By Christine Go

Petite Sirah

Does size matter? Well, it does if you’re talking about grapes, namely Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot. These varietals produce big, bold wines, so why are they called “petite?”  Give up? Because of the size of the grapes! Apparently both varietals have small berries, so they have a high skin-to-juice ratio. Since color and tannins come primarily from the skin and seeds of the grapes, more skin equals more color and tannins, which translates to tooth-staining wines with lots of structure.

So Petite Sirah isn’t petite, but is it related to Syrah? There’s been a lot of confusion about the origin of Petite Sirah, and it’s taken about a hundred years to figure out the answer to that question. If you check out the timeline on the “P.S. I Love You” website (an advocacy group for Petite Sirah), you’ll see that Syrah first came to California from France in 1878, but some called it Petite Syrah. Then, a few years later, a French varietal called Durif (named after the grape grower who propagated it) was introduced to California, and it was called Petite Sirah, since that was its common name in France.

We now know that Syrah/Petite Syrah is not the same as Petite Sirah/Durif, but they are related. In 1997, Carole Meredith, a professor at UC Davis, did a DNA analysis of Petite Sirah compared to Durif, and discovered that they are indeed the same. It turns out that Syrah and Peloursin, an obscure French varietal, are the parents of Petite Sirah. Syrah is prone to a fungus called “powdery mildew,” something familiar to gardeners in Western Washington, and originally Petite Sirah was developed to be resistant to it; but in humid climates, Petite Sirah is prone to another fungus called “grey rot.” This is why Petite Sirah does well in drier grape-growing regions. Today the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) recognizes Durif and Petite Sirah as synonyms for the same grape. And just to add to the confusion, some wineries label their Petite Sirah as “Petite Syrah” even though it is not the same as Syrah.

Historically, Petite Sirah became popular in California as a blending grape, since its plum and dark berry flavors, firm tannins, and good acidity added a lot of body and structure to thin, light reds. Here’s a trivia tidbit: back when Americans were drinking generic jug wine blends, Gallo Hearty Burgundy was very popular. Guess what? Petite Sirah was one of the main components of that blend. Today there are hundreds of California wineries producing Petite Sirah, and it’s grown successfully in other drier regions around the world, like Australia, Israel, Chile and Eastern Washington.

So which Washington wineries are producing Petite Sirah, and where are those grapes grown? Here are a few examples: Thurston Wolfe gets Petite Sirah grapes from vines that were planted at Zephyr Ridge Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills in 1998. Milbrandt gets their Petite Sirah from Northridge Vineyard on Wahluke Slope. Petite Sirah is one of the varietals planted in Jones of Washington’s Unit 10 Vineyard on Wahluke Slope. Portteus Winery in the Rattlesnake Hills makes award-winning Petite Sirah from estate-grown fruit. Palouse Winery just won a silver medal at the Seattle Wine Awards for their Petite Sirah crafted from Portteus vineyard fruit.

Petit Verdot

What about Petit Verdot? Does it have anything else in common with Petite Sirah besides berry size? Well, it turns out that it does. First of all, Petit Verdot also is a blending grape that originated in France. It’s one of the five Bordeaux varietals—the others are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. (Carménère, the sixth Bordeaux varietal, is hardly grown in France anymore, but is successfully grown in Chile.) Petit Verdot is a small component of many of Bordeaux’s best wines, mainly from the Medoc region on the left bank of the Gironde. Because of its strong tannins, blackberry flavors, and aromas of violets, it’s used in small amounts to add color, spice, and structure to a wine.

Petit Verdot means “little green,” and it’s aptly named, because it ripens very late or not at all, so in some years, the grapes remain green. That’s why it’s not more popular in France. Just like Petite Sirah, it does better in warmer climates where it can ripen fully, such as the Temecula region in Southern California, the east end of Long Island, and Eastern Washington.

Intrigued by Petit Verdot made in Washington? Then give it a try! For example, Seven Hills Winery in Walla Walla produces award-winning Petit Verdot, as does Northstar, which uses fruit from StoneTree Vineyard on Wahluke Slope. Animale’s Petit Verdot comes from Gilbert Vineyard on Wahluke Slope. The Cara Mia Cadence vineyard on Red Mountain was planted to 10% Petit Verdot. Meek Vineyard in Yakima Valley near Red Mountain provided the Petit Verdot fruit for three Seattle Wine Award winners, OS Winery, Olsen Estates and Pleasant Hill Cellars.

Finally, wines made from both Petit Verdot and Petite Sirah will age nicely, thanks to their firm tannins. With so many delicious options available in Washington, it shouldn’t be difficult to find some petit/petite for your cellar…or enjoy a glass now with a hearty meal at your favorite restaurant.

Meet the Makers

There are a few winemakers in Washington State doing good things with Petit Verdot. We talked to two award winning winemakers of Petit Verdot to get the skinny on their vino.

Kyle Johnson

Winemaker
Olsen Estates
Seattle Wine Awards GOLD – 2007 Olsen Estates Petit Verdot, Meek Vineyards Olsen Estate Vineyards

As the winemaker, how would you describe your Petit Verdot?

On the aroma side…very earthy, dark fruit, blackberries and dark cherries, a little cassis, chocolate, and tobacco leaf. It’s round and full on the palate, ripe dark fruits, more earth, and ripe fine grained tannins.

What is it that made you decide on a 100% PV release?

Aside from being somewhat unique in Washington, this wine, for me, turned out to be a great hedonistic expression of Petit Verdot. We had to share it with everyone.

The 2007 is very relaxed, soft even, compared to some other PV efforts. Can you speak to the style that you’ve come up with for your 2007 release?

The 2007 was sourced from one block (Ranch #15 or “Olsen Hill”), one tank, fermented without commercial yeast or bacteria, lending itself to a longer cooler fermentation (about 28 days on the skins), preserving fruit character and taming the tannins that so many PV’s can exhibit.

What is the biggest challenge when working with PV (with respect to a 100% release).

There is a barrel selection process that weeds out a few outliers, but for the most part, about 95% of the wines make the final cut. Luckily, I have Leif (Olsen) bringing me the best fruit from Olsen vineyards, so my job is all that much easier.

Stylistic changes for the 2008 release?

I did play around with a few commercial yeast strains in 2008, and we have a new block coming in to production…stay tuned…

Larry Lindvig

Winemaker
Pleasant Hill Cellars
Seattle Wine Awards SILVER – 2006 Pleasant Hill Petit Verdot, Gilbert Vineyards

As a winemaker, how would you describe your Petit Verdot?

Our Petit Verdot is from the second warmest site in Washington State, the Wahluke Slope. This site, on decent years, gives enough heat units to get the darn grapes ripe. It is generally the last grape picked. Our Petit Verdot is big in every aspect, tannins, alcohol, color, and body. When first bottled, you almost gasp on your first drink. We like to say it will suck your brains out. But, on surprisingly little bottle age it mellows out with plums and dark fruit on the palate. It is not an elegant wine that strokes you; it is a Mike Tyson right hand smacking you in the mouth.

Since Petit Verdot is traditionally used for blending, what is the key to making a PV that is so drinkable on its own?

The location of the vineyard is the most important criteria for making a good Petit Verdot. You have to have the heat units.

For the 2006 release, your fruit was sourced from Gilbert Vineyards. How would you characterize the PV fruit from Wahluke Slope compared to that in other AVA’s?

We have sourced other vineyards for Petit Verdot and tasted Petit Verdot from some much respected wineries, and have found them to be lighter in color, tannins, alcohol and body. Again, you need a well managed vineyard in a very warm section of the state.

As a winemaker known for enthusiastic blending, what made you decide to release a straight Petit Verdot?

At Pleasant Hill, we try to stay ahead of the curve by making wines that are not on everyone’s radar, like Petit Verdot. Our first release was 2002 along with our Malbec. Now, everyone is making Malbec. We have traveled to many wine-making regions, both in the U.S. and abroad, checking their processes. At an experimental vineyard in Denmark, we tasted a Muscat grape that was from Siberia and could withstand 40 degrees below zero temperature. The wine was not good, but what the heck, it had alcohol.

What should consumers expect from future releases of Pleasant Hill’s Petit Verdot?

That is hard to say, but we are working on a blend for 2010 of Petit Verdot and Tannat. Now that should make a person shudder!

By Erin Thomas

Dean and Heather Neff

Heather and Dean Neff really are living the dream, as the signs up to their Chelan estate winery suggest. With the green and flourishing Defiance Estate Vineyard overlooking the rolling hills and glistening waters of Lake Chelan, the folks behind Nefarious Cellars are fully aware and grateful for the thriving luxury known as their life.

“We are just a chick, a couple of guys and a dog striving to blow your mind,” the Nefarious Cellars website states referring to Heather, Dean, and their children, George, 4, and Cooper, 9 months.

“The bonus to being the woman in the group is I do notice I tend to smell things a little better than Dean,” Heather said, “That’s my little asset.”

With a bag full of tricks and assets they bring to the blossoming Lake Chelan Valley AVA scene, the chick and the fathering guy have a longstanding history in the industry and as a couple.

The two met in 1996, both striving to crack into the soils of the wine business after attending Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon for enology and viticulture. They then decided to plant a test block vineyard on Dean’s property in Pateros, Washington. At the Rocky Mother Vineyard, named for its soils, Heather said they got a great sense of what they could grow in the Lake Chelan Valley.

The Neffs returned to Oregon, where Dean started working for a vineyard management company, then to study under the uncompromisingly gifted winemakers Isabelle Dutartre of De Ponte Cellars and later with Tony Soter at Soter Winery in Willamette Valley. Heather managed a small tasting room in Carlton, with the intentions of both retaining every aspect of the business but ultimately wanting to start a winery of their own, Heather said.
With the couple having equal parts of formal grape training, they said it was an obvious decision to split production by colors and ultimately give themselves a niche in the industry among giants.

