Great Northwest Wine magazine Spring 2023

Welcome to

Cover story | by Eric Degerman

Brian Carter makes more history with Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year

A Vine Start | by Eric Degerman

Lawmakers in Washington state want to drop DUI level to 0.05%

The Wine Knows | by Andy Perdue

Some of my favorite movies are wine-centric flicks

Swirl, Sniff & Sip | by Ken Robertson

Bottle-aging pays off for Ron Bunnell and Brian Carter

Ellen on Wine | by Ellen Landis

Oregon’s Carlton Winemaker Studio provides enduring stage

Rising Stars | by April Reddout

Our new series opens with Venezuelan vintner Ellie Zeron

The Wines that Made Us | by Liz Moss-Woerman

Pinot Grigio led Shae Frichette to Red Mountain

Puget Sound profile | by Dan Radil

Dusted Valley Vintners brings sense of Walla Walla to Edmonds

Gem State Report | by Jim Thomssen

Idaho industry refreshes logo, welcomes 76 acres of vines

Oregon Wine Tales | by Sophia McDonald

Ancient soil leads to new AVA for Polk County’s Mount Pisgah

Abeja Winery & Inn

Washington Winery of the Year | by Eric Degerman

Walla Walla icon pairs premier wines with elite hospitality

Winescape Winery

Washington Winery to Watch | by Eric Degerman

Butterfields turn Spokane’s South Hill into wine country

Dobbes Family Estate

Oregon Winery of the Year | by Eric Degerman

Dundee team shows mettle with 5 golds at Great NW Invite

Iterum Wines

Oregon Winery to Watch | by Eric Degerman

New estate project on Eola Bench inspires Joe Dobbes

Huston Vineyards

Idaho Winery of the Year | by Eric Degerman

Table is set for Alger brothers along Chicken Dinner Road

Rolling Hills Vineyard

Idaho Winery to Watch | by Eric Degerman

Pasculli family on growth curve in Garden City, Eagle Foothills

Hester Creek Estate Winery

British Columbia Winery of the Year | by Eric Degerman

Circa 1968 vines still shine on Golden Mile Bench

Crown & Thieves

British Columbia Winery to Watch | Allison M. Markin

The Charles Smith of the Okanagan provides ‘sensory overload’

Malbec comparative tasting | by Eric Degerman

Judges pick Maryhill as No. 1 in historic gathering of 110 entries

Page 34 — The entrance to Abeja - Richard Duval Images

Page 38 — Dobbes Family Estate tasting room - Photo by Cheryl Juetten

Page 42 — The Algers of Huston Vineyards - Photo courtesy of Huston Vineyards

Page 52 — Top Malbecs by Maryhill, Aluvé - Richard Duval Images

WINE

Since 1998, our team of journalists has set out to help identify award-winning wines from the Pacific Northwest and to share the stories of those behind them. We focus on those in the cellar and among the vines who work with fruit from Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Idaho and Montana. Our coverage includes those restaurateurs, merchants and ambassadors working to promote the Northwest as one of the wine world’s leading destinations. Along the way, we continue to pay homage to the historic figures responsible for our industry’s delicious past, present and future.

CEO, Eric Degerman

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF eric@GreatNorthwestWine.com & CO-FOUNDER

PUBLISHER Jerry Hug jerry@GreatNorthwestWine.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Ken Robertson & COLUMNIST

COLUMNISTS

Ellen Landis

Liz Moss-Woerman

Andy Perdue

April Reddout

CONTRIBUTORS

Allison M. Markin

Sophia McDonald

Dan Radil

Jim Thomssen

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

CONTRIBUTING

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Richard Duval

Cheryl Juetten

Angela McCaw Evans

Zachary Pasculli

Dan Radil

Cheyenne Tufts

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Lisa L. Vogt

Lisasdesignworks@gmail.com

ADVERTISING SALES

Jerry Hug

Jerry@GreatNorthwestWine.com (509) 947-9422

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COVER PHOTO

© 2023

Great Northwest Wine A publication of Wine News Service

Brian Carter celebrates the first anniversary of his Woodinville tasting room and bistro as our 2023 Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year.

Richard Duval Images

The Best Escape Is Winescape

Bill to lower DUI to .05% in Washington stalls

enate Bill 5002 didn’t make it across the finish line this year, but responsible wine consumers should keep in their rearview mirror the idea that a group of Washington state lawmakers want to lower the legal limit of blood alcohol content to 0.05%.

The only state in the nation where 0.05% BAC is illegal is Utah, where about two-thirds of the population belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In the Evergreen State, SB 5002’s primary sponsor was Sen. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, who spent 31 years at the Washington State Patrol. Soon after it was introduced, Gov. Jay Inslee said he would sign such a bill into law. Passage would’ve prompted the wine and hospitality industries to revisit the way they do business, and it would mean increased restrictions for wine consumers in Washington state. Both the Washington Hospitality Association and the Washington Wine Institute moved quickly, said Lane Hoss, vice president of operations for Anthony’s Restaurants.

“The public needs to be better educated on this topic,” she told me. “For one, a restaurant doesn’t know where a guest has been before they arrive. Our servers are trained to look for signs of intoxication, and there usually aren’t visible signs of intoxication at .05. For many people, that’s one drink, which they may have already had.

“We want our guests to enjoy a full dining experience, but if two people want to share a bottle of wine over a couple of hours with their meal, they couldn’t drink their second glass,” Hoss adds.

The Yakima Herald-Republic — on behalf of consumers, the tourism industry and wineries — pointed out in a Feb. 19 editorial that lawmakers in Olympia shouldn’t use Utah and its young law as justification for taking Washington state to 0.05%. And the data indicates Utah’s law isn’t as effective as some want the public to believe.

Utah suffered 48 DUI-related deaths in 2018. The next year, after its law was enacted, those fatalities plummeted to 19. No sane person will

Scomplain about those lives saved.

However, in 2020, with the 0.05% BAC standard and despite the pandemic, drunk driving resulted in 46 fatalities. It got worse in 2021, when the annual DUI Report to the Utah Legislature noted there were 61 fatalities.

Despite the rise in DUI-related fatalities in Utah since 2019, one would bet that Idaho and its ultra-conservative state Legislature will consider a bill similar to SB 5002. After all, counties in the Gem State began to enact anti-alcohol laws in 1910 — a decade before Prohibition officially gripped the U.S. in 1920. Oregon and its Democrat-led government might come up with a similar bill.

It brings us back to education. How many responsible wine consumers realize the level of their impairment? Anyone with a server’s permit — I travel with cards earned for Washington state and my native state of Oregon — knows the roles of food, water, body mass, amount of alcohol and the time required for the body to process the alcohol. That clock can’t be sped up.

The drive to 0.05 would be a boon for ride-sharing apps and benefit those who live within walking distance of an enjoyable tasting room, wine bar or restaurant. In Richland, I can stroll down to Fat Olives in 20 minutes, talk wine with owner/vintner JD Nolan, support his restaurant and walk home.

As a company, Great Northwest Wine chooses to hold its competitions with lodging partners such as the historic Columbia Gorge Hotel & Spa in Hood River, Ore., the Courtyard Marriott Columbia Point in Richland, Wash., and downstream at the Clover Island Inn — the official home of the 23-year-old Platinum Awards. Our judges dinners are staged at the hotel, within walking distance of the venue or involve ride-sharing.

As a compromise, perhaps our lawmakers will consider the model of British Columbia. Those drivers caught the first time with a BAC in the “warning” range — between 0.05 and 0.08 — face an immediate three-day driving ban and a $200 fine.

Higher than 0.08 is a “fail,” which is a 90day ban, a costly 30-day vehicle impoundment and other penalties. And in the Okanagan Valley, it’s not uncommon for law enforcement to set up roadblocks in search of those who have been over-served.

A lifesaver for each state would be to adopt a 2022 recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board — equip all new vehicles with a blood alcohol monitoring system.

This winter’s bill did prompt me to install fresh batteries in my AlcoMate Revo — a digital personal breathalyzer. Trouble is the Revo requires a 20-minute wait after eating, smoking, chewing gum or even drinking a glass of water. Even then, it states, “Do not use the Revo to determine whether to drive.” My uneducated guess is the vast majority of folks pulled over for DUI lack the sensibility to abstain from anything for 20 minutes.

Despite its early bipartisan support, Rep. Andrew Barkis, R-Olympia, said members of his party quickly heard the hospitality industry’s concerns about SB 5002. I sent a note to my state senator.

“Ding dong the Witch is dead!” read the celebratory update from the WHA on March 9. However, restaurants, wineries, their employees and customers must remain engaged.

“This issue is going to be coming back,” Hoss predicted.

And she’s right. According to the Legislative Information Center in Olympia, because 2023 is the first year of a biennium, the bill will be re-introduced for next session.

In the meantime, Senate Bill 5002 serves as another reminder to give serious thought about enjoying more than a single glass of wine before getting behind the wheel too quickly. Going to a friend’s home? Step up your game with that bottle you bring to the backyard barbecue or dinner party. For those who are driving, make that glass count. Life is too short for vin ordinare

ERIC DEGERMAN

Eric Degerman is the President and CEO of Great Northwest Wine.

“

Passage would prompt the wine and hospitality industries to revisit the way they do business, and it would mean increased restrictions for wine consumers in Washington state.”

Wine-Related Movies with Industry Intrigue

The dark days of winter tend to inspire doubleheaders at my house — well, more like a matinee followed by a movie night — since it’s neither sunny nor warm enough yet in the Pacific Northwest for me to spend time outside.

And while Oscar season is a time to explore new cinematic stories, it also leads me to revisit some of my favorite movies, regardless of their award pedigrees. A good yarn about wine can do a lot for the industry. Get the popcorn (consider pairing it with an American sparkling wine), fire up the Roku and see what you think.

In 2004, a little movie took the country by storm and propelled the wine industry along with it. It was called Sideways, and it simultaneously boosted Pinot Noir and torpedoed interest in Merlot. Both varieties are important to the Pacific Northwest.

Starring Paul Giamatti, the focus of the Academy Award-winning movie was the misadventures of wine-lover Miles, who takes his jerk-of-a-friend Jack on a pre-wedding bachelor vacation in the California wine region of Santa Barbara. This area isn’t nearly as acclaimed as Napa, Sonoma or the Russian River Valley, while Oregon might now be the country’s most well-known for Pinot Noir production.

The film helped prompt wine aficionados to take another look at the Burgundian variety, and it helped boost sales to the point of nearly emptying winery cellars.

At the same time, one dastardly line in the movie about Merlot sank sales in Washington and forced the industry in new directions, in particular encouraging winemakers to concentrate efforts on other varieties. It didn’t take many more vintages for Cabernet Sauvignon to gain the status as Washington’s signature grape, leading to increased vineyards and innovative winemaking techniques with a focus on making better wine.

Because a bottle of Cab can command more in the marketplace, it did help provide some financial stability for winery owners statewide. Another curious effect of Sideways was the increased popularity of Washington’s red

blends based on the Bordeaux model, which led to de-emphasizing Merlot as a blending grape.

Simultaneously, Syrah benefited from a raised reputation, increased plantings and more appearances in complex wine blends. Sideways did add to the narrative of California’s wine culture surrounding tasting rooms, cuisine, wide-open spaces, vineyards and perpetual blue skies.

In 2012, I had a chance to judge the Paso Robles wine competition and spent a couple of days in Santa Barbara, following the Sideways wine trail, an experience I shared with the readers of my column in The Seattle Times.

I enjoyed the movie so much, I was compelled to read the book by Rex Pickett, as well his equally-good sequels: Vertical (set in Oregon at the International Pinot Noir Celebration, where Miles is in a dunk tank of Merlot) and Sideways: Chile. Rumor is that Sideways: New Zealand is in the works.

Once you finish watching the movie Sideways and have recovered from the dismay of the Styrofoam cup, I am confident you’ll enjoy these two other classics and one new find.

Starring Chris Pine and the late Alan Rickman, Bottle Shock, released in 2008, showcases the complex allure of winemaking and the value of taking a chance. While not a documentary, Bottle Shock is the true story about The Judgment of Paris blind tasting in 1976 that pitted the best of California against the top wines of France.

When the Napa Valley wines finished on top, the results shook the global industry by proving that New World wines could do as well as the French.

This led to immediate visibility for U.S. vineyards, helping to raise Washington state’s reputation as a viable place to grow wine grapes and pushing wineries into improving overall wine quality. The movie is based on the book written by George M. Taber, the only journalist present at the event.

Although no Northwest wines were entered in the landmark tasting, a blind judging a few years later showed that Oregon Pinot Noir keeps up with top wines from Burgundy.

It is impossible to emphasize the historical importance of this blind judging because it broke the spell that French wines had over the world.

Year of the Comet, which stars Penelope Miller, is a more obscure rom-com from 1992 (confession: I still own the VHS edition) about a young woman striving to prove her superior wine skills in a blatantly sexist family-owned wine auction business.

Sent to inventory a deceased wine collector’s cellar, she discovers an extremely large bottle of wine from the legendary 1811 vintage during which Halley’s Comet appeared in the skies. The plot centers on efforts to transport the $1 million bottle from Scotland to London while outsmarting various murder and theft attempts. Uncorked is a Netflix production that came out in 2020 and, I will confess, I missed its release as I was still pandemic-binging Star Wars and Avengers movies. Trust me when I say you’ll be craving some quality barbecue after watching this. It’s the tale of a young Black man, played by Courtney B. Vance, who struggles with expectations to take over a family-owned business and his dream of becoming a Master Sommelier.

The MS exam is reputed to be the most difficult test in the world, and you’ll learn a thing or two through his story. Uncorked flips the standard wine movie on its head, in part because the wine world is still very white. The original soundtrack adds to the fresh vibe. This is an inspiring film that encourages hard work, family connections, being true to yourself — and being true to the wine.

Eric Degerman is the president, CEO and co-founder of Great Northwest Wine LLC. He can be reached at eric@GreatNorthwestWine.com.

The film helped prompt wine aficionados to take another look at the Burgundian variety, and it helped boost sales to the point of nearly emptying winery cellars.”

Andy Perdue, former wine columnist for The Seattle Times, is a mostly retired stroke survivor. He lives in the heart of Washington wine country with his wife, Melissa, and their daughter, Niranjana.

Creating wines worth waiting for

Ahandful of Washington’s longtime winemakers are veering away from marketing expectations that red wines should reach retail outlets by the time they’re about two years old.

Because the Northwest rather recently emerged as a major wine grape-growing region, grape growers and wineries already faced economic pressure to repay loans to cover costs of what’s typically a six-year payback cycle for red wines.

Ron Bunnell of The Bunnell Family Cellar in Prosser and Brian Carter of Brian Carter Cellars in Woodinville separately reached the decision they wanted to give their wines extra time to mature to be at their peak for their customers.

Bunnell, who became head red winemaker for Château Ste. Michelle in 1999 after working for California wineries such as Charles Krug, Beringer, Chateau Souverain and Kendall-Jackson, was part of the team at Ste. Michelle that would decide when to release its reds.

Larger wineries face a different set of pressures in the marketplace, Bunnell discovered during his years at major players. Routinely, there was robust discussion within each organization about release dates.

The marketing department wants to have new wines to release annually and “keep the pipeline filled” for distributors across the nation. Empty retail shelves are shelves that a rival winery’s bottles soon will fill, which means dedicated shelf space may be lost. Bunnell wanted to try a different model when he started his own winery.

“When I grow up, I’m going to keep proper bottle conditioning on my mind,” he promised himself.

That meant dedicating at least a year to allow newly bottled wine to settle into what it will become.

His opportunity came when he and his wife Susan founded The Bunnell Family Cellar in 2005. Four years later, those wines began to be showcased at their Wine O’Clock Wine Bar & Bistro that Susan operates in Prosser’s Vintners Village.

The bottling process — with wine pouring rapidly into bottles as they jostle along a fast-moving line and then being corked, labeled and boxed — often changes a wine.

“Especially in the first six months,” Ron says, “it makes a huge difference in the expression of the wine. It needs time to recover.”

It’s the in-winery equivalent to “bottle shock,” something many wine buyers have experienced when they haul wine home from a lengthy trip or have it shipped to their homes.

“At this point, I’ve been at it for 40 years,” he said. “I’ve found that after a year, those oscillations take care of themselves.”

microbiology at Oregon State University, then headed to University of California-Davis for graduate work. After working at Mount Eden Vineyards and then Chateau Montelena Winery, he returned to the Northwest in 1980.

He spent two decades making wines for others. It wasn’t until 2002 when Carter had focused on his own brand. He has since crafted a name as a master of red wine blending and produces an array of superb red blends that can age for a decade or more.

“My philosophy is to pack more into the wine from the beginning,” Carter said. “My reds, except for the Abracadabra, get a full 22 months in the barrel.”

He uses grapes with a little more acid and tannin, plus enough fruit to age while the tannins and acids abate; he subsequently ends up with a wine that’s a little softer but has all the components needed to age well.

“But the key is complexity. You just have to put enough in there,” he added.

His 40-plus years of learning Washington’s vineyards, the growers, soils and terroir play a key role. Grapes for many of his red blends are grown in the Yakima Valley.

As evidence that “bottle conditioning” works, older releases by The Bunnell Family Cellar continue to earn top awards at wine competitions across the country. Among the first came in 2006 when his then-new brand topped Wine Press Northwest’s judging of Syrah. It happened again in 2012, proving that the first award was no anomaly.

Ever since, his Syrah, Grenache and Rhônestyle red blends have been winning awards regularly, often when they are six or more years beyond their vintage date. He credits savvy judges in the Northwest for recognizing the benefits of bottle time and rewarding those merits when they evaluate his wines.

One of the twists of COVID-19 was that it bolstered his plans to build appropriate inventory because sales of wines costing $45 or more dipped in 2020, reducing pressure for him to release wines earlier.

Brian Carter’s tenure as a winemaker stretches back 43 years. He grew up in Corvallis, Ore., and obtained his bachelor’s degree in

At any time, the majority of Carter’s red wines listed for sale on his website are at least three years old. The current roster stretches back to 2013. The Bunnell website also lists a 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon. Early in 2023, Susan Bunnell noted the 2016 vintage headlines most of their current offerings.

Though some may “give you the fish-eye,” as Ron Bunnell says, for selling older wines, he and Carter agree: Done right, extra time and care create wines worth waiting for.

Wine Words: Vin du garde

Here’s the French term for wine that’s capable of significant improvement if allowed to age, according to The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia.

Literally, “wine to keep or safeguard” — a concept rather fitting for this column.

Eric Degerman is the president, CEO and co-founder of Great Northwest Wine LLC. He can be reached at eric@GreatNorthwestWine.com.

Ken Robertson, associate editor and columnist for Great Northwest Wine magazine, has been sipping Northwest wines and writing about them since 1976.

“

When I grow up, I’m going to keep proper bottle conditioning on my mind.”

