‘THE 50 BY 50’ A NEW WINE BRAND AND ESTATE LOCATED IN THE WOODEN VALLEY OF NAPA, CA FOUNDER GERALD CASALE OF THE LEGENDARY GROUP
DEVO REVEALS THE EVOLUTION OF HIS LONGTIME PASSION FOR WINE
Artist rendering of THE 50 BY 50 Estate house originally designed by 20th Century Modernist architect Mies Van Der Rohe.
GERALD V. CASALE, legendary musician and co-founder of the band DEVO, has announced the launch of THE 50 BY 50, his new wine brand he created for the 23-acre 50 BY 50 estate located in the Wooden Valley of Napa, CA.
On Wednesday, April 30, CASALE will host the first tasting party for the launch of his debut wines from THE 50 BY 50 at the Kun House–designed in 1936 by renowned architect Richard Neutra for journalist Josef Kun–in the Hollywood Hills. At this event presented exclusively by Wally’s Wine & Spirits, guests will get to taste the debut wines from THE 50 BY 50 which currently include: the 2012 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and the 2013 Sonoma Coast Rosé of Pinot Noir. Tickets are available to the general public, here: http://tinyurl.com/mlfrsa7 or www.wallywine.com.
THE 50 BY 50 brand marks the evolution of GERALD’s longtime passion for wine which started in 1978 when DEVO–the iconic new wave, art punk group CASALE co-founded with Mark Mothersbaugh–left Ohio for the promise of California which delivered an explosive wake-up call to food and wine. “Commensurate with our ‘new wave’ music revolution, there was a gang of new wave chefs inventing culinary dreams in Los Angeles. I met restaurateurs Michael McCarty (Michael’s), Bruce Marder (Brentwood Restaurant, House Café), Wolfgang Puck (Spago, Wolfgang Punk, Chinois on Main, WP24), Piero Selvaggio (Valentino) and Jeremiah Tower (Stars) among others,” explains CASALE. “I became a disciple of the new California cuisine and the California wines with which it was often paired. After attending an endless array of California winemaker dinners, meeting many of the best, I drank my way to knowledge.”
“I’m often asked why we are launching THE 50 BY 50 with a Pinot Noir and a Rose of Pinot Noir,” CASALE adds. “The answer is, I love the varietal, and I am a Pinot Noir junkie.” By 1990, DEVO had toured the world seven times over. CASALE became enamored with Italian and Spanish wines including Barbaresco, Barolo, Brunello, the Super Tuscans (Italy) and Vega Sicilia from Spain. One fateful night before a show in Paris, a French promoter started opening some legendary Domaine de la Romanée Conti (DRC) wines and CASALE fell in love with Pinot Noir. After returning to the states a short period later, CASALE gave California Pinot Noirs–which were reasonably priced and in low demand–another try. After enjoying a bottle of 1989 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir with breast of duck, he never looked back.
Since Pinot Noir grapes don’t thrive in Napa’s Wooden Valley, THE 50 BY 50 went to the best location nearby to purchase the fruit where they do thrive–the Sonoma Coast. GERALD explains, “Our ambitious five-year plan for releasing our first vintage of complex, Bordeaux-style Estate wine is on course. Meanwhile, to launch our 50 by 50 brand, we are offering the 2012 Pinot Noir and 2013 Rose of Pinot Noir as our debut releases. The fruit for both wines was grown and harvested at Rodger’s Creek, in the Sonoma Coast AVA (American Viticultural Area), helmed by Randy Luginbill and Jonathan Gold, veterans with 30 years of experience. Rodger’s Creek vines are 12 years old. The soils are a Kidd stony loam and our grapes came from vines on an approximately 9 percent slope at an elevation of 675 feet.”
The anchor of THE 50 BY 50 vision and its namesake rests in the creation of its estate house, a realization of a never-built architectural masterpiece known as the “50 by 50” designed over 60 years ago by the pre-eminent, 20th Century Modernist architect Mies Van Der Rohe. “Centrally located on the flat basin of THE 50 BY 50 Estate, it is the true inspiration of our brand,” GERALD explains. “This perfectly square design is clad in 8 high tempered glass panels measuring 10 feet high x 25 feet long. Therefore, each clear glass wall is bisected by only one vertical, load-bearing post. The view from inside gives the occupants an uninterrupted, 360 degree panorama of the 50 by 50 Estate with its gentle slopes, giant live oaks, terraced rows of grape vines and the mountains beyond.”
THE 50 BY 50 Estate is a 23-acre property situated southeast of the Atlas Peak AVA (American Viticultural Area) and north of the Wild Horse AVA on the Monticello Road incline in the Wooden Valley of Napa, CA. Starting at a roadside elevation of 830 feet, it meanders pleasantly down to 600 feet. The gentle slopes are covered with “forward gravelly loam,” a rich volcanic soil that drains well and lends itself perfectly to the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot varietals which are being planted there for the purpose of producing an exquisite, hand-crafted, bio-dynamically farmed Bordeaux-style blend in the coming years.
http://www.thefiftybyfifty.com
MSO Press releases & Assets: http://www.msopr.com/n/client-roster/the-50-by-50/
About DEVO: Formed in 1972 in Akron, OH, DEVO–short for “de-evolution”–began as an art project cautioning that humans were devolving and regressing into a herd mentality of American society. A conceptual band from the beginning, DEVO were ahead of their time, incorporating elaborate aesthetics into their live shows and seamlessly combining their music with visuals years before MTV or any music-video culture existed. The band broke through to the mainstream with 1980’s Freedom of Choice, which contained the platinum-selling hit single and MTV smash, “Whip It”, and represented a peak in their songwriting. DEVO‘s next two albums, New Traditionalists and Oh NO It’s DEVO! continued their 1980’s decade world touring success accompanied by the hit songs, “Beautiful World” and “That’s Good” respectively. After releasing a studio album entitled Smooth Noodle Maps in 1990 the band left the world of touring and recording to pursue film and TV projects. By 2009 DEVO had over 35 new songs and interest from their original label, Warner Brothers Records and a year later they released their 9th studio recording, Something for Everybody. Currently the band is developing a musical as well as placing finishing touches on a darkly comic, “DEVO origins” feature film script. The band is confident that these major endeavors, when realized will show a new generation that de-evolution is real. DEVO Website: www.clubdevo.com
Gerald V. Casale: http://msopr.com/files/gerald_casale_low_res.JPG
