FORTIFIED WINE JUDGING RESULTS - CHEF SHARES RECIPES, PAIRINGS
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THE SNOQUALMIE VALLEY WINE EXPERIENCE
Free Writing Prospectus (to Prospectus dated January 24, 2020, as Supplemented by the Prospectus Supplement dated June 10, 2020) Filed Pursuant to Rule 424(b)(2) Registration Statement No. 333-236080
WINERY OWNER Earn an annual wine credit, 25% discount on wine purchases, invitations to Owner-exclusive events and other great benefits! Learn about our Preferred Stock Offering (NASDAQ: WVVIP) and make an investment at wvv.com/ownership or call 503-588-9463.
Bernau Estate in the Dundee Hills Anticipated Opening: 2022 We are building a new méthode champenoise sparkling wine facility with an underground aging cellar and biodynamicallyfarmed vineyard, creating a balanced ecosystem to generate healthy soil and elegant wines. The winery will offer Oregoninspired hospitality with wine and food pairings, stunning views, educational tours and beautiful gardens for you to explore.
8800 Enchanted Way SE · Turner, OR 97392 · 503-588-9463 · stock.offering@wvv.com Jim Bernau, Founder/Winegrower
Willamette Valley Vineyards, Inc., has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus) with the SEC for the offering to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and other documents we have filed with the SEC for more complete information about our company and this offering. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC Web site at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, you may obtain a copy of these documents at http://www.wvv.com/prospectus, or we will arrange to send you the prospectus (including the documents incorporated therein by reference) if you so request by writing us at stock.offering@wvv.com or calling 1-800-344-9463.
Before you see the fruits of your labor, there’s the humble beginning. Every new producer has to start somewhere. And it’s far from easy. We help give young, beginning and small farmers and ranchers a leg up with special financing options, educational opportunities, and hands-on, strategic advice to help you get started. So if you’re ready to start cultivating your dream, give us a call. We’d be happy to help. 800.743.2125 | northwestfcs.com
IN THIS ISSUE FALL 2020 | VOL. 22, NO. 3
Snoqualmie Valley Wine Experience - page 16
Ultra-boutique winery profiled - page 12
Fortied Wine Tasting Results - page 27
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COVER STORY
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THE WINE KNOWS BY ANDY PERDUE
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SWIRL, SNIFF & SIP BY KEN ROBERTSON
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ELLEN ON WINE BY ELLEN LANDIS
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JOSEPH CHRISTY VINEYARDS
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A VINEYARD REIMAGINED
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NORTHWEST FORTIFIED WINES RATED
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MATCH MAKER
The Snoqualmie Valley features boutique wineries nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains less than an hour from downtown Seattle
The rich history of the Puget Sound region
Idaho’s 60 wineries building in quality
Captivating Carménère
Eastern Washington ultra-boutique winery makes one wine
The transformation of Oregon’s Troon Vineyard
Abacela tops judging with Portuguese varieties
Wildflower Bistro chef shares recipes, pairings
ON THE COVER Cover photo by Richard Duval.
Match Maker - page 33
Wine Press Northwest is for those with an interest in wine — from the novice to the veteran. We focus on Washington, Oregon and Idaho’s talented winemakers and the wineries, vintners and restaurants that showcase Northwest wines. We are dedicated to all who savor the fruits of their labor. Publisher Jerry Hug jhug@tricityherald.com Editor Gregg McConnell editor@winepressnw.com Columnists Ellen Landis Andy Perdue Ken Robertson Contributors Tamara Belgard Eric Degerman Dan Radil Contributing photographers Bob Brawdy Richard Duval In memoriam: Bob Woehler Advertising sales Aaron Rindeikis arindeikis@mcclatchy.com To subscribe: Subscriptions cost $20 U.S. per year for four issues per year. Mail check or money order to the address below, subscribe securely online at winepressnw.com or call customer service at 800-538-5619. Free weekly newsletter: Sign up for our free Pacific Northwest Wine of the Week email newsletter at winepressnw.com Address 4253 W. 24th Ave. #120 Kennewick, WA 99338 © 2020 Wine Press Northwest A Tri-City Herald publication
Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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COLUMN | the wine knows
THE RICH HISTORY OF THE PUGET SOUND REGION hrough the years, I have loved traveling the backroads of the Puget Sound appellation, an American Viticultural Area dripping with Washington state wine history. I admire those who carved out a viticulture opportunity, using grape varieties that fit the climate and cuisine of the region. The interaction of these ideas has helped to forge concepts that benefit those who are willing to explore that history and embrace it. It adds to the richness of the wine culture of the Pacific Northwest. My favorite stories to write have been those that prompted a look back, and old wines that exude the flavor of history are among my favorite to drink. I earned my journalism degree and history minor at Western Washington University in Bellingham, and have lived nearly my whole life in Washington, so I am a sucker for pulling back the cobwebs on Pacific Northwest history. I have spent many years tracking down old vineyards, old buildings and other echoes of our region’s rich wine history. I love how the Walter Clore Wine & Culinary Center in Prosser pays tribute to our past. Among my favorite books is Vashon Winery owner Ron Irvine’s 1997 book on Washington wine history, The Wine Project, which he wrote with the late Walter Clore. My first experience with Puget Sound viticulture came on Bainbridge island in Kitsap County, near where I grew up. The vineyards there grow such varieties as MüllerThurgau, Pinot Noir and Siegerrebe — grapes that can’t tolerate the searing heat found east of the Cascade Mountains. They taste delicious and serve as a way to honor the pioneers who took what nature gave them and nurtured it into something more. These conversation-starter wines should inspire a sense of regional pride with wine consumers and prompt them to also look beyond popular and successful examples of American favorites Merlot and Chardonnay. The Bainbridge Vineyards Late Harvest Siegerrebe is among the best sweet wines I’ve tasted in the past 20 years. Gerard and Jo Ann Bentryn founded Bainbridge Vineyards in
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1977, nearly two decades before the Puget Sound AVA was approved by the federal government. They were the first to plant the aromatic German grape in the U.S., and their longtime friend, Betsey Wittick, has taken over By Andy Perdue as the winemaker. The continued excellence with Siegerrebe stands as a testament to the ingenuity of those risk-takers. The late harvest is comparable to the quality of an ice wine and reminds me a bit of Italy’s vin santo dessert wine. There’s a vine on Stretch Island, south of Belfair and near the aptly named community of Grapeview, that may be the oldest in the state. The vine dates back to Prohibition, yet it still produces grapes. Its resilience inspires me. It’s a variety known as Island Belle, thought to be indigenous to Stretch Island. The vines did well, to the extent that three wineries and two juice companies sprang up on Stretch Island. Alas, at one point, even the name was once endangered, but thankfully Hoodsport Winery on the rural Olympic Peninsula has preserved and protected the Island Belle with a trademark. The old St. Charles winery building on Stretch Island has served as an informal museum for Puget Sound and Washington wine. The winery closed in the mid-1960s, yet its lab stored intriguing artifacts, including old bottles of wine from along the West Coast. Apparently these bottles were analyzed to see what was in them. The last time I was there — more than five years ago — I was struck by a box of bottles and roll of old labels that were sitting in a corner. I got the sense that one day they ran out of wine and simply went home. A few years ago, before strokes took away my ability to amble easily on uneven ground, I walked through a vineyard just up the hill from Belfair, in Mason County. It was a beautiful vineyard, every bit as picturesque as
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I HAVE SPENT MANY YEARS TRACKING DOWN OLD VINEYARDS, OLD BUILDINGS AND OTHER ECHOES OF OUR REGION’S RICH WINE HISTORY. I LOVE HOW THE WALTER CLORE WINE & CULINARY CENTER IN PROSSER PAYS TRIBUTE TO OUR PAST. those in Oregon’s Willamette Valley or California’s Anderson Valley. This hobby farm was planted with clones that thrived in cooler climates. It was surrounded by tall pine trees that reminded me of nearby golf courses I wanted to play. Peeking above the distant horizon were the Olympic Mountains, offering a magnificent view of The Brothers Mountains in the Olympic Range just beyond Hood Canal, the same view I grew up with in nearby Bremerton. It’s easier to grow wine grapes in Eastern Washington, where the skies are cloudless and land is plentiful. It takes an extra dose of fortitude and resolve to grow them under gray skies in pockets of moist land, bordered by tall trees and using delicate grapes — some rarely mentioned outside a Jancis Robinson book. Wine continues to be woven into our rich tapestry, making up a thin slice of our culture here, enriching our love for the region as well as our history. Once we all are able to get out again, I encourage you to catch a ferry and visit the wineries of the Puget Sound. The wines will be clean and delicious, made of grapes that are out of the mainstream and inviting you to embrace the rustic nature of this unexplored wine region.
ANDY PERDUE is the founding editor of Wine Press Northwest magazine. He lives in Richland, Wash., with his wife, teen daughter, a new rescue dog and three unhappy cats.
Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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COLUMN | swirl, sniff & sip
IDAHO’S 60 WINERIES BUILDING IN QUALITY ention Idaho, and most folks still probably think of potatoes. But there’s a dedicated group of grape growers and winemakers there who are working hard to make their state famous for its grapes as well. Idaho’s grape-growing and winemaking traditions reach back at least to 1856 anecdotally and the Idaho Wine Commission says the industry was booming from then until 1919. The commission has unearthed a story that appeared in the Idaho Statesman on Sept. 5, 1865, reporting Royal Muscadine plantings in the Lewiston area had survived the winter and were starting to produce grapes. Alas, as in every other state, Prohibition derailed those efforts, and much like Washington and Oregon, Idaho didn’t really begin working on grape growing and winemaking again until the 1970s. Following in Washington’s footsteps on a trail blazed by Chateau Ste. Michelle, Ste. Chapelle, founded in 1975 by the Symms family, initially built a reputation for excellent white wines, especially Riesling. Now owned by Precept, it produces a wide array of wines totaling about 130,000 cases of wine annually, making it the state’s biggest winery and likely best-known label. The industry has grown slowly but consistently in Idaho since then, reaching 60 wineries in 2019 and harvesting 3,000 tons of grapes from the state’s three American Viticultural Areas — the Snake River Valley, recognized in 2007, the Eagle Foothills in 2015 and the Lewis-Clark AVA (also partly in the part of Washington near Clarkston) in 2016. The state’s winemakers also reach outside their home vineyards regularly, sourcing grapes from top AVAs in both Washington and Oregon. The commission started the Idaho Wine Competition 11 years ago to showcase the state’s products, and I’ve had the privilege of participating as a judge or a panel moderator in nine of those events. At every one, the judges I’ve talked with during and afterward have said they’re impressed by the best wines. In addition, judges who have returned several times say improved grape growing
practices and winemaking have impressed them. From Riesling and a few other whites, Idaho growers and winemakers have expanded to an array of reds, rosés and lesser-known whites, including sparkling wines, with the best showing innovation and
area area, I’d suggest 3100 Cellars for sparkling wines, Bitner, Cinder, Hat Ranch, Huston Vineyards, Indian Creek, Koenig, Ste. Chapelle, Telaya and Williamson. Along the way, don’t hesitate to stop at any of the other 40-plus Idaho wineries you encounter. Idaho will welcome you, whether you choose to visit the Lewiston-Clarkston or the Boise-Caldwell-Garden City areas. Or both. Like all the Northwest’s wineries, they can use an assist during this challenging year.
outstanding quality. This year’s competition, which drew 160 entries, shows the versatility of the state’s microclimates. The gold medal winners among whites included a sparkling Chardonnay, an Albariño voted the competition’s top wine, a couple of surprising dry Muscats, Rieslings of every style, including a stunning ice wine, Chardonnay and Viognier. The reds included Cabernet Franc, Carménère, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Petit Sirah, Sangiovese and Syrah. The lead grapes in the top red blends included Grenache, Mourvedre, Syrah, Sangiovese and Carménère. And the top rosés were made from Cinsault, Mourvedre and Syrah. To top it all off, a pair of excellent meads, one strawberry, the other raspberry, won golds despite facing a panel of skeptical judges who confessed they had tasted few meads they would choose to drink. The panels were made up of veteran judges whose day jobs include pleasing the palates of our region’s wine consumers in wine shops and restaurants. Check out the Idaho Wine Commission website at idahowines.org for complete results. If you decide to visit, COVID-19 rules are in place at Idaho’s wineries, restaurants and hotels that are similar to Washington’s and Oregon’s. And folks will be masked up and being cautious about social distancing. Calling ahead to confirm winery hours and arrange tastings is recommended. If in Lewiston, you won’t want to miss Clearwater Canyon Cellars, Vine 46, Parejas Cellars, Two Bad Labs and Colter’s Creek Winery. In the Boise-Caldwell-Garden City
WINE WORD: DÉLESTAGE Thanks to COVID-19, we’re no longer welcome in France or the rest of the European Union, at least for now. But they can’t keep us from bumbling around in the French language and tangling up our tongues as we try to pronounce it. And since we’re all safely at home or not too far away, at least we don’t have to worry about some Parisian smirking at our struggles. For folks like me whose struggles with language occur mainly in English, délestage is often called “rack and return,” or maybe simply racking. It’s a winemaker’s technique for producing a softer red wine by reducing those tongue-curling tannins extracted from grape seeds. Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia says it’s particularly helpful in areas where grape seeds tend not to ripen evenly. A winemaker lets the juice, seeds and skins cold soak for several hours, then drains the juice into a separate tank. After allowing the cap of skins and seeds to settle to the bottom and drain for a while, many of the seeds are loosened from the skins and pulp and can be filtered out. Then the juice is pumped back into the original tank and again mixes with the remnants of the cap. Performed daily until almost all the seeds are extracted, délestage removes most of the harsh tannins. And voila! We have softer red wine that tastes better and does not have to age for years before it becomes pleasant to drink.
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By Ken Robertson
KEN ROBERTSON, the retired editor of the Tri-City Herald, has been sipping Northwest wines and writing about them since 1976.
Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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COLUMN | ellen on wine
CAPTIVATING CARMÉNÈRE
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arménère was thought to be extinct after phylloxera struck Bordeaux vineyards in the mid-1860s, but in the 1990s, a mysterious anomaly in Merlot emerged in Chile. Was it the lost grape? In the middle of the 19th century, Chile began planting what were believed to be Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot vines. The vineyards thrived and began producing notable wines. As years passed, winemakers across Chile were noticing that the Merlots being crafted there displayed a somewhat unusual flavor profile, showcasing more pronounced spiciness than is typical of Merlot. French ampelographer Jean-Michel Boursiquot (among other researchers) began to study the phenomenon. In addition to boasting significant spiciness, nontypical characteristics emerged; vines turned a brilliant red color, and the plants exhibited twisted stamens to name a few noted by Boursiquot. DNA studies proved that the vines previously identified as Merlot in Chile were Carménère. Viña Carmen winery, where Boursiquot determined the vines were Carménère, was one of the first in Chile to bottle Carménère in 1996. Grape growers and winemakers expanded the planting and production of this luxurious and spicy variety and many now of it as Chile’s crown jewel red wine. Chile remains the country where Carménère is the most widely grown. Tasting numerous examples of carménère crafted by wineries I visited in Chile, including Montes (Apalta Valley), Concho y Toro (Cachapoal Valley), Anakena (Rapel Valley), Neyen (Apalta Valley), El Huique (Colchagua Valley), Lapostolle (Casablanca Valley) and Almaviva (Maipo Valley) made me a solid fan of this captivating variety. I have since discovered quite a few noteworthy examples in the Great Northwest: Parma Ridge Winery 2017 Carménère, Yakima Valley ($39): This gloriously aromatic Carménère struts forth with notes of violets and dark fruit. The winery is in the heart of the Snake River Valley in Idaho. Proprietors Storm and Stephanie Hodge craft wine from their 9.5 acre estate vineyard in Parma and also source fruit from Washington. Coating the palate are bright and plush layers of black cherry, plum, vanilla bean, and savory spice. Well-integrated oak adds dimension, 10
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and the finish is fresh and stimulating. www.parmaridge.wine
Clearwater Canyon Cellars 2018 Phinny Hill Vineyard Carménère, Horse Heaven Hills: ($32): Winemaker Coco Umiker and her co-owner/viticulturist By Ellen Landis husband Karl Umiker at Clearwater Canyon Cellars in Idaho’s Lewis-Clark Valley American Viticultural Area crafted this beautifully balanced Carménère. Notes of dark berries and black pepper rise from the glass. On the palate, olallieberries, black plum jam, cocoa, a thread of earthiness, black peppercorns, and herbes de Provence are supported by perfect balancing acidity and refined tannins. A smooth texture delivers a lifted finish. www.clearwatercellars.com
Season Cellars 2016 Carménère, Southern Oregon ($40): This jazzy wine (crafted of 90% Carménère and 10% Malbec), offered by co-owners/winemakers Jennifer and Scott Henry, excites the senses with its spicy aroma. Tantalizing the palate are flavors of black raspberries, huckleberries and red berry chutney joining underlying earth, a pinch of white pepper and freshly squeezed orange. It finishes strong and long with a delightful bittersweet chocolate note. www.seasoncellars.com
Tertulia Cellars 2016 Phinny Hill Vineyard Carménère, Horse Heaven Hills ($48): Forest berries and roasted pepper scents lead to an alluring first sip. Broadening on the palate are layers of juicy Elephant Heart plums, red berries, savory olive tapenade, a suggestion of jalapeno and hints of campfire smoke joining tinges of roasted bell peppers. Well-integrated tannins and complementary acidity keep the wine balanced through the persistent, memorable finish. www.tertuliacellars.com
Maryhill Winery 2016 Elephant Mountain Vineyards Carménère, Rattlesnake Hills ($46): This lively wine grabs your attention with one swirl. Spicy, earthy nuances on the nose are followed by a silky entry. Filling the mouth are succulent boysenberries, Bing cherries and black currants accented by underlying earthiness, tobacco, vanilla, and
spice box elements. Oak nuances from 20 months in 40% new French oak are well integrated, the tannins are approachable, and the lingering finish sings. www.maryhillwinery.com
Liberty Lake Wine Cellars 2017 Heart of the Hill Vineyard Carménère, Red Mountain ($38): Inviting wild blackberries on the nose stay front and center on the lush palate. Joining the rich black and red berry core are elements of fresh mint, Sweetheart cherries, chocolate-covered caramels, and piquant spice. Well-structured and nicely balanced with gentle tannins, and a zesty, lasting finish. www.libertylakewinecellars.com
Drink Washington State 2016 “Visit Wahluke Slope” Carménère, Wahluke Slope ($29): This highly spirited Carménère leads with aromas of dark cherry and brown baking spices. Velvety on the palate with layers of red raspberry, spice-scented cherry compote, fresh chopped herbs and hints of damp earth. Elegant and well-structured with a finish that boasts depth and length. www.drinkwashington.wine
Additional Northwest wineries producing Carménère include: Bartholomew Winery: www.bartholomewwinery.com
Spangler Vineyards: www.spanglervineyards.com
AntoLin Cellars: www.antolincellars.com
Jones of Washington: www.jonesofwashington.com
Sleeping Dog Wines: www.sleepingdogwines.com
Stone Griffon Vineyard: www.stonegriffonvineyard.com
Northwest Cellars Winery: www.northwestcellars.com
Chateau Faire Le Pont: www.fairelepont.com
Martinez & Martinez Winery: www.martinezwine.com
Spoiled Dog Winery: www.spoileddogwinery.com
ELLEN LANDIS is a wine journalist, Certified Sommelier, Certified Wine Specialist , wine educator and professional wine judge. Reach Ellen at ellen@ellenonwine.com.
Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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FEATURE | joseph christy vineyards
ULTRA-BOUTIQUE WINERY HAS ROOTS IN SCIENCE By Dan Radil PLYMOUTH, WASH. There are scores of boutique wineries in the Pacific Northwest, most of which were born from a common thread: a carboy-filled garage, a make-wines-for-friends project or a hobby that simply got out of control. Annual production for these wineries is extremely limited and often measured in hundreds of cases instead of the thousands or tens of thousands. In cases produced, Joseph Christy Vineyards certainly fits the definition of ultraboutique winery, but that’s where the similarities end. The beginnings of this familyfounded enterprise are rooted in a somewhat remote, yet picture-perfect location in Washington’s Horse Heaven Hills American Viticultural Area and part of a remarkable 50year journey it took to establish its vineyards. THE HOMESTEAD AND FAMILY HISTORY Denis and Mary Hyatt are the husbandand-wife team at Joseph Christy Vineyards. Mary is the daughter of the late Joseph Christy, a chemical engineer originally from Philadelphia. Christy moved to Washington during World War II as one of the original scientists of the top-secret Manhattan Project at Hanford. In 1966, and with no prior farming experience, Mary said that “he wanted to be on a farm and he found this property,” (near the Columbia River not far from the unincorporated community of Paterson). “He contacted three or four people who owned parcels and bought it all up.” Mary recalls her early years on the homestead as enjoyable but isolated. “When you grow up in the middle of nowhere with a two-room schoolhouse, you can’t get out of there fast enough,” she said. After graduating from the Washington State University School of Nursing, she took a job at Holy Family Hospital in Spokane, where she worked for 37 years until her retirement in 2015. Denis grew up on a cattle ranch in Western Montana and, after completing a four-year stint with the Navy, established two physical 12
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DAN RADIL
Denis and Mary Hyatt are producing award-winning wine on a limited basis at home in their Horse Heaven Hills vineyards.
therapy clinics in Spokane, which he operated for almost 25 years. It was there that he met Mary in 1985, and they raised their three children. Their youngest graduated in 2015, triggering an already-planned move back to the Christy homestead a year later. RETIREMENT’S “SECOND CAREER” How does a physical therapist make the jump to farming and, in particular, planting vineyards and winemaking? “We’re both country people,” said Denis, and after decades of living in the “big city,” both he and Mary were ready to move to a quieter location. “We thought about moving back here or Montana and doing some farming, and this won out because of the warmer weather.” The decision to go into winemaking stemmed, in part, from their personal enjoyment of what could best be described as “economically priced” wines. “Then we made the mistake of buying a $20 bottle of wine and
JOSEPH CHRISTY VINEYARDS PO Box 21 Plymouth, WA 99346 (509) 993-7871 Email: denis@josephchristyvineyards.com www.josephchristyvineyards.com
from there it went up,” Denis said with a laugh. After he retired in 2009, he almost immediately enrolled in the two-year viticulture and enology program at Walla Walla Community College. He did a weekly commute, of sorts, by staying in Walla Walla during the
FEATURE | joseph christy vineyards have agriculture in my background and I’ve always felt close to the land. I thought, ‘if we hit this right, this ground, which has never had a plow on it, could be one of the best wine vineyards anywhere’.” THE GRAPES AT JOSEPH CHRISTY VINEYARDS The Hyatts DAN RADIL own and manage about 453 acres Denis Hyatt puts the finishing touches on a wax seal for his soon-to-be released 2018 Syrah. of land; 320 of those acres are week and piloting his own plane home to leased out to alfalfa growers and about 15 are Spokane on the weekends. planted with wine grapes they established in By his own admission, Denis said, “I knew 2012. Sixty acres may possibly be developed nothing about raising grapes, and after getlater for other commercial wineries. ting into the viticultural program, I knew even Denis maintains five acres of Syrah as less than I thought. But I always knew that I Joseph Christy Vineyard’s one-and-only wine, was going to do something agricultural-wise.” along with a quarter-acre of Viognier for The question now was whether the Christy co-fermenting. “The boutique winery is probhomestead could successfully accommodate ably going to stay just the way it is with those wine grapes. 5 acres,” he said. The remaining plantings are contracted out to other wineries and include SELECTING THE PERFECT SITE Malbec, Merlot, Grenache and Cinsaut. “We realized we were in the Horse HeavAlthough wine production is modest, en Hills AVA, and a south-sloping ridge tothere’s plenty to keep the Hyatts busy. “We wards the river was probably the best bet for a do it all ourselves. Mary helps with the provineyard,” Denis recalled. He asked Kevin cessing and bottling — along with one or two Pogue, a geologist from Walla Walla’s Whitof our kids if we can get them to stick around man College, to conduct a site review. long enough,” Denis chuckles. Noting that Pogue’s report confirmed that the land he’s “retired,” he plans to keep annual prowas a drainage area for the Missoula floods. duction at no more than 150 to 200 cases. “If you walk the property, you’ll find that a After the winery’s inaugural 2016 vintage, good lot of the rock that’s 18 to 24 inches Denis decided to enter the 2017 Syrah in the below the loess soil is rolled rock … like you’ll 2019 Tri-Cities Wine Festival competition find at the bottom of a river bed,” Denis said. and earned his first medal, a gold. In addition, he recently learned from Tim “Everyone was looking at me with only Donahue, one of his professors and director one wine (and thinking) it’s either really, of winemaking at Walla Walla Community really good or really, really bad,” Denis College, that the biological components and laughs. “We were surprised more than anyqualities of the grapes produced here carry an thing, but it’s the only wine I’m ever going to amazing similarity to those from The Rocks make.” District of Milton-Freewater AVA in the Walla Eight months later, that same wine was Walla Valley. entered in the 2020 Bellingham Northwest “In some ways, yes, it was luck,” Denis Wine Festival Judged Competition. Of the 274 said about the quality of their location, “but wines submitted for judging, the 2017 Syrah I’ve always been able to grow a garden, and I earned a unanimous double gold medal and
best-in show honors. TODAY’S WINNERS: WINE CONSUMERS A visit to the Joseph Christy homestead today reveals a production facility where the original house once stood, along with Denis and Mary’s nearby home. There isn’t a tasting room with structured hours per se, but Denis notes that it only takes a phone call or an email to order wines or set up an appointment for those wishing to visit and taste in-person. Although the 2017 vintage has since sold out, Denis feels that the 2018 Syrah (85 cases of which should be available this fall) is just as good and the 2019 Syrah (still in the barrel) may be even better. Considering the rich history of the land that supports an excellent vineyard location, coupled with his award-winning past performances, Washington wine enthusiasts should have little reason to doubt him.
DAN RADIL is a freelance wine writer based in Bellingham, Wash. He produces a wine blog, danthewineguy.com. and is president of the Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival competiton.
Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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FEATURE | troon
TROON: A VINEYARD REIMAGINED By Tamara Belgard GRANTS PASS, ORE. The expression, “What goes together, grows together,” is often used by chefs and winemakers to describe successful food and wine pairings. But in the case of Troon Vineyard, the expression also applies to their vineyard philosophy. Troon is a place where vines have been replanted using the Biodynamic model, additional crops have been added, animals have been introduced and staff are educated, all to create an improved biome that leads to better wines. Founded by Dick Troon in 1972, the vineyard has changed hands several times and has undergone a complete transformation since its early days. Dr. Bryan and Denise White purchased the property in 2017 and fully invested in a model of change, which was initiated by winegrower Craig Camp. Camp fell in love with the potential of the land in 2016. He envisioned a healthier estate but knew a long-term vision would have to start with a whole lot of science, data and experience. After a complete analysis of the property, soil and microbiology, they started planting with a plan. The plan included becoming a Demeter-certified Biodynamic property, a process that required three years. According to Camp, “Biodiversity is key. It encourages a range of biome and creates a more natural system.” To that end, Troon has now planted more than 20 clones of heritage cider apples, creating an orchard with more than 200 trees and a plan to plant more apple trees as soon as the organic nursery they work with propagates more for them. Their first cider production will be in three to four years. Apple trees are even slower to produce than grape vines. They’re also working with local brewer to plant a grain crop for Biodynamic beer. Troon produces 200 tons of compost used in the vineyards and throughout the estate. They grow valerian, yarrow, horsetail, dandelions and other herbs utilized in their biodynamic preparations — some of which are applied to energize the compost pile. They 14
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TROON VINEYARD 1475 Kubil Road Grants Pass, OR 97527 (514)846-9900 www.troonvineyard.com
CRAIG CAMP Photo Courtesy of Troon Vineyard
Troon Vineyard winemaker Nate Wall fills a cow horn with certified organic manure. The horns are buried during the winter where the manure ferments to become biodynamic preparation 500, which is applied to the soils at Troon Vineyard to build the soil microbiome.