Carlton Winemakers Studio enters third decade of delicious art

ARLTON, Ore. — In the heart of Oregon’s Yamhill-Carlton American Viticultural Area is an intriguing incubator that brings together startup winemakers looking to hone their craft and matches them with Willamette Valley wine aficionados seeking an experience to please multiple palates.

The Carlton Winemakers Studio provides new and expert winemakers with space, equipment, collaboration opportunities and the ability to connect with customers over an array of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and more in a charming tasting room.

This unique, eco-friendly winemaking coop was launched in 2002 by winemaker Eric Hamacher, his famous winemaking wife — Luisa Ponzi — and partners Ned and Kirsten Lumpkin, owners of Lazy River Vineyard.

Built to LEED standards, the beautiful studio

Cwith its gravity-flow production equipment was bought by Portland-based Hampton Lumber in 2021.

“Starting and running the Studio for 20 years may well be one of the most important things that I have done in my career,” Hamacher says. “It opened eyes to what was possible if you work together and see opportunity in shared goals.

“And by showing environmentally thoughtful and beautiful design, we had a rather large soapbox for the very idea of building green,” Hamacher adds.

Along the way, the studio has been home to 47 vintners. Some moved to their own properties. This winter, 13 brands used the Carlton Winemakers Studio as their homebase.

Anthony King, winemaker for Ratio:Wines, also serves as the Carlton Winemakers Studio general manager. He spent eight years at Lemelson Vineyards before moving to the studio.

“The collaborative nature of the studio seemed like a logical next step for me,” says King, who also consults for other small brands. “I couldn’t see doing it with a better team than we have now.”

That team regularly rotates the wines they feature in the tasting room, which can range from a $22 Pinot Gris to a cult Pinot Noir priced at $175.

Harry Thalhime, a wine lover in Richmond, Va., received a one-year club membership in 2015 from a friend. He’s been a happy customer ever since.

“The studio staff members are exceptional people to deal with, and I’ve never had a wine from them that was not awesome,” he said.

The winemakers

Some clients have been making wine at the studio for several years, but only Andrew Rich has been here from the start — 2002.

“The fact that all the winemakers are seasoned pros who know how to work collaboratively and who can roll with the punches means things tend to go very smoothly,” Rich says. “Over the years, there have been many upgrades to the physical plant and to equipment, but I think the most consequential changes have been the hiring of Anthony King and current facilities manager Mel Liebeck. They’ve been responsible for ensuring that the studio operates at high standards.”

In 2020, customers Francine Goitz and David Willis of Bend, Ore., joined the studio wine club after hearing about its unique options and experiencing the Pinot Noirs by Andrew Rich.

“Once we sat down and had a full tasting of many of their winemakers’ works, we knew we would be members — always,” said Goitz, adding that they appreciate “the wide variety of phenomenal wines.”

A recent studio tour included a well-crafted Grüner Veltliner by Wynne Nedry-Peterson, whose brands include Ribbon Ridge Winery and Ridgecrest.

She shares ownership of those with her father Harry. In 1982, Harry planted the first vines at Ridgecrest Vineyards in what is now the Ribbon Ridge American Viticultural Area. Wynne grew up on that property, home to 40 acres of sustainably dry-farmed vines.In 1982,

“My favorite part of working at the studio, which is also the most compelling and beneficial part of the setup, is the ability to work with and be surrounded by so many other fabulous and talented winemakers,” she says. “We are all a big family, able to share advice, tips, tricks and whatever else might be useful. It’s fun to have a collective winemaking mind to bounce things off of and have others taste the wines.”

Wines

Here are a few of the beautifully crafted wines poured earlier this year at the Carlton Winemakers Studio:

Ribbon Ridge Winery 2021 Ridgecrest Estate Grüner Veltliner, $24: Wynne Peterson-Nedry presents snappy and fresh with hints of tropical fruit and citrus on the nose. Star fruit, juicy white peaches, lemon-lime citrusy notes, white pepper and lemon verbena entwine with mouth-watering acidity to make for an exhilarating palate and bright finish.

Ratio:Wines 2017 Johnson Vineyard Chardonnay, Yamhill-Carlton, $38: The wildly effusive aromas of tree fruits and lemon tarragon lead the way in a captivating manner. Reminiscent of a fine Chablis, it’s sleek with crisp apples, citrus herb notes, a thread of minerality and barrel spice sitting perfectly in the background. Racy acidity keeps it finely balanced.

ELLEN LANDIS

Ratio: Wines 2017 Johnson Vineyard Chardonnay

Hamacher Wines 2016 Signature Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, $60: Floral notes rise from the glass with this silky Pinot Noir from Eric Hamacher. The well-defined palate showcases rich Bing cherries, spice-dusted wild berries, forest floor elements and subtle oak nuances. It is beautifully textured with a finish that’s nervy and long-lasting. ($60)

Andrew Rich Wines 2018 Sojeau Pinot Noir, Eola-Amity Hills $60: The tantalizing earth-driven nose developed by Andrew Rich leads to a layered and balanced palate of black cherries, anise, black raspberries, and a nice herbaceousness. Well-managed oak adds a touch of spice. This is pure and elegant with fine depth and a lingering finale.

Studio wineries also include 00 Wines, Asilda Wines, Aubaine Wine, Dusky Goose Winery, Guillén Family Wines, Lavinea, Lazy River, Lucid Wild Wines, Megan Anne Cellars, North Valley Vineyards, Project M Wines and Wahle Vineyards & Cellars.

For a broader perspective of the studio’s wines, call (503) 852-6100 for an appointment. It is open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., but reservations are no longer required. Carlton Winemakers Studio, 801 N. Scott St., Carlton, OR, 97111, WinemakersStudio.com.

Ellen Landis is a certified sommelier, journalist and wine judge based in St.Petersburg, Florida.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREW RICH WINES

Oregon’s Carlton Winemakers Studio has served as a stage or stepping stone for nearly 50 vintners since it opened in 2002.

Andrew Rich spent five years at Rhône-minded Boony Doon Vineyards in California prior to becoming one of the original winemakers at the Carlton Winemakers Studio.

Ribbon Ridge Winery 2021 Ridgecrest Estate Grüner Veltliner

PHOTO BY ELLENONWINE.COM

Ellie Zeron’s path to wine began in Venezuela, led to Red Mountain

During my time as the wine program director at the Walter Clore Center, we staged an annual tasting for consumers called “Rising Stars,” at which some of Washington’s promising young wineries poured their wines.

My column will now take a similar path, providing a platform for rising stars who don’t fit the traditional perception of winemakers.

Ellie Zeron of Zeron Vineyards and Elk Haven Winery on Red Mountain is one such star.

We spoke after the Unified Grape and Wine Symposium in Sacramento, Calif., where prominent messages included, “We need to make wine tasting more approachable and simple, allowing more people to enjoy a social experience,” and “Diversity is the key!”

Ellie interprets that as, “The industry needs more women and Hispanic people.”

She grew up in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela, surrounded by orchids, rivers and waterfalls.

Her father pushed her to become a doctor, but Ellie resisted, declaring that Venezuela had plenty of doctors, lawyers and teachers.

He said women weren’t meant to be scientists and was furious with her choice to pursue a degree in chemical engineering, which she earned at University of the Andes.

In 1999, the oil and chemical industry led her to Houston, where she was accepted into the English as a second language (ESL) program at prestigious Rice University.

Her experience and education earned her a job in Dallas, where she met her husband, Jaime, and they started a family. They moved to Auburn, Wash., and Ellie spent six years at home with her children before she began working as a consultant/analytical linguist for the U.S. government.

One of Jaime’s projects took the family to the Bay Area, and Ellie visited Napa and Sonoma. There, she photographed and unexpectedly fell in love with vineyards. That connection inspired her to take University of California-Davis extension courses, leading to a winemaking certificate in 2012.

She launched her own brand — pronounced

ZEHR-on — as a small negoçiant project pulling from Napa. Upon returning to Washington, Ellie connected with longtime Boeing Employees Winemakers Club instructors Doug DeVol and Steve Foisie. She began to research vineyard locations and targeted Red Mountain, a growing region she first learned of from Carole Meredith, a renowned grape geneticist and professor at UC-Davis.

In 2016, Zeron bought 5 acres of raw land on Red Mountain for her dream vineyard. Two years later, the family planted 3 acres of clone 8 Cabernet Sauvignon.

“I used my own hard-earned money from my consulting job to invest in my own business,” she says with pride.

Next, Jaime’s sister, Joyce, and her husband bought 5 acres for their own project — Casad Vineyard.

Making wine with Red Mountain, Idaho grapes

Along the way, Jaime’s boss, Miles Jackson, asked Ellie to design and plant a small, experimental high-elevation vineyard in Worley, Idaho. That’s grown into a 10-acre planting of aromatic whites — Riesling, Grüner Veltliner

and Gewürztraminer.

Before long, Jackson convinced Ellie to quit her government job and make wine from his Idaho grapes. Now, he also wanted a Red Mountain project, so he purchased land and hired Ellie to develop a 12acre vineyard that surrounds the Jackson family’s Elk Haven Winery. It is populated by Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Carménère and Marselan — a cross of Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon. Those wines will be made by Ellie in the Elk Haven cellar.

“When I designed Elk Haven’s vineyard, I wanted to include a heat-resistant variety — a perfect fit for Red Mountain,” she says. “Marselan got my attention after analyzing my options using the UC-Davis website.”

Those wines will be made by Ellie in the Elk Haven cellar once the vineyard matures. This spring, 1,600 cases of Ellie’s Elk Haven wines will be released.

Construction on her Zeron Vineyards tasting room is scheduled to be finished in 2023. She has about 1,000 cases from the 2021 and 2022 vintages in barrel.

Her goal at Zeron Vineyards is to make wine tasting more accessible to people whose first language is Spanish. She plans to hire staff who can conduct tours and tastings in Spanish and English.

Technical terms are important to learn, she says, but they must be delivered in a language that makes people feel at home, regardless of their background in wine.

“Never rely on people’s opinion of you, not your accomplishments or lack of them, your appearance, etc.,” Ellie says. “Stay true to yourself!”

April

Reddout is a professional wine judge and hospitality consultant who served as the guest services manager for Col Solare on Red Mountain. She can be reached at ReddoutWine.com.

Ellie Zeron, a chemical engineer from Venezuela, applies her viticulture and winemaking education from University of California, Davis at Zeron Vineyards and Elk Haven Winery on Washington’s Red Mountain.

RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES

Shae Frichette and Pinot Grigio

Fate has a funny way of changing the game, especially when you put your trust in it and intend to follow it — wherever it may lead you.

Shae Frichette studied theater, leaving her native South Carolina for Hollywood and a chance at life in the spotlight.

“I did it for three years, and I wasn’t making much…” she laments. “I took a year off to make some money, so I could focus on acting — but in that year I found a job in corporate training and did really well. I liked it, so I stuck with that.”

Around that time she met Greg Frichette, who had traveled from Washington for the Rose Bowl and hadn’t returned home. After they married, the future seemed clear. “Greg said, ‘Let’s have a kid and move closer to our parents.’ I assumed he was referring to South Carolina, and he figured I knew he meant Washington.”

Enter fate.

“We decided to flip a coin. Wherever it landed, we would both be fine. Heads was Washington and tails was South Carolina; and the coin landed on heads,” she laughed. “I suggested we do best out of five.”

Both hailing from generations familiar with farming — Shae with row crops in South Carolina and Greg with wheat in the Palouse — the idea of their new Washington life slowly took shape.

“I went to Monster.com, where you could type in keywords of the role you wanted,” she says. “I thought, ‘Wow, I’m going to a whole new state. I can do anything, but I want to do something that will give us goosebumps.’

“Eventually, we landed on wine. We’d grab a bottle of wine, sit on the patio and discuss what our wildest dreams were. It seemed every exciting conversation was over a bottle of wine, and then it came to us, ‘Why don’t we grow wine grapes and make wine?’ ”

The coin flip happened in 2010, Greg enrolled in the enology program online with Washington State University shortly thereafter, and within a year they were sourcing grapes for their dream project — with guidance from grower Dick Boushey and winemaker Charlie Hoppes.

“Charlie was a great coach,” she says. “We sourced the fruit. We traveled back and forth while Greg was doing the program — learning and doing at the same time.”

The Frichettes made the move to Washington in 2013 and into their own production facility on Red Mountain in 2016.

“It was important for us to come in and really integrate with the community — Greg grew up here. For him it was coming back home, and for me, I wanted it to feel like home right away.”

Prior to launching into this existence, Shae used her corporate background to hone in on exactly what the Frichette brand would be.

“Our vision was the same then as it is now, ‘Create a space offering premium wines, stellar customer service and beautiful views.’ ”

That experience, she says, begins with “greeting everyone within three seconds of

Shae Frichette looks back upon a glass of crisp Pinot Grigio enjoyed in L.A. with friends after work as the wine helped lead her and her husband, Greg, to become growers, winemakers and leaders on Red Mountain.

them entering through the door.”

However, before making fine wine, one must know and appreciate it. What was Shae’s wine that made her?

“In my early twenties, I didn’t know diddly-squat about wine. I was drinking this stuff, I don’t even know if it was really wine. It was $3 a bottle, over where Arbor Mist was,” she admits.

“My co-workers and I would go to this Greek restaurant in L.A. called Alexis. The owner was always there. I think he was just tickled pink that we were regulars; we’d sit on the patio in the sun — and my girlfriends would order this Pinot Grigio. It was his house wine.

“I remember being out there, with them, and this lifestyle of working really hard — we all traveled for this company and gave so much to this company. So when we had this opportunity to go sit on this patio and have this Pinot Grigio, it was a picture out of a magazine. A group of young girls, having fun, having this wonderful Greek food and this beautiful light, crisp white wine.”

That unnamed Pinot Gris set her on the path to Red Mountain.

“I didn’t know anything about Pinot Grigio — this was made in a drier style — and I enjoyed it, and I think it’s because of the experience,” she says. “I started to fall in love with a different type of wine. That’s what transitioned me to being open to different things, to pick a bottle out at the store and give it a try.

MOSS-WOERMAN

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“My girlfriends can’t believe I’m making wine now, ‘You were drinking this $2 sugar water… and now you make bold, red wine!?’ ”

Since landing on Red Mountain, the Frichettes have acquired more land (15 acres to be planted in 2024), grown production to 3,500 cases and launched a new line — Sashay. Shae makes wine alongside Greg, and she has a few other projects in mind.

“Everybody is fascinated with bubbly, and I’ve been wanting to make one for more than three years now,” she says. “It’s stretching myself to do something that I feel like I’m supposed to do — just like when I sat at that computer and I could type in anything.

“I want to keep that same sort of drive and mindset when it comes to making wine,” Shae adds. “I don’t want to sit back and do what’s safe. I want to do something exciting. Something that challenges me so that I can keep having fun doing what I do.”

Something that will likely give her goosebumps — no coin toss needed.

Liz Moss-Woerman is the director of hospitality and direct-to-consumer manager at Barnard Griffin Winery in Richland, Wash. She represents the third generation of her family to be a part of the Washington state wine industry.

Dusted Valley Vintners elevates Edmonds wine culture

By Dan Radil

EDMONDS, Wash. — For the past 20 years, Corey Braunel and Chad Johnson have taken risks as winemakers in Washington, and their gamble on Edmonds is another that’s paid off.

When they started Dusted Valley Vintners in 2003, they were the 52nd winery to join the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance. Their expansion into Western Washington has been different — as trailblazers.

Dusted Valley became one of the first Walla Walla-based wineries to open a Woodinville tasting room in July 2009. (Mike Berghan of Gifford Hirlinger edged them out by a few days.)

Six months later, their award-winning juice and business savvy prompted the editorial team of Great Northwest Wine to select Dusted Valley Vintners as the 2010 Washington Winery of the Year for Wine Press Northwest magazine.

And in 2021, Dusted Valley became the first winery to open a tasting room in the city of Edmonds, but then Braunel and Johnson are no strangers to setting up shop in uncharted territory.

They grew up in Wisconsin, and they both worked for the same biotech company that in 1998 led Johnson and his wife, Janet, to Portland, Ore. Braunel and his wife, Cindy — Janet’s sister — joined the Johnsons for what Braunel looks back on as “several fateful trips to Napa.”

Those outings prompted Chad’s decision to move to Walla Walla in 2003 and learn more about the wine industry. That summer, the Braunels joined the Johnsons — having visited Eastern Washington only once before — and launched Dusted Valley Vintners.

“I would send Corey a case of Washington wine every once in a while, and hop on the phone chatting about the wine, life and the dream,” Chad remembers. “We wanted to be in the vineyards vs. urban winemaking, and Walla Walla was an easy choice. When Janet and I finally decided to make the move, we called them and told them we didn’t want to do it without them.”

Six years later, the proliferation of wineries in Woodinville, with its proximity to the Seattle market, prompted Dusted Valley to open a satellite tasting room.

“You go where the population is,” Braunel says. “And we found that 80 percent of the people coming through our doors in Woodinville had never been to Walla Walla, which is a destination, a journey with a unique set of variables.”

Woodinville provided Seattle-area wine consumers an opportunity to have a “wine experience” without driving across the state.

“The expansion into Woodinville was phenomenal; it revolutionized our brand,” Braunel says. “We went from less than 500 wine club members in our first five years to over 1,000 within Year One of being in Woodinville. That allowed us to grow through the Great Recession. It allowed us to thrive.”

In February 2021, despite the pandemic, the Braunels checked out Edmonds as a possible third location. It came at the recommendation of Billy Farrow, Dusted Valley’s regional sales manager.

“We walked around downtown Edmonds, and it had an amazing feel to it,” Braunel says. “In fact, it felt like Walla Walla.

“It’s got the charm. It’s got the quaintness, the walkability and the personality of that kind

of a community,” he continued. “There was something special here, and that was all the convincing we needed to know that this was the next thing we needed to do.”

Although considered a Seattle suburb, Edmonds maintains its small-town vibe. The city lists its population at 41,820 — about 10,000 more than that of Walla Walla. And while just three miles west of Interstate 5, the Snohomish County city still has a bit of a secluded “destination feel” to it, keyed as the eastern hub of the Edmonds/Kingston ferry route to the Kitsap Peninsula.

Dusted Valley’s tasting room is just two blocks from the ferry terminal, and the brand has proved to be a natural fit for what Braunel describes as the “culinary and artsy” atmosphere in Edmonds that caters to locals and travelers.

“People come over from the peninsula. They can walk to the ferry from here,” he explains. “They’ll do a flight; they pick up a couple bottles, and if they become regulars, they’ll ultimately join our wine club.”

That club, the Stained Tooth Society, provides members with special access and

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Corey Braunel and Dusted Valley Vintners in the Walla Walla Valley gambled on being the first winery to open a tasting room in Edmonds, Wash., and the risk has been rewarded.

discounts. There’s a waiting list for their Cult of Ceres Club.

