Stein and his friends found that there were some pretty good wines made all over the US, and some pretty unusual varietals, which were interesting to try.  Of course, there were some “real stinkers” too, in the words of Gary Vaynerchuk of WLTV fame, who was one of Stein’s tasters.

There are few who would say that terroir doesn’t matter at all, but it is true that you can make a bad wine out of good grapes.  One key, which Stein also seems to believe, is selecting the right grapes to grow on a specific terroir.

Today, we’re heading back out to Bainbridge Island Winery to hang out with Gerard Bentryn, the winemaker.  His wine is all estate grown, despite the popular misconception that you can’t grow grapes well in Western Washington because of the climate.  But Gerard is an example of a winemaker who grows the right kind of grapes for his terroir.  Try his Seigerebe, if you haven’t, and you’ll see what I mean.

Keep drinking the juice, Americans.  We’ll be right there with you.

Last week was a great one in the world of wine events. On Wednesday, August 13, we went to the Fidélitas wine release party for their wine club members.  This is the first time Fidélitas has ever held an event in Seattle for their wine club members, and their loyal winos showed up en force. With over 800 members, over 250 showed up at the Seattle event to taste the new vintage of Optu Red, and the first-ever Optu white.  Winemaker Charlie Hoppes was on site, happy to shake hands and talk about his wines.  Charlie is a prime example of what you often find in Washington State: a really nice guy making really nice wines. And, this attitude extends to his entire staff, which showed us a great time in their swank winery last month when we visited Red Mountain, and were equally welcoming at the wine club event.  Great wine and great people make for a great experience, which is why we at WINO gave Fidélitas the WINO Stamp of Approval in our August issue.

Fidélitas knows how to throw a party, and they certainly take care of their club members.  Held at the Northwest Wine Academy at South Seattle Community College, there was plenty of wine to be had.  In Latin, “Optu” means best, and the wines didn’t disappoint.  The Optu Red has been a veritable playground for Charlie Hoppes, as he changes it a bit from year to year, making it more exciting than the Starbucks Christmas Blend.  The just released 2005 red, with 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 6% Cab Franc and 3% Malbec, had nice balance and complexity. The Semillon and the “Eight” Syrah also kept me coming back. 

Skillet Street Food was there in their iconic silver trailer serving some of the best food I’ve had in a while.  If you don’t know what bacon jam is, you’ve got to find them and have a burger with bacon jam on it.  I’m not even kidding. And, the side of pasta salad was outstanding. The meal also paired surprisingly well with the wines.

They also had a real-live cooper there building wine barrels by hand, and giving a barrel toasting demonstration.  As you know, the insides of oak barrels are toasted to add certain characteristics to wine, and we got to watch a master cooper from Seguin-Moreau of Napa Valley assemble barrels from the ground up, and toast the inside over wood fires while answering questions from the curious lookers on. 

We had a great time at the Fidélitas event, sipping wines and talking to other enthusiastic winos like Duane Pemberton of Winefoot.com fame.  I’d recommend joining the Fidélitas for the wine, if not for great events like these.

The next day, we attended the Auction of Washington Winesheld at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville. A charity event, the auction raised well over $2 million for Children’s Hospital and the Washington Wine Education Foundation. One lot was a 21-Liter DeLille Salute to AWW and Charles Lill — a collection of etched and hand painted bottles from DeLille Cellars which sold for $70,000 by an enthusiastic attendee. Scads of Washington Wineries were represented, allowing for us to taste great wines from all over the state, as well as talk to winemakers like Heather and John Neff ofNefarious Cellars and many others who were milling around pouring their wines.  Good times were had by all.

For a nightcap, we headed over to Senoj Estates winery in Woodinville for Industry Night.  Essentially a networking party, it was as fun as all events at Senoj…lots of good wine and good people, and winemaker Jeff Jones is as entertaining as they come.  Jeff is modeling his tasting room as more of an events venue, and there’s always something new to be found there.  This Saturday is Persian Night, and there will be live bellydancers.  Yes, bellydancers.  

For reasons unknown we managed to “skip” a visit to Chinook winery while we were down through Prosser / Red Mountain for the August issue of WINO, this even after I was told by at least two people that Chinook has one of the finer Rosés  in all of the land. So, to make it up to our palates we’ll be heading down to Seattle Cellars on August 21st to hopefully visit with Kay Simon (winemaker) and drink up some of her wine. As an addendum to our August Round Table, which featured Rosé wines, we’ll be posting our profile of the Chinook Rosé on Friday.

We’ve all heard stories of drug operations planting contraband shrubbery in the middle of vast cornfields, but it appears marijuana has infiltrated Washington’s vineyards as well.  According to an article by the Associated Press, law enforcement officials have already stung seven vineyards in the Yakima Valley this summer, which had been converted into marijuana operations.  Of the seven, at least five had been recently purchased, and one of them had been leased out to pot growers by an unsuspecting vineyard owner.

The Yakima Valley, with easy access to Seattle, Portland and Spokane, has been known to be an important pipeline in drug trafficking for a while, since crackdowns at the borders have made it difficult to import illegal drugs, forcing domestic operations to form.

Drug enforcement teams have already seized $100 million worth of drugs in the Yakima Valley alone this spring and summer, and they haven’t even started their annual aerial surveilance yet.  Compare that with the annual value of Washington State’s wine grapes of $144 million, and you can see the scope of the marijuana trade.

The executive director of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers, Vicky Scharlau, predicts that as the number of arrests increase, the number of vineyard purchases for pot growing will decrease.  Sounds reasonable.

In related news, the Seattle HempFest will be held in Myrtle Edwards Park on August 16 & 17.