Nefarious Cellars

“I’ve really come to love white winemaking,” Heather said, “I want them to be varietal and I always sort of want our wines to be sexy—subtle and clean and aromatic but not overpowering.”

Dean said he has dreams too. “Some day, I want to have a wine critic that finds my wine ‘spellbinding.’ I read that a long time ago, and that was the description they gave and I thought, ‘That is my goal.’”

While receiving flattering scores from Wine Spectator Magazine and frequent mentions from Paul Gregutt’s research on the AVA, the Neffs have stayed humble.

“I think we’re making wines that people keep coming back for,” Dean said, “If you ever become complacent and think you’re doing everything right then something’s wrong. We’re always trying to improve.”
Since the first vintage in 2004, the 2,000 case production winery has respectfully been half white and half red with a more affluent harvest each year. The Neffs said they are no longer nervous heading into the crush.

“I’m a lot more comfortable than I used to be,” Dean said, “I think I’m still learning and still trying to. Every year we’re experimenting, doing something slightly different. We’re never doing the same thing year after year.”

So why not stay in Oregon and produce Pinot Noir like they had trained to?

“We love the diversity of Washington and the ability to make anything that we want to,” Heather said, “We’re drawn to Rhone varietals and we really love Pinot, but we weren’t sure if that’s what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives.”

Defiance Vineyard

The Neffs said they believe their Washington Pinots would never have all the classic and distinct characteristics that Oregon Pinots are known for.

“The thing that’s crazy to me about [growing Pinot Noir in Washington] is I don’t understand the motivation when we’re totally adjacent to one of the greatest regions of wine in the world – Bordeaux,” Heather said, “Why mess around with it?”

Surrounded by increasingly concentrated fruit and terroir paralleling that of the Bordeaux region of France, Dean said his inspiration to make his own wine came from the elegance, finesse and forward fruit extraction of his two mentors, Dutartre and Soter.

“I think it was great to learn from both of them as they were two totally different styles,” Dean said, “but there are so many ways to take the grape and make great wine out of it, to focus on different styles, on the vintage and the techniques I’m using all depending on the fruit.”

Exploiting and using their local and handfed fruit as much as they possibly can, like any job, it all comes down to why you do it in the first place.

“We drank so many things while making Pinot, and there were so many producers that were doing amazing things,” Heather said, “For us, it’s the desire to create things that someone opens up and says they’ve never had anything like it—in a good way.”

Dean said what’s unique about Nefarious Cellars is visibly the location and the people, but also the cornerstone of it all. “It’s the fact that we’re keeping it really small, trying to focus on what’s important—the wine—and just putting all of our energy into that.”

Efeste winery winemaker Brennon Leighton

By Doug Haugen

Winemakers come in all shapes and sizes, demonstrating as many styles of personality as there are styles of wine. What they all have in common, of course, is the transubstantiation of ostensibly ordinary grapes into that Dionysian elixir called wine, but each winemaker has his or her own approach to making the wines they love.

Brennon Leighton, winemaker for Efeste, has been making his mark on the Washington wine world, practicing a noninterventionist winemaking philosophy with a religious zeal. His hallmark methods, while not necessarily original, are certainly more uncommon that one might expect.

“I actually know some of the science of this,” he said with a laugh after giving us a crash course in the various methods of filtering and fining; and while he can speak about these practices with erudition, he doesn’t filter or fine his wines. As you’ll see below, Brennon feels that while removing particles and compounds, these processes also strip away some of the raw, inherent personality that he loves in wine.

Likewise, he prefers not to use commercial yeasts, but rather to let the wine do its own thing. While many clones of yeast have been developed for commercial use to provide predictable results in the winemaking process, yeast can be found everywhere, and fermentation will occur without intervention, as everyone knows who has left orange juice in the refrigerator too long. In fact, when winemakers use commercial yeasts, they begin by killing off the native yeasts with compounds like sulfur dioxide (SO2) so that only their added yeast is working on the wine during the fermentation stage. Brennon believes that native yeast—what winemakers have begun to colloquially call “feral yeast”—produces a more authentic wine, truer to the fruit and the terroir.

Allowing wine to make itself seems like a pretty ballsy maneuver, especially when there’s such a large financial stake to consider, and it does indeed require a high level of expertise to pull it off. The road Brennon has traveled to get where he is today has been intense and deliberate.

Working in restaurants in his early twenties, he was turned on to wine by a general manager. He started dabbling in wine, buying the things he could afford, and it grew into a hobby. “I bought my first Riedel, just totally geeking out,” he said. Over the next several years, he considered going the way of the somme, but decided instead that he really wanted to make wine, so he applied for a position at Chateau Ste. Michelle, hoping to begin his career. He interviewed with the assistant winemaker Eric Olsen, who told him “Look, I can give you a job being a cellar monkey, but if you want to be a winemaker, you’ll never be a winemaker working in the cellar. You need to go to school.”

Brennon took the advice to heart, enrolled at U.C. Davis, moved to California, and had the time of his life immersing himself in wine. Surrounded by passionate wine people, he learned as much outside of classroom as he did inside, and even became the president of the Department of Enology and Viticulture Organization—a student organization referred to as DEVO.

After graduating and passing around his résumé, he got a call from Chateau Ste. Michelle for a job interview, and walking through the door, was surprised to see Eric Olsen, now head winemaker, across the desk. “I think he just felt like, ‘Wow, here’s this guy that took my advice and did it and I owe him,’ so he gave me the job,” Brennon said. He stayed at Ste. Michelle for five years, and has a huge level of respect for the winery. “I learned a lot,” he said, “I had a good experience; I enjoyed my stay there. I was just looking for something where I could spread my wings a little more.”

In the meantime, a new winery was formed in Woodinville called Efeste, a wordplay involving the last initials of the three founders: Daniel Ferrelli, Patrick Smith and Kevin Taylor. Originally contracting Chris Upchurch and Jay Soloff of DeLille Cellars to consult on the wines, Brennon was brought on as head winemaker at Upchurch’s behest.

Brennon is happy to be at Efeste where he can make the wines he loves. Likewise, the principals of Efeste couldn’t be happier with the decision. According to Kevin Taylor, “When we were considering hiring Brennon, we knew he was a very talented winemaker. One of the most exciting things that he brought to the table was his vast knowledge of fermentation using different commercial yeasts as well as native fermentation. This is one dimension of his winemaking style that helps make our wines of the quality we are looking for.” Patrick Smith went on, “There is nobody better at presenting our wines than Brennon. Even though I’ve seen it a hundred times, I am impressed every time he gives a tour or works a dinner. He has a way of describing our wines that is completely unpretentious. Brennon has an enthusiasm that holds everybody’s attention and, most importantly, makes them want to grab a glass.”

We spent some time with Brennon at his swank, state-of-the-art tasting room and facility in Woodinville. His enthusiasm for his wines rates up there with new parents showing off baby pictures to everyone they encounter, and while his banner-waving idealism is chock-full of excitement, thrill and love, it is built on a foundation of study, experimentation and research.

So, who is this Brennon Leighton really, and what makes his clock tick? We couldn’t explain it any better than the man himself, so here is Brennon Leighton on Brennon Leighton.

WINO: The unfiltered thing, is this a stance that you’ve had from the beginning, or is this something that you’ve fallen into?
Brennon: It’s a progression for me. Let me say this, I think that anyone can come into making wine and have these really idealistic ideas, and I think those are all fine, and every year I gain something new, learn something new and question myself, question why I’m doing certain things, but I think the reality is, I came to that unfiltered , unfined place from working at Chateau Ste. Michelle, and understanding what filtering and fining did to wine. Like knowing the taste of doing trials and tasting wines that were standards that were not filtered or fined against ones that were. I see what it takes out. Now, that’s not to say that filtering and fining is bad. I’ve never said that. I’ve never said that someone that filters and fines is a total idiot, because I don’t believe that at all. I think that that adds different dimensions to wine than not [doing it]. To me, when you don’t filter and fine, you get kind of an organic rawness to wine, and to me, one of the exciting things about wine is that rawness. Like the grittiness of Charles Bukowski. Is he great? I don’t know, but Charles Bukowski is pretty fucking interesting. That’s kind of where I am with wine. I want the wines that might be gritty and there might be a rawness to them, but there’s a realness to them. It’s not polished edges. Like the Sauvignon Blanc. People either hate it or love it. I’m looking for that. I want people to go, “Oh my god.” I don’t want just, “Oh, this is good.” That bothers me. I’m not looking for good. I’d rather be bad. I want to be something unique. And I think that wines are like people—that rawness—they’re living things, they should be interesting.

WINO: When you were brought on at Efeste, did you know you wanted to make these kinds of wine?
Brennon: Kind of. My favorite wines are French wines from Chataneuf du Pape, Cornasse, St. Josef, Hermitage, Burgundy and you know, those are my wines, and usually those wines are unfiltered, unfined and native fermentation. That’s what they are. They’re raw. I mean, that’s what’s exciting about them. Do they always make these little, pristine wines? No. They don’t. But I don’t care; I don’t like pristine wines. Pristine wines to me—when you make wines like that, you make wines more homogeneous. And I don’t want to make homogeneous wines. I want to make wines that are exciting, and push people to think differently about wine. And food. I also make wines for food. I don’t make wines for a cocktail party. I make wines because I think, “wouldn’t this be good with this?” and “isn’t this exciting?” That’s not to say that I don’t filter wines. If it needs it, it needs it. I’m not going to make a wine that’s going to be faulty either. I’m not stupid. But, this is what I’m trying to do, and sometimes I’m forced to do something else.

At this point, Brennon launched into a tutorial about the various methods of filtering, fining and fermenting wine, listing of the types of filters and how they’re used, the compounds used for fining and how they work, and the difference between native and commercial yeasts. It was clear that he could spend the rest of the afternoon explaining it all to us in scientific detail, but we decided to move on.

WINO: You sound like you went to Davis or something.

