The Laurelhurst Boys

After four long years, Laurelhurst Cellars has finally released its first wines. The partners in this endeavor say their highest commitment is to quality, but it’s also clear that fun and deep friendships have helped make it happen.

By R.M. Shor

I’m guessing that sometime in your recent past is an Independence Day barbecue or fireworks display, a good time to reflect on the American spirit, individualism, and entrepreneurism. Now, if you thought startups only happened in Silicon Valley, better first check out your own neighborhood. The truth is, they are all over the place in Washington State in the guise of boutique wineries. Got an idea of your own? If so, I’m warning you—it will take commitment and very hard work, as I discovered during an evening with Gabe Warner, Greg Smallwood and Dave Halbgewachs of Laurelhurst Cellars.

The Washington Wine Commission estimates that a new winery is bonded in the state every four to five days. That kicks California’s biotech/Internet ass by any measure. What is not apparent from that statistic is that the ramp-up takes years. “You only get to make wine once a year,” said Gabe, and Greg chimed in, “So you have to get it right.” I assure you that Laurelhurst does.

These three close friends, who have been assisted by a large periphery of family and social circle, are now in the transition phase from an after-hours activity to a real business; their wines are now sold in a few shops and restaurants in Seattle. The operation that started in Gabe’s garage and has slowly taken over every square inch of his basement as well as a rental-income unit is now moving to new space in Georgetown. The guys are very excited, as one can well understand, but it’s the startup story that I find really interesting.

Gabe was the “instigator.” After a few years of experience making home-brewed beer while an English major at the University of Washington (we won’t say at exactly what age), he decided to attend an intensive three-month “beer camp” program at UC Davis and go on to apprentice at a Bay Area microbrewery. Later, with ten years of making good beers under his belt, Gabe saw some winemaking gear at the equipment store and decided to take on the next challenge. He read every possible book he could find on the subject of winemaking and sought the assistance of established growers and vintners in Washington, who were quite open to sharing their knowledge. He soon also realized that by applying beer-making techniques to the winemaking process (such as extreme equipment sanitation), he was making some good—but un-oaked—Chardonnays and Pinot Grigios. During the day, Gabe worked for Disney’s Internet Group and as a producer for ESPN and the X-Games.

It was time for the next big challenge and also the next big expense: red wine and oak barrels. Gabe ordered a few fifteen-gallon barrels, and the next thing he knew, he had 700 pounds of Pinot Noir grapes backing into his driveway. What he didn’t know was that they would need to be stemmed before crushing, so he was forced to jerry-rig a manually operated stemming apparatus from a few two-by-fours and some old vegetable crates. He and a friend were able to get through the load during what must have been a very, very long night, and he thinks the friend still regrets offering to help. In the end thirty-five gallons of wine were produced, all consumed long before it was ready to go into the bottle.

Enter Greg , whom Gabe knew through a circle of friends, some going back all the way to high school. Greg had studied Sales and Marketing at Washington State University, graduating in 1990 to move to Seattle and sweep the floors of an industrial supply company in Georgetown (which, incidentally, he now owns). At that same time, Greg began his own exploration of wine, traveling to Spain, France, and Italy, meeting grape growers and winemakers throughout Washington. Because of this exposure, Greg was instrumental in understanding and establishing relationships with vineyards that Laurelhurst Cellars source from today.

Greg is the one who in 2004 helped push Gabe over the edge from a hobby to a serious let’s-try-tomake-this-a-business endeavor. He put some skin in the game, helping to purchase the sixty-gallon French oak barrels that they both considered to be important for making high quality wines. Then they asked Dave to join in as well.

Dave went to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and moved up to Seattle in 1997. He has been in the wine business for a long while, as a buyer for wine shops and now as a distributor. He has always dreamed of selling his own wine and, being part of that same circle of friends, had been a helper to Gabe for a few years.

These three guys are mad-for-wine scientists. The wine is never pumped from one container to the next. Instead, it is pushed gently using the pressure from a nitrogen cylinder. During fermentation theyput down a layer of argon gas to ensure that no oxygen reaches the grapes, unless they want it to, in which case they will inject oxygen directly into the mix. Wine is barreled in the best French oak and topped off from smaller containers of the exact same batch. Their bottling equipment uses vacuum only and removes the last vestiges of air from under the best corks they can buy so that the bottles can be immediately rested on their sides. (I don’t remember seeing any of those methods the last time I visited Mondavi in California.)

The quality doesn’t stop there. The labels and caps are the best the market can offer, and then, during blending and other crucial events, the guys will spend hours using a formalized method of evaluation with a benchmark wine (from a well-known winery) as the basis for their decision making. If they can’t come to an agreement, they will rest up overnight, come back the next evening, and do it over again until there is consensus. They claim that they will never, ever compromise by releasing a wine that they would not all love to drink themselves. They are driven in part by their knowledge that they can make wines as good as or better than those that are unaffordable in the quantities that they like to consume. They claim that, unfortunately, their expertise has jaded their palates, but all told, they seem to be in a pretty good place.

I went into the meeting at Laurelhurst expecting to hear nightmare stories about navigating the Washington State bureaucracy in order to be registered and bonded as a winery. Greg admitted that they went into the process with some naiveté and that there were piles of paperwork to complete, but he confessed that every single agency he encountered did their best to help them through the issues. This mirrors their experiences when landing uninvited on the doorsteps of some of the state’s best winemakers to ask for guidance and mentorship, because after the mandatory “Who the hell are you?” question, people opened up to share their knowledge and experience. Both these stories reveal the truth in what I was told by the Washington Wine Commission that there is an unprecedented level of collaboration among everyone involved in any way in the state’s wine industry.

Gabe’s, Greg’s, and Dave’s preferences in wines are similar, so maybe their clear vision and direction make the long hours and hard work palatable in order to achieve the end goal, but I am not sure that is enough. It is obvious that the three really, really like one another. You’ve got to be close to come out after work at 9pm on an icy, rainy November evening in Seattle, greet that truck with four tons of grapes, and work until 3am, because when the grapes are ready, you can’t delay. You have to be committed to your partners and the business to go back to your regular job a few hours later and then return the next evening for another long night of work, and the next day, and the next. You’ve got to be really tight to describe this as “fun,” but you must also have the support of your families for your significant others to facetiously refer to themselves as “wine widows.”

If you live in Seattle and are seeking an entrée into the business, get in touch with Laurelhurst Cellars. Gabe, Greg, and Dave are good people who have volunteer and internship opportunities, and they will unselfishly share everything they know about wine with you.