“The community has been super-supportive and really embraced us, and it’s also been a fantastic way to partner with local restaurants,” Braunel says.

Charcoal and Salt & Iron are among the favorites nearby, and tasting room lead Jennifer Krogstad enjoys a special connection with her consumers that Dusted Valley’s other two locations can’t quite match.

“We get a lot of neighborhood customers who are regulars, because they can walk down here from their homes,” Krogstad says. “It’s a fun environment. Everyone who comes in is normally in a good mood, and everyone leaves in a good mood,” she said with a laugh.

Even the name — Dusted Valley Edmonds Wine Bar — is intentional.

“As a satellite tasting room, we’re allowed to do the same thing we do in Woodinville and Walla Walla, but we knew that the ‘wine bar’ name would resonate with people as a gathering spot rather than just a wine tasting room,” Braunel says.

In addition to a menu of small plates, they

also offer a selection of local craft brews.

“But 99 percent of the people coming in here are still looking for wine,” Braunel says.

Dusted Valley’s arrival has helped downtown Edmonds nurture a wine culture. Nearby is Vinbero, a wine bar that includes a menu of cured meat, cheeses, salads and small plates. There’s also Arista Wine Cellars, a bottle shop that opened in 1997 and still offers complimentary Saturday tastings. Both are a short walk from the Dusted Valley tasting room. And this spring, Virtue Cellars in Shoreline plans to open a tasting room at the planned Main Street Commons development.

Boomtown benefits from Dusted Valley estate vines

Dusted Valley Vintners draws upon more than 50 acres of estate vineyards in the Walla Walla Valley, including The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater, for the 5,000-case brand.

Beyond their home valley, they work with three of the Columbia Valley’s most acclaimed sites — Olsen in the Yakima Valley for their Chardonnay and soon-to-be-released, first-ever Sauvignon Blanc; StoneTree on the Wahluke Slope for Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and

Petite Sirah; and Dionysus Vineyard, home to 1980s plantings of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Those collaborations were key to their 2013 selection as Winery of the Year by Wine & Spirits Magazine.

For their new méthode Champenoise project, Braunel and Johnson stayed in the Walla Walla Valley as Breezy Slope Vineyard provided the Pinot Noir for the 2019 Falx Blanc de Noir.

“I think the Dusted Valley house style has an Old World vibe emphasizing vineyard over ripeness and manipulation,” Johnson says. “We love earth, herbs and all things secondary to complement the beautiful bright fruit and structure of Washington state wines. This has led us to our estate vineyard program and choosing to work with vineyards that naturally express those characteristics.

“In a ‘grasshopper moment,’ the legend Gordy Hill once told me. ‘Make the wines you like to drink, because if you can’t sell them, you can at least enjoy drinking them’ ” Johnson adds.

It would seem that the vast majority of innovative moves and vineyard investments by the Braunel and Johnson families have paid off. That includes the plunge in 2006 to create a second brand — Boomtown by Dusted Valley.

The nicely priced Boomtown label is referred to as “Dusted Valley’s little brother,” according to Braunel, even though it is a 15,000-case brand with distribution across the U.S. Dusted Valley fruit plays a role in the collaborative effort with Four Feathers Wine Services in Prosser, directed by rising star winemaker Rebecca De Kleine.

“There’s a commonality with Dusted Valley so that the wines show a point of expression that is a signature of Chad’s and my style,” Braunel says.

And it’s an approach that’s earned Dusted Valley growing support in Walla Walla, Woodinville and now in Edmonds.

Dusted Valley Vintners

Edmonds: 201 Main St., Suite 102, (425) 248-9901

Woodinville: 14465 Redmond-Woodinville Road NE, (425) 488-7373

Walla Walla: 1248 Old Milton Highway, (509) 525-1337

Hours vary by location

DustedValley.com

Dan Radil is a freelance writer based in Bellingham. His site is DanTheWineGuy.com, and he is president of the Bellingham Northwest Wine Competition.

The Dusted Valley Wine Bar is along Main Street in Edmonds, Wash., two blocks east of the ferry dock.

PHOTO BY ANGELA McCAW EVANS, COURTESY OF DUSTED VALLEY VINTNERS

Idaho unveils new logo, celebrates more vines

By Jim Thomssen

NAMPA, Idaho — During February, while spring is fighting to break out of winter’s grasp, the Idaho wine community gathers to share news, ideas, tips, sips and salutations.

This year, the Idaho Wine Commission moved its annual meeting to the Nampa Civic Center. The day before, its virtual meeting touched on mental health among agricultural workers, climate change and weather, advocacy opportunities and legislative challenges for the industry.

The most visible topic was the unveiling of the Idaho Wine Commission’s new branding mission, which includes a new logo featuring a bold exclamation mark that precedes the words “Idaho Wine.”

Day 2 in Garden City groups growers and winemakers for a sampling of young wines from the 2022 harvest — a vintage tasting led by Trent Ball of Yakima Community College in Grandview, Wash. Nine Rieslings and Syrahs were picked apart, compared and contrasted based on taste, canopy management, harvest chemistry and color. The group then discussed irrigation practices, oxygen and tannin management and pesticide label updates.

Meanwhile, the sales side of the industry learned of social media practices. April Reddout, a direct-to-consumer and hospitality consultant from Kennewick, Wash., shared ideas on generating sales and improving guest experiences.

Marketing educator Chris Puppione, a sales executive for Coravin and proprietor of Puppione Family Wines in Sonoma, led the tasting room teams through exercises designed to gauge the level of service provided throughout the state. His seminar indicated that tasting room teams in Idaho could borrow a few ideas from their California counterparts.

“In Idaho, you still get a majority of in-person, return visitors and club members to your tasting rooms,” Puppione said, “so you have to react differently than in my region — where wine clubs ship out more than 90% of their allotments and we only physically see our club members once or twice, ever!”

Puppione spent a few days as a secret shopper in Idaho wineries and shared some insight while complimenting Telaya Wine Co. and

Cinder Wines in Garden City for providing the extra touches.

“Over the last five years, the hospitality side of the Gem State wine business has improved dramatically,” he said.

Winemaker/educator Tim Donahue of Horse Thief Wine Solutions in Walla Walla led a comparative tasting of four Malbecs — two from Idaho and one each from France and Argentina. The consensus around the room was that Idaho makes some outstanding wines that can stand up with benchmarked examples from around the world, even though they may not be constructed the same way at a chemical level.

industry faces is the lack of new vineyards in the Snake River American Viticultural Area. However, attendees of this year’s annual meeting got more details on the four sizable plantings scheduled for 2023.

Sunset Valley Vineyards on the Oregon side of the Snake River is establishing 40 acres of red varieties.

Lanae Ridge Vineyard, owned and farmed by retired Micron executive Jay Hawkins, is replanting 15 acres below Bitner Vineyards this year, with 15 more in 2024.

Scoria Vineyards, owned and farmed by the Weitz family, is filling out its parcel near a cinder pit south of Lake Lowell with 8 more acres.

Winemakers LLC is planting 13 acres of red varieties at Skyline, which leaves just 8 acres before the state wine industry’s breadbasket will be planted out.

Moya Dolsby, executive director of the Idaho Wine Commission, said “these 76 new acres of grape vines will help build the industry and prepare us for continued growth.”

Combined, they represent a 6% increase in the state’s total acreage of wine grapes.

Next, the Idaho Wine Commission formally recognized two men for their contributions to the industry — longtime legislative educator Roger Batt and grape grower Dale Jeffers.

Batt received the Industry Impact Award. His recent accomplishments include helping to resolve water issues in Idaho and reworking the legislative funding mechanism for the commission that allowed the Idaho Hop Commission to gain state tax revenue from “strong beer” sales without extracting from the wine commission’s operating budget.

Jeffers, an employee of Winemakers LLC, accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition for the 20 years of work behind the scenes that has enabled Idaho winemakers to earn acclaim with grapes made from Skyline and Sawtooth vineyards. However, Jeffers has been willing to help other growers as well as winemakers on projects that don’t involve Winemakers LLC grapes.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle the Idaho wine

Also this spring, Great Northwest Wine will recruit experts from outside the Treasure Valley to judge the 14th annual Idaho Wine & Cider Competition just ahead of Memorial Day weekend.

The following week marks the start of Idaho Wine & Cider Month and brings with it the industry’s signature consumer event — Savor Idaho in Boise.

Ticket sales began March 1 and cost $75 per “wave.” It’s true, Savor Idaho became so popular since its launch by Dolsby in 2009 that it will run for the second straight year from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., then 3-6 p.m. at the Idaho Botanical Gardens.

Retired banker Jim Thomssen now is known as The Idaho Wine Ambassador. The Minnesota native earned a business degree at the University of Puget Sound with the help of professor/wine economist Mike Veseth prior to

moving to the Snake River Valley in 1994.

Mount Pisgah in Polk County rises as state’s 23rd AVA

As a newly established growing region, the Mount Pisgah, Polk County, Oregon American Viticultural Area wasn’t even a year-old when one of its vineyards got invited to the wine industry’s storied Oregon Pinot Camp.

It was a proud moment for Brad Ford, co-author of the AVA petition and owner/winemaker of Illahe Vineyards & Winery. He will share the story of the new AVA west of Salem and present his Pinot Noir during the four-day trade event that recruits wine buyers from across the U.S.

“The people making the selection said it’s a new AVA, and if we want to advertise Oregon winegrowing, we need someone from each AVA,” Ford said. “People are having to include us now, which is kind of cool.”

And the Mount Pisgah, Polk County, Oregon

AVA will celebrate its first anniversary on July 5 — a week after those campers go home.

Brett Wall, who owns Open Claim Vineyards with his wife, Marnie, said, “We got a call immediately from a restaurant that wanted to have all Oregon AVAs on the menu. It’s helpful that sommeliers have to know what the AVAs are, and they have to understand the distinctions and talk about them. This is an important way for us to be part of the Oregon wine industry.”

Mount Pisgah, near Dallas, became the state’s 23rd AVA and the 11th nested within the larger Willamette Valley AVA. At 29 characters, it’s one of the longest-named AVAs in the U.S., but it’s still shorter than The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater at 34.

In terms of size, however, it’s the second-smallest in the state at 5,530 acres. Ribbon Ridge is the smallest at 3,500.

With 584 acres under vine, barely more than 10% within the AVA boundary is planted. Ford

points out Oregon’s most famous red grape makes up about 70% of the plantings across the 10 vineyards. Chardonnay and Pinot Gris combine for 20%, followed by varieties such as Viognier, Grüner Veltliner and Tempranillo.

The region sits on the shoulders of its namesake mountain in the Coast Range. Vineyards begin at 260 feet and stretch to the peak at 835 feet. The hillsides provide favorable eastern and southern exposure.

Mount Pisgah, Polk County, Oregon also is the second-farthest south AVA in the Willamette Valley. Only the Lower Long Tom AVA near Eugene, established in 2021, is closer to the region’s southern boundary.

The AVA’s oldest planting is Freedom Hill Vineyard, and owner Dan Dusschee hopes last year’s action by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau will serve as a marketing tool for growers, wineries and retailers.

BY CHERYL JUETTEN PHOTOGRAPHY

“I’ve been told by the people who sell wine

By Sophia McDonald

There are 10 vineyards within the Mount Pisgah, Polk County, Oregon American Viticultural Area, which includes the Ford family’s Illahe Vineyards.

PHOTO BY CHEYENNE TUFTS / COURTESY OF ILLAHE VINEYARDS

that it makes it much easier to sell,” Dusschee said. “And maybe this will demonstrate that there are areas worthy of special recognition that aren’t next to Portland.”

Mount Pisgah is far enough from the heart of Oregon’s wine country that it’s sometimes been difficult to attract tourists. Most of the vineyards aren’t open to the public, so historically, there have been limited opportunities to taste the wine made from those vines.

That has begun to change. Open Claim Vineyards, which opened its tasting room and kitchen in 2022, is now welcoming people for highly personalized experiences. Rather than driving 30 minutes back into Salem, Open Claim Vineyards recommends that its guests stay overnight alongside the Willamette River at the new Trace Hotel property in nearby Independence.

Ford is building a tasting room for Illahe that’s about to open. Amalie Robert Estate hosts tastings by appointment only. Croft Vineyard operates a small tasting room in Salem.

There have been 269 AVAs established in the U.S. since the first in 1980 — Augusta in Missouri. (Napa Valley was No. 2 in 1981). The federal government developed its policy of establishing AVAs in order to formally recognize a region where the geography and/or

climate produces wine grapes with distinctive characteristics.

It is similar to an Appellation d’Origine Protégée (Product Designation of Origin/AOP) in France or Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin (DOCG) in Italy, but those two European examples are much more restrictive in terms of grape growing and vinification practices.

In the U.S., wines grown in an AVA listed the bottle of wine should provide a taste of place and be similar enough that drinkers have some expectation of what they will find when they pop a cork.

For Mount Pisgah, Polk County, Oregon AVA, those factors include the soil composition and the region’s weather patterns.

The parent rock of Mount Pisgah is covered with marine sedimentary soil, an unusual feature in the Willamette Valley. Ribbon Ridge north of Newberg is the only other Willamette Valley AVA to feature marine sedimentary soil.

Mount Pisgah was created 65 million years ago as part of the Siletz River volcanics, cones that formed on the ocean floor and gradually pushed upward. Freedom Hill provides an example of what Dusschee describes as “uplifted seabeds” — rock material that required more

time to break down and make their elements available to the vines’ roots.

“These are the oldest soils in the valley,” Dusschee says.

With its position just south of the Van Duzer Corridor, Mount Pisgah’s climate is warmer and less windy than the Eola-Amity Hills. That creates grapes with thicker skins, leading to Pinot Noirs that tend toward darker fruit flavors and more notable tannins.

One of Ford’s goals is to create a Mount Pisgah, Polk County Orgon AVA collaborative bottling that uses grapes from all 10 vineyards. He also wants more neighbors for Illahe.

Mount Pisgah’s pastures and cherry orchards are already giving way to some new vineyards. In time, this diminutive AVA should be home to a larger group of people growing grapes for rich reds and flavorful whites that bring more awareness and appreciation of agriculture from Oregon’s ancient seabeds.

Sophia McDonald’s Oregon Wine Tales focuses on Oregon wines and wineries. Her work has appeared in more than three dozen newspapers, magazines and trade publications, including TheAtlantic.com, Wine Enthusiast, Eating Well and Cheese Connoisseur.

PHOTO BY SOPHIA MCDONALD

Your Neighborhood Bistro Located in Richland, Washington

Food served with pride,

Featured Recipe

Manila Clams

Ingredients

1 lbs fresh clams, we use Manila clams

3 cloves garlic

½ onion

1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika

½ tsp crushed red peppers

15 ounce diced tomatoes

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

handful fresh parsley

pinch sea salt

pinch black pepper

Instructions

1. Finely mince 3 cloves of garlic, finely dice 1/2 of an onion and rinse 1 lbs of cleaned fresh clams under cold running water, shake off any excess water once rinsed

2. Heat a saute pan with a medium heat and add 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, after 2 minutes add the diced onions & minced garlic and mix around with the oil, after 3 minutes and the onions are translucent, add in 1 tsp of smoked Spanish paprika & ½ tsp crushed red peppers, quickly mix together until combined and then add in a 15 ounce of diced tomatoes, 1 tbsp of freshly chopped parsley and season with sea salt & freshly cracked black pepper, mix together until well combined and let it simmer

3. After simmering the tomato sauce for 5 minutes, add the clams into the pan, mix together so the clams are fully bathing in the tomato sauce, once well mixed place a lid on the pan and lower the fire to a low-medium heat

4. Between 6 to 8 minutes after placing the lid on the pan remove it, all the clams should be open, discard any that did not, remove the pan from the heat and serve directly from the pan, sprinkle some freshly chopped parsley on top and serve with a Dr. Alvarez, enjoy!

It’s no exaggeration to say if it weren’t for Hedges Family Estate on Red Mountain, the Tri-Cities restaurant scene would have lost Fat Olives to Walla Walla.

The neighborhood surrounding Richland’s Uptown District wouldn’t be nearly as delicious, and owner/vintner JD Nolan might be collaborating on his award-winning Schooler Nolan wines with folks other than the Hedges and the Mercers.

“My dad was at a specialty trade show in Anchorage, and we’ve always had Hedges

wines on our wine list, so he goes to the Hedges table, and there’s Pete Hedges pouring,” Nolan said. “They had never met, but my dad tells him, ‘I’d love to come down and work a crush some time.’

“I guess Pete said, ‘Come on down!’ ‘Now, everybody says they want to work crush, but nobody follows through.”

Tiny did, and he flew down from Alaska during the 2008 harvest. He’d already bought a house in Walla Walla and planned to open a Fat Olives there on the heels of the Great Recession, but the Hedges convinced him to instead fire up his kitchen in Richland — 15 minutes from their Red Mountain winery and two blocks from the Columbia River.

And 2023 marks the 13th anniversary of Fat Olives in wine country, and JD and his wife, Erika, used their culinary approach, customer service and catering business to survive the pandemic. The family still owns and operates their restaurant on the Kenai Peninsula.

“We consider both restaurants as a neighborhood bistro, and my parents are very much involved in both,” JD says.

“We like to cater to everybody. Sitting at this table could be a couple of blue-collared workers who just got off work enjoying a happy dinner with their families, while at this table a couple of white-collars might be Manila Clams

prepared with a Passion!

having a business meeting. And everyone will feel just as comfortable. Mom and dad can have a nice dinner. The kids can order a pizza, and everybody is happy.”

That includes wine lovers.

JD Nolan is a fourth-generation restaurateur and certified sommelier with a keen interest in the Pacific Northwest wine industry. That’s reflected in receiving Wine Spectator magazine’s Award of Excellence for his wine list.

In addition to staging winemaker dinners for Columbia Valley producers and catering events such as the Auction of Washington Wines, Nolan also judges wine competitions throughout the Northwest.

And his palate is reflected in the bottles of Schooler Nolan wines that he sells through Fat Olives and beyond. His red wines have earned a coveted Platinum Award from Great Northwest Wine in each of the past two years, including a 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2018 blend of Malbec and Petit Verdot.

“We’ve been really fortunate to have the relationships with both families,” JD says.

Those collaborations with the winemakers,

Calendar of Events

Wednesday Evenings

the critical acclaim for the brand and the price make them a bargain at the restaurant or on location for Fat Olives catering events — which range from a picnic for 2,500 folks to a 500-plate prime rib dinner.

During the pandemic, Nolan seized upon the opportunity to promote the delectable and affordable customized pizza and calzone program at Fat Olives. His culinary team’s work with gluten-free dough and pasta might be the best in the Tri-Cities and can be enjoyed by anyone.