Brennon: I did. I actually know some of the science of this. Unlike some other winemakers… [Laughs]

WINO: Do you think more and more people are going to start doing things this way?

Brennon: I don’t think so.

WINO: Are you on the cutting edge, or are you a total renegade.

Brennon: I’d rather see myself as a renegade than the cutting edge. I love being a renegade or irreverent. I love the idea of being totally irreverent. But, I don’t know what it is—I mean, that’s for other people to say, isn’t it? Not for me.

WINO: I said it. [Laughs]

Brennon: [Laughs] You said it. I think the first thing is that it’s not as easy as people think it is to do what I’m doing, because there’s a lot of chances that you’re taking. I mean, it’s a risk-and-reward kind of thing, and there’s a lot of mistakes that can happen that if you’re not really aware or familiar with them, bad things can happen—and believe me, I’ve done that. I just did them on a scale of Ste. Michelle where I was able to bury wine and didn’t make a big deal of it; but in a small winery like this, if I make those mistakes, it can be huge, and so I know certain tricks of how not to go down a path where there’s no return. I have an understanding of the microbiology and the chemistry where I don’t make my risk too big, where I think that for winemakers that don’t have that understanding, it can be really risky. It can kill their whole business, so I wouldn’t say that it’s for everyone.

WINO: How do you sleep at night? Now that you’ve been rolling along for a while now and you’re doing well, how much stress do you have every vintage?

Brennon: Oh, tons. I think that it’s more so. You know, it’s funny, you ask about the stress at night during harvest—I remember when I was at Ste. Michelle, it would be like super high when I was doing these experiments, and now it might not be as high, but I have worse and bigger panic attacks. So, it’s like I might not be stressed for several days, and then there’s this moment when I’m like [gasp]! And then I run in here and yell at everyone. So, it’s a different kind of stress, but it’s huge.

You know, it’s funny. I think everyone wants to be a winemaker. I think it’s starting to come to the point where that’s not going to work so much anymore in Washington State, but it seems to me that everyone wants to be a winemaker. You know, it’s like the coolest thing since sliced bread to be a winemaker, and it’s like this kind of “rock star status” kind of bullshit, and I think it’s hilarious. I really do.

WINO: When do you think it’s going to top out? There’s over six hundred now, so…

Brennon: I don’t think it’s going to top out; I just think it’s going to become more professional. There’s always going to be those strange wineries that are doing something out of habitation—just like in California, that’ll never end—but you’re going to see far more professional wineries than just the Hogues and the Hedges and the Ste. Michelles. You’re going to see this sort of thing where people realize that it’s a difficult business, and it’s competitive, and we have to be outside of Seattle to make money, because Seattle is saturated with Washington wine. It’s just saturated. For a new winery to break into a restaurant in Seattle, it’s almost impossible, where ten years ago, not at all. People were hungry for it.

WINO: When you say there will be more professional wineries, do you mean more large production?

Brennon: No, I don’t mean large production. I just think it’s going to be less mom-and-pop and more people with money hiring professionals. Sort of like at Efeste where three owners go, “Look, we don’t know how to make wine, this isn’t for us, but we know how to hire the best people, and we’re going to be successful because we know how to put the best people around us.”

WINO: Do you consult on other wines?

Brennon: I’m not really into consulting so much. I would consult for my friends, but I don’t like that idea of going in and putting my name on something, but not having control over it. That just scares the shit out of me.

WINO: So, what does it really take to be a bona fide winemaker?

Brennon: First of all, it’s not a glamorous business. It sucks. I mean, getting up at six in the morning to do punch-downs, being dirty and wet all day long, and being tired, and then having to sell the shit—I mean everyone thinks it’s this romantic thing. Well, come over and I’ll let you help me clean a press, and you’ll see how romantic it is. It’s not. It’s hard work. It’s a tough job. And you have to love wine. Winemaking has less to do with filling barrels, and doing the press and cleaning; it has more to do with these conceptual ideas, but I think you have to gain that first. You have to taste a lot of wine. I don’t think the best winemakers come from U.C. Davis. I think the best winemakers come from people who have good palates, and then learn the science through that, because you don’t need that much science. I don’t think you need as much science as I have. I just think that you need to have some amount of science, because it’s a good foundation, but the real winemaking comes from the craft, the perspective on wine, having a perspective. Coming to winemaking with a perspective is what’s important, and understanding what that perspective is.

WINO: Are you in a nice groove now? Where do you see yourself down the road?

Brennon: Yeah, “groove” is the nice way to say it, not “rut.” I mean, they’re both something that has sort of been dug out. [Laughs] I think there are certain little things that I’d like to try, and you know, obviously I love to experiment and find different things. There are certain things I’d like to experiment with. I’d like to experiment with using the stems in Syrah and doing whole-cluster fermentation with Syrah. I think, to me, growing as a winemaker though, other than that—I mean that’s just really minimal. The big thing for me is growing with the vineyard. Where I see myself in twenty-five or thirty years is walking out to the vineyard and I have it totally friggin’ sealed off with tape and knowing that I picked these three rows at this time, that I have a total understanding of the vineyard, and just become one with the whole process. That, to me, is more exciting than what I can do with wine. I think that if you really understand me as a winemaker, I’m less about manipulation and more about becoming one with–or synonymous with—what mother nature is giving me. I mean, I want to express the fruit to the purest form that I possibly can, whether that’s good or bad. I mean, that’s more exciting to me than how I can put my mark on the world. So, what excites me is walking around here and tasting different Syrahs and going, “This is totally different than this, and this is so cool.” I blend it together in the Big Papa, and the Big Papa is probably the better wine in the sense of society, but it’s not the most exciting to me as a winemaker. The most exciting wine to me is all these little individual wines expressing themselves with their good, bad and ugly. Just like any human being, there isn’t a human being that doesn’t have a bad side. When you blend, you’re blending things together to eliminate something bad or expand on something good. That’s what blending is all about.

At this point, Brennon started letting us taste from barrels of the “little individual wines” that he was talking about, each from a different vineyard. We started with a “full-blown” buttery Chardonnay that he was overseeing for another winery before moving on to Cabernet Sauvignons and a few Syrahs.

Brennon: Here’s the whole thing—when did we become such snobs that we couldn’t like California Chardonnay? You know what, I’ve never been a California Chardonnay fan, but I’ve never been someone to say to someone, “You’re an idiot, you don’t know anything about wine.” Are you kidding me? Why would you say that to someone? If they like California Chard, they like California Chard. Good for them. That’s why they make it. Good for them. I mean, I just want them to like wine. I mean, I just get so upset with that snob stuff. That’s just over the top.

People progress in and out of things all the time. Like, right now, I’m not drinking a lot of reds. I just haven’t been into them. I’m just really enjoying whites. Four years ago, you’d never catch me drinking whites. I was always drinking reds, and I was always drinking Syrah and Mourveds, and I was such a fucking Southern Rhone snob—you know Grenache—and now I’m like, “I just want some Sauv Blanc from Loire. That $12.99 bottle is really good, I’ll have that.” Sometimes I think that we forget that wine is just supposed to be pleasurable. I don’t think it needs to be that way. I think you can go out and have a twelve-dollar bottle of over-oaked chard, and enjoy it, and that’s okay. You can love a wine for what it is. Sometimes I think it gets so bad that we get so caught up in this wine thing that we start liking wines that aren’t even that good. Like, “It got a ninety-eight, it’s so good,” and you go to taste it and you’re like, “No, not for me, this is not good.”

Brennon let us try the same Cabernet from two identical barrels. One was fermented with native yeast, and the other with commercial yeast.

WINO: There’s no comparison.

Brennon: I know! It’s softer, it’s more complex. It has kind of this richer warmer character to it. Yeah!

WINO: So, what’s the next big thing in Washington?

Brennon: Here’s the thing about the “next big thing.” Is it really ever the next big thing? No. Cab is king. Chardonnay is queen. That’s the reality. We have five million people in the State of Washington. There’s 300 million in the country. We’re less than, what, one percent of the population of America? So, our perspective, even though it sometimes works, is so skewed. People are just starting to discover Washington wines. So, are we known for anything? No, we’re not. And so, we can create these marketing ideas, but I still think the perspective is skewed. Washington as a whole, I don’t think has discovered itself, which is great and bad at the same time. You know the thing about Washington State is that it’s still a really young industry; it’s really exciting. If you ask me what I think is going to come out of it all? I think it’s going to be Syrah. It’s such a good varietal here. I think that Syrah is phenomenal. To me, it’s the best here.

You know, the thing I’m liking about Washington wines is that there are some winemakers that are starting to scale it back a little bit. It seemed like there was this period where all these winemakers were trying to make the biggest most huge wine they could possibly make, and I’m starting to see some wines that are just more subtle and elegant. You know, I think the older I get, the more I just want to drink wine to drink wine. You know, I don’t have to be like hit over the head with a two-by-four to enjoy a wine. So there’s some other wines where I’m like, “Wow, I can drink this.”

WINO: So, are you making the wines you like to drink?
Brennon: I believe passionately in what I’m doing, I totally think what I’m doing is the right thing to do—it makes the best wines. Now, if the rest of the world or someone else doesn’t think that, I understand that. I’m not so myopic in my belief that I think someone will always appreciate what I’m doing. But, I truly believe that I’m making the best wines. And, I certainly do like the people that believe it as well as I do more than the people I don’t, but you can’t like everyone [Laughs], and not everyone is going to like me—it goes both ways. I mean, I hope that what I’m doing is right. I think what I’m doing is right.

by AJ Rathbun

On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment was ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment, which had banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol used for drinking. The Nobel Experiment, or Prohibition (or just a really bad idea) ended on that beautiful day. Except in Washington State.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t just here. There were, and are, other states practicing various forms of prohibition, due to the 21st Amendment’s setting regulation control at the state level. While these prohibitive measures haven’t recently held the heels of the wine industry, they have kept spirits distilleries from becoming established. But on April 10, 2007, Dry Fly announced their intention to be Washington State’s first grain distillery since Prohibition. The Dry Fly folks imported a German still, partook in some serious study, and have since released gin and vodka and will soon release a whiskey. They did run into a snag early on though; due to the existing regulation, they weren’t allowed to sell their products on the premises or to give visitors samples. For most new to a small batch spirit (or wine), the ability to sample product while hearing about it from the creators is a delicious experience.

