The Grapes of a Passionate Path
How the Krutz family of Mississippi became California winemakers and purveyors of fine foods, from coast to coast

By Hank Burdine • Photography by Ed Aiona
 
Fred Krutz is a family man who grew up in Cleveland, Mississippi. He graduated from Ole Miss in 1972 with a degree in business. As a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity, Fred enjoyed the revelry of the times and was privy to the halcyon days of the chapter. The wine of choice in those days was either Ripple, Mad Dog 20/20 or Nite Train Express, depending on how light your pocketbook was. 
 
While many fraternity brothers went home after graduation to go to work in their respective family businesses, Fred went to Atlanta and got a job in construction. There he met and fell in love with Cherry Barron. Things were about to change, but little did he know just how much. After getting married, the young couple moved back to Mississippi. While Cherry taught school, Fred studied law at Ole Miss, receiving his juris doctorate degree in 1977.
 
Moving to Jackson, Fred and Cherry reared three boys, each one following their father to Ole Miss. Fred became a partner in the successful Jackson law firm of Forman, Perry, Watkins, Krutz & Tardy. On a golfing trip to Pebble Beach, California, with law partner and friend W.G. Watkins, a serendipitous, defining moment in the life of the Krutz family presented itself. Stopping by The Cheese Shop in Carmel with their wives, owner Kent Torrey recommended a picnic supply of wines, cheeses and bread, packed in a wicker basket. Later that afternoon, Fred and W.G. became hooked...on good wine. According to an article in the Spring 2007 issue of the Ole Miss Alumni Review, Torrey stated, “They became very good clients of ours. Two of the most fun things to do in life are eating and drinking. The Krutz and Watkins families have learned to share that passion.”
 
Fred came home with a small collection of wine and turned a seldom-used closet into his first wine cellar. The family soon moved to Madison and built a larger cellar complete with climate control. As Fred refined his taste in wine and his knowledge of the grape grew, so did his wine cellar. Every few months he ordered a good-sized stash of wine from his friend Kent in Carmel, to be split with his law partner. Fred always made it a point to be at home when the UPS truck arrived with the wine. While unloading about 20 heavy and sloshing boxes into Fred’s garage one day, the customary driver, having made several previous deliveries, looked at the label on each box that read ‘The Cheese Shop’ and said,  “Mr. Krutz, you sure do like cheese!” Over the years, Fred developed his oenoligical sense of taste and smell at home, recalling, “I did a whole lot of OJD (On the Job Drinking). I became an expert.” 
 
With dad’s passion for wine developing, the entire Krutz family began to enjoy wine with each meal. Seated around the dinner table, Fred would discuss the fundamental aspects of oenology regarding the proper glass to use, the color of the wine, the preferred technique of the swirl for oxygenation, the nose of the wine, and the taste as you swish it around in your mouth, savor it and finally swallow. What was the essence, the tastes, the complexity, the after tones and the finish of the wine? Fred passed on two rules to his three boys: “You ought to drink what tastes best to you and never base what you think about a wine on cost. Don’t be a wine snob.”
 
One weekend while Fred and Cherry were out of town, son Patrick had some friends over for hamburgers. Not being able to reach his parents, he knew it would be okay if he got a cheap bottle of wine from the cellar. A bottle of 1992 Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon from the Red Rock Terrace vineyard was chosen. Without realizing it, Patrick had picked one of the most prestigious California Cabernet available at the time and priced between $200-300. “I knew I was in trouble when I took the first sip!” admitted Patrick. Later Fred recalled, “That was a mistake but I wouldn’t want him to make a habit of it!”
 
Patrick finished Ole Miss with a business degree in 2001 and took off a few months to see the world. He wanted to know if he should follow his daddy into law or strike out on his own. As an expert scuba diver, skydiver and bungee jumper, Patrick traveled to New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Thailand, enjoying his sports and exploring the world. After about eight months of traveling he returned home with no idea for a career.  Fred suggested he go to Carmel and work for his friend Torrey at The Cheese Shop. Patrick accepted the job offer and joined the gang in Carmel. He had never been to California. “It was there where I started analytically breaking down wine and really paying attention to the details and components of wine.” With the help of Torrey and friends, “I was encouraged to take on the art of making wine.” Patrick recalls, “I tasted a lot of different samples of wine from the salesmen that came in and whenever I had a question, well, the manager would just throw a book at me. I found out about wine by myself, with the expert help of others.” 
 
By the summer of 2003, Patrick made a decision to produce his own wine. With the assistance of his mentor, Dylan Sheldon and Fred’s checkbook, Krutz Family Cellars was formed in Sonoma County, California. The initial production was 63 cases. And from then on, the legacy of Patrick’s winemaking business has been about “small lot, hand-crafted, boutique wines. I’m not a large production kind of guy. I like to have my hands on everything. To be able to know what each and every barrel is up to, at all times, is something that I hold of the utmost importance.”
 
According to his aunt, Emily Crowley, “Patrick is a very charismatic person; he is a people magnet.” Patrick went on to study the art of oenology at the premier school of wine, the University of California-Davis, and has become a perfectionist. As the entire Krutz family will attest, “There is something about opening a bottle of wine versus opening a bottle of liquor or a six-pack of beer. When you can share the wine with your family at a meal, it just makes it that much better.