For lunch, sandwiches such as the housesmoked Beef & Bleu steak sandwich and Reuben with house-cured pastrami can be prepared gluten-free. That goes for the Fat Olives Black Angus burgers.

Nolan would hear about it were he to remove the Pork Osso Bucco on creamy rosemary polenta, the Chicken Marsala or Grilled Korean Short Ribs with tamari-pear gochujang sauce and cucumber kimchi on a bed of rice.

Among the specialties at Fat Olives is the Grilled Hanger Steak with Brandy-Peppercorn Demi-Glace on a plate including puréed potatoes and roasted vegetables, an ideal pairing with any of the Schooler Nolan reds and spotlighted as part of Great Northwest Wine’s 25-year-old MatchMaker series.

Locals Night - 15% off all Dinner Entrees & Chefs Specials

Thursday Evening: Oyster Night!

May 5th .... Special Cinco de Mayo Dinner

June

11th Rosé Wine Dinner

July 9th .... Patio Dinner Party

- A special cocktail dinner

Aug 27th Red Mountain Winemakers Dinner

Ingredients

1 orange slice

1 lime slice

1 lemon slice

1.5 oz. infused tequila

.5 oz orange liquer

2 oz sweet & sour

Instructions

Add fruit to shaker and gently muddle. Add tequila, orange liqueur, sweet & sour in shaker with ice, shake until well chilled.

Roll into large rocks glass with jalapeńo salt rim over ice.

Garnish with lime & arbol chile. Infuse 1-750 ml bottle of your favorite tequila with 6 dried arbol chiles overnight. After 24 hours pour tequila through a coffee filter to strain out

A UNIQUE WASHINGTON STATE WINE TREASURE

ELEGANT WINES NOW AVAILABLE IN TWO WORLD-CLASS WINE TASTING VENUES

WOODIN CREEK WINE ALLEY DESTINATION NOW OPEN FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT

13550 NE Village Square Dr, Woodinville, WA 98072

Double Platinum - 2021 Dolce Donna

Double Platinum - 2019 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Platinum – 2021 Bocciolo di Rosa

Platinum – 2021 Sempre Amore

Platinum – 2019 Estate Reserve Syrah

Double Gold – 2021 Estate Gewurztraminer

Double Gold –2021 Estate Pinot Grigio

Double Gold – 2021 Sauvignon Blanc

Double Gold – 2019 Estate Piccolo Rosso

Double Gold – 2019 Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

Double Gold – 2019 Estate Syrah

Double Gold – 2019 Estate Reserve Malbec

All Time Platinum Leaderboard 31 Platinum & Double Platinum Awards

Top Ten Washington Platinum Award Winners

Brian Carter Cellars

WOODINVILLE, Wash. — Those with the good sense to tastefully follow the work of Brian Carter know he’s been behind some of Washington’s most delicious wines since the Mount St. Helens vintage of 1980.

It wasn’t until he launched his eponymous brand in 2000 that he truly began to make a name for himself. And in Carter’s soft-spoken way, his wines routinely announce themselves to critics and judges at competitions.

“I remember 40 years ago being interviewed by the press, and I could hardly put two words together!” Carter says. “I am still growing and learning how to promote myself and Washington state wines.”

Last year, during the 23rd annual Platinum Awards, no winemaker received more praise for their wines than Carter. Seven of the Brian

Carter Cellars entries were voted Platinum — five of them earned Double Platinum status as unanimous selections of judges who blind tasted through 679 wines. All seven were for work with blends.

And one of the wineries he’s involved with, Bayernmoor Cellars, merited two Platinums. There may have been more Platinums because a number of Carter’s clients have non-disclosure agreements.

Perhaps there will be fewer NDAs with the announcement that Brian Carter Cellars is the 2023 Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year for Great Northwest Wine Magazine.

In 2022, the Platinum, our most prestigious tasting, added to the trophy case for both Carter and his longtime friend Rich Cushman, who were science students at Oregon State University but became chums while going through

the University of California-Davis program for wine. Cushman took great joy in his Grenache for Mt. Hood Winery finishing No. 1 at the 23rd annual Platinum Awards, just ahead of Carter’s 2016 Le Coursier, a precise blend of red Bordeaux varieties that judges also gave 98 points.

“He did give me a little bit of a friendly ribbing on beating me out on that No. 1 wine,” Carter said. “I will no doubt have a chance to return the favor with this new award.”

Perhaps Carter’s proudest achievement within the 2022 Platinum might be seen as a small victory by others — the uncanny yet routinely successful entry-level Abracadabra Red Table Wine. His retail team sells it for $25. His 2018 vintage merited 95 points.

“It’s the magical wine that just happens every year,” Carter says with a shrug. “With all my

Story by Eric Degerman | Photography by Richard Duval Images

Brian Carter expanded his commitment to the wine scene in Woodinville, Wash., by opening a bistro and tasting room in the new Woodin Creek Village in 2022.

other wines I sweat over the exact percentages, and then Abracadabra wins just as many medals as anything else.”

His pink 2021 Abracadabra finished as the top rosé of Platinum. At the Seattle Wine Awards, Carter picked up nine gold medals, two of which were double gold. Judges at the Sunset International also gave gold to his Le Coursier and Tuttorosso programs, and his 2016 Trentenaire won best of class at the Cascadia International.

FROM MOM’S KITCHEN TO WOODINVILLE BISTRO

As a teen-aged son of an OSU professor, one of Brian’s blackberry ferments made a well-documented and lasting impression on the ceiling of his mother’s kitchen in Corvallis.

As a professional winemaker, acclaim started pouring in for Carter’s table wines soon upon returning to the Northwest after studying at Davis and working in cellars in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Napa Valley. Few can match his experience as a winemaker in Washington, with the exception of Rob Griffin (1976), Kay Simon (1977) and Wade Wolfe (1978) arriving ahead of both Carter and Spokane’s Mike Conway.

In 1980, Carter was first wooed to Woodinville by Paul Thomas Winery at a time when there were only about 16 wineries in the state, and fruit such as blackberry still played a role in many of those cellars. Carter’s 1983 Cabernet Sauvignon for Paul Thomas beat out famed Château Lafite-Rothschild in a New York judging. His 1986 Chardonnay won best of show at Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Enological Society Wine Competition.

That Chardonnay proved to be visionary —

a wine that’s believed to be perhaps the first large-scale unoaked Chardonnay in the U.S. Made from Indian Wells Vineyard on the Wahluke Slope, Carter produced more than 1,000 cases of the first-time effort under a long-forgotten second label called Rushcutter Bay Cellars. Anthony’s Restaurants moved quickly.

“Yes, we took all of it because it was really good,” said Lane Hoss, who continues to head up the wine program for Anthony’s and now serves as vice president of operations. “It seemed there was oak in so many Washington wines in those days, and oak doesn’t pair well with seafood. Brian made a lot of great wine for Paul, including a Chenin Blanc — a varietal you don’t see that much any more.”

When he left Paul Thomas in 1988, Carter’s consulting business took off, thanks to a client list that included Camaraderie, Hedges, McCrea, Randall Harris, Silver Lake and Soos Creek. In 1991, he took over winemaking for Washington Hills and launched both Apex Cellars and W.B. Bridgman, a decision that prompted him to move to the Yakima Valley. It helped him to better learn the vineyards and hone his craft, but he missed living west of the Cascades.

It was in 1997 when he began planning for Brian Carter Cellars. He brought his first wines to market in 2000. Two years later, he stepped away from Washington Hills and returned to Woodinville for good.

Carter has become an unofficial ambassador for Woodinville Wine Country, signed up early on to become an anchor tenant for long-awaited Woodin Creek Village. His keen interest in cooking and travel prompted him to go beyond a simple satellite tasting room with nibbles and gamble on an open-kitchen bistro with outside seating at Woodin Creek — during the throes

HOW THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST WINERY OF THE YEAR IS CHOSEN

The Winery of the Year is selected based on longevity, quality, reputation, industry involvement, facilities and other considerations. A winery may win the award once.

Recent Pacific Northwest Wineries of the Year

2022: DeLille Cellars, Woodinville, Wash.

2021: King Estate Winery, Eugene, Ore.

2020: Clearwater Canyon Cellars, Lewiston, Idaho

2019: Palencia Wine Co., Kennewick, Wash.

2018: Long Shadows Vintners, Walla Walla, Wash.

2017: Reustle-Prayer Rock Vineyards, Roseburg, Ore.

HOW REGIONAL WINERY AWARDS ARE SELECTED

Regional wineries of the year are selected by Great Northwest Wine based on blind tastings, visits, accolades and other considerations. A Winery of the Year must have completed five vintages. For a Winery to Watch, the criteria for the ownership/winemaking program is five commercial vintages or fewer.

Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year

Brian Carter Cellars, Woodinville, Wash.

Washington Winery of the Year

Abeja, Walla Walla

Washington Winery to Watch

Winescape Winery, Spokane

Oregon Winery of the Year

Dobbes Family Estate, Dundee

Oregon Winery to Watch

Iterum Wines, Salem

Idaho Winery of the Year

Huston Vineyards, Caldwell

Idaho Winery to Watch

Rolling Hills Vineyard, Eagle

British Columbia Winery of the Year

Hester Creek Estate Winery, Oliver

British Columbia Winery to Watch

Crown & Thieves, West Kelowna

Brian Carter Cellars wines are poured in three Western Washington tasting rooms - Woodinville, Vancouver and downtown Seattle.

of the pandemic no less.

A MAGICAL TOUCH WITH BLENDS INSPIRED BY EUROPE

Aside from “The One” project, which features one or two single-varietal wines each year, Carter focuses on blending — even when it comes to his rosé, which is under the Abracadabra tier and leans toward Sangiovese. The 2017 Tuttorosso, done in a Super Tuscan style with Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon, received 96 points at last year’s Platinum.

In terms of his history within Great Northwest Wine’s year-end judging of gold-medal winners, Carter has had the most success with his Rhône-inspired Byzance. Seven times his blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre has garnered a Platinum, and he pairs it with duck.

Carter and longtime assistant Robert Takahashi, who recently announced his retirement, also were the talents behind Array Cellars, the Chardonnay-only brand launched in 2010 by Henry Smilowicz. Those wines made from historic Chardonnay sites such as Celilo, Conner Lee and Otis received acclaim in competitions and found their way onto shelves at top bottle shops throughout the Puget Sound.

“The Celilo we used to bring in for him now goes to Bayernmoor,” Carter says. “I don’t make Chardonnay for Brian Carter Cellars, and Oriana is our only white blend, but we’ve done a couple of white wines under The One program — including a Roussanne.”

Last fall, the Bayernmoor 2019 Celilo Chardonnay earned a Double Platinum and was the highest-scoring Chardonnay of the judging.

DEEP ROOTS IN YAKIMA VALLEY, COLUMBIA BASIN

When it comes to the BCC wines, Carter’s relationships with his vineyard partners are rock-solid. They include Dineen, Lonesome Spring Ranch, Olsen, Upland and Willard Family in the Yakima Valley American Viticultural Area, Klipsun on Red Mountain and Tedd Wildman’s StoneTree on the Wahluke Slope.

“While I do buy a fair amount of grapes from the Wahluke Slope, specifically StoneTree, the majority of my grapes come from the Yakima Valley,” Carter says. “I love that there are so many microclimates that exist there, and each one seems to do best with a different variety — Cabernet Franc from Rattlesnake, Port varieties from Snipes, Sangiovese from Prosser/Grandview, Grenache from the bench west of Benton City, Cabernet from Red Mountain.

“This gives me plenty of opportunities to blend these varieties and keep the Yakima Valley AVA,” he adds. “The three wines that I always make under that AVA are Oriana, Tuttorosso and (the Port-style) Opulento.”

And while Walla Walla builds upon its reputation as the Mecca for wine tourists, the vast majority of consumers live near Interstate 5. That’s why Brian Carter Cellars pours in Woodinville, The Tasting Room in Seattle’s Pike

Place Market and the remarkable Vancouver Waterfront Development, where Carter signed up early for the opportunity to lease a retail space across the Columbia River from Portland.

GNWW 2023

“I will admit that I followed Maryhill when I heard they were going in there,” Carter says. “Maryhill and I have the best spots, I think, because they look out right at the river.

“I thought about opening another tasting room in Portland or Hood River, but we get Portlanders at the Vancouver tasting room,” Carter adds. “Now, if they could just get that I-5 bridge fixed.”

CARTER CONTINUES COMMITMENT TO WOODINVILLE

For more than decade, Carter has been crafting his 8,000 cases of wine near the corner Woodinville-Redmond Road and NE 145th Street, off the back alley of the former home of Columbia Winery.

That neighborhood is changing, however. In 2022, E. & J. Gallo abruptly closed the Columbia tasting room, and across the street, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates put the land surrounding Château

Brian Carter crafts his wines near the Hollywood District, but they are presented in Woodin Creek Village, where reservations are highly recommended.

Ste. Michelle on the market. It also moved all wine production to Eastern Washington.

Meanwhile, a number of the state’s top players have turned the former Redhook brewery into a wine destination just a stone’s throw from the Sammamish River and Carter’s loading dock.

However, his decision to become an early tenant at Woodin Creek Village, 10 minutes to the north, has paid off. The thoughtfully crafted wines complement the fresh fare at his showpiece bistro. And on a clear 80-degree day, it’s difficult to beat a sidewalk table at BCC, a plate of the Hamachi Crudo and a glass of the Oriana or Array Chardonnay.

“I am happy that my wines are perceived to be as good as they have ever been,” Carter says. “I like to think that I am still learning — how to grow grapes, how to use wild yeast, the best barrels, etc. Of course, my palate is changing so what I like keeps evolving, and with hope, in the right direction.”

His wines routinely earned praise from the late Tom Stockley, whose columns in The Seattle Times were integral to the rise of the Pacific Northwest wine industry. In 1997, longtime Seattle wine merchant Ron Irvine authored

The

remains the definitive look at the formative years of Washington wine.

“Carter is one of the great winemakers in Washington state,” Irvine wrote.

After 25 years and 33 career Platinum Awards, that statement stands.

BRIAN CARTER CELLARS

Woodin Creek tasting room and bistro

17140 135th Ave. NE, Suite 1030

Woodinville, WA 98072

BrianCarterCellars.com (425) 806-9463

Reservations suggested

VANCOUVER WATERFRONT TASTING ROOM AND WINE BAR

660 Waterfront Way Vancouver, WA 98660 (360) 216-1444

Reservations suggested

The Tasting Room

1924 Post Alley

Seattle, WA 98101

WinesOfWashington.com

(206) 770-9463

Wine Project, which

Brian Carter Cellars

Upland Vineyard, a historic site on Snipes Mountain, is among a handful of Yakima Valley plantings Brian Carter pulls from each year.

OF THE YEAR

Abeja Winery and Inn

By Eric Degerman

WALLA WALLA, Wash. —

When talking about the premier producers in the Pacific Northwest who work with the nation’s three most popular varieties — Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot — any serious buzz must include Abeja.

Ken and Ginger Harrison set the standard for a destination winery when they launched Abeja in 2000 across a century-old farmstead. Their quiet recruitment in 2015 of Daniel Wampfler and his winemaking wife, Amy Alvarez-Wampfler, resulted in new heights for the wines and the estate.

That excellence has been repeatedly revealed via recent blind judgings conducted by Great Northwest Wine, prompting the selection of Abeja as the 2023 Washington Winery of the Year.

“I joke, but it’s true — we won the winemaking lottery to be here with this foundation of hospitality, the property, the vineyards, the inn and the winemaking facility,” Daniel says. “The icing on the cake for me is to work with my spouse and navigate wine production together.”

And the Wampflers seem to be the gold standard for spouses working side-by-side in a cellar.

Abeja’s 2019 Columbia Valley Merlot proved to be one of the top releases of the variety last year, starting with its No. 1 finish atop a field of 114 entries in a Great Northwest Wine comparative tasting of Merlot.

Eight months later, it received a Double Platinum and 97 points at the 23rd annual Platinum Awards, a judging which requires a gold medal to qualify.

At the Great Northwest Invitational, an October judging staged on behalf of West Coast sommeliers and wine buyers, the 2021 Washington State Chardonnay was best of class and earned the No. 2 ranking on The Seattle Times list for Best Northwest Wines of 2022. The praise for that bottling exemplifies the delicious consistency of the Wampflers’ focused efforts because the Abeja 2020 Washington State Chardonnay won best of show the year before at the Great Northwest Invite.

Abeja’s flagship 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon

received a gold medal at the 2022 Invite held in Hood River, Ore.

“We’ve been spoiled with great grapes and great equipment and great teams over the years,” Daniel says. “We don’t even own a boat, much less a boatload of money to start our own winery, but to have this place to hone our craft is pretty incredible.”

The Wampflers arrived at Abeja — named for a Spanish reference to bees — with impressive résumés. Daniel was part of the Columbia Crest winemaking team that turned its 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon into Wine Spectator’s No. 1 wine of the world in 2009. It was the first and only time a Washington wine topped Spectator’s year-end list.

Amy’s history at Columbia Crest included overseeing the Chardonnay program and its 10,000 barrels. When it came to her future husband, however, it wasn’t quite love at first sight for Amy, who grew up in the Yakima Valley with farming in her blood.

“He’s very smart, very articulate — and he can dance,” she says with a smile. “He will dance in the cellar. He’s super funny and always thinking outside of the box. We are always having fun. There have been times when I’d go home and my cheeks would hurt because he makes me laugh so much.”

Daniel adds, “Yeah, but early on she thought I was a jackass.”

He is a quick-witted jokester with a penchant for quoting lines from the movie Caddyshack Somehow, he was raised in Michigan to root for Notre Dame football by his father, a career chemist for Dow. Daniel’s mother worked as a nurse before she went back to school and earned an English degree focused on children’s literature.

“I started brewing beer when I was 15 and fell in love with fermentation science,” he says. “I thought about being a chemist, but I didn’t want to wear a white lab coat for the rest of my life.”

By 2003, he graduated from Michigan State with two degrees, which explains the T-shirt autographed by men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo proudly displayed in Daniel’s tidy office. And after college internships at wineries, Daniel got hired by Stimson Lane — now Ste. Michelle Wine Estates — as a research winemaker.

He shared an office for several years with Juan Muñoz-Oca, who recently resigned as the chief winemaker for Ste. Michelle. He also learned from working in the Horse Heaven Hills alongside Ron Bunnell, Bob Bertheau, Ray Einberger, Keith Pilgrim and the late Paula Eakin, who died last winter.

In 2008, the late Eric Dunham recruited Daniel to take over the winemaking at Dunham Cellars. A few months later, Wine Press Northwest magazine named Dunham Cellars as the

Daniel Wampfler, and his winemaking wife, Amy Alvarez-Wampfler, toast the production facility they spent five years designing for Abeja.

RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES

Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year.