Dry Fly agreed with that spirited sentiment, and so they worked with their local Senator to introduce and back a new “craft-distillery” bill, which went into law on March 20, 2008. Since then, distilleries under this new designation can serve four 1/2-ounce samples and sell up to two liters of spirits a day to a single customer, much like a Washington winery. To fall under the craft-distiller label, a distillery can produce no more than 20,000 gallons of spirits a year, pays less licensing, and—this is key—half their raw materials must be grown in the state.

This new law was ideal for Dennis Robertson of Soft Tail spirits, the first craft distiller in Western Washington. His distilling desire started when he went to Italy looking for stone for his construction company. There, he was enchanted by the lovely little Italian grapperias, where one samples and buys local grappas. Made from grape skins left over in the wine-making process, for the uninitiated grappa can be daunting, as it has a bit of a harsh reputation. The first time I tried it, for example, I remember thinking it tasted like a near relative of gasoline. Being somewhat of an Italianophile, I tried it again the next time there, at a restaurant in Florence that had a five-page grappa menu. This was a better example of grappa: bold and with flavor in abundance.

When Dennis returned from Italy, he decided he wanted to set up a grapperia here—realizing that living within a wine-rich state made it a natural match. Dennis, like most of the distillers I’ve met, is driven not only to have a product, but to have a top notch product. With this in mind, he brought in a European grappa master as well as a family recipe from his co-owner and partnered with the DiStefano Winery next door to use their testing facility (called the Enolab) to ensure consistent quality and control. The attention to detail and artistry slides even into bottling, as the grappas are housed in tall, slender vessels adorned with luscious labels.

Soft Tail currently has three grappa varieties: Blanco, Gialo, and Reserve (or, white, yellow, and, well, reserve). All three are made from Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet grape pomace, with the Blanco, at 84 proof, delightfully mild around the edges and carrying a smidge of sweetness. The Giallo, also 84 proof, is stored in French oak for six months where it develops a signature yellow coloring and an almost whiskey smokiness, while the Reserve is bottled at 100 proof and contains a force of character that’s stronger and richer and more lingering on the tongue. Dennis plans to distill a vodka made from 51% Washington wheat, and a corn whiskey which will also be stored in oak. Because of those craft distillery laws, you can stop by Soft Tail’s tasting room to sample and purchase the grappas, but they aren’t yet available in local liquor stores. Dennis is going to present to the Washington State Liquor Board in August, though, so keep your glasses crossed.

On the other side of the current Washington-craft-and-not-distillery cork—but driven by the same heady and inspiring passion for delivering a delicious product—is Marc Bernhard from Pacific Distillery, the second licensed Washington distillery. His story traces back to when he was a boy and his father gave him a sip of a gin and tonic, un-tapping his partiality for gin. This mixes with a later fascination with a spirit once thought of as being from the wrong side of the tracks: absinthe. Marc had heard about absinthe, and researched it, but two things happened that turned interest into a more ardent pursuit. Absinthe became legal again in the United States (finally), and he tasted a 100-year old absinthe and found that most people’s absinthe love wasn’t driven by a desire to discover madness, but because absinthe, when made right, tastes divine.

Pacific Distillery’s Absinthe Pacifique, first distilled in late 2008, follows an 1855 French recipe that Marc tracked down and uses solely organically-grown botanicals (which flavor the absinthe), including two types of wormwood, Grande and Roman, grown in his own herb garden, which allows him to control the growth process, as the wormwood needs to get to a flowering state. Many modern absinthes utilize flavoring oils, and not actual herbs and pants, leading to a lesser absinthe—if it can be called absinthe at all.

Aiming for a true traditional Belle Époque style of absinthe demands not only attention to craft and specificity, but incredible attention to ingredients, which is why, though Marc grows what he can, he has to get fennel flown in from Florence, Italy, and has had to explore worldwide for other crucial products. In the same way, Pacific’s Voyager gin utilizes juniper berries from Eastern Europe, which deliver the smoothest and richest juniper flavor and aroma. Following along the absinthe’s strict commitment, Voyager gin is made in the same style as archetypal gins of 100 years ago (it took twenty-four test batches and a panel of spirit experts before discovering the delicate balance of juniper, florals, spice, and umph that it delivers today). It also uses completely organic botanicals.

The far-reaching ingredients lists have Pacific falling outside the “craft-distillery” designation, so you can’t stop by and taste or buy a bottle straight from the distillery or listen to Mark preach the organic-spirits mantras. You can buy it in Washington liquor stores, and many local bars are stocking and shaking up both products. That’s wonderful for us drinkers, because the gin works well both when mixed into drinks and also served solo, and the absinthe lingers in a lovely way when consumed in the classic manner (which isn’t lighting it on fire—please, please, unless you like destroying your drinks, don’t light it on fire, for me) at four or five to one, water to absinthe, dripping the water through a sugar cube first if sweetness makes your afternoon hum.

Though one carries a “craft-distillery” label and one doesn’t, both of these new Washington State distilleries share a dedicated enthusiasm for creating quality spirits made in a classic style, producing intriguing imbibables that we, as drinkers of all shapes and sizes, are lucky to have access to. While the current laws still echo prohibition, at least the spirit distillery doors are opening. So get out there and start sipping.

Try these wine cocktail recipes at home

Monkey Gland

Seemingly the final ingredient used by a witch doctor when making a potion to finally turn Tarzan into a full-fledged gorilla, or a black market commodity renowned for its ability to turn a lunkhead into a lothario, or the latest reduction aid for the haute-est of haute-cuisine sauces, the Monkey Gland is, instead, a first rate thirst-quencher.

Ice cubes
1-1/2 ounces Voyager gin
1 ounce freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 ounce Absinthe Pacifique
1/4 ounce grenadine

1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add the gin, orange juice, absinthe, and grenadine. Shake well.

2. Strain into a cocktail glass. When drinking, remember that zero monkeys were harmed during the making of this drink.

Recipe from Good Spirits: Recipes, Revelations, Refreshments, and Romance, Shaken and Served with a Twist by A.J. Rathbun, Harvard Common Press, 2007.

Basil Grappa

Most won’t jump right into the idea of infusing grappa, because most, or at least many, are a tad scared of the grappa. If you haven’t come around yet to enjoying grappa straight, this basil grappa may be right up your after-dinner drink alley, as it softens and familiarizes the drink.

Makes about 1-3/4 pints

1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 cups grappa
1/2 cup simple syrup

1. Put the basil and lemon juice in a glass container with a tight-fitting lid. Using a muddler or wooden spoon muddle the basil leaves and the lemon juice.

2. Add the grappa, stir, and seal. Place the container in a cool dry place, away from the sun-light. Let sit for 1 week, swirling occasionally.

3. Add the simple syrup, stir, and reseal. Return to its spot. Let sit for 2 more weeks, swirling occasionally.

4. Strain the liqueur through a double layer of cheesecloth into a pitcher or other easy-pouring vessel. Strain again through 2 new layers of cheesecloth into 1 large bottle or a number of small bottles or jars.

A Serving Suggestion: Serve Basil Grappa chilled or at room temperature in small glasses; it’s especially good for alleviating that over-full feeling when you’ve had a couple bites too many.

Recipe from Luscious Liqueurs: 50 Recipes for Sublime and Spirited Infusions to Sip and Savor by A.J. Rathbun, Harvard Common Press, 2008.

By Doug Haugen

Your average dictionary, for better or worse, tends to give the most concise denotation of a term, and perhaps nowhere, depending on your interests, is that more inadequate than when defining a sommelier. Many people flail around just trying to pronounce the word (for the record, it’s sum-ul-yay), let alone actually knowing what a somme really is. Even when pulling out the Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary (you know, the big bug-squisher), you read that a sommelier is “a waiter, as in a club or restaurant, who is in charge of wines.” This is true, in a way—a sommelier is someone who may approach your table to discuss the wine list—but what this fails to capture is the sheer scope of what a sommelier is.

To be a sommelier requires intensive education, disciplined self-study, and a significant financial investment. There are two organizations that certify sommes, the International Sommeliers Guild and the Court of Master Sommeliers, and while their approach is different, in both cases, the process is grueling, the required skills are exacting, and candidates must have the passion and the fortitude to fulfill mind-boggling expectations.

It’s not uncommon for a somme to hear a customer say something like, “Wow, you have the best job in the world—you get to drink wine all day!” The somme would probably agree wholeheartedly, but not for the reasons the customer is thinking. For a somme, drinking wine all day involves sipping wine and spitting it back out, pouring half-full glasses into the spittoon and moving on, evaluating each wine on as many as twenty different factors, classifying and reclassifying it according to style, region, varietal and more, and adding the wine to his or her broadening knowledge base. For them, tasting wine is more than casual enjoyment; it’s academic, systematic and disciplined. And why? Much of it is for their passionate love of the subject, but more than that, it’s so they can help you, the consumer, find a single glass or bottle of wine that you will enjoy on a single visit to their place of employment. When you talk to a sommelier in a restaurant, you’re not merely getting advice from a “waiter who is in charge of wines,” but rather, you’re tapping into thousands of hours of draconian education.

The dedication of the sommelier is well-demonstrated in a loosely formed alliance of young wine professionals, calling themselves the NeoSommes of Seattle (NSS). This gang includes sommes and wine program directors at various stages in their education and certification, but all with one thing in common—the drive to continue to hone their skills and expand their knowledge of wine.