Although his dream is to own a family vineyard one day, Patrick presently contracts his grapes from around California. At first it was difficult to get local vineyards to sell to him. Now, he has a vintage to offer as representative of the quality of wine he makes. Samples of different grapes come in from many vineyards with hopes to be chosen as the basis for his Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines. Currently, with the help of his youngest brother, 24-year-old Cole, Krutz Family Cellars will produce in total about 1,250 cases of their present run of 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2006 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Cole has been a welcomed addition to the business and serves as “my right-hand man, my cellar rat! He’s Number 2.” And since Krutz Family Cellars is a hands on operation, “it’s pretty cool to have an extra set of able hands.” The brothers work well together, but Patrick says, “Cole has to pay his dues!” Their goal is to annually produce about 5,000 cases of wine without hiring additional employees. A mobile bottling operation bottles most of the wine. 
 
Cole has decided to venture out on his own and is producing varietals under the family label. The brothers share a warehouse in Sonoma County with several other winemakers under the name American Wine Secrets. Cleanliness is of utmost importance. “You don’t want any bacteria or other wines intermingling with yours, so when it’s your turn to use the already sanitized equipment, you sanitize it again!”
 
Being a family affair, each year when the grapes are harvested in the fall, Cherry Krutz and Polly Watkins travel to Carmel to help. In the traditional manner, several batches of grapes are placed in open vats and rolling up their walking shorts, the ladies jump in and begin to stomp. In the Christmas Day issue of last year’s Clarion-Ledger, Cherry recalled, “We came out of the vat and had purple feet and purple hands. It was just so much fun. It feels like Mississippi mud in the bottom of the vat. It kind of sucks your feet down in there, stomping and tromping.”
 
Not to let his partner outpace him, W.G. and Polly have even gotten in on the winemaking. They have begun to contract with Patrick each year to produce a run of their own private label, Watkins Cellars. Patrick serves as W.G.’s personal vintner, designing a Cabernet Sauvignon to specifications given to him. Being able to sample the grapes and derive the proper fruitiness and oak-driven tastes W.G. wants, Patrick has become quite an artist at his craft. 
 
From Sonoma to Rosemary Beach
Fred and Cherry vacation each year at their house in Rosemary Beach, located in the Florida Panhandle. When the small wine and cheese shop on Main Street came up for sale in 2003, Fred and W.G. couldn’t resist the opportunity, so, they bought it. The Krutzs still had their middle son Bryan trying to figure out what to do with his life. He also had graduated from Ole Miss with a degree in business. He and his wife Cindy moved to the luxurious yet family-oriented resort community to run the store. The Courtyard Wine and Cheese Bar, owned and run by the Krutz and Watkins families, is a lovely and quaint New Orleans style courtyard that specializes in small-production boutique wine and cheeses. Huge banana plants and the quaintness of the courtyard make you feel as if you are in the French Quarter or the Caribbean. The bar seats about fifty people at night with a few small tables scattered about. Bryan exclaims, “At a 10-seat bar, that’s pretty packed. We are the only place that sells Patrick’s wine in the Panhandle. I cannot keep them on the shelf. The Pinot Noir has been sold out for months.”

Bryan knows his stuff and can spot a bogus or braggadocios oenophile right away. “Do you carry [this or that]?” Bryan has often been asked, as someone who has just read Wine Connoisseur walks in the door, having really no idea what he is asking for. “No, but have you tried this Robert Pecota Sauvignon Blanc from Napa Valley or maybe the Domaine de Courteillac Merlot/Cabernet from Bordeaux? You know, you really ought to try it.” In the world of wine, there are always diamonds in the rough on the verge of being discovered, as there are also fools waiting to be found.
 
Bryan specializes in French baguette, aged Asiago cheese and olive rosemary breads, baked right behind the bar. He serves 50 or so cheeses from around the world and specialty butters, fondues and olive oils for dipping. Cured meats such as salamis, bolognas and pepper-crusted sausages are sold whole or served with various custom designed cheese plates. Bryan and Cindy want their customers to be as relaxed as possible, as most of them are on vacation. On weekends there is live music and the entire courtyard and tasting room is WIFI compatible. Pets are welcome with feeding and watering stations scattered about. Patrons are invited to come early and settle in while a chair is available. Normal posted hours are from noon until ten, but Bryan says, “Everyone must leave by midnight regardless, town law!”
 
Did Fred have a plan for all of his family to stay together in business and be involved in a love of wine that he acquired while on a golfing trip to California? Probably not. But he always instilled in his boys, “Whatever you choose to do, have a passion for it, because you will be doing it for the rest of your life.”
 
The Krutz Family Cellar’s logo is a magnolia blossom emblazoned on every bottle of wine. Whenever Patrick goes into a local bar or restaurant in California, he is called by his nickname “Mississippi.” Because of his expertise and drive, he and Cole have brought Mississippi to California; just as his brother Bryan and wife Cindy have also brought Mississippi to Rosemary Beach. DM