In 2010, Amy left Columbia Crest to run Sinclair Estate Vineyards in Walla Walla. After eight award-winning years with the Dunham and Blair families, the Harrisons approached Daniel with a dream neither he nor Amy saw coming at a property they respected immensely.

“The opportunity to make wine with Amy was the one thing missing in my life, and there was a bit of a precedent at Abeja because John Abbott made the wine for the Harrisons and his wife, Molly, oversaw the hospitality,” Daniel points out.

Amy adds, “I was happy at Sinclair, and Dan didn’t want to leave Dunham, but the more we got to know Ken and Ginger and their family and the opportunity to be at Abeja, we fell in love with the idea.”

The Wampflers team up to oversee every phase of the Abeja operation — 65 acres of estate vines across three parcels, more than a dozen of the Columbia Valley’s top growers, the operation of The Inn at Abeja, the culinary program, direct-to-consumer sales, the tasting room and what goes into every bottle.

“We make all the winemaking decisions together,” Daniel says. “The rest of the business we divide — and Amy conquers.”

Their success has been reflected in growth and expansion. When the Wampflers arrived, Abeja produced 5,000 cases. Last year, they bottled 12,200 cases as Abeja’s vineyard sources continue to mature. There will be more estate plantings in 2023, which will account for the projected increase to around 15,000 cases, about triple from their first year.

The Abeja neighborhood has acquired fame along the way by attracting the likes of Jackson Family Wines, the Figgins family, Charles Smith and Doug Frost — the Master of Wine and Master Sommelier who flies in frequently from Kansas City to oversee his young Echolands project. (Abeja sold 61 acres, including 40 acres of vines, to the Jackson group.)

And starting in 2020, Daniel moved production of the boutique Pursued by Bear wines for actor Kyle MacLachlan to Abeja.

“Kyle is family to us, and I appreciate ownership for their understanding and trust,” Daniel says.

The family approach that began with the Harrisons helps the Wampflers manage their own household.

“The dogs come to work with us, and our kids work here,” Amy says. “And our daughter will come and hang out in our office after school.”

Daniel points out, “We’ve gained more time together, but it’s time together at work.”

It’s obvious the Wampflers dote on every lot

of wine, yet they rarely create a new category. Those few special offerings are limited to the mailing list or The Kitchen at Abeja menu.

“Many of them are sold out almost by the time everyone on the mailing list opens their mail,” Daniel says. “We do get to play around a little and tease out a bit. For example, we will have guests who tell us, ‘I didn’t know you guys did Pinot Noir!’, but you have come here to know that. And you have to be dining here.”

An appointment is required to taste the wines, and reservations are required for The Kitchen at Abeja, but you don’t need to be a guest at The Inn or a list member.

The Kitchen is open evenings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and now there’s a strong local flavor with executive chef Jake Crenshaw over the stove. His history features a number of the Walla Walla Valley’s best-known restaurants, including Eritage, Tom Maccarone’s TMACS and owner/chef of Olive Marketplace and the Saint & the Sinner. Essentially, everything presented to a guest is prepared by Crenshaw and his team.

“Except the fish doesn’t come from our pond,” Daniel quips.

On the wine list, brightness remains the focus inside the bottle as the Wampflers and their team think of the dining table and the cellar.

“Because of where we’ve worked, large and small, we know what we could do in the cellar,” Daniel says. “We could make this sultry and sexy Cabernet, but those aren’t the wines we are trying to produce.”

In 2018, the Harrisons sold majority interest in the winery and The Inn at Abeja to a pair of investment groups. The winery investment group includes Seattle businessman Arnie Prentice, while the inn investment group includes John Oppenheimer — founder and CEO of Seattle-based Columbia Hospitality, which manages the eight-suite inn alongside the Wampflers and their team.

“We’ve created seven new departments, including our own viticulture department so we farm our own fruit, a national sales director and a culinary team,” Daniel says. “We’ve grown from 17 full-time employees in the last seven years to over 40 full-time employees with benefits the same as we have.”

Among the special wines to explore at Abeja is the Viognier — a benchmark for West Coast producers that ages remarkably. That is personified by the 2016 Estate Viognier, the first wine Daniel and Amy crafted at Abeja.

“We picked it early for freshness, and it sold out in three months,” Daniel said.

Since arriving seven years ago, the demand for Abeja’s wines remains intense. That explains a waiting list to be on Abeja’s mailing list, the recent construction of a state-of-theart winemaking facility, new estate plantings across Mill Creek Road and the construction of as many as eight guest suites. Most weekends spring through fall are booked 12 months in advance.

Yet the Wampflers know that despite expansion, the expectation to maintain the Abeja standards and personal touch remain.

“We can be giving a tour one minute and then turn around and be on a tractor hauling Viognier to the press, the next minute, we’re working on the budget,” Daniel says. “It’s so dynamic when you have a challenge around every corner and every minute.”

Abeja, 2014 Mill Creek Road, Walla Walla, WA 99362, Abeja.net, 509-526-7400 (winery), 509-522-1234 (lodging).

Executive chef Jake Crenshaw enters his second year leading The Kitchen at Abeja, which is open for dinner to the public by reservation only on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES

By Eric Degerman

SPOKANE — Phillip and Patricia Butterfield devoted their lives to public health, education and research, each concluding their decorated careers in Spokane with Washington State University.

At their young Winescape Winery project, the Butterfields work as a tandem in a different field where seemingly every step they’ve taken has been the right one. They came up with brilliant branding, invested in top vineyards and produced award-winning results to create a wine country experience that’s a mere 20-minute drive from downtown Spokane.

“Phil spent 25 years helping to make drinking water pure for society,” Patricia says. “He takes a similar approach to what we’re doing here — only this is a different color.”

At wine competitions last year, he turned red wine into gold and platinum, prompting Great Northwest Wine Magazine to select Winescape as the 2023 Washington Winery to Watch.

Based upon the awards for his wine during 2022 — capped by four Platinum Awards in October — it’s apparent that Phillip approaches Winescape as another career rather than a hobby in retirement.

• The Winescape 2018 Columbia Valley Merlot ($32) earned a Double Platinum and 96 points at the 23rd annual Platinum Awards after its gold medal in the Great Northwest Wine comparative tasting for the Spring 2022 issue.

• The Winescape 2018 Field Trip Red ($36), a Meritage-style approach leading with Cabernet Sauvignon, earned a Platinum and 93 points after winning a gold on Cannon Beach at Savor NW.

• The Winescape 2018 Marmot Incarnate ($35), the fascinating blend of Syrah and Mourvèdre with Malbec, went Platinum with 93 points after a gold medal at the Great Northwest Invitational.

• The Winescape 2019 Marmot Incarnate ($36), a younger edition of the same Syrah/Mourvèdre/Malbec, scored a Platinum and earned 93 points after a gold at the Cascadia International.

• The Winescape 2017 Merlot ($30) earned a gold at the Cascadia International.

• And the Winescape 2017 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon earned a gold at Savor NW.

“In 2017, we started to really get a feel for our facility, what we can do and how we’re doing it,” Phillip said. “We’ve stayed consistent to what we’re making and pay attention to what people are really asking for. We are running a business, but I’m making wine because I want to make it.”

That explains why Winescape focuses on

core Bordeaux varieties, the main Rhônes, a few proprietary red blends, Chardonnay, Riesling and, for its rosé, Sangiovese.

Winescape’s vineyard sources include historic Sagemoor plantings Bacchus, Dionysus and Gamache; the Williams family’s Kiona Estate, Heart of the Hill and Ranch at the End of the Road on Red Mountain; Devon Newhouse/ Newhouse Farms on Snipes Mountain, and Lewis and Lonesome Spring Ranch in the Yakima Valley.

Kent Waliser, director of operations for Sagemoor Farms, sells Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot grapes to the Butterfields.

“They are a husband-and-wife team who are very complementary to each other’s skillset,” Waliser says. “Pat is the marketing person with boundless energy and kind of the personality behind the brand, while Phillip is the winemaker and the king of the business.

“They really focus on the vineyards they work with and the wines they make from these places,” Waliser continued. “They will tell you, ‘We really appreciate what you allow us to do with your grapes.’ And they’ve got a cool spot with a cool building and it’s a cool story — having found a project post-retirement that seems to energize them as people.”

Phillip created a career in wine after decades of serving as medical research scientist — which included posts at both the University of Washington in Seattle and WSU in Spokane. Considering his background, the precision and quality of Phillip’s wines makes sense. He earned a Ph.D. as a water scientist, focusing on microbiology and biofilm engineering. He designed and installed his own Class B municipal

water system at Winescape, earning the respect of county inspectors.

“We can tell you the nitrate level of our own water,” Patricia quipped.

She was a professor in the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at WSU and served as dean of nursing from 2007 to 2014.

“We got into wine pretty late in life,” Patricia says. “It started in 2009 with a trip to Australia and a Robert Parker wine buyer’s guide.”

That fall, Phillip drove to the Yakima Valley and returned to Spokane with 150 pounds of grapes to make wine.

“This really was a hobby that got out of hand,” he says. “The more I learned, the more I enjoyed it. There’s a creative process to it that exercises the other part of my brain, and I was doing something different than research as a college professor. And I just kept doing it — to the point where I wanted to start a winery and decided that we could probably do this together.”

Among their sacrifices was trading a Spokane landmark — the century-old Tudor-style Folsom House in the Rockwood Historic District — for a move to the Glenrose Prairie with 14 acres. It included a red barn and a dilapidated cabin that Patricia transformed into The Farmstead at Winescape, a VRBO featuring Pendleton blankets.

“We bought the property and built the facility with winemaking in mind,” she says. “We chose not to have any partners because it just didn’t seem to make any sense for two college professors to do that at our age. And we had some really good business advisers from the start.”

Phillip and Patricia Butterfield resigned their faculty positions at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine in Spokane and quickly turned Winescape into Great Northwest Wine’s 2023 Washington Winery to Watch.

RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES

They began in earnest with 150 cases from the 2015 vintage, which featured a Cab from Heart of the Hill, and made those first wines at various facilities in Eastern Washington. One of their best investments was contracting with renowned Seattle architect Tom Kundig — a Spokane native — to map out their winery/tasting room. Kundig’s portfolio includes the iconic Mission Hill Family Estate in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Winescape opened in November 2017, and steady growth led them to produce 2,000 cases worth of wine from the 2022 vintage.

On occasion, Phillip will seek advice from retired winemaker Kerry Norton, an Oregon State grad who spent two decades at Covey Run, Columbia Winery and then The Hogue Cellars and still lives in the Yakima Valley.

“He’s been a good friend of ours for a while, and he’s been our savant,” Patricia says.

Meanwhile, their winemaking son, Tristan, has worked his way far enough up the ranks with Ste. Michelle Wine Estates that his signature appears on bottles of some Chateau Ste. Michelle reserve wines. His parents continually pinch themselves, especially around the holidays, with their son, their winemaking daughter-in-law and grandchild an afternoon’s drive away.

In the Winescape lineup, the most talked-about bottle might be the Syrah-based Marmot Incarnate.

“We wanted to come up with a name that was a Spokane thing,” Patricia says. “At the campus, it seems that you can be greeted by 1,000 marmots along the way that live among the basalt rocks — and then there’s the Catholic connection at Gonzaga.”

The likeness of a marmot’s face is cleverly watermarked into the moonscape of the eye-catching and versatile label design by Portland artist Michael Kirts, whose client list at Heroist.com includes Oregon cult producers Antica Terra, Ashlyn and Evening Land.

For the Butterfields, their lives together have always revolved around school. They started out as high school sweethearts in Colorado, albeit at different schools, and even though they matriculated to different colleges, they stayed connected. Wedding vows were exchanged in 1980.

“We were just as different then as we are now,” Patricia says. “It’s a miracle because we were products of the ‘70s, and it was pretty nutty then in Colorado.”

It says something about this corner of the Pacific Northwest that for the second straight year the Spokane Wineries Association can point to one of its members as the Washington Winery

to Watch. (In 2022, the honor went to Liberty Lake Wine Cellars.)

Last year, Patricia served as president of the Spokane group. This year, she’s back as vice president to help the region continue its agritourism efforts.

“The South Hill has been a good place for

us to draw from,” Phillip says. “And the Perry District has a nice vibe to it, like Spokane’s version of Green Lake in Seattle. There are nice breweries, a farmer’s market, and you can make it from there to here in 10 minutes.”

Winescape Winery, 6011 E. 32nd Ave., Spokane, WA 99223, WinescapeWines.com, (509) 474-0150.

RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES

Winescape Winery and its estate span 14 acres across the Glenrose Prairie on the South Hill seven miles southeast of the historic Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane, Wash.

RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES

RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES

2023 OREGON WINERY OF THE YEAR

Dobbes Family Estate

By Eric Degerman

DUNDEE, Ore. — There’s been a change of captains at Dobbes Family Estate, but the brand created by one of the Oregon wine industry’s most well-known winemakers continues to chart a course that’s producing some of the state’s top wines.

Last fall, a number of West Coast wine buyers and sommeliers gathered in the Columbia Gorge to judge the Great Northwest Invitational Wine Competition, and they awarded a fistful of gold medals to the Dundee producer celebrating its 20th anniversary. Those wines shined across various styles and price points, prompting the selection of Dobbes Family Estate as Great Northwest Wine’s 2023 Oregon Winery of the Year.

A year ago, Dobbes Family Estate hired another winemaker with a famous last name and a history of success, Derek Einberger. He’s positioned to follow the winery’s tenets — “Rooted in tradition and unbound by convention” — and serve as a steward for a company headed into its third decade. He inherited a cellar from winemaker Andy McVay that produced five gold medals at the 2022 Invite.

• Dobbes Family Estate 2019 Eola-Amity Hills Cuvée Pinot Noir $38 — 90 points

• Dobbes Family Estate 2019 Patricia’s Cuvée Pinot Noir $52 — 92 points

• Dobbes Family Estate 2020 Oregon Rosé, $28 — 92 points

• Dobbes Family Estate 2020 Wine By Joe Pinot Noir $19 — 94 points

• Dobbes Family Estate 2021 Grenache Blanc, $30 — 92 points

And even though 2016 was his last vintage as the hands-on winemaker, each of those gold medals remains a reflection of the affable “Hollywood” Joe Dobbes, who still shares with Bacchus Capital Management ownership of the brand he launched in 2003 after two decades of making wine for some of the Willamette Valley’s top producers.

The Eola-Amity Hills Cuvée showcases an American Viticultural Area that Dobbes was an early champion of and continues to rise in prominence. Dobbes was the first winemaker in Oregon to bottle Grenache Blanc. Patricia’s Cuvée remains as expressive and ebullient as its namesake — Dobbes’s wife. The 2020 Rosé is yet another example that most Willamette

Valley winemakers were able to overcome both the wildfires that plagued the West Coast and the first year of the pandemic. And the Wine By Joe program overdelivers at a remarkably friendly price.

“It’s important for me to keep making those wines approachable and consistent year after year,” Einberger says.

The 2022 vintage marked a return to the Willamette Valley for Einberger, who spent a dozen years as winemaker/part-owner of Patton Valley Vineyard in Gaston and then moved to Vancouver Island to oversee Roost Winery for three years.

Cool-climate winemaking was not the path of his father, Ray, who produced the Columbia Crest 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon that topped Wine Spectator’s year-end world ranking in 2009.

“I remember when I first started making Pinot Noir in Oregon, he would always call it, ‘wimpy wine’ because he was making those huge Cabs, Merlots and Syrahs in Washington,”

Derek says with a chuckle. “Sometimes when we’d be tasting wine somewhere, he’d say, ‘This wine is really green and acidic — you’ll love it.”

“It’s interesting how our palate changes throughout our lives,” Derek adds. “Now he drinks predominantly Pinot Noir, and he tells me that he’s very proud of me.”

However, Derek didn’t set out to be a winemaker. He received a degree in studio art from the University of the Redlands in 2003. Alas, his career as an artist in Oregon didn’t flourish, so he began working in restaurants and studying fermentation. Next came five years of brewing beer in Portland at Alameda, BridgePort and McMenamins.

“I enjoyed making beer, but it often meant doing the same thing every day, and I knew exactly what I would be doing at 11:17 a.m. the next day,” Einberger said. “I was drawn to winemaking because of the seasonal variations, the changes throughout the year and doing different things.”

He started at storied Vietti in Italy’s Barolo region. Next, there were stops at Silver Oak/Twomey Cellars in Sonoma and Joseph Phelps in Napa. He found his way back to the Willamette Valley in 2009, landing at famed Lemelson Vineyards. A year later, Patton Valley brought him aboard.

At Dobbes, Einberger works with a number of Willamette Valley sites that have been at the core of the program — Dux in the Dundee Hills, Momtazi (McMinnville), Quailhurst (Chehalem Mountains), Symonette (Eola-Amity Hills) and Seabreeze (Van Duzer Corridor), the latter of which Bacchus recently sold. Crater View and Sundown remain key sites in the Rogue Valley.

Don’t expect revolutionary changes to be made at Dobbes Family Estate under Einberger. That means 11 expressions of Pinot Noir, with three being vineyard designates, but there are

Derek Einberger and assistant winemaker Rachael Fishman team up to craft the Dobbes Family Estate tier of wines, a storied 10,000-case brand in Dundee, Ore.

CHERYL JUETTEN PHOTOGRAPHY / COURTESY OF DOBBES FAMILY ESTATE

no plans to add clonal selections.

“We will continue to evolve, though,” he says.

The Untethered lineup is a tier that allows the winemaker to explore different varietals and winemaking methods, which really leans into the “unbound by convention” approach within Dobbes Family Estate. And this year features something truly unique — a fortified dessert rosé that spent time in whiskey barrels and taps into the new winemaker’s artistic past.

“I brought with me to Dobbes a 10-year solera project that shows a piece of my history in the valley and is part of that Untethered rosé,” said Einberger, who enjoyed exploring styles of vermouth under the Imbue label, which he and his wife sold in 2022.

The multi-tiered and layered project in downtown Dundee that Einberger joined last year has undergone a leadership change both in terms of the cellar and the business.

Gretchen Boock, the winery’s first employee, stepped down in 2021 as CEO after 19 years at Dobbes. Bacchus promoted her heir apparent — sales and marketing executive Sarah Pearson, a polyglot whose résumé includes key roles with Constellation, Hess Persson Estates, Freixenet and Treasury Wine Estates.

“Joe is our founder and we owe so much to who he is and what he accomplished here,” Pearson says. “It’s our responsibility to take this forward, going from the founder‘s phase and onto the next chapter.”

The employment of Boock began a tradition of Dobbes Family Estate of attracting dedicated folks — and a majority of them tend to be strong women. Boock worked side-by-side with Dobbes in the cellar from the beginning, and he rewarded her loyalty with promotions. Now, assistant winemaker Rachael Fishman is among the four women on Einberger’s production team. Her first harvest was Joe’s last crush in Dundee.