The informal club began this year when the would-be members realized that they were participating in the same tasting groups, attending the same trade tastings and pursuing the same goals, and all at a relatively young age.

Tasting groups are less like cocktail parties, and more like boot camp for the palate. Though they occur in places of business, the groups meet on their own time and on their own dime. Each member of a tasting group buys and brings a bottle of wine found on the Court of Master Sommeliers’ official list of classic wines. They then blind-taste them, and have four minutes to verbally analyze the wine according to the categories on the Court’s exam, identifying the varietal, the specific corner of the world where it’s from, etc. simply by taste and smell. “I don’t think that a lot of people, unless you’re in the game itself, can appreciate the fact of getting up at nine, buying a bottle of thirty-dollar wine, sipping it , spitting it out, and then going back to studying or going to work,” Cole Sisson said, “It’s a lot of work. You drink six wines in the morning, make a lot of note cards, it costs a lot of money, and it takes a lot of time. It’s a horrible place to go at ten in the morning; two and a half hours later, I emerge exhausted, but I know my palate’s getting better.” Buying a good bottle of wine that will end up in a spit bucket before noon and before heading off for a full day of work—you get a sense of their commitment to learning over the rosy-cheeked high jinx that many of us associate with the vino. For some, these tasting groups are a good way to train for the next level of certification; for others, it’s simply a way to further develop their expertise to aid them in their current job pouring wine for people dining out.

Outside of these tasting groups, they also began to run into each other at exclusive, high-level trade tastings (wineries and distributors sometimes hold events to let sommes and wine directors taste their wines in hopes that they will sell them in their restaurants), and got excited that while being relatively young and new to the industry, they were tasting wine alongside others whom many would consider “the greats” among sommes—wine professionals have their own kind of local celebrities.

These young wine professionals naturally began to band together, informing each other of tastings and events, trading industry news and articles that they’d read, sharing opinions of wines and trends, and more. With so much going on among the group, Yashar Shayan decided to help everyone get a little more organized by creating a Google Group through which they could all share information more easily. Staying up all night to think of a cool name for the group, he came up with “NeoSommes of Seattle,” not to suggest that they were altogether new kinds of sommelier, but more so to reflect their comparatively young age in the industry and their unique collaboration in their growth as sommes. They have a very high respect for the “old guard” from whom the baton is gradually being passed; they are honored to be counted among them as fellow wine professionals; and they are hungry for the knowledge that can be gained from them, but these are the guys and gals that are helping to usher in the next generation of wine consumers. “This whole NeoSomme thing, it wasn’t something that I think any of us created. I gave it a label and started a Google Group, but I think, actually, it was an organic process. It made itself,” Shayan said, “As the future generation of sommeliers… we should really band together and help each other out,” just like those have that have gone before, though taking advantage of new technological tools that weren’t available to previous generations.

Because they are still relatively in their infancy, they don’t have wineries knocking down their doors to show them wines, and they have to take matters into their own hands. To do this, the NeoSommes organize their own tasting events, enticing producers to pour their juice for a bunch of up-and-comers at the same time—those that will be opening their bottles for diners for decades to come. One such event was a recent tasting held at Wild Ginger, where they gathered at eleven o’clock in the morning to sample selections from the Majestic Fine Wines portfolio out of both the breathable and classic stemware by Eisch Glaskultur. Another was a Woodinville day tour in a rented van that included stops at JM Cellars, DeLille Winery, Pacific Distillery, Soft Tail Spirits, and Efeste. With a full day of rigidly scheduled appointments, the NeoSommes went from place to place, spitting into spittoons and plastic cups and asking a lot of questions to further educate themselves, many of them heading off to work afterward, stone-sober.

At their current trajectory, this motley crew of wine professionals is bound to make an increasingly large splash in the Washington wine industry, bringing their various talents and interests to the wine community, as you will read below. As they continue to dutifully expand their already impressive wine knowledge, become even more ubiquitous in the Seattle wine scene, and spread the love to wine consumers around the state and beyond, the result will be the continued growth of wine’s popularity, and even more assurance that your wine experience will be a great one.

Yashar Shayan
Age: 25
Employer: Seastar Restaurant & Raw Bar
Belt: Court of Masters Sommelier, Level 1; Wine & Spirit Education Trust, Level 3 Advanced

When he was twenty-one and in college, Yashar Shayan had some friends that introduced him to the world of wine. He made it a point to ask questions when he’d go to the store to buy, and one day, everything clicked. A wine steward recommended a “white burgundy.” Yashar had heard that white burgundies were really good, but was a little mystified when the steward told him that this one was 100% Chardonnay. Which was it, a white burgundy or a Chardonnay? He went home and looked it up—discovering, of course, that Chardonnay is a white burgundy—and became instantly fascinated. “Even aside from drinking wine, it was so fun to learn about it from the comfort of your own couch or computer chair. It’s science, art, culture, language—that’s all wrapped up in a single bottle,” he said, and he thought that was profound.

Yashar quickly started working wine jobs while putting himself through college and after, ranging from a tour guide and marketing assistant for Washington Wine tours, a wine shop, an internship at Matthews Cellars, pouring wine at Waters Restaurant for a short time followed by a longer stint at Bin Vivant, interning at Washington Wine Commission, and others. Now, he works at Seastar Restaurant, giving diners the full wine experience.

As a sommelier, Yashar says, “I think we’re there to guide and help and answer questions, to recommend—like obviously a lot of people ask for food and wine pairings. Not everybody is a wine expert, not everyone needs to be a wine expert, and I wouldn’t expect everyone to be a wine expert like I wouldn’t expect everyone to be a mechanic, but when a person comes and has an idea of ‘Hey I like a wine with characteristics XYZ,’ I think a somme can discern, in my mind, here’s a list of wines that I think this person would like based on the things they told me they liked in the past and the characteristics they told me they like in a wine, and so based on that, something we can do that’s special is hopefully turn that person on to a new wine…and broaden that
person’s horizons.”

Cole Sisson
Age: 28
Employer: Tilth Restaurant, Seastar Restaurant & Raw Bar
Belt: Court of Master Sommeliers, Certified Sommelier (Level 2)

While going to college at the University of Washington, Cole Sisson began working for a catering company. He decided to learn more about wine in order to make better tips, and he found a mentor there that started having him try a lot of different wines. Later jobs solidified his newfound love, and convinced him that there was a career to be had in wine. Cole got excited, and started reading voraciously about the wine world.

After backpacking around the world for six months at a time, Cole came to Seattle, where he began working at Tilth as a server, and later took an additional job at Seastar as a floor somme.

Though he has learned much, Cole’s hunger for more wine knowledge has never waned. “I’m still at a point where I’m still trying to come to terms with what I know and how to convey it, and how to explain things, too,” he said, “I mean, sometimes I think we forget that we’re still pretty young. You know, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s fun because as you delve deeper, and as you become more comfortable, as you learn from watching other people, you realize how far you can go, and how much more there is to keep improving on.” Cole continues to research like a madman, reading up to 150 blogs a day, and shares informational gems that he discovers with the rest of the NeoSommes.

The future is wide open for Cole. He’s planning to start an internship at Betz Winery soon to see what it’s like making wine, but he’s open to other career paths, too. True to the path of his life so far, experience is everything, and the future will unfold accordingly. Working for Tilth and two locations of Seastar, while still attending tasting groups, reading books and researching online, Cole’s entire life is currently immersed in wine. Fortunately, he has an understanding girlfriend whom he says he could not do all this without.

Adam Chumas
Age: 27
Employer: Tilth Restaurant, General Manager
Belt: Court of Master Sommeliers, Certified Sommelier (Level 2)

Adam has always had a “thing for dining,” even drawing pictures of restaurants in his grandmother’s living room as a kid, saying, “This is going to be my restaurant.” He worked as a prep cook during summer vacations in New Hampshire where he grew up, and was introduced to the wine program, which opened his eyes and launched his passion for wine. “I think my passion for dining and the restaurant industry and food as a whole really nurtured the wine aspect of it, and I like studying about it. It’s history, it’s geography, the whole theory of wine is a huge realm that’s not just grape juice. My mind has always been wrapped around that kind of stuff.”

Adam moved to Seattle “on a whim and a prayer,” and got a job as a server in Fremont, and was soon offered a management job. He had managed restaurants on the East Coast, and that was his desired career path, so he took the position where he managed the wine program directly while managing the restaurant. Later, the opportunity to manage Tilth arose, and he snatched it up. There, he wears a lot of hats: General Manager, Wine Buyer, Floor Somme, Janitor, etc. With his intense love of food, Adam’s love for wine lies in its ability to complete the dining experience.

One of the things Adam loves about being a part of the NeoSommes clique is always having someone at the ready to geek out with about wine. “Bottom line is that I’m a total nerd… I have a solid network of wine geeks that I can hang out with. Someone I can call and say ‘I just had a bottle of ’04 Cortan!’ and they’re like, ‘Dude, was it good?’ and I’m like ‘Yeah, it was really good!’ Unlike my girlfriend, where I’m like, ‘Do you get this, do you get this’ and she’s like, ‘Leave me alone!’” The NeoSommes group represents offers the conviviality that he loves about the wine world as a whole.

Cheri Walters
Age: 31
Employer: Tilth Restaurant
Belt: International Sommeliers Guild, Sommelier Diploma Program

After a long history in art and theater (not to mention journalism), Cheri was introduced to the marvels of wine while working at Teatro ZinZanni, a dinner theater mixing the circus with cabaret. The wine director there would hold weekly wine classes for the staff, and the enthusiasm was contagious. Cheri had that eureka moment, and enrolled in classes through the International Sommelier Guild, where she has just completed the diploma program.

Being a part of the NeoSommes has been instrumental in her continuing education. She loves being around a core group of people who are all trying to expand their knowledge of wine, and who share an excitement for what that means.