bring in as little as possible from off the site and have developed relationships with their neighbors at Noble Dairy to supply manure for the cow horns they bury. (In Biodynamic farming, each season, cow horns are filled with manure and buried where they ferment for months, producing a nutrient-rich organic compost. They are then dug up, ground up, mixed with water to aerate, and sprayed back onto the soils to improve the stability and enhance plant growth.) To further their biodiversity, they’ve planted a two-acre plot of vegetables. And in addition to growing squash, okra, carrots, tomatoes and more, which they sell from their farm stand, they’re trying to develop heirloom seeds local to their area. They have chickens wandering around that scratch and loosen as well as fertilize the soil and sell the organic eggs at their farm stand as well. Troon has also invested in bees, with three
natural hives made from tree trunks that are then strapped to live trees. “We don’t harvest the honey though, we leave it for the bees, supporting the population and encouraging pollination of our crops,” Camp says. Their long-term vision includes introducing sheep this spring. But Camp says they first have to get the guard dogs bred and trained. They plan to start with eight sheep, which will graze in the vines during winter for weed control and in the pasture near the apple trees during the summer. When they began this process, Camp says the soil was like concrete. He believed they had a good site though, and that if they introduced the proper biome they could nurture the land and restore healthy soil. Troon stopped the use of chemicals, and went, as Camp describes, “cold-turkey Biodynamic” in 2017. Camp worked with BiomeMakers out of San Francisco to establish a baseline of the property and see how it changed under Biodynamics. Camp says, “We’ve already seen huge changes in just three years. You can see it in the plants already, but it will really take decades to really see the results.” Changes are apparent in the site’s native yeast. Initially, the yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN), an indicator of the available nitrogen for fermentation, was so low, and with no saccharomyces (the sugar fungus commonly referred to as brewer’s yeast), that native yeast couldn’t function. Now they’re seeing levels over 200 mg/L, above the 150 mg/L needed for healthy fermentation. Troon’s dedication for regenerative agri-
FEATURE | troon culture means a much Troon has invested in more focused growing educating its people, with all program, one with purpose tasting room staff underand intent that creates going Wine & Spirits Educawines that truly reflect a tion Trust (WSET) certificasense of place in the Appletion, through at least level 2. gate Valley. Camp describes is a creating Located in a distinctive a new culture. growing area between the “The part that everybody Napa and Willamette, the forgets about, the really Applegate Valley is at interesting part of this pro1,400 feet of elevation, cess, is what it does for the surrounded by the Siskiyou people,” he says. He believes Mountains and 60 miles the staff feels a part of somefrom the Pacific Ocean. thing bigger and greater, and The cool ocean breezes that by attracting like-minded cut through the mountains people, Troon can grow and thicken the grapes’ skins, unite them as a team with creating wines with modershared purpose about the ate alcohol and high acid. wines. CRAIG CAMP Photo Courtesy of Troon Vineyard Camp likens the style to TAMARA BELGARD is a wines from Mediterranean A vineyard worker harvests Vermentino grapes at Troon Vineyard. The estate Vermentino and Kubli Bench Rolle (the Rhône interpretation of Vermentino) are freelance writer based in regions like the Rhone aged on lees for 18 months. Portland, Ore. She is a regular Valley in France. Their contributor to www.satiatepdx.com and several location is warmer and dryer than the Willasouthern Europe: the Syrah is more Côtenorthwest publications. mette Valley, but cooler and wetter than Rôtie in style, with bold dark fruit with fine Napa. Camp says they have a shorter growing grained tannins, and co-fermented with a season than Napa, but get 70 minutes more of little Viognier. The estate Vermentino, and sunshine daily and no fog. As the days get Kubli Bench Rolle (a Rhône-inspired interpreshorter, sugar accumulation stops, resulting in tation of Vermentino) are aged on lees for one fully ripened fruit and lower alcohol wines. and a half years. Troon’s commitment to its agricultural Wall encourages whole-cluster fermentaphilosophy continues in the cellar. Their wine tion on the reds, making lots of 30%, 50% portfolio includes Vermentino, Syrah, Picpoul, and 100% whole cluster, which he then Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc, Mourvedre, blends together. Troon experiments with Tannat and Malbec, among 13 varieties of blends such as Malbec and Tannat, a white white and red wines. Troon is well known for dubbed Kubli Bench Amber combining Verits orange wines (white wines that have had mentino, Riesling and Viognier, and Kulbi skin contact during fermentation to provide Bench Rosé blending Tinta Roriz, Primitivo some color and texture), which now are aged and Grenache. in clay amphorae made by Oregon producer Troon has also introduced a sparkling wine and potter Andrew Beckham of Beckham program, focusing on three very different Estate Vineyard. Other wines are aged in bottlings each vintage. In the laborious promature French oak, enhancing the wine’s cess, everything is hand-bottled and manually flavors. disgorged. Offerings include a Piquette, a The wine program is moving to larger lower-alcohol wine typically made from the barrels for aging, especially for varieties like leftover skins and stems. Camp says they Syrah and Mourvedre, and includes two large didn’t need to add much water to skins bewooden upright oak fermenters that introcause the wines are pressed so gently there is duce more oxygen during fermentation. plenty of juice left in the skins. Their PetCamp describes the winemaking philosophy Tannat is made in the Petilant Natural style as “less is more.” (also known as method ancestral), one of the “We don’t use a lot of stuff,” he says, “we original methods of producing a sparkling just put the grapes into containers and they wine, with the secondary fermentation taking start fermenting. We just don’t believe in place inside the bottle. This year, they are manipulating them.” also making a dry sparkling Lambrusco, with Winemaker Nate Wall crafts a range of a short carbonic maceration and no sulfur, wine inspired by the Mediterranean coasts of aiming for a refreshing crowd-pleaser. Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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Château NoElle Vineyards & Winery is home to the lone commercial vineyards in the Snoqualmie Valley. The vineyard is surrounded by tall cedars and a short drive from Highway 18 near Snoqualmie Ridge.
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ABUNDANT WINE QUALITY SPREADS THROUGHOUT SNOQUALMIE VALLEY Story by Eric Degerman | Photos by Richard Duval
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Convergence Zone Cellars owner/winemaker Scott Greenberg’s tasting room is only six blocks from downtown North Bend.
SNOQUALMIE, WASH. — Seattle-area wine lovers have an emerging region to explore beyond Woodinville and between Snoqualmie Pass. The Snoqualmie Valley Wine Experience provides a nine-winery adventure stretching from Cherry Valley Winery in Duvall to the Pearl and Stone Wine Co., tasting room in downtown North Bend, less than five minutes from Interstate 90. There is just one commercial vineyard in the charming “Sno Valley,” but the remarkable emergence of Woodinville during the past two decades showed to the rest of the state that Washington wine country can take root anywhere. “What happened in Woodinville has been
great, cool and awesome, and it also got Western Washington established as a wine destination,” said Chris Stone, vice president of marketing and communications for the Washington State Wine Commission, who is also co-winemaker and co-owner of Pearl and Stone. Reputations and repeated trips to a wine region are built upon what is poured in the glass. That starts in the vineyard. Fortunately, there is an abundance of world-class grapes grown throughout the state, and the investment by Snoqualmie Valley winemakers is reflected in the quality of wines at every stop along this trail. Tom Wilson, owner/winemaker at Château NoElle Vineyards and Winery in Sno-
qualmie, said, “The last few years some folks have put some points on the board with competitions and scores, which is good to see.” At one end is Cherry Valley Winery in Duvall, about 40 minutes from North Bend, but most of the group is between Fall City and historic downtown Snoqualmie. They are linked by country roads, pasture and farmland with Mount Si looming throughout. “It’s a beautiful little drive between North Bend to Duvall,” said Mount Si Winery coowner Elaine Larsen in downtown Snoqualmie. “It’s gorgeous. There are cutesy little towns. There is food. I think it’s a great little wine route.” Most of the award-winning wines made in the Snoqualmie Valley start in the warm CoFall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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COVER | snoqualmie valley lumbia Valley with decorated vineyards such as Boushey, Cave B, Ciel du Cheval, Dineen, Elephant Mountain, Gamache, Kiona, Olsen, Stillwater Creek, Upland on Snipes Mountain, Coyote Canyon and Phinny Hill in the Horse Heaven Hills and acclaimed blocks at historic Sagemoor along the Columbia River and Weinbau on the Wahluke Slope. And the region — similar to Lake Chelan — has enjoyed the benefit of built-in tourism with natural features such as Snoqualmie Falls and Mount Si. There’s also the enduring buzz from the 1990s hit television series Twin Peaks, which brought film crews to Fall City, North Bend and Snoqualmie and starred future Walla Walla winemaker Kyle MacLachlan. In fact, the tasting room for Pearl and Stone Wine Co., is kitty-corner from Twede’s Cafe, which has Twin Peaks Cherry Pie on the menu. Stone and a group of friends
launched their winery in 2013. “We were all born and raised out here,” Stone said. “We looked at the proximity to I-90, this outdoor recreation playground and saw that we’ve got a chance to establish something really cool and pretty tight. There are now nine wineries in the Sno Valley.” Each winery offers a different experience. Some owners can be found offering their wines at farmers markets, and in many instances they pour for you in their garage or in the backyard of their home. “It’s a big deal to sell someone a local product,” said Scott Greenberg, owner/winemaker of Convergence Zone Cellars. “And if you live in North Bend, there is someone just down the street who is making the wine in town.” Larry Lindvig was a Boeing Employees Wine and Beer Makers Club member when he and wife, Birgit, helped blaze the Snoqual-
mie Valley wine trail in 2001 with Pleasant Hill Cellars. A few years ago, he sold the former dairy created by railroad tunnel engineer James Horrocks to Amazon executive Xander Kent and his winemaking wife, Samantha. “Out here in the valley, it isn’t warehouse after warehouse after warehouse,” Xander Kent said. “We have a story that includes bees and cows and a beautiful landscape.” And while Samantha is doing the punchdowns, the chemistry and doting on the barrels, Xander tends the beehives that allow them to also produce the estate honey they sell in their tasting room and at farmers markets. “We both really thrive on high-touch interaction with customers,” Samantha Kent said. “I love it when our ‘Riesling couple’ comes in and plays cribbage. It’s not just a stop along a path where you are about to taste wine next
RICHARD DUVAL
Visitors to Mount Si Winery, a block away from downtown Snoqualmie, are immediately introduced to owner/winemaker Jim “Lars” Larsen’s affinity for motorcycles.
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COVER | snoqualmie valley door. This is more of a destination where people come out to spend the afternoon with us.” Orenda’s immediate success with grapes from Dineen, Stillwater Creek and old vine Cabernet Sauvignon off Konnowac Vineyard earned them Wine Press Northwest’s award for 2020 Washington Winery to Watch. This summer at the Cascadia International Wine Competition, Orenda wines earned three gold medals. Last fall, the Château NoElle earned a Platinum from Wine Press Northwest for its work with Pinot Noir that they farm. This spring, Roger and Cathy Porter at Cherry Valley received four gold medals from the Seattle Wine Awards. A common thread between Orenda and Cherry Valley would be with the Lindvigs, who also befriended the Porters when they started in 2012. “We told them about our idea and they graciously took us under their wings and mentored us throughout the entire process,” Cathy Porter said. And there’s an important feature that Woodinville and the Snoqualmie Valley share — a destination hotel, only the Salish Lodge & Spa offers a view that’s unparalleled with breathtaking and romantic Snoqualmie Falls. “The Salish does a great job of sending folks down toward us,” said Ryan Seal, coowner of Sigillo Cellars. Each year, more than 1.5 million visitors cast their eyes on the 268-foot waterfalls, which places it just ahead of the Space Needle. Snoqualmie Falls is featured on the landing page of ExperienceWA.com, the official tourism site for the state of Washington. Mount Si, at 4,167 feet elevation, is named after Josiah Merrit, a farmer and hog rancher who lived near the base of the mountain in 1862 and sold his goods in Everett and Seattle. During the next three decades, logging companies began to use the Snoqualmie River and the railroad to ship timber around the world. Last fall, the Snoqualmie Tribe purchased the destination hotel and adjacent 45 acres from the Muckleshoot Tribe for $125 million. Combined with its Snoqualmie Casino, the tribe now owns 100 acres. Members of the Snoqualmie Tribe believe spray from the falls transports prayers to forefathers. Columbia Hospitality, a longtime friend of the wine industry and operator of The Inn at Abeja in Walla Walla, will continue to manage The Salish, which is viewed as a supporter of the Snoqualmie Valley wine industry.
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Winemaker Samantha Kent and her husband Xander opened Orenda Winery tasting room in Carnation in June 2019 and immediately began to rack up a number of gold medals in regional competitions. Wine Press Northwest named Orenda Winery as the 2020 Washington Winery to Watch. While stretches of the Snoqualmie Valley remain bucolic farm land and forest, development continues — particularly between the historic town of Snoqualmie and bustling Interstate 90. And there’s an environmental review pending for a series of wineries and breweries that would be built as part of the first phase of a 261-acre project called Snoqualmie Mill. The proposal for the former Weyerhaeuser lumber mill is being led by North Bend developer Tom Sroufe, who be-
gan rolling it out in 2017. It includes plans for a 5,000-seat amphitheater, but there’s already concern about how Snoqualmie Mill could change the valley’s complexion. “I still think it’s going to happen. They’ve got too much invested,” said Bill Grassie of William Grassie Wine Estates in Snoqualmie. “It’s going to be a cool thing, and it should bring at least 20 wineries to the area. Maybe more.”
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Co-owners/co-winemakers Chris Stone, left, and Paul Ribary launched Pearl and Stone Wine Co. in 2013. The tasting room is kitty-corner from Twede’s Cafe, which offers Twin Peaks Cherry Pie in tribute to the 1990s hit television series Twin Peaks filmed in the area.
