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The Fat Dragon story began in May of 2008.
At the time, Dani was in Hong Kong on business attending a prestigious Domaine Romanee Conti wine tasting being held at the Happy Valley Racecourse, one of the oldest horse racecourses in Asia and while most of us would have sat back and enjoyed a vertical tasting of the most expensive wines in the world, Dani snuck away to place a bet. She looked at the lineup and, unbeknownst to her at the time, picked the long shot at 44 to 1 odds – a horse called Fat Dragon. She bet all of her Hong Kong Dollars on Fat Dragon to win and he won! It was destiny.
While Dani went on to blow all of her winnings that night and that could have been the end of it, she arrived back home to the states and told Mike the story and his first reaction was “wow, that’s a great name for our future wine brand we’ve always dreamed of creating“ and since that time, Fat Dragon has been a project percolating in the background as Dani and Mike juggled life and other initiatives – and sought out the perfect place to call home and give proper life to Fat Dragon.
Fast forward to 2018. We found home in the form of a beautiful 30-acre property that had 16.5 acres of derelict vineyard, but amazing terroir located just outside the quaint town of Healdsburg, California. It’s one of those rare parcels up on the bench that only comes up once in a generation if you’re lucky and had been in the same family for 50-years.
In order to execute on our vision for Fat Dragon and produce truly world class fruit and wines, we gutted the property. Once the vineyard was cleared, all new hardware, irrigation systems, drainage, and deer fencing were installed. In 2019, a new agricultural well was drilled.
Fat Dragon is situated up on the eastern bench of the Dry Creek Valley in north-central Sonoma County, just outside the city of Healdsburg, CA. The 30-acre property sits at an elevation of 220 feet and benefits from incredible views of the western hills and more important, its 3 distinct alluvial soil types which help shape the distinct character of our wines.
The property’s proximity to the Pacific Ocean, along with the influences of the San Francisco Bay, Russian River, Lake Sonoma and Dry Creek all help set the stage for the ideal grape growing conditions – long, warm and sunny days followed by cool coastal air and fog at night that gives the vines and grapes a much needed chance to relax and allows the grapes to mature more slowly and retain both their acidity and balance.
These are the perfect growing conditions for our Bordeaux and Rhone varietals.
We committed countless hours early on before replanting to conducting soil testing and research to identify a selection of root stocks and grape varietals that would best represent our distinct terroir and microclimate.
As a result, we planted Fat Dragon’s front vineyard blocks to two different clones of Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. The vineyard blocks range in size from 0.65 acres to 4 acres and the rolling slopes range from 10 to 30 degrees. Row and vine spacing is either 7×4 or 8×4 and all of our vines are cane pruned and the fruit is hand harvested and sorted.
We are exacting in our farming in an effort to produce premium fruit. Hundreds of hours are dedicated to tasks throughout the growing season including selective leaf removal to let a bit more sunlight get to the grapes and fruit thinning to limit the number of grape clusters per shoot to ensure we only keep the very best grape clusters on the vines to mature.
It costs a lot more to farm with such precision, but we think in the end it’s worth it.
At the time, Dani was in Hong Kong on business attending a prestigious Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wine tasting being held at Happy Valley, one of the oldest horse racecourses in Asia and while most of us would have sat back and enjoyed a vertical tasting of the most expensive wines in the world, Dani snuck away to place a bet. She looked at the lineup and, unbeknownst to her at the time, picked the long shot at 44 to 1 odds – a horse called Fat Dragon. She bet all of the Hong Kong Dollars she had in her pocket on Fat Dragon to win – and he won! It was destiny.
While Dani went on to blow all of her winnings that night and that could have been the end of it, she arrived back home to the states and told Mike the story and his first reaction was “wow, that’s a great name for the future wine brand we’ve always dreamed of creating together“ and since that time, Fat Dragon has been a project percolating in the background as Dani and Mike juggled life and other initiatives – and sought out the perfect place to call home and give proper life to Fat Dragon.
Fast forward to 2018. We found home in the form of a beautiful 30-acre property that had 16.5 acres of derelict vineyard, but amazing terroir located just outside the quaint town of Healdsburg, California. It’s one of those rare parcels up on the bench that only comes up once in a generation if you’re lucky, and it had been in the same family for 50-years.
In order to execute on our vision for Fat Dragon and produce truly world class fruit and wines, we had to gut the property. Once the vineyard was cleared, all new hardware, irrigation systems, drainage, and deer fencing were installed. In 2019, a new agricultural well was drilled.
The vineyard was replanted to 2 clones of Cabernet Sauvignon and Rhone varietals that we love and that do so well here such as Syrah, Grenache and Mourvédre. The buildings were all gutted or rebuilt and then we waited … and waited. It takes 3 years to produce the first commercial crop and for Fat Dragon that arrived in 2022 and we bottled that first vintage in the spring of 2024.
We won’t lie. This was an intimidating 6-year project, and it took a lot of hard work, grit and determination to get to this point. But we wouldn’t trade the experience for anything in the world. Realizing our dream and this vision for Fat Dragon has been incredible. We are just so proud of and excited about the quality of the fruit and the wines we’re producing, and we feel so fortunate to wake up every day to the beauty and nature that surrounds us here at Fat Dragon Farm. It is all a true gift.
We are so excited to share Fat Dragon with you and hope that you will come join us on this amazing journey.
Cheers!
Dani & Mike Price
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