Her passion for wine has only grown. Seeking a change in atmosphere, she recently began working the floor at Tilth Restaurant. She has launched a wine blog (www.cheriwalters.com), and hopes to write an e-book on the subject at some point. Her love of theater and journalism translates into her love of wine. She says, “I always thought that putting things in front of people as far as a story and different things that are told helps to open minds or to change somehow. You come into the theater, you come into that experience, and you leave having a different understanding of who you are and the world around you. Wine is that for me, as well, helping people to open their minds a little bit more and try new things and see more of the world around them; because I think that through wine, you really get a connection to the culture, and the people who made that wine, and to the earth and the fruit. It’s really cool to be able to show that to people.”

Cortney Lease
Age: 26
Employer: Cellar Master, Wild Ginger and Triple Door
Belt: Court of Masters Sommelier, Certified Sommelier (Level 2); Wine & Spirit Education Trust, Level 3 Advanced

Getting into wine was a “stumbling process” for Cortney. Originally studying acupuncture in college, when Georg W. Bush was elected a second time, she decided to head over to England for a while. On a temporary work visa, she got a job in a wine shop and becoming a wine advisor. They supported her going through the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, and she got her advanced certificate there. When she came back to Seattle, she returned to Wild Ginger where she had worked in college. They created the Cellar Master position, and she was given the job. As a Cellarmaster at Wild Ginger, she manages a wine list of 400 to 500 selections, and a cellar list of 2,400 selections of higher-end, rare and valuable wines. Since she came aboard, Wild Ginger has been consistently recognized with prestigious awards for their wine program.

Being part of the NeoSommes, Cortney is able to stay connected with the industry outside of her own restaurant. “It’s a great way to feel out the pulse of the city, talking to so many different individuals from all over Seattle, and it’s nice to see other people who are as passionate as I am about wine. And, it’s a proactive group which is also really cool.”

Down the road, Cortney ultimately wants to make wine, probably in Washington State to support Washington’s exposure. “You have a bunch of really cool, open-hearted people making wine, just trying to communicate and connect with ideas. It’s really exciting to be a part of that. They’re not rigid or strict in what they expect, they’re a lot more creative—they have room to be creative. So, it’s kind of exciting to be
working in that kind of environment.”

David Bender
Age: 29
Employer: Bastille Restaurant, D-List Magazine
Belt: Court of Master Sommeliers, Certified Sommelier (Level 2)

David has worked in restaurants all of his life, and went to school for a Hospitality Management degree. He set himself up for running a restaurant, but after discovering wine, food alone wasn’t enough. He began to take Court of Master Sommeliers introductory classes at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Florida, and his eyes were opened to the differences in wine, and he got excited. “It really changed my life, and took me from that point on in a direction of the wine world.” He later moved to Spokane, Washington, and knew he wanted to work in wine, so he took on as many wine-related jobs he could find, surrounding himself in wine.

After moving to Seattle, David started actively networking around the Seattle wine scene, and he met Cortney Lease, who invited him to the tasting group at Tilth. He bought a bottle, showed up, and instantly found a group of friends who shared his passion for wine—those that would later organize as the NeoSommes.

“Once I realized I wanted to take the wine world path, whatever it is, I try to get involved, because I know that if you immerse yourself in whatever you’re interested in, opportunity will come of it. “Where do I see myself going? I know that I love wine. I know that I want to be involved with it for the rest of my life. I don’t know where it’s going to take me, but I’m going to take a look at every opportunity that comes my way, and perhaps hop on every one of them if I can, just because it’s what I love doing.” For now, that means talking up the wine list to customers at Bastille, writing about wine for D-List Magazine, and remaining actively involved with the NeoSommes of Seattle.

Erik Segelbaum
Age: 28
Employer: Daniel’s Broiler on Lake Union
Belt: Court of Master Sommeliers, Certified Sommelier (Level 2); Society of Wine Educators, Certified Specialist of Wine

Erik’s history has been in restaurants since he was thirteen years old. After developing his culinary skills, he eventually took front-of-house job where he had to know about wine; he got hooked and continued his education. He got into wine programs almost by accident. He had just passed the introductory sommelier exam when the hotel and restaurant where he worked lost both the head sommelier and wine director within three weeks, and he inherited it. To make things work, he overhauled the whole department.

Now, as a sommelier at Daniel’s Broiler on Lake Union (the only Certified Somme in the Schwartz Brothers Restaurant Group), he manages a wine list of 1,100 selections, and is winning awards left and right, most recently the Best of Award of Excellence from Wine spectator for the fourth year in a row.

Being a sommelier is an act of matchmaking. He could and would wholeheartedly recommend any of the 1,100 selections on his list, so to find just the right bottle for a customer, he has developed a short list of questions that can narrow things down quickly. Do you want a Northwest Wine, or another particular part of the world? Red, white or sparkling? Full bodied, medium or lighter? More fruit flavors or earthy flavors? Red fruit or dark fruit? Spicy, and if so, how much? Is there a specific varietal you’re looking for? This narrows things down to ten or twenty bottles. Lastly, the desired price range will bring it home. He tries to recommend less what he currently likes and more what the customer may enjoy.

As an active member of the NeoSommes group, he has access to a wealth of knowledge to complement his own. “We all learn and study differently, and we all have different exposure, so the areas where I am weak, there are others in the group that are strong. And, vice versa, I hope that the area where I might have more experience than others, I can share that.”

Merri Jo Majovski
Age: 31
Employer: Impromptu Wine Bar Café
Belt: Court of Masters Sommelier, Level 1

After graduating from college with a degree in Biology, Merri Jo moved to Florida to try something different. Applying for lab jobs, she realized that the environment wasn’t as warm and friendly as the restaurant industry she had always known. She decided to move to Seattle, and once here, was overwhelmed by the wine scene. She got a job at Palisade Restaurant, whose wine director was passionate and erudite about Washington wine, inspiring her to learn more. She began to self-study, and her dad began sending her all the books on her ever-growing reading list.

She went to Aspen to study wine in the Court of Master Sommeliers introductory course. After passing the test, she received a letter in the mail from Paul Roberts, the beverage director for all Thomas Keller restaurants, congratulating her and inviting her to apply for an externship at French Laundry in Napa. Several months later, she was awarded the position. Being completely immersed in wine among others who were just as passionate was a life changing experience. “It made me a better person,” she said, “It really changed who I was.”

After completing the externship, she came back in Seattle and took a job as Manager and Wine Buyer at Impromptu Wine Bar Café in Madison Park, which she says is perhaps the smallest restaurant in the city. Still, she has eighteen wines available by the glass and a bottle list of about eighty selections and would like to grow that to over a hundred.

Being a part of the NeoSommes offers a similar experience to French Laundry, being surrounded by enthusiastic wine professionals. “I think one of the secrets to success is surrounding yourself with successful people,” she said, “It’s especially important to me, because in my current situation, I don’t have a mentor. That is one of the things that’s missing, so being a part of this group really helps.”

Down the road, she’d like to learn the Italian language, and perhaps find a career as a wine director in a great restaurant with a million-dollar cellar, or head into the import side of things, traveling the globe visiting wineries.

Jennifer Schmitt
Age: 27
Employer: Seastar Restaurant & Raw Bar
Belt: Court of Master Sommeliers, Certified Sommelier (Level 2)

Attending Eastern Washington University, Jennifer met a guy in one of her classes that worked in the tasting room at Arbor Crest Wine Cellars. She applied for a summer job and was hired; and while there, she blossomed from having an interest in wine to having a love of wine.

After graduating with a Communications degree and looking for jobs, she came across a job posting for a sommelier position, and it seemed to fit everything she loved: public relations, marketing and the restaurant industry that she was used to. To pursue a wine education, she made the move to Seattle where there was more opportunity. She landed a job at Wild Ginger, where the people she worked with were really helpful in guiding her into the next steps. She took the Court of Master Sommeliers introductory course, and at the same time, took the introductory courses through the International Sommeliers Guild. Later, she was certified with the Court, and this year, she made the move to Seastar, where she’s the Assistant Sommelier.

Jennifer is a member of several tasting groups including the one at Wild Ginger, and also one at Canlis where some of Seattle’s most renowned sommeliers gather to taste. For her, tasting groups are a matter of personal growth. “I’m not the type of person to learn just by reading a book. I could read a book three times and I might pick up something new each time, but every time I go to a group, I learn something new about a wine, or something I pick up, or the conversation starts sparking. It’s feeding off of each other.”

For Jennifer, being a NeoSomme provides an opportunity to reach out. “I think that the somme world is kind of obscure, and for people outside the wine world, it can be a little intimidating,” she said, “So, it’s great having a platform where people can kind of see what it is that we actually do, that we’re just a bunch of wine dorks that are getting together, hanging out and doing different events—to see that we’re just people, and we just happen to geek out on wine.” She went on, “We’re a group of friends, and we’re trying to better ourselves, better the somme community and to just kind of show that wine is approachable—that it’s fun. Mostly, it’s a bunch of friends trying to help each other.”

Also in the print edition, Cortney Lease is reported to hold a Level 1.5 through the Court of Master Sommeliers. The Court now calls this Level 2.

Lastly, Yashar Shayan’s time at Waters Restaurant marked his entry into the restaurant industry, but it was a brief stay. He really cut his teeth at Bin Vivant, which wasn’t mentioned due to space constraints and his very long list of participation in the wine industry.

All of these errors and edits have been corrected in this online version of the article.

By Doug Haugen

When I first saw, online, a bottle of “Communion” by a winery called Thirsty Pagans, I thought that this must be one more clever marketing trick to sell cheap wine to thirsty college kids on a lite-beer budget like so many that are starting to don the shelves at local supermarkets and corner stores. But, trick or no, I was intrigued by the irreligious nature of the winery’s name, and clicked my way over to their website.