“Women are 71% of our employees,” Pearson said. “We’re committed to helping to diversify the wine industry.”

Longtime winemaker Doug Vuylsteke, whose family launched the historic Oak Knoll Winery in Hillsboro, came to the winery after a dozen years at Rex Hill in Newberg and 16 years in Dundee at Sokol Blosser. His skill with the popular and widely distributed Evolution program there made him an ideal fit at Dobbes, which shows in the success and acclaim for the Wine By Joe program that he spearheads.

“If he’s not pulling hoses around the winery, then he’s not happy,” Einberger says. “There’s a real maturity in the cellar here with Rachael on the Dobbes side and Doug on the Wine By Joe side.”

There’s much more beyond those two brands and behind the wooden doors just off Highway 99. Dobbes Family Estate limits its production to about 10,000 cases. Wine By Joe with its broad distribution stands at 50,000 cases. And their custom-crush business under the Dundee Vintners operation that Joe began ranges from 150,000 to 200,000 cases.

This spring, customers will begin to get a sense of Einberger’s style when his 2022 rosé and whites are released. And he begins his second vintage with a better sense of the wide variety of vineyards Dobbes contracts with and the thirst of the market.

“Everybody deserves a good glass of wine, and we want them to understand the magic of the wine industry,” Pearson says.

The pandemic presented a different set of problems for Einberger, who wanted to explore Vancouver Island’s emerging cool-climate viticulture and be a part of the British Columbia wine industry. He was the winemaker and director of operations of Roost Winery outside of Victoria when the border closed.

“We were a quarter-mile from the water with beautiful hiking trails, but it was pretty lonely being isolated on an island,” Einberger says. “I went three years before seeing my dad.”

This past winter, Einberger arranged to visit

with Dobbes and get a sense for that project inspired in part by some vineyards common to each brand.

Earlier this winter, Dobbes Family Estate made the Reader’s Digest list of 12 “must-visit” Oregon wineries. The Grand Assemblage Pinot Noir was the editor’s pick, and in addition to the wine quality, Dobbes Family Estate earned plaudits for its spacious tasting room experience — including its all-season indoor/ outdoor lounge known as “The Hideaway” — and its dog-friendly approach.

That family feel explains the company’s new springtime partnership with the Oregon Zoo Foundation titled “Cheers to Joe & Jolene,” a retail program that donates a portion of Wine By

Joe Pinot Gris

and Pinot Noir sales in honor of the zoo’s year-old orangutan.

“From the get-go, ours has been a charitable and giving company striving for sustainability and diversity,” Pearson said. “We provide every employee with two days off each year to perform volunteer work, and we support One Percent for the Planet. As a winery, we have the ability to make a positive impact on our environment and our society.”

Dobbes Family Estate, 240 SE Fifth St., Dundee, Oregon, 97115, DobbesFamilyEstate. com (503) 538-1141.

The Hideaway provides guests of Dobbes Family Estate with a spacious and tented tasting lounge near the winery and worthy of recommendation by Reader’s Digest.

CHERYL JUETTEN PHOTOGRAPHY / COURTESY OF DOBBES FAMILY ESTATE

By Eric Degerman

SALEM, Ore. — All-star winemaker Joe Dobbes, a lifelong fan of the Portland Trail Blazers, was overdue to call a timeout for himself.

Aside from college, the serial entrepreneur had worked almost non-stop since he was a 12-year-old in the Willamette Valley and started his first business — selling blackberries to Smucker’s.

So after resting on the sidelines for two consecutive harvests, Dobbes got back in the game and ended up producing a string of gold medals and A-student scores for his young Iterum Wines project.

The almost-instant success and attention from critics prompted Great Northwest Wine to name Iterum Wines as the 2023 Oregon Winery to Watch.

“I feel like a debutante!” Dobbes chuckled. “After all these years in the industry, and I’m a ‘winery to watch.’ I love it. I’m tickled pink!”

At this point, the only thing that might slow him down a bit is a knee replacement surgery this spring. Walking the rows at his meticulous Orchard House Estate Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills will help facilitate that rehab.

“I had two years to reflect on what I wanted to do when I grew up,” Dobbes says. “I knew I wasn’t done making wine. For one, I needed to make wines from my own vineyard. And two, I knew that I had not yet made the best wines of my life.

“I had not yet farmed organically, produced methode traditionelle sparkling wine, felt comfortable fermenting with indigenous yeasts nor employed some additional proprietary production methods.”

The early returns are impressive. The Iterum Wines 2019 Orchard House Vineyard Estate Chardonnay ($75) earned a gold medal last fall at the Great Northwest Invitational. Another gold for that Chardonnay came the same month at Sip Magazine’s Best of the Northwest Wine Competition, where his 2019 Orchard House Vineyard Clone 115 Pinot Noir also garnered gold.

Critics have fawned over those debut wines and others — the 2019 Orchard House Vineyard Clone 114 Pinot Noir, the 2021 Oak Grove Vineyard Old Friend Sauvignon Blanc and 2020 Symonette Vineyard Old Friend Pinot Noir. The first writer Dobbes shipped samples to was celebrity reviewer James Suckling, who in the summer 2021 applauded the 2019 Clone 114 Pinot Noir, Clone 115 Pinot Noir and that 2019 Chardonnay.

“I worked my ass off to get here, and I still have to work my ass off because I’m a new brand,” said Dobbes. “People say, ‘I’ve had

your wines,’ and I tell them, ‘Well, you haven’t had Iterum.’

“I truly believe I’m making the best wines of my life, and the press has been figuring that out,” he continued. “We’ve been receiving some great compliments from our guests during their visit to our vineyard tastings. I’m just thrilled to death, and I’m having the time of my life renewing old friendships and making new friends. This is a perfect combination of lifestyle and business.”

His charming wife Patricia — pronounced puh-TREE-see-uh — serves as the equally engaging brand ambassador, just as she did for Dobbes Family Estate.

Dobbes still pays attention to the brand he spent 15 years building in Dundee after departing Willamette Valley Vineyards in 2002 to strike out on his own. Much of the team assembled by Dobbes when he needed his break in 2017 now works with Derek Einberger, and Dobbes sat in on Einberger’s final interview.

“I want Derek to make the most kick-ass wines possible, and I’m sure he will,” Dobbes says. “I still own half of the company, and my name is on the label.”

And when told that Dobbes Family Estate will be the 2023 Oregon Winery of the Year, the founder quipped, “Well, then this is like a

double-banger for me, isn’t it?”

Those who studied Latin and know Joe’s story can appreciate the name Iterum, suggested to him by a friend who does know the story.

“I wanted one word that’s strong — something that’s simple and makes people think,” Dobbes says. “I wasn’t going to name it after myself. I’ve done that before. So he tells me, ‘You should call it Iterumwhich means again - afresh - once more.”

If you make the required prepaid appointment to Orchard House Vineyard and pronounce it “EE-tier-um” you won’t be turned away. And while the 21-acre vineyard isn’t well-known yet, the site along what Dobbes has dubbed as “the Eola Bench” first caught his eye in 1990 — before it became Cost Vineyard.

“I made wine for the Cost family from the estate for several years starting in 2005, so I had a strong connection and understanding of the site,” Dobbes says. “I then leased the vineyard through 2012 for Dobbes Family Estate.”

He bought it in 2018, and it came with clones 114 and 115 of Pinot Noir and clones 76 and 548 of Chardonnay.

“The two clones that I would have planted were 76 and 548, which was crazy,” Dobbes says.

It’s also worth noting that Dobbes wasn’t spending all of those two years just fishing because in 2017 he started Dundee Mobile Bottlers, which has grown. And during the pandemic, he planted Sauvignon Blanc — a variety that’s long fascinated him — and plans to prove it deserves to be viewed alongside Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the Willamette Valley.

But then, he’s been exploring the edges of Oregon wine since he helped his late father, Dr. Joe, turn Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from cardboard totes into wine, stomping inside a 55-gallon trash can.

“Yeah, my dad made some strawberry wine, and I brought it to a grade school party and got in a whole bunch of trouble for that,” Dobbes says with a twinge of regret.

At Southern Oregon University, Dobbes

Patricia Dobbes and her winemaker/husband, Joe, are living out their dream in the Eola-Amity Hills with Iterum Wines and loving the response to their young project near Salem, Ore.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ITERUM WINES

2023 IDAHO WINERY OF THE YEAR

Huston Vineyards

By Eric Degerman

CALDWELL, Idaho — Gregg and Mary Alger can tell a winery story that many owners would cherish — plant vines, launch two brands, raise children and transition into a second-generation business.

The founders each grew up as farm kids in the Snake River Valley, went to college and achieved success. Gregg helped build an office equipment business in Boise, decided to sell his share in 2006 and turned a portion of that nest egg into nearly 300 acres of farmland along Chicken Dinner Road near the community of Huston.

A celebratory family trip took them through California’s Alexander Valley, and they stopped at a modest winery.

“It wasn’t much more than a metal shed along the side of the road — and it looked similar to the metal building behind our place,” Gregg says. “We did a little wine tasting; there was a

taco truck, and after a couple of hours, we were filling our motorhome with wine. It got us thinking.”

That experience sowed the seeds for Huston Vineyards, the 2023 Idaho Winery of the Year for Great Northwest Wine. Now, their sons, Jacob and Josh, are taking over as winemaker and vineyard manager, respectively.

“We didn’t give up anything by moving back to farm life — we gained everything,” Mary says. “We’ve shown our kids how we grew up and how to think for themselves.”

In just the past year, the Alger family has seen repeated success in wine competitions with Merlot, Grüner Veltliner and a Riesling-driven blend under their quirky yet quality Chicken Dinner tier.

At the Great Northwest Invitational, a judging staged in the Columbia Gorge for West Coast wine buyers and sommeliers, the 2021 Chicken Dinner White earned a best-of-class award and its young estate Grüner Veltliner program earned a gold medal. Next, the Algers earned their first Platinum Award from Great Northwest Wine with that Chicken Dinner White — a 94-point wine.

Then at the 2023 San Francisco Chronicle, the nation’s largest wine competition, the Huston Vineyards 2019 Merlot and the same 2021 Chicken Dinner White each brought back a double gold medal.

Twenty years ago, Gregg knew of the world’s best scotches but not wine. It was Mary, with a résumé that includes Boise-Cascade and the J.R. Simplot Co., who appreciated what vines represent.

“I grew up Catholic, and wine was a part of my life,” she says. “There’s a beauty to it because it starts with farming and agriculture, so it comes from the earth and it’s one ingredient.”

Gregg adds, “I’m a slow learner. It doesn’t surprise me now that if you love scotch that you will appreciate wine, but I thought the whole world of wine was pretentious.”

Early on, the Algers sensed their strength would be in sales and marketing, so they hired talented winemakers to produce their wines.

“You’ve got to be certifiably crazy in this business if you don’t start by using a custom-crush facility,” Gregg says. “That really opens up time and windows of opportunity, and that way you aren’t worried about topping barrels every two weeks and pulling samples for testing every month.”

Along the way, they’ve hired former Ste. Michelle winemaker Melanie Krause of Cinder, Napa-trained Bill Murray and William VonMetzger, a product of Walla Walla Community

Gregg Alger, who grew up on a Snake River Valley farm, sold an office equipment business in Boise, bought farmland in Caldwell and launched Huston Vineyards in 2007.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HUSTON VINEYARDS

Huston Vineyards celebrates its status as a second-generation estate winery as Josh, left, and Jacob Alger, far right, joined their parents, founders Mary and Gregg Alger, in the vineyard and cellar along Chicken Dinner Road.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HUSTON VINEYARDS

College’s vaunted winemaking program. A 2012 Malbec made for the Algers by Krause won best of show at the 2014 Idaho Wine Competition and raised the profile of Huston Vineyards.

“We were fortunate enough to be able to work with Melanie under a custom-crush arrangement early on until her brand grew as large as it has,” Gregg says. “Bill vonMetzger was with one of our favorite wineries in Walla Walla Vintners, and we hired him in 2019 to manage our production at Artifex in Walla Walla and the other half that we do here on Chicken Dinner Road. Bill Murray, who was with Sawtooth and Canoe Ridge Vineyard, is still a very good friend of ours.”

The Algers and their sons also have benefited from the advice of Snake River Valley growers such as Dale Jeffers at Sawtooth/Skyline vineyards and the Williamson family. Not only have their grapes contributed to some of the Alger family’s most popular wines, but they’ve also shown the potential of vines along Chicken Dinner Road. And estate plantings — including blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, Syrah, Viognier, Muscat and Grüner — are the focus of the Huston Vineyards label.

“We planted an acre of Grüner in 2017, and we think we have real potential with it on our site,” Gregg says. “We felt the need to get more of it in the ground, so we now have 3 acres of it. Chefs in our area seem very excited about Grüner.”

This year marks the 15th anniversary for Chicken Dinner White, which began with Viognier off Williamson Vineyards in 2008. The Algers live on the farm road that got improved during the Great Depression, thanks to a supper served to Gov. Ben Ross, and that lore made it an ideal fit for a bargain-priced second label. It took off almost immediately when the foundation of the blend featured Krause’s Midas touch with Riesling.

Next came a red wine and then a Rhône-focused rosé that relies on Washington fruit. Its success prompted the Algers to develop a boxed-wine program — rare for an Idaho winery — and Chicken Dinner wines are the featured at the Caldwell Night Rodeo. There’s also a Chicken Dinner Wines delivery van, and there may soon be a second.

“Chicken Dinner has always been the brand to get exposure across the country,” Gregg says. “Our problem is that it grew so fast and we couldn’t get the grapes in Idaho, so we had to get them from Washington. As an industry, Idaho needs more acres for vineyards.”

The Algers now produce about 10,000 cases between their two brands. They continue to plant a few more vines, and they already are expanding the recently built production facility. That metal building behind their home won’t

be torn down, but a new tasting room is coming with the growth.

Jacob was 7, and Josh was just 4 when their parents planted them in Canyon County, about 45 minutes northwest of Boise. The older brother graduated from the University of Idaho’s food and science program in 2022 with a minor in fermentation. Josh, 20, couldn’t wait to start his own business, Lake Idaho Vineyard Management.

“We could never get Josh to come to dinner,” Mary says. “He was always outside, and when we started planting the vineyard, he was there

every day.”

And last year, Huston Vineyards grew to the point where those two brothers became part of the company.

“It was a beautiful year for us as business people and as parents,” Gregg says. “That dream came true.

“We might go to Hawaii for a week or 10 days at a time, but I’d get bored if I was away from this for too long,” he adds.

Huston Vineyards, 16473 Chicken Dinner Road, Caldwell, ID 83607, HustonVineyards. com, 208-455-7975

By Eric Degerman

GARDEN CITY, Idaho — Mark Pasculli graduated from one of the wine industry’s most respected universities, but he didn’t go to Fresno State for viticulture or enology.

His degree was in accounting, yet he’s proven to be a quick study after purchasing a neglected Cabernet Franc vineyard in the Eagle Foothills in 2016 at the encouragement of his wife, Lori.

Two vintages later, Rolling Hills Vineyard produced an estate Cab Franc that earned a Double Platinum and 96 points from Great Northwest Wine in 2021.

Last year, Rolling Hills followed that up with two more Platinums, making the young brand with a tasting room in Garden City an easy choice as the 2023 Idaho Winery to Watch.

“The only farming we had done before was tree fruit,” Mark says, “but Lori was raised on her grandparents’ vineyard in the San Joaquin Valley. Those memories are very special to her, and she fondly remembers riding on the tractor while sitting on her grandfather’s lap as they disced the vineyard rows.”

Lori’s late grandfather would be proud of what her family has accomplished in the Snake River Valley.

“This was our opportunity to do something together as a family — and we’re enjoying the heck out of it,” Mark says.

So are their customers. Their two barrels of 2019 Tempranillo, which received a double gold and best of class at the 2022 Idaho Wine Competition, went onto earn a Double Platinum

and 96 points.

Last spring, the Rolling Hills 2018 Bleu Mascot Red Wine, a blend of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon, received best of class at the state judging and a Platinum last fall. That wine from the family’s first commercial vintage honors the life of their beloved golden retriever — Bleu — and so far has provided funds for Boise Bully Breed, Fuzzy Paws Rescue and the West Valley Humane Society. Tasting room visitors who purchase a bottle of Bleu Mascot can nominate a Snake River Valley rescue organiza-

tion of their choice. Each quarter, a drawing is held to decide where 10% of that wine’s sales are headed.

The story of the blend helps tell part of the Pasculli story, too.

“We purchased Cabernet Sauvignon fruit from Kerry Hill Vineyard and were able to get some wonderful Malbec from Dusted Valley in Walla Walla,” Mark says. “That Malbec is very fruit-forward, softens the tannins of the Cab, and they integrated really well.”

And the ties to the Walla Walla Valley have endured because the family still works with one of North America’s top winemaking educators — Tim Donahue of Horse Thief Wine Consulting in Walla Walla. For more than a decade, Donahue served as the winemaking instructor at Walla Walla Community College, mentoring dozens of future winemakers and helping College Cellars of Walla Walla to win a slew of gold medals, starting with the chilly 2010 vintage on through that first pandemic harvest.

While Rolling Hills Vineyard makes most of its wines at Koenig Vineyards in Caldwell, Donahue oversees some production in Walla Walla as Rolling Hills continues to grow. Those wines include Sangiovese and Zinfandel — varieties that fit in with the Pasculli family’s Italian heritage.

“Tim lives just 10 minutes away from Walla Walla Wine Services, and it’s a real blessing to have him there,” Pasculli says. “He’s got all those relationships and connections. He is simply the best.”

The Sangio is from Wheatfield Vines in the Walla Walla Valley and Zin comes from Alder

Mark and Lori Pasculli purchased a vineyard and started Rolling Hills Vineyard in Eagle, Idaho, as a tribute to her late grandfather and his vines in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

The Rolling Hills Vineyard 2019 Tempranillo received a Double Platinum and 96-point rating from Great Northwest Wine during the 23rd annual Platinum Awards in the fall of 2022.

PHOTO BY ZACHARY PASCULLI / COURTESY OF ROLLING HILLS VINEYARD

PHOTO BY ZACHARY PASCULLI / COURTESY OF ROLLING HILLS VINEYARD

Ridge in the Horse Heaven Hills. In the Snake River Valley, Pasculli sources from Skyline — the breadbasket of the Idaho industry — sister site Sawtooth and young Rockspur on the Sunnyslope.

“What I really want that I don’t have access to right now is Dolcetto,” he says.

Since completing the back-breaking rehab work and establishing Syrah and that Platinum-producing Tempranillo, Mark and his son, Daniel, 29, continue to learn winemaking and grape growing together.

“The Cab Franc vines were about seven years old, and the property had not been maintained very well,” Mark says. “The entire drip system needed to be replaced, and we had to retrain the shoots because they had been poorly trained, but Cab Franc seems to really enjoy our site and nitrogen stays in our soil really well.”