WINERIES Château NoElle Vineyards & Winery — Snoqualmie There are indeed estate vineyards in the Snoqualmie Valley — two acres established across three blocks that are meticulously groomed by Tom and Lorrie Wilson, who named their passion project for their grown children — Nolan and Elle. Château NoElle is surrounded by tall cedars between Snoqualmie Ridge and Snoqualmie Casino, about a seven-minute drive from the Highway 18 exit off I-90. “Most of the tasting rooms on this side of the state are basically wine bars,” Tom said. “We’re not a wine bar. We’re a small estate winery that happens to make wines from both sides of the state.” Tom, a 55-year-old real estate broker and graduate of Whitman College, grew up farming in the Walla Walla Valley near MiltonFreewater, Ore. A high school graduation party in the Wilson backyard near Snoqualmie Ridge sparked Tom into researching maritime grape growing. By 2016, Meadow Vineyard got its start. 20
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“It’s our show-and-tell planting immediately proximate to the ‘wineyard’ for visitors to experience while tasting our wines,” he says. The Wilsons followed up with Elle Block a year later and Nolan Block in 2019. The Wilsons lead brief tours in advance of tastings. Their project includes cool-climate varieties such as Auxerrois, the Russian white grape Iskorka, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Siegerrebe, Rondo, Zweigelt, Dijon clone 76 and 95 Chardonnay, the early-ripening Pinot Noir clone Precoce and Dijon clones 113, 115, 667 and 777. “Rondo is a German hybrid that takes only 1,600 heat units to ripen,” he said. “Some of our guests will ask how much wine does all that make? The answer is, ‘Not much,’ but they can sit here, taste wine and hear the story to make for a unique experience and interaction.” All combined, the Wilsons produce about 650 cases on average, with a third of that Pinot Noir. “Our heart lies in farming the vines, making good wine and building community,”
Lorrie says. “We want people to come and fall in love with this place, share some stories with one another and take some wine home. This summer, even with the social distancing, we’ve gotten a glimpse of what we can be as we watch people make connections.” The select but small assemblage has allowed the Wilsons to rapidly achieve the goals for their estate program, as well as the Pinot Noir they’ve personally farmed along Hollywood Hill near Woodinville. He’s used grafted rootstock in his own vineyard to promote early ripening, which helps him to apply the knowledge he gleaned from South Seattle College’s Northwest Wine Academy. And there’s no new oak involved in his Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. “This allows us to produce truly foodfriendly wines featuring nuanced flavors and aromatics that emphasize diversity of both fruit and earth while balancing palate-cleansing acidity with moderate alcohol,” he says. Recently, they’ve focused their Columbia Valley program on Sagemoor Vineyards, where they work with vineyard manager Kent Waliser and rising star viticulturist Lacey
COVER | snoqualmie valley Lybeck on fruit for their bold reds at Gamache and Weinbau and Riesling from venerable Bacchus vineyards. ChateauNoElle.com
Cherry Valley Winery — Duvall It’s been a rather rapid road to success for Roger and Cathy Porter, who launched Cherry Valley Winery on Cherry Valley Road in 2013. “We had kicked around many names and nothing screamed Duvall or Snoqualmie Valley,” Cathy says. “So we made it easy on ourselves by naming it after the road we live on.” The Porters moved to Duvall in 1997, prompted by Roger’s career in computer science. “In 2012, we decided to look for property as we had three boys and wanted space for them to run,” she says. “Though we had talked about having a winery before, we had no intention at the time of purchase to start a winery. After moving in, we looked at the property and realized that it would make the perfect destination winery.” They have no plans to increase their annual production beyond 1,000 cases. In terms of critical acclaim, Cherry Valley deserves attention after receiving four gold medals in competitions this year, three of them from the 2016 vintage led by their flagship red, a Cabernet Franc they call The Mountains. The Sangiovese and Iberian-inspired Tempranillo/ Mourvèdre blend each received gold medals this year. The 2015 Fifteen Finale, a Meritage-style red led by Cabernet Franc, also earned a gold medal. A standalone expression of Petite Sirah also is a favorite, while their white program includes a Rhône blend. Vineyard relationships take in Cave B Vineyards in the Ancient Lakes of Columbia Valley, Elephant Mountain, Lonesome Spring Ranch and little-known Allechant Vineyards, a site in the Rattlesnake Hills introduced to the Porters by Larry Lindvig, their friend who won awards at Pleasant Hill Cellars before retiring. “Our focus is mainly on red wines and we source mostly Boudreaux-style varietals,” she says. “We do love to tinker with different varietals every once in a while, which adds a bit of fun to our tasting list for our customers.” CherryValleyWinery.com
Convergence Zone Cellars — North Bend Scott Greenberg spent his career as a city planner, much of it dealing with the zones for Seattle bedroom communities Mercer Island
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The downtown Snoqualmie tasting room for Sigillo Cellars, in the historic Sunset Theater, is topped by a Snoqualmie Fire Department siren that sounds at noon every day but Sunday.
and Des Moines. Along the way, he began making wine and studied at South Seattle College’s Northwest Wine Academy. He went commercial, launching Convergence Zone Cellars in the Woodinville Warehouse District while living near Totem Lake. Their first commercial vintage was 2008. In 2012, they moved a few blocks to the Artisan Hill region. Four years later, they were ready to leave Woodinville. “My wife said to me one morning, ‘I think I want to move. And I really want some chickens and a big garden,’ ” he recalls. “We
couldn’t do that where we were living, but when Monica told me that if we found a big enough property, ‘What do you think about starting a winery?’ — that got my attention.” They looked from Monroe to Maple Valley before finding a prime 2-acre parcel in North Bend about 6 blocks from the heart of town. He looks up and sees Mount Si, and he’s learned that 75 percent of his tasting room traffic is local — as in very local. “They primarily walk over to see us, but some come on their bikes,” he said. He pulls his Drizzle Pinot Gris from Red Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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COVER | snoqualmie valley Mountain icon Ciel du Cheval Vineyard. There’s also a Pinot Gris rosé from Gamache Vineyard and a brisk Chenin Blanc from Upland Vineyard on Snipes Mountain. His flagship wine is the Storm Front Red Wine, a blend inspired by Bordeaux’s Right Bank. The Mistral is a GSM blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre from Red Mountain. Squall Line is all Cabernet Sauvignon, while Downburst is dominated by Cabernet Franc. The Greenbergs have planted one vine — Niagara, the winter-hardy white from New York — but a few volunteers popped up near the crush pad. Those seeds that sprouted vinifera vines prompted Greenberg to create a tiny trellis. There’s a weather station on the property, too. “The winery is named Convergence Zone,” he dead-panned. “There’s got to be a weather station.” In addition to his own brand, there’s Fly Rod Cellars, which is produced by son-in-law Troy Mandeville and John Richardson. CZCellars.com
Fivash Cellars — Fall City Prior to the Great Recession, Scott Fivash launched his brand out of his home in Sammamish. In 2018, the real estate agent doubled down on the wine industry by purchasing acreage in Fall City and opening a tasting room. His formal education in business took him to the University of Southern California and Stanford, and he spent more than 20 years as an executive in publishing. The same year he stepped down as editor-in-chief of Washington CEO magazine, 2007, is when he started Fivash Cellars. His first hands-on education came on the crush pad and cellar as an intern at Walla Walla Vintners for founders Myles Anderson and Gordy Venneri and winemaker William vonMetzger. A decade ago, Fivash took more classes, this time through University of CaliforniaDavis, in the vaunted viticulture and enology school’s Wine Executive program. He maintained relationships with Walla Walla Valley growers and his lineup includes a Cabernet Sauvignon that spent 35 months in French oak and the Right Bank-inspired CStar Blend. Activities they normally offer at Fivash Cellars — just a few blocks southeast of the Farmhouse Market — include badminton, bocce ball and a “glampfire” evening. Fivash-Cellars.business.site
Mount Si Winery — Snoqualmie It takes only two hours for Jim “Lars” 22
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Larsen to leave his garage/winery and be on the Wahluke Slope in Arianses Vineyard. Rather than figuring out the price per ton of fruit he gets, “We pay about $1.20 per pound for grapes,” Larsen said. That form of measurement, essentially the same scale as someone buying table grapes at the grocer, is unheard of in the wine industry, but then the grower playfully refers to this customer, a self-taught winemaker as “a grape whore,” Larsen said with a chuckle. “There’s not a grape I don’t like.” Still, he’s investing more than $2,000 per ton on grapes, which means he pays more than average when it comes to Cabernet Sauvignon in Washington. Anyone who visits their home/winery/ tasting room, just a block from downtown Snoqualmie, can see there’s no room at Mount Si Winery beyond the typical production of about 600 cases. And Lars has come a long way from making “terrible” wine out the plums from the tree in his Snoqualmie backyard. Next came cider before a winemaker told him it’s easier to make fruit wine from a vineyard rather than from an orchard. His wife, Elaine, says, “I keep telling him, ‘That’s it! We’re at capacity’. But harvest is coming up, and he gets excited.” As a result, among the wines he produces from Arianses or acclaimed Elephant Mountain or historic Portteus in the Yakima Valley include Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Malbec in addition to Grenache-SyrahMourvèdre blend, a GSM rosé and a red blend called Le Rouge. The Kiss of a Rose rosé features a photo of Lars’s parents when they were high-school sweethearts. “I think GSM is coming into fashion,” he said. By day, Lars is an independent general contractor with longtime clients in and around Seattle. On evenings and weekends, he’ll be at the winery. He and Elaine have given up taking vacations and boating in order to craft award-winning wine. They’ve been making wine in the garage, crushing grapes in their driveway, since 1993. It wasn’t until 2013 when the Larsens went commercial with 200 cases — eight barrels. “I went around to all the neighbors and virtually every single one would say, ‘I didn’t know you made wine,’ ” Lars said. “They all think it’s great. Of course, I do grease the skids a little bit.” And the story of how Mount Si Winery came to life fits the small-town charm often found in the Snoqualmie Valley. The Larsens
GETTING THERE Snoqualmie Falls is 30 miles east of downtown Seattle, and its proximity to Interstate 90 — about 10 minutes northwest of the North Bend exit — is just one reason why it ranks among the state’s biggest tourist attractions. From Woodinville, it is a 10-mile or 20-minute drive east to Duvall along Northwest Woodinville-Duvall Road. From Bellevue, it is a 20-mile or 30-minute drive east to Carnation if taking Highway 520, catching Highway 202 at Redmond and then to Highway 203 — the north/south road that parallels the serpentine Snoqualmie River and serves as the spine of the Snoqualmie Valley Wine Experience. And from North Bend, it is just 26 miles to reach the ski areas atop Snoqualmie Pass. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is 35 miles west of North Bend.
wondered about the legal hurdles they would face if they wanted to start a winery in their cul de sac. City Hall is just a block away from their home, on the other side of the historic railroad tracks, so they walked over to ask questions. “Oh, that sounds great!” they were told by a receptionist. “Now, go talk to that guy.” “So we did,” Elaine said, “and that guy said, ‘Oh that sounds great! OK, can you sign right here — and what’s the name of the winery?” Lars recalls, “We hadn’t even discussed that, so we just blurted ‘Mount Si!’ How about Mount Si Winery?’ And we walked down the street and back home with this paper that said ‘Mount Si Winery.’ We thought it would be months of paperwork, but the city has been great.” MtSiWinery.com
Orenda Winery — Carnation Few wineries in the Pacific Northwest have been as successful as suddenly as Orenda. The Kents opened their tasting room on June 22, 2019. Before their 2016 Cabernet Franc was street-legal with its label, they’d received a double gold medal at the Seattle Wine Awards. That wine, produced with fruit from Stillwater Creek Vineyard, went on to earn the award for Best Red Wine at the 2019 Great Northwest Wine Invitational. Their
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Orenda Winery co-owner Xander Kent tends the beehives at the winery. The Kents produce and sell estate honey along with the award-winning wines crafted by his winemaking wife, Samantha.
2017 Cabernet Sauvignon won a double gold medal. This year, they received three gold medals at the Cascadia International Wine Competition for the Orenda 2017 Cabernet Franc, 2017 Merlot and 2016 Balance Red Wine. “This is pretty darn close to our dream, but we no longer understand the concept of a weekend,” Samantha says. This harvest, they will nearly double the production from their first vintage, growing from 650 cases in 2016 to about 1,200 cases per year as they focus on Bordeaux and Rhône varieties from Stillwater Creek in the Columbia Basin and Yakima Valley plantings Elephant Mountain/Sugarloaf, Dineen and Konnowac, which is now controlled by their friend Javier Alfonso of Pomum Cellars and
Idilico. “It’s more work than we expected,” Xander said. “We were up until midnight a couple of nights ago making blending decisions about Cab. And then people come out and say, ‘It’s so peaceful here. You must just sit around and drink wine.’ ” OrendaWinery.com
Pearl & Stone Wine Co. — North Bend When it comes to homegrown, no winery’s roots go quite as deep and wide as Pearl and Stone. “We are a partnership of three local families, all deeply rooted in the local community with a shared love of wine,” said co-owner Chris Stone. “ Pearl stands for Paul, Erika And Rob & Laurie. The wives were all teachers together at Fall City Elementary, and we
were all having kids at the same time and hanging out. Wine was always at the heart of those gatherings.” Paul Ribary, who owns a construction company, said, “We all live vicariously through Chris.” That’s because Stone is the longtime vice president of marketing and communications for the Washington State Wine Commission. On Jan. 12, 2013, the group, which includes Stone’s wife, Wendy, gathered to celebrate Ribary’s birthday. This time they began to talk more seriously than usual about launching a winery. “I’d registered the LLC by the end of the party,” said Ribary, who handles operations and logistics. Rob Wesorick, a Microsoft employee, serves as the general manager. Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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SPECIAL WEEKENDS/EVENTS Sip Suds & Si, a late March festival, began in 2018 and gets support from the North Bend Downtown Foundation. The walking tour begins at the historic train depot. SipFest 2021 in June, which will be the fifth year of it, already is in the works for Railroad Park. The Festival at Mount Si traditionally is the second weekend in August. Despite the pandemic, the Northwest Railway Museum managed to stage its annual Snoqualmie Railroad Days on time in August, and this year it rolled out the restored Locomotive 924, a $500,000 project focused on an engine built in 1899. The Snoqualmie Winter Lights Festival is traditionally the first Saturday in December at the Railroad Park & Centennial Log Pavilion.
