QUADY
NORTH
We
recently popped into Quady North in Jacksonville. What a fun, funky
little place. From the outside, it looks like the typical
turn-of-the-century building in J'Ville. Inside, it is an intimate
room with whitewashed walls, modern, colorful furniture and a cool,
breezy air about it. The first thing I learned- it is pronounced
Qwah-Dee, not Qwāy-Dee, as
I've always thought.
Jeannie
took us through a tasting, I was particularly fond of the 2011 Rose`, a
Syrah/Granache blend that epitomizes the “new style” of American
Rose`s- clean, dry with a great nose and supple acidity. In other
words, a perfect summer wine.
I
got chatting with a wonderful couple from McMinnville who told us of
a guy up there making oak stave furniture (from used wine barrels),
in particular, an Adirondack chair that had notched arms for wine
glasses- brilliant! This let to a story that owners Herb &
Melanie Quady had a baby last year and had received a cradle made
from a wine barrel. Wow, talk about starting them young. Future
winemaker there, or at least an aficionado.
Speaking
of children, Herb makes a great Syrah called 4-2,A, a term created by
his daughter. Little Margaux was blending juice and water and called
her concoction 4-2-A, or fourtooay (she thought of chardonnay,
Cabernet, Viognier). If not winemaking, she has a
bright future in marketing.
One
last trick I learned- if using a wine barrel as a planter, put
plastic gallon jugs on the bottom as fill to make the planter
lighter. This still gives you plenty of soil. I wish I thought of
that before I planted my tomatoes. But, luckily my ½ barrel is on
castors, so I can roll it into the sun for best exposure.