With a flashy label featuring three monks and a wench drinking together, I was surprised to learn that “Communion” is not a jug wine, mass produced and sold for under ten bucks. It is, in fact, a limited production red blend hailing from the Alder Ridge Vineyards in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA, and retails at a $26 price point. Not only that, but it’s made by Rob Chowanietz, the Washington State winemaker for Corus Estates & Vineyards, whose Cabernet Sauvignon from their Alder Ridge Winery label won a Double Gold at this year’s Seattle Wine Awards. Why would an accomplished, award-winning winemaker launch another project in an industry where risqué often equates to risky?

To find out, I sat down with Rob Chowanietz (Chief of Fermentation) and his wife Jeanie Inglis-Chowanietz (Sales & Marketing Wench), who along with Crandall Kyle (Chief Bean Counter), went balls-out into uncharted territory.

The name “Thirsty Pagans” reflects on the personalities of all three partners, according to Rob. While Jeanie grew up Episcopalian, where wine was used in communion every Sunday, Rob and Crandall grew up in strict, teetotal religions, but upon reaching adulthood, found the joy in the juice. When Rob was twenty-one, he and Crandall began working at a country club, and after the frequent wedding receptions, they’d sit out on the patio finishing off the half-empty bottles of Leonetti, Dunham, L’Ecole and “all the usual suspects,” jumpstarting his interest in wine, and foreshadowing his career in it. In 1996, he became a cellar rat for Canoe Ridge in Walla Walla, later became assistant winemaker for Woodward Canyon, and in 2004, became Washington winemaker for Corus Estates.

I asked Rob and Jeanie why they would go for a flashy, gimmicky name and label when they’re clearly not following conventional wisdom about such things. Jeanie jumped at the question with, “Who says we have to follow the rules?” Rob agreed, “It is against what you would do, yeah. We should be pumping out fifteen-plus thousand cases at a ten dollar price point if we wanted to follow the rules…but there’s no pressure to make a big label and sell out, that’s not the intention at all. It’s more of a lifestyle pursuit for us. I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur in a very low key way.”

“It’s all about having fun. When it stops being fun, that’s when it’s time to stop or scale back.” Jeanie said.

Thirsty Pagans is a tongue-in-cheek name, according to Jeanie. “We understand that it’s offensive to some, but we really hope that you have a sense of humor about it, because if not, we feel sorry for you,” Jeanie said, “We also believe that wine should be fun, and that it shouldn’t be taken so seriously—it shouldn’t be so pretentious. There’s plenty of wine out there for pretentious people at pretentious prices with pretentious packaging, and that’s fine, but we’re not about that. We’re about wines for everyday drinking for the masses. If the rich and famous want to drink it too, that’s fine, but we price it pretty fair.” Rob chimed in, “You’ve got a choice. If you don’t like it, move on to something else. That’s what we’re embracing is choice. Just have fun. Get over yourself.” Rob and Jeanie went on to explain that drinking wine should be an act of enjoyment, not an act of prestige, and that those that follow image are often missing the point entirely.

It was music to my ears. Rock band music.

There unquestionably is a certain romance to wine, which is often presented in terms worthy of slow-motion sepia-toned cutaways complete with a soundtrack featuring the string section of a philharmonic. But, just like the slideshow at high school graduation documenting the silly laughs while stirring the chubby tears of remember-whens, the original experience was one of levity and joy. It appears that Thirsty Pagans is taking the pants-down, real-deal approach to the enjoyment of wine, rather than the nostalgic, memoir-esque route of trite metaphors and greeting card sentiments.

The selling and marketing of “Communion” has been a grassroots effort from the start. It is included in the wine club program at West Seattle Cellars, and available by the glass pour at Wild Ginger, but much of their sales have been direct, and it’s not uncommon for Jeanie to hand-deliver a single bottle of wine to people’s homes. She said, “For us, it’s about the relationships with the people that buy our wine. People that choose to drink our wine–I feel privileged. I want to build a relationship with everyone who buys our wine.”

So, what is “Communion?” Rob said, “It’s a Bordeaux blend. Stylistically, it’s light on the oak. I’m not a huge fan of overwhelming fruit with oak. We’re very fortunate at Alder Ridge…It’s not like I use valley floor fruit; it’s really, really nice.” He uses a blend of 75 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 15 percent Merlot, 5 percent Malbec and 5 percent Petite Verdot. In future vintages, he’s really looking forward to using more Malbec. The 2009 crush will be over 75 percent Malbec, because Rob is “in love with Malbec from Alder Ridge Vineyard.” They also may release a white wine down the road, and a name befitting the Thirsty Pagans program is being formulated. But, if they grow their production levels, they will only add about fifty cases a year.

Whatever happens down the road, you can bet that Rob, Jeanie and Crandall will be having a ball and serving up some laughs, one delicious bottle at a time.

Communion

2005 Red Wine
Horse Heaven Hills

Nerd Stuff:
75% Cabernet Sauvignon
15% Merlot
5% Malbec
5% Petit Verdot

100% French oak barrels for 12 months
Bottle aged for 12 months

When I sat down with Rob and Jeanie to chat about Thirsty Pagans, it was a hot, gorgeous Seattle day, and we sipped cold cocktails in the sun around a patio table in Post Alley. There, they presented me with a bottle of Communion, which I set on the table like a sentry during our two-hour conversation, the trio of happy imbibers on the label like additional guests at the party. Unfortunately, it was a move worthy of amateurs, because the 90-degree heat baked that wine like a yam. Fortunately, the folks at Thirsty Pagans were good-natured enough to carefully deliver a new bottle of Communion, and this time I treated it like a newborn babe–that is, until I drank it.

Like you would expect from a gang of good-natured drinking buddies, the Communion is approachable, congenial, and inclusive. On the nose, lively fruit and alcohol promise a good time until last call. Diving in, lush fruit rolls out the welcome mat, and the just-noticeable 14.2% alcohol is like a party favor amid the sound of laughter. Soft tannins give it a comfortable mouthfeel like your favorite chair, and the tangy acid patiently lingers until the rest of the guests have gone home. A little time in the glass does the Communion some good, so sit back with some friends, take your time, chat a bit, and enjoy each other as much as your wine.

Alan Busacca (left) and Robert O. Smasne (right), AlmaTerra Wines

A trained geologist with degrees in Earth Science and Soil Science including a Ph.D from UC Davis, and a résumé that includes a professorship in geology, agriculture and soil science, years of scientific research, consulting on a majority of the AVA petitions in the State of Washington and finally starting a vineyard consulting company called Vinitas, it seemed a natural matter of course for the legendary Alan Busacca to dabble in the wine side of wine. Dabbing, however, just isn’t his thing, so he cannonballed right in.

Having worked so closely with vine and soil, Busacca understands the influence and impact of terroir on the finished juice, so it makes sense that his debut in the winery business emphasizes just that, and how.

A couple of years ago, Busacca got acquainted with winemaker Robert O. Smasne, a titan in his own right, who has been industriously working behind the scenes for thirteen years, producing quality wines for his own labels and others’. Smasne is the winemaker or winemaker consultant for a total of about twenty wineries, a mercenary of libations with a reputation for delivering the goods. Who better to partner up with in order to facilitate the Grand Experiment.

AlmaTerra is grand, but it’s more an experiment for you, the consumer, than for them. With a wealth of multi-faceted experience between them, they knew just how this would play out.

AlmaTerra Syrah

AlmaTerra is a set of wines “inspired by terroir.” They made three single-vineyard Syrahs from three AVAs. Same vintage. Same methods for harvesting, crushing, barreling, the works. Same time in oak, same time in bottle. The only thing different about these wines is where they come from. And, these wines were made to express the microclimate and soil the fruit came from, a method sometimes described as “get out of the way.” That means that side-byside, the dramatic differences in flavor you experience in the glass is entirely terroir-driven. There is a fourth Syrah, The Coéo (Latin for “coming together”) which is a blend of the previous three, combining the best elements of each of them in a symbiotic way that is anything but lurchy and disjointed. It is an alliance of wine.

Then they turned around and did the same thing with Viognier.

The wines are sold in sets of four, in beautiful wooden boxes built by the disabled in Oregon. Each of them stand alone as remarkable, drinkable wines, but the real fun comes in tasting them in a flight. Gather your friends together and start popping corks; you’re sure to have plenty to talk about.

(AlmaTerra is currently only available for purchase out of their new tasting room in Woodinville. Visit their website at almaterrawines.com for details.)

By Doug Haugen

“Wine is made in the vineyard.” This is a common adage in the wine world, perhaps trite, maybe cliché, but probably one of the most succinct ways of communicating the importance of the virgin fruit in the overall lifecycle of wine. Another way to phrase it is, “You can make bad wine out of good grapes, but you can’t make good wine out of bad grapes.” The phrase is ubiquitous among winemakers, viticulturists and professional tasters. No doubt you’ve heard it in tasting rooms or wine parties.

Here’s why: Winemaking is a much more complicated process than just leaving a pitcher of Welch’s in the fridge for too long. Nearly every stage of it is an effort to bring aspects of the fruit out in some way. The acids, tannins, sugar and alcohol, let alone all of the nuanced flavors that can be drawn out and expressed, all of these things are only there but by the grace of the grape.

For example, just achieving desired alcohol levels in a wine requires specific levels of sugar in the grapes from which the wine is made (yeast converts sugar into alcohol through organic metabolic processes). That sugar is a product of photosynthesis in the grape vines, and so the amount of sunlight the vines get is very important. Temperatures also affect the vine’s ability to function, and water availability can determine whether a vine channels its energy into vine growth or fruit production. The amount of fruit allowed to grow also has an impact on how much effort the plant puts into the remaining fruit, affecting the sugar levels in all of it. And all of that is just to get the sugar for alcohol, not to mention the vast array of flavors derived from the soil, the health of the vine, the problem of pests, etc. Make no mistake—growing vinifera grapes is as exact a science as they come outside of a vacuum tube.