Stone had made a barrel or two of wine previously, but he knew he also needed help so he asked one of his golfing buddies — acclaimed winemaker Chris Camarda of Andrew Will Winery on Vashon Island - to be the group’s consultant. “He didn’t make the wine for us,” Stone says. “We made it 100 percent ourselves. He was a guide to help us make sure we didn’t do anything wrong and to read our lab stuff.” That five-year agreement ended in 2018, but the connection is still there if Stone needs it. “It was Chris who taught us the style of the wines that we want to make,” Stone said. After all, much of the foundation of the P&S program continues to be fruit from Two Blondes Vineyard — an estate planting in the Yakima Valley for Andrew Will. And that growing region fits the understated and elegant approach behind the wines of Pearl and Stone, which has since gotten into vineyards such as Boushey, Elephant Mountain/Sugarloaf, Olsen and Sagemoor. “After talking with winemakers in this state for the past 20 years, I’ve come to understand that 80 percent of this business is just getting good fruit and getting out of the way,” Stone said. The resulting wines include Grenache 24
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Blanc, a GSM of Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah, red Bordeaux blends and a rosé of Cabernet Franc. If the wine was made from a Rhône grape, it will be named after a nearby hiking trail. If it is Bordeaux, then it’s a local mountain. “Resolution Peaks is also known as Mount Si and Little Mount Si,” Stone pointed out. Some might see the potential for a conflict of interest to emerge, but Stone spent enough time going over the parameters with the commission and the state attorney general’s office to avoid risking his job. Besides, none of the owners said they’ve taken a dime out of Pearl and Stone just yet. “There were some nervous moments early on getting the approval to do this, but I’d say almost without exception that the industry has seen me being involved in a small winery as hugely beneficial from a commission standpoint,” Stone said. “I know the pain some of these producers go through to make a bottle of wine. I’ve walked their shoes, and I understand their business better now.” They earned favorable scores from critics and have been warmly embraced by friends, colleagues and their peeps in the Snoqualmie Valley. That debut vintage of 2013 led to 300 cases of wine. The goal from the 2020 harvest is 2,200 cases. “We’ve had no trouble selling out of every vintage,” Stone said. “We’ll see about this year with the COVID situation.” And the young tasting room for Pearl and Stone should be easy to find. “We’re kitty-corner from the Twin Peaks café,” Stone said. “Twin Peaks cherry pie and ‘a damn fine cup of coffee!’ ” PearlAndStoneWine.com
Sigillo Cellars — Snoqualmie The Seal family and their friends, Scott and Christie Hussey, continue to pour their wines in downtown Snoqualmie, along Railroad Avenue, not far from their production space near the high school. However, their success prompted them to recently open a satellite tasting room in Chelan’s historic Lakeside School for Sigillo — pronounced see-GELLO, an Italian word for “seal.” Peers in the Snoqualmie Valley view Sigillo Cellars as “the big dog” of their loosely formed young group. What began in 2010 with 470 cases has grown into about 6,000 cases annually, making Sigillo easily the largest producer in the valley. “I was in health care sales for 20 years,” Ryan Seal said. “Before that, I owned a coffee
company for 11 years. I love the entrepreneurial side of life and never wanted to work for somebody. I didn’t sleep very much for a few years while we were getting the winery going.” His early mentor was Woodinville winemaker Matthew Loso, founder of Matthews Winery. In recent years, it’s been Linn Scott of Sparkman Cellars, who shares advice if there’s a question surrounding one of the nearly 30 wines in their portfolio. “And he’s helped us to get into some vineyards that we couldn’t touch before,” Seal said. When your wines are as clean, balanced and fruity as these are, and you operate tasting rooms on both sides of the Cascades — this year they traded Leavenworth for Chelan — there are reasons why a winery with nearly 1,500 club members also plans to move into a larger building in downtown Snoqualmie. “We’ve been community-focused since Day One,” Seal says. “In 2011, we were the only ones out here. People just accepted us. Wine club was always my focus. Up until now, our wines haven’t really been in wholesale. We’ve always sold out through our wine club and the tasting room.” They’ve enjoyed remarkable success in the historic Sunset Theater, which is topped by the candy red Snoqualmie Fire Department siren that sounds at noon each day except Sunday. It came over from the old firehall, which was built in 1956. Seal’s father, Mike, oversees the winemaking. The fruit they work with comes from historic vineyards such as Sagemoor, first planted in 1968, and 40-year-old site Rosebud Vineyard on the Wahluke Slope. There are nearly 30 wines in the portfolio, including standalone bottles of Sangiovese, Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah and Tempranillo as well as a GSM. A Right Bank-Bordeaux blend is named after the Sunset Theater. Their white proprietary blend of Chardonnay, Roussanne, Viognier and Marsanne is called SnoValley. White Caps is a 100% Pinot Gris grown near Lake Chelan, a tribute to the Seal family’s cabin at Lake Chelan. SigilloCellars.com
William Grassie Wine Estates — Snoqualmie Less than a month before the COVID shelter-in-place orders, Bill Grassie opened his new tasting room along Center Boulevard on Snoqualmie Ridge. “They were dying to have a tasting room open up here,” he said. “There are plenty of
COVER | snoqualmie valley people who just walk here.” As a result, his Fall City estate, which includes a vineyard he planted soon after arriving in 2007, will be limited to special events. His first commercial vintage was 2011 when he shared space and equipment in Woodinville with Ancestry Cellars and Lauren Ashton Cellars. “I’m a master gardener and I had this big patch of land in my front yard that I couldn’t figure out what to do with,” Grassie said. “Since I like wine, I thought it would be fun, if for nothing more than landscaping, to have a vineyard in my front yard.” Soon, the graduate from the University of Kansas wanted to do something with those grapes, so he went to South Seattle College’s Northwest Wine Academy. “Two years later, I then knew how to make wine,” he said. He’s worked in sales with corporations such as Sprint, Microsoft and Dell, but a change in management prompted Grassie to think more seriously about life as a professional winemaker and prepare to flee the corporate world. “Instead of one barrel that first year, I made 20, and the rest is history,” he said. “But because I’ve had a day job up until 2017, I’ve been able to afford to not cut corners. I age my wines three years in barrel and another year in bottle. It costs a little more, but for me, it makes a wine that I enjoy more. And they are ready to drink the day you buy them.” Each of his dry white wines — Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and a Bordeaux-inspired blend of Sauvignon Blanc with Sèmillon — are under $20. His penchant for nicely aged work with Cabernet Sauvignon takes up six spots on his portfolio. There’s also a Merlot blend and standalone bottlings of Malbec and Syrah named after granddaughters. There seems to be no shortage of walk-in tasting room traffic, particularly late on a weekday afternoon with folks getting off work, but until the pandemic, he was maintaining a tasting room presence in Woodinville. “At some point, I would like to move my production out of Woodinville and out here,” he said. “I absolutely love it out here, and until or unless I sell the winery, I will be out here the rest of my life.” WMGrassieWines.com
LODGING The Salish Lodge & Spa overlooks Sno-
qualmie Falls and blends the room experience of Willows Lodge with a bit of the historic feel found at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. There’s also Hampton Inn and Suites on Snoqualmie Ridge. RESTAURANTS The Grange in Duvall, established in 2018, provides seasonal farm-to-table dining, much of the ingredients coming from the farm run by restaurant owners Sarah Cassidy and Luke Woodward. Flavor Bistro in Duvall is dinner-only by chef Sean Langan. Gianfranco Ristorante Italiano was founded in Snoqualmie by Calabria chef Gianfranco Bafaro, and it is closing in on 20 years in business with Joe Dollente as head chef. Il Paesano Ristorante Italiano in downtown North Bend now is led by Bafaro, who moved to Seattle in 1979 and opened his first restaurant near the University of Washington’s Seattle campus in 1985. Caadxi Oaxaca in downtown Snoqualmie is prime for Mexican. The Woodman Lodge Steakhouse and Saloon can boast a 2019 wine list award from Wine Spectator. Locally owned Buckshot Honey is a new barbecue pit in downtown Snoqualmie on River Street. Executive chef Sean Quinn, a product of South Seattle College’s culinary program, owns and operates three restaurants west of Bellevue. One of those is in the Snoqualmie Valley. The Iron Duck Public House in North Bend, which opened in 2018, is devoted to beer (20 taps), whiskey (more than 350 from around the world) and cocktails. The North Bend Bar & Grill is renowned for its pretzel burger with Beecher’s white cheddar. Snoqualmie Casino’s options include Vista for steak and seafood, 12 Moons for sushi and Asian fare and the Snoqualmie Cafe & Deli for 24-hour dining. The Farmhouse Market in Fall City features local produce, Painted Hills natural beef and special-order deli trays. It is open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Store owner Jay Bluher has maintained the hometown feel and embraced the history of his location, which has served as a corner grocer since 1922. There’s also the iconic Scott’s Dairy Freeze in North Bend, which is one of the state’s oldest continuously operated drive-ins.
At William Grassie Wine Estates, there are 11 restaurants within a two-block radius, and Grassie allows outside food in his Snoqualmie Ridge tasting room. WINE MERCHANTS Kimberlea Martin began writing about wine before she began to sell it. Wildflower Bistro in downtown North Bend still serves as a wine merchant. (See the Match Maker profile on Martin and Wildflower in this issue.) Misty Valley Farm is a lavender farm and tasting room between Duvall and Carnation that serves wines made by a handful of Snoqualmie Valley producers. Snoqualmie Valley wines also can be found at Family Grocer and Valley House Brewing in Duvall and Remlinger Farms in Carnation. COFFEE Those needing a pick-me-up during a wine tour or on the way over Snoqualmie Pass have invigorating choices in North Bend. Huxdotter Coffee, established in 1990, sells Pacific Northwest wines, fresh-baked goods and pastries from Macrina Bakery, North Bend Bakery doughnuts and Seattle Bagel Bakery items. The non-profit Trail Youth Coffee Home in North Bend is acclaimed throughout Western Washington for the life-coaching program it developed since opening in 2013. Thanks to a community fundraising effort, Fall City was poised at press time to welcome its first coffee house — locally owned Aroma Coffee Co. — in the historic Prescott-Harshman Building. Mt. Si Coffee Roasters sells its products to Whole Foods and other grocers throughout the region. TREATS The North Bend Bakery is a destination in the morning for doughnuts and apple cinnamon bread, but there is also lunch with a variety of sandwiches, quiches, soup and salad. The Sno Valley is home to several craft beverage producers such as Snoqualmie Falls Brewery, No Boat Brewing Co., Volition Brewing (North Bend), Valley House Brewing (Duvall) and Duvall Distillery. TRAVEL AND TOURING SavorSnoqualmieValley.org
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COVER | snoqualmie valley provides information on Duvall, Carnation, Fall City, Snoqualmie and North Bend and offers a powerful interactive map for the wineries, breweries, lodging, shopping, farms, restaurants, hiking trails, information centers and even public restrooms. DiscoverNorthBend.com
is a great tourism portal managed by the North Bend Visitors Bureau. It provides a history of the Snoqualmie Valley and a gateway for outdoors enthusiasts. The North Bend Information and Cultural Center is a partnership with the City of North Bend, the Downtown Foundation and a strong volunteer base. Taylor Tasting Tours in Seattle specializes in private tours. Evergreen Escapes orchestrates group tours with a bit of exercise, typically starting at Snoqualmie Falls and including lunch in Fall City. OTHER ACTIVITIES Seattle suburbs continue to encroach on the Snoqualmie Valley, but these Cascade foothills serve as a breadbasket and a weekend getaway. Tiger Mountain, Snoqualmie Point and
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Duthie Hill attract mountain bikes. Mount Si ranks as one of the region’s most talked-about challenges. There are an abundance of hikes. Many of the PGA Tour’s most famous golfers compete as seniors on the Champions Tour, which conducts the Boeing Classic at The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge in late August. There are a number of farmers markets in the valley, including Carnation (Tuesday afternoons), Duvall and North Bend (Thursday afternoons). Snoqualmie canceled its farmers markets this year. Snoqualmie Casino opened in 2008. It is the closest casino to Seattle and includes one of the region’s few cigar lounges. The Northwest Railway Museum operates a bookstore in the Snoqualmie Depot Waiting Room and Freight Room. There’s also the Snoqualmie Valley Wine Train when available. Typically, it operates once a month from March through October. Go to TrainMuseum.org.
ERIC DEGERMAN is co-founder and CEO of Great Northwest Wine. Learn more about wine at GreatNorthwestWine.com.
LEARN MORE LivingSnoqualmie.com
is the go-to resource for information on the Snoqualmie Valley community of North Bend, Snoqualmie, Fall City and Carnation. It was founded in 2010 by Danna McCall, whose passion and professional approach led to her role as the public information officer and communications manager for the City of North Bend. Learn more at LivingSnoqualmie.com. The Snoqualmie Valley Record is a weekly publication that began in 1913 and serves North Bend, Snoqualmie, Preston, Fall City, Carnation, Novelty, Vincent and Duvall. Sound Publishing, the largest community media organization in the state, operates the site at ValleyRecord.com. The history of Snoqualmie Falls is told at SnoqualmieFalls.com, which includes links to the renowned Snoqualmie Falls Lodge pancake and waffle mix as well as Snoqualmie Casino.