Early on, they were helped by consulting winemaker Angela Shaltry, and they continue to learn from viticulturist Jake Cragin, who works for Winemakers LLC — a sister company of Precept Wine — and helps manage Skyline and Sawtooth vineyards.

“Daniel is the co-winemaker while going through the enology program at U-C Davis,” Mark says. “This is what he wants for his career and his life.”

Lori designed the Garden City tasting room and wine labels. Their daughter, Savannah, a paralegal, opened and manages the tasting

room. Zachary, the youngest, handles videography, photography and social media beyond his own communications and design company.

“We’re definitely a close-knit group, and I’m confident that if you were to ask each of our kids privately they would say the same,” Mark says.

All three of the children have an ownership stake in Rolling Hills Vineyard, which began with 1,200 cases from the 2018 vintage. The fifth year of the brand — the 2022 vintage — will see Rolling Hills at 3,600 cases as Pasculli and his family show no signs of slowing down.

During the past two decades, the patriarch’s focus has been on disaster cleanup, restoration and construction in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. After they sold their restoration business in 2021, it made space in their building for Lori to design a tasting room a half-block off bustling Chinden Boulevard.

At the estate, however, they are dealing with zoning issues that have plagued several other wineries in the Snake River Valley, particularly those in Ada County and the Eagle Foothills. An arcane code now on the books demands that 75% of the property owners who live adjacent to Rolling Hills Vineyard must sign an agreement to allow the Pascullis to sell wine on their land.

“The process has been ‘festive’ to say the least,” Pasculli said. “We’d like to be able to have up to 24 events a year with not more than 50 people, with most of those as farm-to-table

dinners and various wine-focused events.

“We understand the concerns of some of our neighbors and intend on respecting them while we put on small estate vineyard events,” he added.

It has generated headlines throughout the Snake River Valley as the wine industry in Ada County is at loggerheads with a small group of landowners, skyrocketing land costs, urban sprawl, a shortage of housing, fears of noise, traffic, DUIs and the NIMBY attitude. It is in contrast with the pro-business, pro-ag climate and anti-regulation narrative that has helped turn Idaho into the fastest-growing state in the country for each of the previous five years.

“We’re actively looking to add other vineyard properties,” Mark says, “but land set aside for agriculture is evaporating. And if you can find it, can you afford it?”

His background as an attorney, CPA and businessman prompted Gov. Brad Little to appoint Pasculli to the Idaho Wine Commission as a commissioner in 2021. His term ends July 2024 — the same year as Cragin’s.

“It’s a time commitment, but it has helped me to stay plugged in, and it’s a great group to work with,” Pasculli said. “I’ve never really felt like it’s a burden. It’s a lot of fun and an opportunity to learn and develop deeper relationships with people in this industry.”

Rolling Hills Vineyard, 152 E. 52nd St., Garden City, ID 83714, RollingHillsVineyard.com, (208) 948-3136.

Rolling Hills Vineyard near Eagle, Idaho, produced the 2018 estate Cabernet Franc that led to a Double Platinum in 2021.

PHOTO BY ZACHARY PASCULLI / COURTESY OF ROLLING HILLS VINEYARD

2023 BRITISH COLUMBIA WINERY OF THE YEAR

Hester Creek Estate Winery

By Eric Degerman

OLIVER, British Columbia — A remarkable passion project that began in 1968 spread vines across 76 acres of what is now Canada’s Golden Mile Bench, which makes Hester Creek Estate Winery a living museum for wine lovers in the Pacific Northwest.

British Columbia businessman Curt Garland purchased the historic property in 2004, and he approached it as a curator and steward as well as owner. His investments in farming, hospitality, the winery and his people continue to pay dividends, which are easiest to get a sense for in the wines by Mark Hopley.

“Some of these vines are pretty gnarly,” Hopley says. “They are real tree trunks, and they don’t crop that heavy, so they make my life easy. I just try to respect the vineyards.”

A number of his award-winning wines feature grapes from those original vines that are half-a-century old, lending delicious legitimacy to a claim — “Our roots run deep” — that’s unmatched in the Pacific Northwest at this scale. The story and the showing of Hopley’s wines in recent U.S. competitions led Great Northwest Wine to select Hester Creek Estate Winery as the 2023 British Columbia Winery of the Year.

At the 2022 Cascadia International in Washington state, Hester Creek earned a unanimous vote for gold — a double gold medal — and won best of class for its 2021 Old Vine Pinot Blanc. There was best of class for the 2021 Pinot Gris Viognier. Hopley’s 2021 Viognier and 2021 Old Vine Trebbiano each won a double gold, and his 2021 Block 12 Sémillon earned a gold.

Last fall, at the 2022 Great Northwest Invitational in Hood River, Ore., a judging conducted for West Coast wine buyers and sommeliers, Hester Creek received a double gold for its bargain 2020 Merlot-based Character Red and a gold for its methode Champenoise 2019 Old Vine Brut.

Later that month, Hester Creek entered three qualifying wines into the 23rd annual Platinum Awards. Each earned a Platinum. The 2019 Old Vine Brut and 2021 Old Vine Pinot Blanc were voted 94 points. The 2021 Sémillon scored 93 points.

At the San Francisco International, the 2021 Old Vine Pinot Blanc got double gold, while the 2021 Viognier and 2019 Old Vine Brut

won gold. In Australia at the Global Fine Wine Challenge, the 2021 Pinot Gris Viognier was golden with a score of 97 points and the 2021 Old Vine Trebbiano received 93 points.

Hopley has displayed astounding consistency from the 2020 and 2021 vintages — his first two as head winemaker. At the 2021 Cascadia International, Hester Creek entered six of Hopley’s wines. Five of those earned a gold medal or better, including the 2020 Pinot Gris Viognier, 2020 Sémillon, 2020 Viognier and the red Meritage-style bottling named for Garland.

“First and foremost winemaking starts with farming, and Curt saw that,” Hopley says. “He saw the potential of this site and the history of this site. And he’s given us the tools for us to be successful. We’re not handcuffed, and he’s never hesitated to up the quality.”

The story of Hester Creek begins with Joe Busnardo, an Italian immigrant who had the temerity to experiment with 80 varieties and invest in vinifera during an era when much of the Okanagan Valley wine industry was wedded to winter-hardy hybrids. In those days, even Château Ste. Michelle in Washington devoted much of its production to non-grape wines.

“People thought Joe was crazy at the time,” Hopley says, “but he rolled the dice and was always ahead of the game.”

It is the white Italian variety Trebbiano that Busnardo is most closely tied to. When he sold that Oliver property and moved to Vancouver Island, he took some Trebbiano cuttings with him for the new home of his Divino Estate Winery.

“There’s really no one else producing Trebbiano,” Hopley says. “The varietal is pretty cool to work with, and we’re reaping the rewards.”

Early on, Hester Creek made the Trebbiano off-dry, but today it is dry yet still fruity.

“It’s a huge part of our story,” Hopley says. “It’s a little more like Riesling than an Auxerrois, and it has big acid and it can hang real heavy, but it hangs less now that it’s older. We lose the sun fairly early in the day because we are on the west side of the valley, so it does really well in our climate.”

Another novelty that’s earned attention and respect is what Hester Creek refers to as “Italian” Merlot, which plays a significant role in the Character Red.

“It’s an Italian clone of Merlot from Joe that can really drive the bus,” Hopley says. “It’s part of the original plantings, and very unique — very peppery. It’s soft like Merlot, but it’s spicy and a fairly late-ripener, too.”

Another key component, particularly to the red program, is Garland’s investment in

PHOTO COURTESY OF HESTER CREEK ESTATE WINERY

Mark Hopley, who grew up in the Okanagan Valley and graduated from the Okanagan College viticulture and enology program in 1998, is in his second decade as winemaker at Hester Creek.

Ganimede fermenters from Italy. Rather than needing a device or a pump to “soak” the cap, the tank uses the carbon dioxide created during fermentation to gently move the cap and make the wines softer, more approachable.

Cabernet Franc also continues to survive from those first plantings, as does some Pinot Blanc, a white Burgundian grape that’s largely unappreciated aside from Western Canada’s first female Master of Wine — Barbara Philip — and Hester Creek.

“We chose to make the Old Vine Brut from the Pinot Blanc partly because it’s got that story of being planted in 1968, but it’s a go-to wine for me — a house wine, an everyday wine,” Hopley says. “The fruit is good. It’s got some structure, and it’s got nice aromatics. And our Pinot Blanc has been getting some legs the last few years because it is such a friendly wine.”

Hopley owes much of his expertise with sparkling wine to Mark Wendenburg when they both worked for the late Harry McWatters at Sumac Ridge Estate Winery. Pinot Blanc played a role in the popular Steller’s Jay Brut, and it was Hopley’s first job out of Okanagan College’s young winemaking program.

“My wife, Sue, and I were trying to find a way to stay in the valley, and there were a lot of wineries popping up,” Hopley says. “In ’95, I took a winemaking course at Okanagan College, and I think it was just the second time it was offered. There were a lot of future winemakers in that class — Bradley Cooper, Bob and Senka Tennant at Black Hills, Paul Gardner at Pentâge. I randomly ran into Harry and I told him I was taking the course, and he said, ‘Great, you should come out and see me.’ ”

Hopley ended up spending a dozen years working for McWatters and his family before making wine at Kraze Legz and then Road 13. That’s where Rob Summers found him in 2013 and brought him to Hester Creek. Summers, hired by Garland in 2006, retired as winemaker after the 2019 vintage. He’d taken Hester Creek from 6,000 to 60,000 cases as Garland’s vineyard holdings have grown to 115 acres.

“Last year, it was 67,000 cases,” Hopley said. “This year we’ll do about 80,000 cases. The 2022 vintage was the biggest harvest we’ve ever had.”

Australia native Mark Sheridan predicted the rise of British Columbia’s wine industry, so in 1999 he took on the massive job as director of vineyard operations West for Vincor Canada. Hired by Garland in 2010 to oversee Hester Creek, Sheridan’s overall expertise from grape to glass makes him a valuable sounding board for Hopley.

“If you look at the cumulative experience here, it’s off the charts,” Hopley points out. “Iqbal Gill, our vineyard manager, has been here for 34 years. The lab manager, Ma-

rie-Christine Hebrard, started in 2006. I’m one of the shorter-term people at 10 years. It tells you that people come here and they don’t leave, and there’s good reason for that.”

Hopley continues to keep blending two of his passions — fly-fishing and broadcasting. He first worked in radio, and he shows that he’s still got the pipes with his podcast on fly-fishing, which he drops on a regular basis. His guest list focuses on guides and reports from fishing resorts, where every cast brings dreams of netting an 8-pound trout.

“If I wasn’t in the industry, I would probably do a podcast on wine because there’s so much to talk about,” Hopley says. “You don’t have to be famous to have the best story on the planet. Everyone has an amazing story to tell, and I want to be that conduit.”

Busnardo’s historic planting proved to be the center of British Columbia’s first sub-geographical indication — the Golden Mile Bench, nested within the Okanagan Valley. The group that he sold his property to named the winery for one of the four creeks that generated alluvial fans in the sub-GI.

Garland, a trucking industry executive in Prince George, paid $5 million for Hester Creek at an auction. His winning bid looked much better after the arrival of Summers and Sheridan.

Now, both wineries at the end of Road 8 have put “the gold” in the Golden Mile Bench with storied Gehringer Brothers Estate Winery on the north side. German-trained Walter and Gordon Gehringer were named the British Columbia Winery of the Year by now-defunct Wine Press Northwest Magazine in 2006.

Next year will mark Garland’s 20th of ownership, and Hester Creek is shining more than ever.

“When Curt bought the winery, it was in a very different place,” Hopley says. “We had the old vineyards, but now we have The Villa and Terrafina — the restaurant. It’s a full estate experience.”

Hester Creek was among the first in the province to offer lodging on the estate, and the six suites that make up The Villa come with vistas of orchards and vines.

“Some of the original plantings are around the old homestead — Trebbiano and Pinot Blanc — and you drive though Block 4 to get to The Villa,” Hopley said. “It’s a beautiful view from the top of the vineyard, and with us being above the valley floor, the cold air drops off the bench. We can hang fruit here well into November.”

Terrafina at Hester Creek is open daily for lunch and dinner from May through October with seasonal hours from November to April.

Head chef Adair Scott, who grew up in Prince George, worked in some of the Okanagan Valley’s top restaurants for more than a decade prior to arriving at Terrafina. Alas, he didn’t get much time to start in his new job when he first arrived at Hester Creek. The restaurant reopened for the 2020 season on March 4. He used the lockdown to plant a garden and develop a honeybee colony on the roof of the cellar.

“With our proximity to the border, you can throw a rock at it, just about,” Hopley says. “We’re at the border in 15 minutes. Before COVID hit, we were getting a lot of Washington state customers. Hopefully, those days are coming back.”

Hester Creek Estate Winery, 887 Road 8, Oliver, BC, V0H 1T0, HesterCreek.com, (250) 498-4435.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HESTER CREEK ESTATE WINERY

Hester Creek Estate Winery and its customers continue to benefit from the ongoing investments by Curt Garland, the Prince George businessman and philanthropist who bought the historic Golden Mile Bench vineyard and brand in 2004.

BRITISH COLUMBIA – Winery to Watch | Crown & Thieves

By Allison M. Markin

WEST KELOWNA, British Columbia

— You’re in a punk band in the ‘80s, and you’ve figured out that high school is not for you.

And akin to a scene from the Queen biopic, the tour van for the band breaks down. With that, serendipity kicks in.

That’s how Jason Parkes — who views himself as “just a guy with a beard” — began as a winemaker.

He’s now the frontman for Jason Parkes Customs, a group of beverage purveyors in the Okanagan Valley’s somewhat-suburban West Kelowna. The collection includes Truck 59 Ciderhouse, The Hatching Post brewery, wineries Black Swift Vineyards, The Hatch and the uniquely positioned Crown & Thieves.

And the road to wine began in Peachland at Hainle Vineyards Estate Winery — the historic home of North America’s first icewine.

“I had to go into a winery to get some dollars to pay for the van, then I got the keys, a company credit card and started making wine,” Parkes says, who grew up in Peachland. “I’m a punk rocker who wanted to be comfortable with wine. Hainle gave me that chance.”

He’s earned critical acclaim for his wines, including a handful of Lieutenant Governor’s awards, and views Cabernet Franc as his variety of choice. And while Crown & Thieves was not the first beverage destination for the JPC group — The Hatch has that honour as the so-called instigator and incubator for Parkes’ vision — it has emerged as the crown jewel in the JPC royal family.

Its location — the Parkes estate — made it the riskiest brand to bring to life. Ridiculous rumors swirl about where all of the gloriously eclectic tasting room tchotchkes came from; the rooftop Angel Share Restaurant immediately gained a following, and it’s become the stage for his Proper Man Band.

The music never left Parkes, and he’s still a songwriter.

“I’m writing songs about wine, the heartbreak of it, the romance of it,” explains Parkes, adding that his goal with music and wine is to bring them together to have an impact on the grapes.

The Proper Man Band performs in the Broken Hearts Club speakeasy in the basement of Crown & Thieves. The trip includes a jaunt down an old Okanagan road and past townhouses and condos with a spectacular Okanagan Lake view.

“It looks romantic from the water,” laughs Parkes.

That sense of grey, riddled by sunlight bouncing off the lake on a clear day, does not in

the least prepare one for the sensory overload they are about to experience. It might be the closest many people get to visiting a movie set.

Quite by accident, the vibe in the tasting room is reminiscent of some of the rooms at Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg. Parkes has never been to the Russian landmark with the famous yellow facade, but still thinks the comparison is “cool.”

He has toured the Old World, and the interior design of Crown & Thieves is drawn from an aesthetic of European history. The ceilings are works of art. There are wood cabinets in the middle of walls of wine. And there is a piece of furniture that looks like a fainting couch Marie Antionette might have had in her drawing room.

“It is sensory overload,” offers Parkes. “I want you to experience something (European) that you may never get to experience in-person yourself. I want people to make it their own when they come here.”

And they do, often by attaching false stories or innuendo to the items in the building that were collected by Parkes or given to him. As long as that item spoke to him, he kept it, ranging from crown moulding from Wales that brought grown men to tears when it arrived, to items ordered off Wayfair. From the 1700s to modern day — that’s Crown & Thieves.

“Everybody is making things up about the stuff that’s here,” he says.

And everyone has known not to display, install or mount anywhere without his blessing, pointing out the warning that he’s been known to issue regarding the taxidermy.

“ ‘Don’t move the animal head until Jason shows up!’ ”

When it comes to what’s in the bottle, that’s

when Parkes turns reflective as he draws upon experience from producing wine throughout the Okanagan for brands that include Bordertown, Perseus and Serendipity.

“We take winemaking seriously,” he says. “We’re not about gimmicks. We really don’t care about being rockstar winemakers. It’s about the quality.”

And all winemakers should be applauded for whatever they’re doing, he declares, adding, “I started with three employees, now there’s 150, and it’s the people I’m proud of. There’s no one wine that’s the best. It’s the people. I’m proud of the people.”

His roster includes executive chef James Holmes, who looks after Angel Share. Holmes is known across the Okanagan and farther afield for his insanely creative dishes and visionary approach.

“He’s a renegade,” Parkes says. “He IS the food philosophy. And when I first took my wife to his restaurant, it was cool that he recognized me.”

Wines at Crown & Thieves come with names as eclectic as setting: The Little Nipper Pinot Gris, the Pinky Blinders rosé, the Arch Doxy Cabernet Franc, the bubbly blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir dubbed Dom and Dommerer Pink.

“It became a playground for pushing the limits, being as untraditional as traditionally possible,” Parkes says. “The wines can be poured in a ruin, nestled in the middle of a vineyard.”

The JPC Trail is a self-guided tour that stops at all five of the properties for tastings, a barbecue platter, a lesson in sabering, a burger or hot dog and maybe a rooftop dinner.

“We’re being cheeky,” Parkes says. “We’re having fun with it, and I’m just a guy.”

Which is just how Parkes signs his bottles. Crown & Thieves, 3887C Brown Road, West Kelowna, British Columbia, V4T 2J3, CrownThieves.com, (778)754-6968.

Allison M. Markin is an arts, culture and culinary columnist for Castanet Media. Her day job is grant writer for Ovarian Cancer Canada. She resides in Penticton, British Columbia.

Jason Parkes, an iconoclast in the British Columbia wine industry, recently added Crown & Thieves in West Kelowna to his eclectic array of award-winning operations throughout the Okanagan Valley.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JASON PARKES CUSTOMES

Malbec continues to build on its elevated stature in the Northwest

Vines in the Walla Walla Valley produced three of the top-rated Malbecs in the comparative tasting of 110 entries staged this past winter by Great Northwest Wine.

be more aggressive thinning with Malbec than other varieties, and timing is key, as well.

