TASTING RESULTS | Idaho Wine Competition
Melanie Krause of Cinder Wines uses Syrah to win Idaho Wine Competition for third time
By Eric Degerman
C
ALDWELL, Idaho — Melanie Krause was a winemaking star on the rise at Château Ste. Michelle in Washington state when she returned to her native Idaho to make world-class Syrah in the Snake River Valley and launch Cinder Wines in 2008. And while this week marked the third time Krause has produced the No. 1 wine at the Idaho Wine and Cider Competition, it was the first time judges selected one of her expressions of Syrah as the state’s best wine. “It’s my favorite wine, so it’s about time,” Krause quipped. Highpoint Cider in Victor, a community near the Wyoming border and the sunrise shadows of the Tetons, produced the tasting’s top cider — MotherTrucker, a semi-sweet entry. Krause, raised in Boise by parents with a passion for gardening, continues to showcase the Snake River Valley’s flair with varieties native to the Rhône Valley of France. Last year, the Garden City winemaker earned spots in the sweepstakes with Viognier as the best white wine and used Cinsault to lead the rosé field. This year, Krause also used Syrah to produce a gold-medal winning rosé that nearly reached the sweepstakes. In 2017, a Riesling from Cinder was the judging’s No. 1 wine. The first time she won the Gem State judging was 2014 when a 2012 Malbec returned the best-of-show award for Huston Vineyards and Caldwell vintner Gregg Alger — one of Krause’s early clients. At a production level of 1,000 cases, the Cinder 2020 Syrah from the Snake River Valley ($35) serves as the flagship red for the 10,000case brand Krause owns with her husband, Joe Schnerr. She blends fruit from two of Idaho’s most important sites — Sawtooth and Williamson — and co-ferments with a bit of Viognier in the northern Rhône style. Acclaimed journalist/educator Deborah Parker Wong, who chronicles the wine world beyond her home in San Francisco, was among the judges who decided that the Syrah by Krause ranked as the competition’s No. 1 wine. The global wine editor for SOMM Journal and The Tasting Panel magazines also serves as
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the national editor for Slow Wine Guide USA. This week afforded her with her first hands-on, extended look at the Idaho wine industry. She’s already expressed an interest in returning. “This was a pleasant surprise,” Parker Wong said at the end of a tour of the Snake River Valley the day following the competition. “After an initial introduction a number of years ago, and then with really no follow-up other than reading the press, I was really delighted to see the wine quality and the range of style for the different varieties. Overall, I’m really excited about what’s happening here.” In addition to Parker Wong, the panel also featured Tim Donahue, winemaker/consultant, Horse Thief Wine Solutions, Walla Walla, Wash.; Ilene Dudunake, owner, A New Vintage Wine Shop, Meridian, Idaho; Lane Hoss, vice president of operations/wine buyer, Anthony’s Restaurants, Kirkland, Wash.; Kathryn House McClaskey, director of education, Hayden Beverage Co., Boise; Ellen Landis, journalist/certified sommelier/educator, EllenOnWine.com, St. Petersburg, Fla., and Jeff Ritchey, winemaker/ owner of California-based Winerat Consulting, who now lives in the Snake River Valley. The tasting of 164 wines and 13 ciders was staged Tuesday, May 24 at Koenig Vineyards in the Sunnyslope Wine District west of Caldwell. This marked the 13th consecutive year of Great Northwest Wine’s collaboration with the Idaho Wine Commission on orchestrating the Idaho Wine Competition. All but one of those judgings have been conducted in the state of Idaho.
6 golds out of Harless’s Chicago Street facility in Caldwell Tim Harless came close to producing the competition’s best wine for the second straight year when his Vale Wine Company 2021 Chardonnay was selected as the judging’s top white wine. It was no coincidence that another of his wines — the Hat Ranch Winery 2021 Estate Dry Moscato — narrowly lost out to the Vale Chardonnay during the sweepstakes vote for Best White Wine. In 2015, Harless won the Idaho Wine Competition with his 2014 Estate Dry Muscat. While he operates a tasting room alongside his 6-acre Hat Ranch vineyard on the
Sunnyslope, Harless and assistant winemaker Will Wetmore produce wines for their own brands and several clients at the University of Idaho’s incubator in downtown Caldwell along Chicago Street. Wetmore’s Veer Wine Project 2019 Vincens Red Wine from young Rock Spur Vineyards earned a gold in the Merlot category. Harless heads up the winemaking for Kerry Hill, which earned a gold for its Monarch Tempranillo. Clyde “C.J.” Northrup, geoscience professor at Boise State University, turned a rosé made with estate Graciano — a lively Spanish red grape — into a gold medal for his young Famici Wine Co. His wines are bottled by Hat Ranch. Northrup is helping to spearhead the petition for the Sunnyslope American Viticultural Area. If successful, it would be the second sub-AVA for the Snake River Valley.
Parma Ridge serves up 2 double golds Chef-turned-winemaker Storm Hodge continues to recover from the stroke he suffered during the 2020 harvest, and the perseverance, talent and teamwork he displays were recognized by judges with three gold medals for Parma Ridge Winery & Bistro, a showing that includes a double gold and best of class for his 2019 Petit Verdot — a red Bordeaux variety that can thrive in Idaho — and a double gold for a 2021 Estate Gewürztraminer that he shares credit with Megan Hartman. There also was a gold medal for the 2019 Syrah, pulled from the Hodge family’s 9.5 acres of vines that surround the bistro headed up by the former assistant director of Housing and Food Services at the University of Washington. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Parma Ridge, launched in 1997 by Dick Dickstein, a longtime airline pilot who retired from the wine industry in 2013. Hodge and his wife, Stephanie, took over and began its transformation in 2015.
Indian Creek returns 3 gold for McClures Second-generation producer Indian Creek Winery, southwest of Boise in Kuna, continues to prove that winemaker Mike McClure and his wife, Tammy Stowe-McClure, rank among the Northwest’s top talents with Viognier. Last year, their 2020 earned a gold medal. This year,