TASTING RESULTS | fortified wines
ABACELA TOPS SPIRITED TASTING OF NORTHWEST PORT-STYLE, FORTIFIED WINES By Eric Degerman arl Jones of Abacela in Southern Oregon blazed the trail in the Pacific Northwest with his internationally acclaimed work with Tempranillo, the popular Spanish red grape that factors into the world-famous fortified wine of Portugal known as Port. This summer’s tasting by Wine Press Northwest of fortified wines from Washington, Oregon and Idaho also pointed out that the decades of researching Tempranillo by the Kentucky native and predicting its success in the Umpqua Valley have served Jones and his customers well when it comes to producing Port-style wine in Roseburg. “We selected the site specifically to match that of Spain’s finest Tempranillo growing areas and realized instant success,” Jones says. “We have persisted with other varieties only if there is an excellent match to their European homeland. “That’s why we tried Port varieties,” Jones added, “and with our family’s love of family reunions and Port — or perhaps it’s vice versa — the little project quickly grew to a commercial product.” There were 48 Northwest producers that participated in our first large-scale judging of fortifieds since 2015, and they combined for 67 entries. No one entered as many examples of traditional Port-style wines (five) as Abacela. No one received more “Outstanding!” ratings for their work, and none outscored the Abacela 2014 Estate Port. “I became interested in Ports more than 40 years ago, and I’m not sure why. Maybe friends influenced me, but our kids also were interested,” said Jones, who moved from the Gulf Coast to Roseburg in 1994 with his wife, Hilda, and their family. They began planting Fault Line Vineyards a year later. That top-rated 2014 by Abacela Port features five of the traditional grape varieties used to produce Port — Tempranillo, Tinta Amarela, Bastardo, Tinta Cão and Touriga Naçional. However, the two oldest gold-
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ANDRÉA JOHNSON Andréa Johnson Photography
Abacela owners Earl and Hilda Jones are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their winery and Fault Line Vineyards in Southern Oregon’s Umpqua Valley. Abacela’s 2014 Estate Port was the top wine of the Wine Press Northwest blind judging of 67 Northwest fortified wines. medal winners by Abacela, the 2001 Estate Port and 2008 Estate 10-year-old Tawny Port, relied on the Portuguese clone of Tempranillo called Tinta Roriz. “I love the older vintage-style ports with vintage dates; the trouble is waiting for them to mature,” Jones said. Interestingly, the clone that formed the foundation of those older Ports would not meet the expectations of Jones or Andrew Wenzl, who took over as Abacela’s winemaker in 2008. “We planted Tinta Roriz in 2000 aiming for the authentic clone used in Douro Port production,” Jones said. “It didn’t take long to see it was the worst clone of Tempranillo of the nine clones we had planted. We quickly began to use the superior Spanish clones, and after 10 years of monitoring the weather on that block we grafted the Tinta Roriz over to Grenache Alban.” Tempranillo now accounts for 22 acres of
the 76 acres planted across Fault Line Vineyards at Abacela. The other four varieties that factor into the Port program add up to 2.6 acres. “We are planting and grafting over more of these varieties to make red varietal wines,” said Jones, who was named the 2015 Oregon Winery of the Year by Wine Press Northwest. “Tinta Amarela is delicious!” There were several standout producers in this tasting of fortifieds, and many of them took a spellbinding angle to achieve excellence. No one did as well, as quirkily or as often as David Padgett in Washington’s Yakima Valley. He earned three “Outstanding!” ratings, scoring with the Horizon’s Edge Winery 2015 Estate Orange Muscat Winter Harvest Dessert Wine, the Maison de Padgett Winery 2009 Medusa Cream Sherry Gewürztraminer and the Maison de Padgett NV Smoking Gun Coffee Port Style. It was the second time in five years that the panel Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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TASTING RESULTS | fortified wines awarded his fortified program three or more gold medals. Taking the more traditional route to delectable levels was Brian Carter, the longtime Woodinville, Wash., producer. His deft touch with blending was on display once again during this tasting as the recipient of Wine Press Northwest’s 2015 Washington Winery of the Year earned a pair of Outstanding! ratings for his Opulento program, which relied on blends of four traditional Portuguese varieties to delicious ends for his 2010 and 2015 beauties. While some consumers don’t particularly embrace the nature or the sweetness of Ports and other fortified wines, the background behind their origins is fascinating, particularly for history students. The Douro Valley of Portugal, the home of Port wine, was demarcated as an appellation in 1756, making it the world’s third-oldest official wine region after Chianti (1716) and Tokay (1737). An agreement signed in March 2006 between the U.S. and the European Union restricts the use of the “Port” term for any U.S. wine imported to Europe. However, American wineries using “Port” on a label prior to that time can continue to do so. As for the rest, it can be entertaining to see some of the clever proprietary names producers use for these styles of wine. A number of the top-scoring Port-style wines were produced in the tawny style. While there are no enforced guidelines surrounding their production in the U.S., a tawny Port-style typically means it has been aged in wooden casks for at least a handful of years. However, some examples of tawny-style wines from Portugal are made using grapes that didn’t achieve higher levels of ripeness, which means those fortified products will not be as rich in color or intensity of flavor and structure. There also were a few examples of fortified wines produced using the solera system. They are non-vintage productions and incorporate wine from barrels that are of various ages. Typically, the original “mother” barrel is several years old and often a decade or more. And in the majority of cases, the price listed is for a 375-milliliter bottle, a format typical of dessert-style wines. This was our second judging staged using social distancing protocols, and it was again conducted during the course of two days at the home of Jerry Hug, the magazine’s pub28
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ANDRÉA JOHNSON Andréa Johnson Photography
Earl Jones and his son Greg, left, selected a vineyard site in 1992 near Winston, Ore., in the Umpqua Valley specifically to match the terroir of Spain’s finest Tempranillo growing areas. lisher, in Kennewick, Wash. The panel was made up of Kristine Bono, general manager of Tertulia Cellars of Walla Walla, Wash., and Dundee, Ore.; Gregg McConnell, managing editor, Wine Press Northwest; Philippe Michel, associate, Metis Northwest, Walla Walla; Ken Robertson, columnist, Wine Press Northwest; Paul Sinclair, Great Northwest Wine panelist, Bend, Ore.; and Gordy Venneri, co-founder of Walla Walla Vintners.
WINE RATINGS All rated wines are tasted blind then placed in the following categories: Outstanding! These wines have superior characteristics and should be highly sought after. Excellent
ERIC DEGERMAN is co-founder and CEO of Great Northwest Wine. Learn more about wine at GreatNorthwestWine.com.
UNANIMOUSLY OUTSTANDING! Abacela Winery 2014 Estate Port, Umpqua Valley • $48 If there’s a tasting that focuses on varieties native to the Iberian Peninsula, bet on a wine from Abacela finishing near the top. In this case, it was an Abacela Port-style wine from the warm 2014 vintage that finished No. 1. Andrew Wenzl, in his second decade as winemaker for the Jones family, worked with five grapes found in Portugal for this superb effort. Harvest arrived Oct. 3 for this blend of Tempranillo (43%), Tinta Amarela (15%), Bastardo (17%), Tinta Cão (13%) and Touriga Naçional (12%) that comes together as a total package. It’s dense, fruit-forward, fresh and
Top-notch wines with particularly high qualities. Recommended Delicious, well-made wines with true varietal characteristics. Prices are suggested retail.
complex, featuring lots of dark purple fruit with hints of sweet herbs and nuttiness. Those layers of complexity finish with licks of cherry pie and butterscotch. And despite the hedonism, it’s still in its youth. (199 cases of 375-ml bottles, 55 cases of 750-ml bottles, 20.4% alc.) College Cellars of Walla Walla NV Ciel du Cheval Vineyard Tawny Style Barbera Dessert Wine, Red Mountain • $40 The big brother of this tawny-style forti-
TASTING RESULTS | fortified wines
fied effort with Barbera nearly took best of show at the 2019 Washington State Wine Competition. Tim Donahue and his Walla Walla Community College students get an extra shot at consistency since they build this with a foundation of a solera method of dessert wine that’s a blend of 2-10 years in that barrel. It’s whole-cluster fermented, and the results are what you expect — a sweet wine, tawny in its appearance with perfumy aromas of toast, dusty cherries, cocoa powder and tar. Very cherry flavors lead to black currant, caramel, toffee and dark chocolate. (30 cases, 17.5% alc.) Maison de Padgett Winery 2009 Medusa Cream Sherry Gewürztraminer, Rattlesnake Hills • $24.95 There are few examples of sherry produced in the Pacific Northwest, and it’s no surprise that David Padgett — the sultan of sweet wines in the Yakima Valley — has crafted such a mesmerizing expression. He uses the German white variety Gewürztraminer, a naturally spicy grape, and his work leans more Port-like than sherry. Aromas and flavors of Brach’s Milk Maid Butter Rum Caramel, cherry Tootsie Pop, plum and tar all come through with a nicely balanced structure amid the 19% residual sugar. (92 cases, 19.5% alc.) Indian Creek Winery 2008 Tawny Portstyle, Snake River Valley • $45 The late Bill Stowe began showing the ropes to his future winemaker/son-in-law Mike McClure back in 2002, and they shepherded this barrel for a decade starting in
2008. It’s a field blend of Portuguese varieties, led by Touriga Naçional and followed by Tinta Cão and Souzao, and they rounded off the residual sugar to 10%. Classic aromas of poached cherries, boysenberry and vanilla include some nuttiness, and there’s spiciness throughout the rich and juicy profile. A bit of grip up front is shaved down beautifully with caramel and a pinch of white pepper on the finish. (20% alc.)
OUTSTANDING! Melrose Vineyards NV Solstice Solera VII Baco Noir Dessert Wine, Umpqua Valley • $40 This Southern Oregon family is one of the state’s largest growers of Pinot Noir, but the French hybrid Baco Noir also has a home among the 250 acres of vines. Second-generation vintner Cody Parker doesn’t rush the process, preferring to use the solera style to craft a remarkably complex sipper. The nose of cherry pie and cassis includes pepper, baking spices and roasted coffee notes, followed by bright flavors of Bing cherry, raisin, orange peel and dried plum. Delicious acidity within the finish of blackberry syrup and Baker’s chocolate explains why the Parkers suggest serving this with Chocolate Lava Cake. (183 cases of 750-ml bottles, 19.8% alc.) Brian Carter Cellars 2010 Opulento Dessert Wine, Yakima Valley • $45 Wine Press Northwest’s 2015 Washington Winery of the Year has a reputation for going Platinum with its Port-style program, and this
decade-old blend of Touriga Naçional (55%), Souzao (21%), Tinto Cão (14%) and Tempranillo (10%) ranks among the Northwest’s best. Carter aged it in new 20% French oak barriques for 18 months, with other components in neutral oak for as much as four years. There’s a sense of inkiness to the color leading into the nose of cherry preserves, blackberry syrup and cedar. Penetrating fruitiness of strawberry-rhubarb jam, blackberry, caramel and black cherry candy pick up baking spice along the way as the interplay of tannin, acidity, alcohol and sugar (12%) is superb. Its beautiful coating of the palate prompted one judge to rate it as carrying the best mouthfeel of the tasting. Enjoy with Stilton cheese or Chocolate Ganache. (534 cases of 375-ml bottles, 94 cases of 750-ml bottles, 19% alc.) Horizon’s Edge Winery 2015 Estate Orange Muscat Winter Harvest Dessert Wine, Rattlesnake Hills • $24.95 Yakima Valley winemaker David Padgett is a magician with dessert wine, regardless of style, and here he uses Orange Muscat to lip-smacking success. There’s immediate enticement with the beautiful orange color and aromas of tangerine and baked Pillsbury Orange Rolls. The texture and flavors are quite elegant with more flavors that hint at orange Creamsicle, Trader Joe’s Soft & Juicy Dried Mandarins and Lemonhead Candy. While it is rich with sweetness (19% residual sugar), the balance of acidity is rather masterful. (110 cases, 19.5% alc.) Abacela Winery 2008 Estate 10year Tawny Port, Umpqua Valley • $60 Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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TASTING RESULTS | fortified wines
Tinta Roriz, the authentic clone used in Douro Port production, was an early trial at Abacela, and it formed the foundation of this beautifully aged tawny Port-style that includes Bastardo (30%), Tinta Amarela (11%), Tinta Cão (9%) and Touriga Naçional (6%). Earl Jones and his winemaker, Andrew Wenzl deemed the 2008 vintage as less than stellar for their traditional Port-style program, so they created a tawny project, which they split in half — one that would spend five years in barrel and the other in barrel for a decade. When in barrel at least seven years, the Portuguese refer to these styles as colheita, pronounced col-YATE-tuh. This serves as an ideal introduction to the world of Port-style wines, starting with its relative freshness and cherrydriven approach. Vibrant red fruit tones come with raisin, coffee, chocolate and vanilla notes and underlying leatheriness. There’s finesse, appropriate levels of sugar (9%) and a deliciously nutty finish. One judge said, “It has everything that I love.” And the Joneses suggest serving it with pecan pie or chocolate. (248 cases, 19% alc.) Brian Carter Cellars 2015 Opulento Dessert Wine, Yakima Valley • $22 Woodinville’s Brian Carter took a similar approach to the historic hot 2015 vintage of his Opulento as he did with the expression from the cooler 2010 growing season. It is Touriga Naçional (44%), Souzao (33%), Tinto Cão (15%) and Tinta Roriz (8%), influenced by 20 months in a blend of 15% new French and American oak while other lots were aged 1-4 years in neutral barrel. Aromas of black30
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berry, raisin, coffee, hoisin sauce and leather lead to richly layered flavors of blueberry, plum sauce and cherry. Acidity keeps the fruit alive and the sandy tannins, combined with cocoa, make for a supple finish to balance the 11% residual sugar. (700 cases of 375-ml bottles, 46 cases of 750-ml bottles ($40), 19% alc.) Torii Mor Winery 2013 Port, Rogue Valley • $45 While this Willamette Valley producer is renowned for Pinot Noir, longtime winemaker Jacques Tardy contracted with Serenade Vineyard near the Southern Oregon town of Ashland for this Syrah. Clusters harvested Oct. 11 at between 24.3 and 25.5 Brix were fermented for six days until mutage with 150-proof brandy killed the yeast, leaving the residual sugar at 14%. That all sets the table for the nose of dusty cherry, strawberry and cookie dough. Beautifully bright red fruit and fresh prunes are met by rich chocolaty flavors. The long finish of mocha and toffee is balanced alongside the alcohol and sweetness, and there’s an impressive amount of life ahead. It’s no coincidence that Tardy suggests serving this with blue cheese from worldfamous Rogue River Creamery, a short drive from Serenade Vineyard. (245 cases, 18.3% alc.) Claar Cellars NV Estate Fouled Anchor Port, Columbia Valley • $30 This three-generation vineyard/winery in the Columbia Basin’s proposed White Bluffs American Viticultural Area takes a “Washington Bordeaux” approach to this delicious