“If we thin too early, the clusters tend to balloon up, which leads to inconsistent ripening on the cluster,” he continued. “It also will dull down those bright flavors we are looking for. Thin too late and you obviously jeopardize full ripeness. It’s a balance you have to find within your vineyard and adapt each year. It’s a very fun variety to grow, in my opinion.”

In Washington state, interest in Malbec continues to be on the rise. Harvest has increased by 50% since the 2015 vintage as Malbec came in as the No. 4 red variety from the 2021 harvest at 3,600 tons. That’s well behind thirdplace Syrah (20,975 tons), narrowly ahead of Cabernet Franc (3,330 tons) but unlikely to ever sidle up to its big Bordeaux brothers Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

KENNEWICK, Wash. — If anyone has gathered 111 examples of Malbec grown in the Pacific Northwest for a judging dominated by winemakers, drop us a note.

Otherwise, Great Northwest Wine Magazine made some history on Feb. 23 when it staged an overview of Malbec for a panel dominated by Columbia Valley winemakers.

Out of the 110 entries, the panel judged 15 examples as “Outstanding!” yet the vast majority of what they evaluated were excellent and worthy of enjoyment on World Malbec Day — Monday, April 17 — and beyond.

Two of those 15 were unanimous selections for “Outstanding!” and awarded the equivalent of a double gold medal. The No. 1 wine proved to be the Maryhill Winery 2019 Proprietor’s Reserve Malbec. It was a nearly even blend of Gunkel Vineyard, which is near the Goldendale, Wash., winery, and the Yakima Valley’s Tudor Hills Vineyard.

“Our Malbec has been doing really well,” said grower Sean Tudor. “We are actually starting a vineyard series wine with Maryhill because of the success. High elevation and cooler sites seem to be making really nice Malbecs.”

Looking back, the 2019 vintage holds a fair bit of charm among Northwest winemakers, and this Malbec judging reflected that as five of the top entries were harvested in 2019.

Because of the nature of the grape, this was not as difficult as other evaluations of Bordeaux

of most showcased the juicy profile of Malbec. Some displayed a compelling amount of extraction, a density of dark purple fruit, bright acidity and tension.

Walla Walla wine merchant Kaleigh Brook, who is preparing to sit for her Master Sommelier exam this spring, said, “Typicity is what we really scored highly — when we said, ‘This tastes how Malbec ought to taste.’ It wasn’t overcooked. The extraction was on-point. The tannins were in check. And a lot of the wines had great acidity and freshness.”

Walla Walla winemaker Danny Gordon noted the overall quality of entries.

“There were a number that were not what I would want to drink right now, but I thought, ‘In a couple of years, that wine could really be a star,’ ” he said.

Few of the Malbecs dragged along an assertive tannin profile that many consumers rightfully associate with other Bordeaux reds — particularly with Merlot grown in Washington state.

“The best Malbecs were the ones that best managed the tannins,” Brook said. “It’s not as easy of a grape to work with as some people think.”

Given proper site selection, growers seem to appreciate the grape, too, but it requires managing canopy and clusters.

“One thing with Malbec is it has no problem putting tonnage on,” Tudor says. “We have to

“Harvest for us is usually early to mid October,” Tudor says. “It’s usually our second to last variety picked — right before Cab Sauv.”

In Oregon, it was interesting that Malbec (836 tons) also leaped over Cab Franc (778) in terms of production during the 2021 harvest, despite there being more acreage for Cab Franc (323 to 273).

The University of Oregon’s Vineyard and Winery Report reflected that Malbec was harvested at 2.99 tons per acre in the “heat dome” vintage of 2021, while Cab Franc came in at 2.33 — nearly a half-ton less than the fireplagued 2020 vintage. Washington no longer publishes that level of information. (Figures for the 2022 harvest were not available when this

Gunkel Vineyard accounted for the lion’s share of the 2019 Proprietor’s Reserve Malbec — the No. 1 wine of this issue’s comparative tasting.

Maryhill winemaker Richard Batchelor walks the rows of Gunkel Vineyard near Goldendale, Wash.

RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES

RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES

issue went to press on March 9.)

Growing regions with some elevation produced a number of the top Malbecs. That makes sense, considering vineyards in the Mendoza region of Argentina range from 2,600 feet to about 4,000 feet elevation, helping to account for the food-friendly brightness of the wines thanks to the acid-preserving altitude. Considering that, it makes sense for Idaho’s Snake River Valley winemakers to do well with vineyards that tickle 3,000 feet.

Three of the top entries were from the Walla Walla Valley, which is viewed as a region with moderate growing degree days. Same can be said of the Columbia Basin’s Royal Slope, which produced one of the top examples and has a reputation for acclaimed Malbec.

Among the top 15 wines of the judging, only two are sold for less than $30, and just one of those comes in as a “Best Buy!” — $20 or less.

Remarkably, this comparative tasting added another layer to the legacy of Gunkel Vineyard, the planting near the museum at Maryhill. Last October, the top-scoring wine of the 2022 Platinum Awards was a Gunkel Vineyard Grenache made by Columbia Gorge winemaker Rich Cushman for Mt. Hood Winery.

Panelists were Kaleigh Brook, advanced sommelier, The Thief Wine Shop, Walla Walla, Wash.; Danny Gordon, winemaker, Walla Walla; Katy Michaud, winemaker, Michaud by Naked Wines, Richland, Wash.; Philippe Michel, associate, Abeja, Walla Walla; Brad K. Smith, retired viticulture/enology instructor, Yakima Valley College, and certified sommelier/ marketing consultant, CellarDoorConsultants. com, Grandview, Wash.; and Gordy Venneri, co-winemaker, Neher Family Wines, Milton-Freewater, Ore.

Moderators included Ken Robertson, associate editor/columnist, Great Northwest Wine, Kennewick, Wash. The blind judging took place at the Clover Island Inn — the official home of the Platinum Awards — in downtown Kennewick.

Here are the results in their order of finish:

Unanimously Outstanding! — Double gold medal │96 points

Maryhill Winery 2019 Proprietor’s Reserve Malbec, Columbia Valley • $44

The Leutholds have earned an unsurpassed seven Platinum Awards for their Malbec program, starting with the classic 2005 vintage, so it was not surprising to see one of Richard Batchelor’s bottlings finish as the No. 1 wine of this tasting. His winning melange of nearby Gunkel Vineyard (57%), an estate source at the east end of the Columbia Gorge, with Tudor Hills Vineyard in the Yakima Valley spent 18 months in a barrel program of 40% new French oak. That creates a mood of Graham crackers with cherry jam and sweet baking spices. The rich fruit profile on the palate also spoons out blackberry and dark cherry, a sense of savory, and a refocus on the spice blend of cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom. Smooth tannins are joined by a bright squirt of red plum juice to make for a long finish. (293 cases, 15% alc.)

96 points

Aluvé Wine 2019 Les Collines Vineyard Malbec, Walla Walla Valley • $52

When it comes to backgrounds involving altitude, it’s easy to think of JJ and Kelly Me-

nozzi — the husband/wife winemaking team of Aluvé stationed along Walla Walla’s Mill Creek Road. From here, the retired Air Force pilots didn’t need to reach far into the Blue Mountain foothills for fruit from Les Collines, French for “the foothills.” Bright red fruit notes of raspberry and Bing cherry are joined by cocoa powder and pepper. On the palate, blackberry and herbs are framed by a marvelous mouthfeel that creates balance among the tannin, acidity and oak while leaving room for a boysenberry finish. “This clicks all of the boxes,” noted one panelist. (105 cases, 14.8% alc.)

Outstanding! — Gold medal │94 points

Abacela 2018 East Hill Block Estate Reserve Malbec, Umpqua Valley • $48

Kentucky-born pioneer Earl Jones planted the five primary Bordeaux varieties when he established Fault Line Vineyards in 1995, but Malbec has been the chosen one from the start. Its footprint has been expanded over time and now accounts for 7.5 acres — nearly 10% of Abacela’s 76 acres. Within those documented 25 variety site trials, Malbec falls within the “consistently great wines” category, and our panel would agree. This effort by longtime winemaker Andrew Wenzl attracted immediate attention in the glass for its elevated level of extraction, enjoyable inky approach and stylish notes of blackberry, black cherry and bacon. The oak influence is attractively balanced across that broadly structured midpalate, which brings along secondary hints of earthiness, anise and lavender. (236 cases, 14.1% alc.)

94 points

Hat Ranch Winery 2020 Malbec, Snake River Valley • $33

In 2019, Great Northwest Wine selected Timothy Harless as the Idaho Winery of the Year. Two years later, his assistant winemaker, Will Wetmore, earned Winery to Watch acclaim for his Veer Wine Project. Here, they teamed up for Idaho’s top Malbec in our tasting, working with a trio of vineyards — Rockspur, Williamson and Sawtooth. “This is true Malbec,” remarked one judge, who followed up with descriptors that hit on cherry blossom, Bing cherry, Damson plum and blueberry. That fruit profile carries throughout as tension from its juicy and fresh profile creates length without overriding tannins or a preponderance of oak. Each year, there are a number of gold medals awarded to Malbec at the Idaho Wine Competition, and Hat Ranch’s 2019 earned one of those. (303 cases, 13.9% alc.)

93 points

Gård Vintners 2019 Lawrence Estate

Malbec, Royal Slope • $48

The 2017 vintage of Malbec from Josh and Lisa Lawrence in the Columbia Basin topped The Seattle Times list of Northwest wines in 2021, so it was no surprise to see the lofty ranking for their effort from 2019. Chilean winemaker Matías Kúsulas has overseen the vines and the grapes since 2017, and the winemaking process for this three-barrel blend of Scarline and Solaksen vineyards continued a fermentation approach that leans concrete over stainless steel while avoiding oak. That focuses attention on the theme of ripe blackberry and blueber-

ry. They are joined by baking spices, smooth tannins and a finishing burst of plum and Bing cherry juice that adds up to a super complex and varietally spot-on example. The Lawrence family classifies this as a club-only offering, and it’s a worthy enticement. (70 cases, 14.9% alc.)

93 points

Balboa Winery 2019 Malbec, Walla Walla Valley • $45

While The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater grew its fame with Syrah, Balboa owner/ winemaker Tom Glase has long made Bordeaux varieties from The Rocks a drawing card for tourists. For Malbec, he works with Stone Valley Vineyard, a late-ripening site established in 2002 by Norm McKibben as part of Seven Hills West. It’s a site now managed by Tom Waliser, whose experience with Malbec includes Balboa’s own Eidólon Vineyard. This offers remarkable complexity, balance and length across a framework that leans toward red fruit and freshness, blending wild strawberries, white pepper and Herbes de Provence. A bite of Craisins gives it a long and bright finish. (125 cases, 14.1% alc.)

93 points

Mosquito Fleet Winery 2019 SS Bailey Gatzert Malbec, Rattlesnake Hills • $42

The steamship that ended up as the Olympic Peninsula’s first automobile ferry earns the spotlight on the bottle of Dr. Brian Petersen’s decorated Malbec program, pulled from organically farmed Konnowac Vineyard and its 30-year-old vines at 1,100 feet above sea level. There’s a rich and deep purple theme to the outline of blackberry and blueberry that includes accents

Malbec by the numbers

Here are a few statistics involving Great Northwest Wine’s comparative tasting of Malbec:

• Total entries: 110

• Double gold medals: 2 (2%)

• Gold medals: 13 (14%)

• Silver medal: 56 (51%)

• Bronze medal: 36 (32%)

• Average price per bottle: $39.59

• Mean price: $33

• Average price for gold medal wines: $41.50

• Total cases represented in this judging: 30,690

• Average production: 279 cases

• Average production of gold medal winner: 190 cases

• Mean production of gold medal winner: 240 cases

• Mean price of gold medal winner: $40

• Average alcohol by volume: 14.27%

• Average alcohol by volume among gold medals: 14.34%

American Viticultural Areas represented as listed: 17

Columbia Valley (25), Walla Walla Valley (18), Yakima Valley (11), Red Mountain (10), Horse Heaven Hills (9), Wahluke Slope (7), Snake River Valley (5), Rattlesnake Hills (4), Washington State (4), Lake Chelan (3), Rogue Valley (3), Royal Slope (3), Umpqua Valley (3), Southern Oregon (2), Ancient Lakes of Columbia Valley (1), Naches Heights (1), White Bluffs (1)

Gold medals won by listed AVA

Walla Walla Valley (3), Columbia Valley (2), Snake River Valley (2), Rattlesnake Hills (1), Red Mountain (1), Royal Slope (1), Umpqua Valley (1), Wahluke Slope (1), Washington State (1), White Bluffs (1), Yakima Valley (1)

of black pepper, herbal notes of lavender and thyme. Joining in are hints of sweet baking spices such as cinnamon and clove. A splash of Merlot adds to the backbone that retains juiciness akin to a bite of Bing cherry. (270 cases, 13.8% alc.)

92 points

Liberty Lake Wine Cellars

2020 Scooteney Flats Vineyard Malbec, Red Mountain • $33

Self-taught Mark Lathrop turned his talent and keen investments in Red Mountain fruit into our Washington Winery to Watch Award for 2022. His work with a 2018 Malbec factored into that. Storied grower Dick Shaw, a member of the Washington Wine Hall of Fame, now owns this planting near historic Ciel du Cheval, and the block that Lathrop contracts for — 1 acre cropped to 3 tons in 2020 — continues to prove its prowess with Malbec. Dark fruit and toast notes leap from the glass, where the flavors feature Bing cherry and red plums. There’s vibrant Craisin juiciness and dusty herbs on the midpalate, which lead out with blackberry and black pepper. The Spokane-area winemaker has won 11 Platinums in the past two years — six of them featuring red Bordeaux varieties. And he qualified for the 2023 Platinum Awards with this effort. (170 cases, 14.5% alc.)

92 points

Spoiled Dog Winery 2021 Malbec, Yakima Valley • $28

Whidbey Island is home to the son/mother winemaking team of Jake Krug and co-founder Karen Krug, and they source their Malbec from a relatively cooler site in the Yakima Valley — Crawford Vineyard, which is owned and managed by the husband/wife team of Charlie and Connie Crawford. This example flashed more character than most as wild blackberry and President plum created a bright level of concentration while the fruit, structure and chocolatey barrel influence achieved a charming balance. Subtle and secondary notes of tapenade, tobacco and earthiness raised the level of interest, particularly among the winemakers on the panel. “This had more freshness and seemed more intentional,” one winemaker said. “I appreciated its boldness and saw its slight bit of funkiness as a positive — not a negative.” The Krug family earned a Platinum for its 2017 vintage of Malbec, so there’s a track record of success. (116 cases, 13.8% alc.)

91 points

Five Star Cellars 2017 Malbec, Walla Walla Valley • $40

Matt Huse was among the first graduates of Walla Walla Community College’s winemaking program, and Bordeaux varieties have been a

strength at his family’s winery since he and his father, David, established their winery in 2000. These days, Huse is making wine with Cameron Rushton, and they’ve combined to craft a delicious example of Malbec that hits on many of the characteristics that make this variety so popular — starting with a magenta rim that’s pleasing to the eye. Aromas of Marionberry pie, Jolly Rancher grape candy, rose petal and white pepper lead to condensed dark blue fruit flavors. Delicious balance is achieved by the combination of boysenberry acidity, blueberry skin tannins and a light scrape of toast. It’s available at their tasting room near the Walla Walla Regional Airport and their satellite tasting room in Woodinville. (240 cases, 14.7% alc.)

91 points

Harbinger Winery 2017 Malbec, Wahluke Slope • $30

Olympic Peninsula winemaker Sara Gagnon has earned a pair of Platinum Awards during her career for her work with Malbec. She’s zeroed in on Sagemoor’s historic Weinbau Vineyard, and this provides an experience that begins with a wide range of berry aromas, rose petals, baking spice, white pepper and toast. Inside, it’s smooth with dark cherry flavors, a bright pop of raspberry on the midpalate and a pinch of dried oregano in the finish of Marionberry. “This has all the components a Malbec should have,” according to one judge. (205 cases, 13.9% alc.)

91 points

Snake River Winery 2021 Estate Malbec, Snake River Valley • $20

Best Buy! Idaho’s aptly named Arena Valley Vineyard has helped display the potential of the Snake River Valley, and 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of grower/winemaker Scott DeSeelhorst’s brand. His work from the 75acre site at 2,300 feet, first planted in 1983, yielded the only “Best Buy!” of our tasting. It’s a bright, focused and balanced Malbec loaded

with blueberries, Bing cherries, plum and hibiscus tea. There’s an added whiff of caramel corn that leads to a graceful structure with dusty tannins and food-friendly acidity. Enjoy with lamb, pork and stuffed peppers. (240 cases, 13.9% alc.)

92 points

Page Cellars 2019 Malbec, Columbia Valley • $47

Two years ago, Todd and Dee Krivoshein purchased pilot Jim Page’s winery in Woodinville’s Warehouse District, and the tradition of delicious efforts with Bordeaux reds continues to soar. It quickly shows the barrel impact with aromas of Baker’s chocolate and cocoa, yet they don’t mask the bright theme of blueberry and raspberry that is joined by a bit of heft from plum-skin tannins. “There’s a pretty and delicate sense to the weight of the finish, and it offered the best integration of the flight,” one judge said. “I don’t want this glass to go away.” The Krivosheins suggest pairing it with Copper River salmon, lamb rubbed with herbs or stuffed and roasted portobello mushroom. (160 cases, 14.3% alc.)

93 points

Blooms Winery on Whidbey Island

2016 Malbec, Washington State • $32

Puget Sound islanders shined with Malbec during our tasting, and Ken Bloom’s experience with clone 9 Malbec from the Bosma family of Diamondback Ridge Vineyards in the Rattlesnake Hills led to a gold medal. It’s a fruit-forward, vibrant and easy drink of blueberry, blackberry, plum and Red Vines licorice that comes with a pinch of anise. Enjoy with the rack of lamb at the Bloom family’s on-premise Bistro 5511 in Freeland. (72 cases, 14.7% alc.)

91 points

Tinte Cellars 2020 Malbec, White Bluffs • $52

When Tim Gamble and Teresa Spellman Gamble acquired William Church Winery, they wisely continued the Woodinville brand’s relationship with Gamache Vineyard. Three times the Balsleys earned a Platinum Award with Malbec via Gamache — a run that saw their bottling from the cool 2011 vintage finish as the overall No. 1 wine of the 2014 Platinum. Noah Fox Reed, a product of Walla Walla Community College’s winemaking program, continues that tradition of excellence with this bold and youthful expression of Malbec. The vibrant and complex nose of Van cherry, raspberry, Cherry Nibs and dried herbs comes to life on the rich palate, which includes Craisin and a slice of boysenberry pie. (237 cases, 14.7% alc.)