone Valley's principle commodity grape, Carignane, grown plentifully in Mendocino County. We carefully blend in Zinfandel, Grenache, Petite Sirah, Merlot, and the rare Charbono. Spicy with medium body and moderate alcohol content, Dad's resembles the table wines of the Tuscan ancestors of our Mendocino County grape growers. Hearty Italian style food is a perfect match and Dad's goes down easy in the warm evenings of summer. There's more to the story.
My Scandinavian family started drinking wine when Dad developed stomach ulcers as a result of the insufficient nutrition he endured in the harsh jungle living conditions of the Pacific war zone during World War II. His severe physical state necessitated major surgical operations in the 1950’s leaving him with only a small portion of his stomach intact. His doctor, Horace McCorkle of the University of California in San Francisco had remarkable insight for his time, recommending Dad consume a daily glass of red wine with meals to aid his impaired digestion. Fred embraced this enlightened concept and had no need of further surgery. Over 50 years later he's a vigorously healthy veteran celebrating a full life at 84, still helping his daughter around the winery, and still drinking his favorite red wine!
$12.00
You can order directly from the winery by
emailing pacstar@mcn.org
or calling (707) 962-9463
(hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time)
AWARDS
Best of Class & Gold Medal, Sonoma--Marin
Wiine Competition ‘06
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