fortified effort by winemaker Israel Zenteno, who blends Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Merlot with Syrah. It’s Port-like from start to finish, beginning with a brickish brown appearance and just the right amount of age with Tootsie Pop, black currant, coconut, plum skin and leather. A structure that’s rich and juicy with frontal tannins adds complexity. The long finish of plum, sarsaparilla, caramel and nuttiness will play well alongside a slab of Chocolate Mousse Layer Cake. (200 cases, 18% alc.) David Hill Vineyards & Winery 2013 Farmhouse Merlot Port, Willamette Valley • $40 One of the Northwest’s most influential and adventurous winemakers, Chad Stock, has taken over the history-filled program at David Hill. There’s an assortment of fruit in the nose with dried prune, fig, date and blueberry, followed by deep black cherry flavors and a rewarding structure of tannin that finishes with lingering blackberry syrup on pancakes. It is seven years into this effort, yet it remains fresh. And the alcohol is dangerously difficult to detect. (100 cases, 18.9% alc.) M.W. Whidbey’s 2017 Washington Port, Columbia Valley • $17 The first Whidbey’s Port from Ste. Michelle Wine Estates was made in 1984 at the then-young Columbia Crest facility by Doug Gore, who used Cabernet Sauvignon from historic Cold Creek Vineyard. More than three decades later, Cab still forms the base of this lush and opulent dessert wine. Now, 14 Hands winemaker Keith Kenison is in charge
TASTING RESULTS | fortified wines of the program, which spends 36 months in oak barrels. Perfumy aromas of cotton candy, plum, blackberry and marshmallow lead to a gorgeous structure that picks up cherry, chocolate and vanilla along the way to a sweet and remarkably smooth finish. (150 cases, 19% alc.) Schmidt Family Vineyards 2015 Tempus Dessert Wine, Applegate Valley • $25 Three generations — founding father Cal Schmidt, daughter Rene Brons and grandson Duncan Brons — deservedly beam with pride for this Port-style that’s crafted with Southern Oregon’s most buzz-worthy red, Tempranillo. A classic example, it pushes notes of Dr Pepper, Raisinets, cherry candy and coffee. For lovers of Port, a lot of boxes get checked with the tension of tannin, ample acidity and pleasing heat. A pinch of nutmeg caps off this smooth, seamless and complex work that’s far from cloying at 3% residual sugar. (89 cases, 18% alc.) Wooden Shoe Vineyards 2015 Estate Queen of Night Maréchal Foch, Willamette Valley • $52 The Iversons began to transition some of their row crops to vineyards in 2009, and Maréchal Foch is among the varieties that work well along Oregon’s Mt. Hood Territory Wine Trail. Sean Morris Allen of Pudding River Wine Cellars in Salem crafts these wines, and here’s a delectable reminder that this French hybrid can make for outstanding dessert wines. The nose is “Porty” with stewed cherry, prune, Tootsie Roll and black licorice. The big Marionberry midpalate is pleasantly balanced and capped by plum sauce, mocha and anise. (33 cases, 20% alc.) Eleven Winery 2014 Angelica Pinot Grigio, Washington • $20 Puget Sound producer Matt Albee devoted this seven-barrel lot of Pinot Gris to four years in neutral oak, and the experiment came out on the other side as a rather remarkable take on California’s historic template of white fortified wines by the early Franciscan missionaries. Aromas of caramel, toffee and Spanish flan transition to early flavors akin to a cream sherry and lemon. That tangy and citrusy profile balances the residual sugar (11%) and the midpalate of maple syrup and caramel. There’s ground nutmeg and the alcohol pokes out in the finish, but not enough to distract from the lemony theme. Enjoy it with poached pears, mild blue cheese or a slice of pumpkin pie. (175 cases, 18% alc.) Maison de Padgett Winery NV Smoking
Gun Coffee Portstyle, Rattlesnake Hills • $25 The past two times we’ve staged a tasting of Northwest fortified wines (2009 and 2015), David Padgett’s nonvintage effort using coffee came out near the top. His latest does not disappoint. He uses Chardonnay and Muscat Canelli as the base, and coffee extract takes it to another dimension. In fact, the moderator had to limit the discussion because of all the descriptors offered by judges. Out came Heath Bar, Almond Roca and a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats, along with hazelnut coffee and a box of Cracker Jack. It’s rich, complex and fascinating. Pour it over French vanilla ice cream or sneak a jigger into your Sunday morning coffee. (110 cases, 19.2% alc.) Abacela Winery 2015 Estate Port, Umpqua Valley • $25 Four years of bottle aging by winemaker Andrew Wenzl has the current release of Abacela’s vintage Port-style program already in “Outstanding!” territory, and history indicates this is just a baby. As usual for the Southern Oregon wine industry’s iconic property, five traditional varieties come into play in the form of Tempranillo (37%), Tinta Amarela (28%), Tinta Cão (14%), Touriga Naçional (11%) and Bastardo (10%). They yield perfumy aromas of Marionberry, Simpkin’s Blackcurrant Drops, cherry soda, cedar and dried herbs. The fluid is dense yet friendly with dark cherry, plum and nutmeg. Its immense structure bodes well for cellaring — as this tasting would later reveal — finishing with cocoa powder and black currant. Enjoy
with Black Forest Cake, a wedge of Stilton or toasted filberts. (300 cases of 375-ml bottles, 42 cases of 750-ml bottles, 19.5% alc.) Augustino Estate 2015 Caramella Pinot Noir Dessert Wine, Southern Oregon • $25 There were several examples of fortified Pinot Noir as part of this tasting, and owners Reggie Boltz and Debbie Spencer in O’Brien, Ore., can boast of theirs showing the best at the moment. Estate fruit from the Illinois Valley along the Siskiyou National Forest and aging in neutral French oak makes for a pretty nose of Bing cherry, dried rose petals and cedar that exhibits very little oxidation. The structure shows nice balance, to the extent of being sneaky about its alcohol that’s swallowed up by cherry cordial, plum and dates in the delicate finish. (200 cases, 18.5% alc.) Spiritopia NV Ginger Lemon Drop Aperitif Wine, Oregon • $24 Corvallis chemist Chris Beatty starts with Pinot Gris as the base for this dangerously easy to drink elixir. It’s super-charged with brandy to create a wine-distilled cocktail that includes organic lemon peel, organic sugar and organic ginger. It is unfiltered, so there’s a bit of cloudiness in the glass. On the nose, there’s no sense of the alcohol. Instead, it’s reminiscent of an inviting Arnold Palmer. The drink begins with lemon and lime, while the ginger picks up on the midpalate and comes across as a balancing bit of spiciness, masking the alcohol. “It’s damn interesting and very well-made,” said one judge. Consumers will see this on grocery shelves in single-serving 187-ml bottles priced at $6 each, and Spiritopia ships to more than 30 states. (120 cases, Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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TASTING RESULTS | fortified wines 16% alc.) Williamson Orchards & Vineyards NV Doce Dessert Wine, Snake River Valley • $25 Syrah remains a go-to grape for some of the Northwest’s top producers of fortified wines, and the multi-personality red Rhône grape thrives in Idaho, particularly in the hands of Greg Koenig, who crafted the Williamson family’s wines for nearly two decades. The nose of toffee, Saigon cinnamon, dried cherry and plum moves into darker flavors of cola and pomegranate syrup. There’s a pleasing bit of burn from the alcohol that’s smoothed out by the finish of Choward’s Violet candy and milk chocolate. The family of foodies at Williamson enjoy this with Black Forest Cake, blue cheese or walnuts. (141 cases, 20% alc.) Abacela Winery 2001 Estate Port, Umpqua Valley • $88 The most mature — and priciest — entry into this tasting of Northwest fortified wines also ranked among the best. Historically, this is just the second commercial vintage-style Port by Earl Jones, and these were young
vines at the time — seven-year-old Tinta Roriz and fifth-leaf Bastardo. (The Tinta Roriz ultimately under-performed and was grafted over to Grenache Alban a decade later.) It’s quite fascinating in that the nose presents itself as an aged red wine rather than “porty,” hinting at strawberry candy and dusty raspberry with notes of herbs and tobacco leaf. There’s nice richness and complexity to flavors with dusty dark red fruit, just a hint of Raisinet and a gentle yet sweet finish that screams for a cigar. Suggestions range from Stilton cheese, walnuts, honey-coated pecans and toffee. (14 cases, 20.3% alc.) LIV Lopez Island Vineyards 2019 Raspberry Wine, Puget Sound • $28 It makes sense that Brent Charnley, one of the first winemakers in Washington state to be certified organic, buys raspberries from Broers Organic Berry Farm in Snohomish County. And this framboise approach is far from cloying because the racy natural acidity of raspberries balances the residual sugar (6%). It’s reminiscent of breakfast by first hinting at blood orange marmalade and raspberry freezer jam on toast. Dig a little deeper
FORTIFIEDS BY THE NUMBERS Here’s a look at the numbers behind the wines tasted for this article. Total wines judged: 68 Fortifieds by category: Traditional Portuguese varieties (16), Cabernet Sauvignon-based (7), fruit (7), Pinot Noir (7), Syrah-based (6), white vinifera (6), hybrid (4), Italian variety-based (3), Merlot-based (3), Sherry (2), Vermouth (2), Malbec-based (1), Toffee (1) Percentage of “Outstanding!” wines: 34 Percentage of “Excellent” wines: 54 Percentage of “Recommended” wines: 9 Average price: $33 (per 375-ml bottle) Average price of “Outstanding!” wines: $35 Average alcohol: 18.8% Average alcohol of “Outstanding! wines: 19% Total cases represented: 3,328 Average case production: 256 Average case production of “Outstanding!” wines: 381 American Viticultural Areas represented: 20 Wines by AVA: Umpqua Valley (10), Columbia Valley (8), Rattlesnake Hills (8), Willamette Valley (7), Yakima Valley (6), Oregon (4), Snake River Valley (3), Washington State (3), Applegate Valley (2), Elkton Oregon (2), Puget Sound (2), Red Mountain (2), Rogue Valley (2), American (1), Chehalem Mountains (1), Columbia Gorge (1), Okanagan Valley (1), Snipes Mountain (1), Southern Oregon (1), Walla Walla Valley (1)
and there’s a pinch of raspberry leaf and brings with it a lick of caramel, cocoa and vanilla bean. Enjoy with cheese cake. (130 cases, 17% alc.) See the complete list of results, including Excellent and Recommended wines at winepressnw.com
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MATCH MAKER | wildflower bistro
WILDFLOWER BISTRO APPROACH STAYS LOCAL WITH SNOQUALMIE VALLEY Story by Eric Degerman | Photography by Richard Duval NORTH BEND, WASH. — Proof of Kimberlea Miller’s support of the Washington state wine industry is apparent in her Twitter handle — @SipInWashington. In the shadow of Mount Si, Miller sets the stage for a uniquely personal evening with Wildflower Bistro, featuring ingredients for a farm-to-table supper while also casting a spotlight on the burgeoning Snoqualmie Valley wine industry. “I want to take simple food and make it beautiful,” she says. At just six tables inside because of the pandemic restrictions, and three more outside — weather-permitting — Miller offers something between a chef’s table and a familial dining experience in downtown North Bend, about 10 miles from where she grew up in Fall City. “I want to create a place where people can just sit and drink beautiful Washington state wine and talk to each other. Have a date. There are no TVs, and if I could, I would hold up a bowl at the door and say, ‘Put your cell phones in,’ ” Miller said. “The food is all fresh and local. It is not held in a hot pan, so our food will take a moment to cook.” It’s no surprise Miller passionately supports Snoqualmie Valley wines, and she lists and/or retails at least one bottling from nearly each of its nine wineries. Orenda Winery in nearby Carnation — Wine Press Northwest’s 2020 Washington Winery to Watch — has several wines at Wildflower Bistro, including the 2017 Merlot and 2016 Balance Red wine, which both won gold medals at this summer’s Cascadia International Wine Competition. “Kimberlea is passionate in her support of Washington wine and fresh, locally sourced meats and produce,” said Samantha Kent, winemaker/co-owner of Orenda. “We first met Kimberlea at our grand opening in 2019 when she enthusiastically became our first
RICHARD DUVAL
Wildflower Bistro owner Kimberlea Miller is passionate in her support of Washington wine as well as Snoqualmie Valley produce and regional meats. Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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MATCH MAKER | wildflower bistro
RICHARD DUVAL
James Cameron Sturgis spent time working for the Opper Melang Restaurants group and Edouardo Jordan, the two-time James Beard Award-winning chef, prior to becoming head chef at Wildflower Bistro in North Bend.
culinary partner featuring our Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Balance red wines on her glass pour and bottle menus and sourcing our local honey as well. “Over the last year, we have partnered for multiple events both at her bistro and our winery and always look forward to tasting her new seasonal dishes,” Kent added. Miller’s enthusiasm is genuine and infectious, and evidence of her inspiration includes her days as a wine blogger and playing host to wine events. “In 2013, I toured the Washington state wine industry interviewing vintners and producers to share their stories with the public in my Sip in Washington blog,” she said. “A big break came when I was invited as the only non-restaurant or winery to have a booth at the inaugural Snoqualmie Valley SipFest.” 34
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Three years later, Miller became a fullfledged member of the Washington wine industry by opening Wildflower Wine Shop, and she’s built a local following. “People will come in and say, ‘Kimberlea knows what I like to drink.’ And they call me for advice, too,” Miller said. “I want to provide that for them.” She grew up in the hospitality industry, raising her five children while working years for family-owned Lombardi’s Italian Restaurants and founder Diane Symms, a past president of the Washington State Restaurant Association. “She’s like a mother to me,” Miller said. “Diane put her arms around me and coached me when she found out I was going to open my own restaurant. I learned all the concepts from her, and I became good friends with
customers. That’s my job, right? And I’m good at pairing wine with food.” Understandably, Miller gravitated to wines from Italy, and she’s still got a weakness for pricey Amarone. It was just seven years ago she slowly came to know and love wines grown in the Columbia Valley and made in the Snoqualmie Valley. Now, she kicks off the holiday season with an annual dinner that features a handful of local winemakers pouring for her guests. “I began telling people, ‘This is awesome wine, and it’s right here in our valley,” Miller said. Wildflower Bistro began in downtown North Bend as a wine shop that complemented its array of Washington wines by providing small plates at the historical McClellan Build-
MATCH MAKER | wildflower bistro
RICHARD DUVAL
Wildflower Bistro features farm-to-table suppers and Snoqualmie Valley wines in a uniquely intimate setting in the shadow of Mount Si.
ing. By the end of 2017, Miller moved Wildflower into North Bend’s old firehouse, taking over a space that had operated as Piccola Cellars. In those days, Wildflower and Miller partnered with JazzClubsNW on events in North Bend. “To be honest, the fire station was a little bit big for me,” said the mother of five. Last summer provided Miller with a homecoming of sorts as she moved back into the McClellan. She and her husband, Michael, rebranded it as the 10-table Wildflower Bistro that now temporarily seats 24. And JazzClubsNW is on the other side of the building. She recently teamed up with Texas-trained chef James Cameron Sturgis, whose Seattle résumé includes time working for the Opper Melang Restaurants group and Edouardo
Jordan, the two-time James Beard Awardwinning chef. “Kimberlea has created an intimate experience,” Sturgis said. “There will be just two of us, one working the floor and me in the kitchen. Kim’s wine knowledge is there, and I can come out and get some face time with each table. You are not going out for a bite of food. We’ve had people with us for four or five hours — just because they can. That’s something pretty novel, I think.” Early on, Miller’s cuisine came with a Greek flair because of the family background of her original business partner, Denise Romary. While the focus of Wildflower always has been on organic and local ingredients, her cadre of vendors has grown. “And I change the wine list quarterly,” she
said. Vegetables come from Steel Wheel Farms. Bybee Farm supplies her blueberries. Lavender is grown in Fall City. Painted Hills natural beef and other meats are cut in Fall City at the Farmhouse Market. And the Omama Handmade Homestyle Steak Sauce served at Wildflower is created by Ben Cockman, who founded Mt. Si Sports + Fitness. Meanwhile, Wildflower Bistro continues to operate as Wildflower Wine Shop. The shelves feature the likes of DeLille, Gorman, Hedges, Novelty Hill, Tamarack and WarrKing as well as nice values from Andrew Latta’s Disruption Wine Co., Nine Hats, Thurston Wolfe, Townshend and Treveri bubbles. And, of course, Wildflower offers the new Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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MATCH MAKER | wildflower bistro
BLACKENED RIBEYE WITH GARLIC MASHED POTATO AND VEGETABLES Serves 2
INGREDIENTS A Two 14-ounce cuts of ribeye steak A 4 large russet potatoes A 2 tablespoons butter A ½ cup cream A 2 teaspoons fresh minced garlic A 1 teaspoon salt and pepper A 1 large head broccoli A 1 large head cauliflower A Half of a large white onion A Juice from 1 large lemon A 2 tablespoons olive oil A 2 tablespoons per steak blackening seasoning A 2 teaspoons canola or olive oil PROCESS Preheat oven to 400 and be prepared to use a pot for boiling, steak pan or grill, and a mixer or masher. To prepare your mashed potatoes you will need to peel all russets, quarter and
Bear Cub 2016 Red Wine by Kyle MacLachlan, the star of Twin Peaks, who has been producing wine in Walla Walla since 2005. “I’m just blown away by the quality of wines and the variety that this state has to offer,” said Sturgis, who grew up in Dallas. On Miller’s dinner menu, there are a number of gluten-free options, an approach she’s refined over the years because Brittany Linn Lowe, her daughter, is sensitive to gluten. “Chef Brittany is the one who came in and helped me open the kitchen,” Miller said. “Many of the menu items originated with her.” A recent setback has Lowe on sabbatical and prompted Miller to recruit Sturgis, who moved to the Northwest three years ago for its culinary and music scene. Understandably, Stevie Ray Vaughan, the late Texas blues guitarist, is at the top of this pianist’s inspirational figures. Muddy Waters is another. 36
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place into a pot of cold water covering everything. Boil until soft. For ultimate fluffiness use a mixer with a whisk attachment but alternatively you can use a traditional masher in a bowl. Combine boiled potato with butter,
Miller refers to him as “the singing chef.” “Music is my first love, but my joke for that is that it’s the only thing that makes less money than cooking,” Sturgis dead-panned. “I made it to a couple of the bigger restaurants in Seattle, but once the COVID stuff hit, my partner and I and our baby moved out to Enumclaw. “I started looking for a smaller spot that was doing the same sort of concept that I wanted to do. That’s Kimberlea,” he continued. “She was already serving this awesome, really fresh and vibrant food. We’re getting almost 100 percent of our produce from Fall City. That’s as local and as fresh as it can get.” And Sturgis’s talent stands out on such a tiny stage. “Because of this COVID we’re in, it’s going to be limited tables for anyone anyway,” Sturgis said. “What this does is allow
cream, garlic, and whip to airy perfection via mixer or masher. Add in salt and pepper a teaspoon at a time to adjust for personal taste. Vegetables can be prepared in the oven. Break down cauliflower and broccoli into bite-size hunks and rough chop your onion half into pieces about a ¼- inch by a ¼inch dice. Place all veg on sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, season lightly with salt and pepper and roast at 400 until slight color is achieved - about 12 minutes. Prepare and finish steaks while veggies roast. Steaks should rest at room temp and patted dry before seasoning for optimal searing. Once prepped, drizzle with oil and generously season with blackening mix and a strong hand of salt and pepper. Sear in pan with a neutral oil at high heat or grill for about 4 minutes on each side until a golden color is reached on the edges and your seasoning has “blackened.” Leave in the pan if you prefer medium or well done; for medium rare pull and rest. Serve with vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes accompaniment.
me to give more care to each individual dish. We’re doing scallops, oysters, steak and my Shrimp and Scallop Veracruz, which is more of a paella. I’m still able to do Creme Brûlée in the old classic French style because so many guests were asking for it.” Each table that makes a reservation will be greeted with an amuse-bouche that Sturgis whips up using something local and fresh that day. And because Wildflower Bistro is open just five days a week with a focus on dinner, Sturgis stays refreshed. “She gives me a lot of creative freedom, and we collaborate on the wine pairings, which I really enjoy doing,” Sturgis said. “It’s been a really awesome experience. We want to support our neighboring farms, so we’re not tagged into any specific type of cuisine.” For those who look to Yelp for help when selecting a restaurant, at press time Wildflower Bistro had 17 reviews — all of them five
MATCH MAKER | wildflower bistro
OYSTERS ROCKEFELLER Serves 2
INGREDIENTS A 12 large Hama Hama oysters A 1 bunch parsley A 1 bunch cilantro A Juice from 1 whole squeezed lemon A ½ cup olive or canola oil A 2 tablespoons minced garlic A 3 tablespoons softened butter METHOD Preheat your oven to 400 to prepare this version of Oysters Rockefeller, which utilizes a rustic chimichurri as the herb element. Combine parsley, cilantro, garlic and oil with the squeezed lemon. Salt to taste. Shuck your oyster quantity and separate from the shell but retain the oyster in the shell for baking and serving. Put all prepped oysters on a sheet tray or in a casserole dish that fits all of your oysters flat in one tier. Apply a decent helping of your herb mix to each oyster. Use a dollop of softened butter on top of your herb mixture -this will help browning and melding of flavors. Bake at 400° for about 8 minutes or until your butter has melted and your oysters have taken some color. If your herb mixture starts to char, that is fine! Enjoy from the shell with a utensil or remove the meat to a plate and add more chimichurri with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Serve with lemon wedges.
stars — since its relaunch in August 2019. Compliments and stellar ratings abound on other platforms, too. “Before I was here, Kim was doing the food and people loved it,” Sturgis said. Miller and Sturgis collaborated on their Snoqualmie Valley-focused Match Maker assignments, which opened with the Orenda Winery 2019 Fumé Blanc from the Columbia Valley. They selected Oysters Rockefeller, with the star of the show being acclaimed Hama Hama Farm oysters, sourced from Hood Canal by the family of Wildflower Bistro’s lone server — Ashley Bratton. “Oysters Rockefeller, also known regionally as Oysters Florentine, is a simple but elegant dish originating in New Orleans,” Sturgis explained. “Our take on it is sure to be a fresh but satisfying hit, even among those hesitant to eat oysters, as a bright summer dish or as a rich and heated cold weather starter.”
Since Kent’s work at Orenda with Sauvignon Blanc included a bit of oak, she and her husband, Xander, decided to pay tribute to the late Robert Mondavi’s catchy name for his barrel-influenced work in Napa with the white Bordeaux. And the bright citrusy profile of the Orenda example establishes the theme. Underlying support of oak nuances show with toffee and vanilla that still allows for some of the inherent salinity in the oysters. The Château NoElle 2018 Hollywood Hill Vineyard Estate Revelation Pinot Noir showed its versatility with both the oyster dish and Miller’s Blackened Ribeye. It offers plenty of fruit, nicely managed tannins and responsibly low alcohol, yet it stands up to the local Omama steak sauce. “Pinot is said by some people to be the most versatile food wine,” Château NoElle winemaker Tom Wilson said. “Most consumers think that Pinot Noir is not a steak wine.”
Miller and her team pack a delicious amount of Snoqualmie Valley and Washington pride into its five hours of dinner dining five days a week starting at 4 p.m. And as a result of requests, Wildflower recently began offering brunch on Saturday and Sunday. “I’m a foodie. I love going out to eat, but it drives my husband crazy because I’m always thinking about ways to improve our restaurant,” Miller said. “I also have four grandkids, and I love working out at the dojo. I was blessed to go with my 14-year-old son and get our black belts in taekwondo together. “And of course, I always love to drink wine,” she added. “Why am I sitting here talking to you with no glass of wine in my hand?”
ERIC DEGERMAN is co-founder and CEO of Great Northwest Wine. Learn more about wine at GreatNorthwestWine.com. Fall 2020 • Wine Press Northwest
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MATCH MAKER | wildflower bistro
CHÂTEAU NOELLE VINEYARDS & WINERY 2018 HOLLYWOOD HILL ESTATE REVELATION PINOT NOIR, PUGET SOUND, $42 — 130 cases, 12.5% alc. Last year, Tom and Lorrie Wilson earned their first career Platinum from Wine Press Northwest for Château NoElle, and they used Pinot Noir they harvested in 2017 to get there. And while their work for that Revelation program did not yet feature fruit from either their Nolan or Elle blocks at their home near Snoqualmie Ridge, the Wilsons did the farming at Hollywood Hill Vineyard just west of Woodinville. Hollywood Hill Vineyards, established in 2004, is owned by Steve Snyder, whose history with viticulture in the Puget Sound American Viticultural Area includes Maury Island Vineyards as well as serving on the faculty at South Seattle College’s Northwest Wine Academy. The 2018 vintage marked the second of three in which the Wilsons were hands-on farming the Dijon clone 667 and 777 fruit at Hollywood Hill, and they plan to continue their contracting with Synder because those grapes fit their appreciation for cool-climate wines. “The concept for this all started in 2015 when Elle, our oldest, graduated from high school, and there were a lot of visits to schools in Western Oregon,” Tom says. “Those coincided with some wine tasting.” So the Wilsons began to pursue Pinot Noir, and their passion is on full display this year as they released three vineyard-designate Pinot Noirs carrying the Puget Sound AVA — the 2018 Hollywood Hill, the 2018 Devorah Creek Vineyard near Lake Tapps and the 2018 Snoqualmie Vineyards, the latter is their first commercial bottling of Pinot Noir from their Elle Block. And they’ve already qualified for the 2020 Platinum Judging after receiving a double gold at the Seattle Wine Awards this past spring. As for the 2018 Hollywood Hill, the Wilsons took in the 667 on Oct. 3 at 23 Brix. The next day, the 777 came off at 21 Brix. That neither lot was allowed to reach the modern wine world’s traditional “sweet spot” of ripeness at 24 Brix simply fits in with the 38
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approach at Château NoElle. “Our Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines are the foundation of our winemaking style,” Tom says. “We strive for wines that are truly food-friendly, balancing moderate alcohol and bright acidity for palate-cleansing vibrancy that pleases the taste buds and prepares your mouth for the next bite from your plate.” The profile for 2018 Hollywood Hill Pinot Noir is charming with notes of strawberry/ rhubarb compote, Rainier cherry and dusty herbs, backed by an incredibly subtle barrel influence — 20% new French oak for 11 months — and delicious acidity. And any red wine produced in the U.S. with a listed alcohol-by-volume below 13% is rare these days. However, scant alcohol, a phrase almost of unheard of these days, is refreshingly common at Château NoElle. And the ABV for the 2018 Snoqualmie Vineyards Estate Revelation is a mere 11.8%. Château NoElle Vineyards & Winery, 36105 SE 89th Place, Snoqualmie, WA 98065, ChateauNoElle.com, (425) 4172374.
ORENDA WINERY 2019 FUMÉ BLANC, COLUMBIA VALLEY, $25 — 100 cases, 13% alc. Snoqualmie Valley winemaker Samantha Kent and her husband, Xander, are newcomers to the Washington wine industry, but they already knew the importance of balance in life as well as in a glass of wine. So they pay homage to a Native American term — orenda — first cited by 19th century Smithsonian anthropologist J.N.B. Hewitt that refers to the balance of energy among all things. According to professional wine judges throughout the Pacific Northwest, Orenda’s first efforts rank among the most balanced. The young couple from Colorado launched their Bordeaux-inspired brand in the summer of 2018. This past spring, Wine Press Northwest named Orenda as the 2020 Washington Winery to Watch. This summer, Orenda wines merited three gold medals at the Cascadia International Wine Competition. One of those is for a 2016 proprietary red wine they named Balance, which is dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. The Kents contract with acclaimed Still-
water Creek Vineyard in the proposed Royal Slope American Viticultural Area north of the Wahluke Slope as well as a collection of high-elevation, cool-climate vineyards in Rattlesnake Hills above the Yakima Valley. Orenda’s 2019 Fumé Blanc is sourced from Konnowac Vineyard in the Rattlesnake Hills and features notes of Asian pear, melon and grapefruit, with hints of vanilla and caramel from the single barrel of new French oak. The other 75% of the lot went directly into a stainless steel tank. “This year’s Fumé Blanc was a fun experiment,” Samantha says. “We made a popular New Zealand-style Sauvignon Blanc last year, but this was our first release of an oaked white wine.” She enjoys sharing with visitors the history behind Fumé Blanc, which stems from Napa legend Robert Mondavi’s determination to develop a dry expression of those notoriously sweet examples of Sauvignon Blanc popular with U.S. consumers in the 1960s. By completely fermenting the wine and aging it in oak, Mondavi crafted a quality dry white wine. To help describe and define the style, he adopted the French word for smoky, a reference to the hint of gunflint found in the famous Sauvignon Blancs from the Pouilly-Fumé region in the Loire Valley of France. Starting in 1968, U.S. consumers could more easily identify the style of Sauvignon Blanc they were buying, thanks to Mondavi. For years, Rob Griffin, the dean of Washington winemakers, used “Fumé Blanc” on the label of his Sauvignon Blanc at Barnard Griffin in Richland. He went away from “fumé” three years ago. However,“I really might bring it back,” he said. With less than 50 cases remaining since its April release, Orenda’s 2019 Fumé Blanc has been an easy sell at the Kents’pastoral tasting room in these Cascade foothills. Guests can sit back and watch neighboring cows graze and enjoy freshly harvested honey from Xander’s 20 hives behind the winery. The Kents won’t be working with Sauvignon Blanc again until the 2021 harvest. In the meantime, they suggest serving the Orenda 2019 Fumé Blanc with roast chicken, grilled fish, scallops and oysters. Orenda Winery and Events Center, 32305 NE Eighth St., Carnation, WA 98014, OrendaWinery.com, (425) 5269100.
“Great wine is a gift of geography, soil, and sun playing a symphony in the vineyards.” - Dr. Bob Jankelson, Owner Tsillan Cellars
2020 WASHINGTON WINERY OF THE YEAR World Class Wine Estate Grown and Made in the Lake Chelan Valley AVA
2019 Seattle Wine Awards 9 Double Gold and 4 Gold
2020 Seattle Wine Awards 10 Best of Class, Double Gold and Gold Awards
2019 Wine Press NW Best of the Best 3 Double Platinum and 3 Platinum
Wine Press NW All Time Leaderboard: 23 All-Time Platinums 2019 San Francisco International Wine Competition 2017 Estate Malbec - Double Gold, 94 Points 2017 Estate Reserve Syrah - Double Gold, 91 Points 2017 Estate Sangiovese - Gold, 90 Points
2019 Grand Harvest Challenge 2017 Estate Malbec - Best of Class, Best Columbia valley Wine, Double Gold and 97 Points 2017 Estate Syrah - Gold, 94 Points 2018 Estate Reserve Syrah - Gold, 94 Points 2018 Estate Reserve Chardonnay - Gold, 91 Points
bringing world class wine, food and hospitality to the Lake Chelan AVA 3875 US HWY 97A Chelan, WA 98816 | 509-682-9463 | www.tsillancellars.com