So, why do you hear so little about the vineyard managers? In the Oz of the wine industry, the vineyard manager just may be the man behind the curtain. This month, we drove around the state to talk to some of the folks that make it all happen.

Denis Gayte, Elephant Mountain Vineyards

Denis Gayte
Elephant Mountain Vineyards

After getting lost, making a few phone calls and getting some directions, we found ourselves amid expansive vineyards, still mostly barren to the untrained eye, on a windy, cloudy day. As we stood there marveling at the eerie quietness of the countryside, Denis Gayte came driving up the gravel road in his big white pickup, just like you would expect from any farmer. Gayte is the young, energetic vineyard manager for Elephant Mountain Vineyards, but while his domain is deep in Washington dirt, he has a unique background on foreign soil.

After graduating from Washington State University, he headed over to France to study viticulture and enology. Because his father was French and he had a gaggle of relatives still living in France, he was able to gain residency there and start schooling in the wine business. He eventually achieved the official designation of “Young Winegrower,” a post recognized by the French government, and started his career. In 2001 and 2002, he helped start a winery and some vineyards. He bought abandoned vineyards and leased them out. He then took over an abandoned winery and bought land to grow grapes on. His time in France saw his experience run the gamut from ground to glass.

In 2008, he sold his properties in France. Back in the States, he had a choice about whether to head down the road of wine-making or wine-growing. “I’m a winemaker as well,” he said, “but I’ve always had a passion for the growing.” He took up with Elephant Mountain Vineyards. “I think we’re on the good side of it,” he said, “It’s a bit more noble, I think, what we’re doing here.”

Gayte spoke about the complexity of wine grape growing. They were in the middle of buffering the soil with treated irrigation water to correct a pH balance that would impact the acidity of the fruit, and thus, the structure of the finished wine. You never know what will happen from year to year. “It’s a crap shoot. In the end, it’s a crap shoot,” Gayte said. A good viticulturalist must roll with the punches and adjust his methods to consistently produce quality grapes every time. And from the looks of it, that’s just what he’s done.

Patrick Dineen, Dineen Vineyards

Patrick Dineen
Dineen Family Vineyards

There are some who have grown up with boots on the ground and dirt under their fingernails. There are others that are still more comfortable letting those guys take care of things.

Patrick Dineen decided he wanted to get into the wine business when he retired from a successful career in the banking industry in 2001. Having spent his youth on a dairy farm, and after developing a passion for wine as a consumer over the years, he decided to bring the wine and farming life together in the form of vineyards.

“I have a long interest in wine as a consumer. In part of my banking career, we did a lot of agricultural processing and financing, so I knew the processing side of it, but I did not know the growing side. But, our interest has become more in the growing and viticulture. When you have a passion, you gotta do something, right?”

He looked around in California for property, but discovered that it was far too expensive for what he had in mind. He then looked in Walla Walla, but he decided that he still wanted to live primarily in the Seattle area, so he looked a bit closer. That’s when he found his spot in Zillah, just along the border of Rattlesnake Hills AVA.

He made a small investment into Sheridan Winery in 2000, after which he bought a ten acre plot next to Sheridan and Andrew Will Vineyards in 2001 and started planting. Lastly, the property where his winery’s beautiful tasting room (and second home) now stands became available, and he planted grapes there, too. Now, he has a total of ninety acres, sixtyfive of which are planted.

However, Pat Dineen wants to enjoy his retirement years, and has no interest in taking over the daily operations of the vineyards. For that, he has Patrick Rawn, who also manages other vineyards around Zillah, and who owns Two Mountain Winery with his brother Matt.

“I’m happy with just the way it’s working now,” he said, “I’m here a lot working with Pat, but I let Pat run the crew. I am retired, so I’m not interested in a hands-on job, but I do decide what we want to plant, and I do all the sales work with the other wineries. I do the supplies ordering to make sure we’re getting a good value” and other business-end functions.

Pat Rawn works very closely with the wineries who buy the grapes, grooming the grapes to their specifications, though there are many that merely want to be called when the grapes are ready, and Rawn schedules the harvest. “I try to stay out of that,” Dineen said, “because when you get too many guys involved with the scheduling, it doesn’t work.”

It seems to work well with Dineen running the business end of things while expert viticulturalists like the Rawns can ensure the quality fruit. It just goes to show that there’s room in the business for everyone.

Richard Boushey, Boushey Vineyards

Richard Boushey
Boushey Vineyards

After getting lost again and making a couple of phone calls, we arrived at the home of Dick Boushey, the founder and namesake of Boushey Vineyards. His house rests in the middle of vineyards as far as the eye can see, which includes the hillsides of other AVAs in the greater Yakima Valley appellation.

Dick Boushey planted his first grapes in the Yakima Valley back in 1980. While he was raised around agriculture, it was a stroke of destiny that shoved him headlong into the wine world. He was studying to be a banker, but “joining this bank thing was like joining the army,” he said, and it would require him to move around, making next to no money in the hopes of someday doing all right for himself. The idea became very unattractive, so he decided to join family in the Yakima Valley area in the agrarian life of tending orchards. Eventually, he planted some grapes, and everything changed. “I lucked out here, I guess. Sort of stumbled into the wine thing, but [over time] I’ve sort of purposely bought these other little sites. I kind of bought these little plots that are good for wine grapes,” which make up what is now Boushey Vineyards, one of the more coveted sources of vinifera grapes in Washington.

Boushey is a laid back, earnest man who has spent the last thirty years unintentionally building an empire. “All these years figuring it out. It’s taken me thirty years and I haven’t figured it out.” His training has been hands on, experimenting, learning from those around him. The WSU research center has been an invaluable resource, and so have the winemakers. “The key to being a great grower is putting up with great winemakers,” he said with a good-natured laugh, “You get feedback, that’s where you really learn.”

What has thirty years in the industry taught him? “Terroir is the final answer, everything being equal, but nothing’s ever equal. Every grower does something different all the time, and it’s the timing of when they do it,” he said, “You’ve got to stay in touch with your wines… It’s like playing an instrument. You’ve got to master the thing before you can really make it sound good. You’ve got to know how to manage your water, the crop load and the nutrients in your soil.”

And while Boushey says that he has never met a wine he wouldn’t drink, he has a down-to-earth attitude about it, surprising considering the quality wines being made from his grapes. “That’s all you need in wine, don’t be intimidated by it, just enjoy it; and the more you learn about it the more enjoyable it becomes. You don’t want to get rid of all the mystery, but you get rid of some of it. And, you can analyze it better on your own; you don’t need somebody to tell you what’s good or bad.” Sage advice.

Jim Holmes, Ciel du Cheval

Jim Holmes
Ciel du Cheval

We got lost again, passing right by our destination, and after receiving a call from Jim Holmes to tell us we had driven right by him, we found our way back to the Ciel du Cheval vineyards on Red Mountain. There, Jim Holmes stood waiting patiently for us, looking right at home among the surrounding acreage crawling with vines.

Holmes, along with John Williams of Kiona Vineyards and Winery, bought some land on Red Mountain as an investment property back in 1975. Later, after reading some studies by Walter Clore, they became the first to plan grapes on the hill. Parting ways amicably years later, Holmes started his own Red Mountain vineyard nearby, calling it Ciel du Cheval.

Holmes is both warm and matter-of-fact. Currently, he controls about 160 acres of vineyards—120 acres of Ciel, and two twenty-acre plots that are partnerships with Quilceda Creek and DeLille, respectively. His thirty-five years of experience has led him to develop specific, innovative practices that are uncommon in the trade. For example, he has developed a pruning method that encourages thirty percent of a vine to grow straight up, thirty percent to branch to one side, and thirty percent to branch to the other, which creates a canopy that shields the grape clusters from the intense heat of direct Red Mountain sunlight, allowing the light to filter through the canopy at all times of day. He has also rotated the rows of his vineyards eleven degrees east off of North-South to extend the morning coolness and reduce the afternoon heat a little. To his knowledge, he’s the only one doing this, maybe because others “aren’t paying attention.”

Holmes hasn’t had to try to actively sell grapes for ten or twelve years, and at this point, he can screen potential buyers. His crops have been pre-sold, and people are banging down his door. In the early days, though, it was a lot of work and still is for many grapes, and say, ‘What kind of vineyard is it?’ and they’re like ‘Oh, this is the best vineyard in the world, we’re doing things just right, we hand-polish all the grapes, and boy are we hot shit,’ and they’ll come up with any kind of new scheme they have like ‘We’re super-biodynamic’ or we’re ‘super-organic,’ and it’s all bullshit. The thing is, how do the wines really shape up in the marketplace?” That’s why he personally tracks the point scores of all of the wines made from his grapes, along with any wines made with other Red Mountain grapes that score over a 90. This isn’t just for bragging rights, competitiveness or salability, but rather to measure how well they’re doing in the vineyard.

While Holmes has a great respect for the winemakers and partners closely with many of them, he adheres to the philosophy that wine is made in the vineyard. “Everything starts here,” he said, “If you don’t got it here, you don’t got it.” Maybe that’s why his vineyards get so much TLC. Thirty employees work year around (except in the dead of winter) in the vineyards. Most vineyards, he says, hire teams to prune and to pick, but at Ciel, there’s something going on all the time to make sure everything is going just right. He’s also gotten tech savvy: “All of our irrigation systems are either automated or in the process of being automated, where I can turn everything on or off from anywhere in the world. We have moisture monitors throughout so we know what the soil moisture is all the time and can respond to that.”

“A viticulturalist is a specialized farmer, but he’s still a farmer,” Holmes said, and while he’s seen the tide rise to where it is today, he’s as committed to the ground as he ever was, and has the pride of one who has developed something that will be his legacy. “A hundred years from now, Ciel will still be Ciel.”

Larry Pearson, Tapteil Vineyards

Larry Pearson
Tapteil Vineyards

For once, we had no trouble finding a place. Tapteil Vineyards is located at the top of Red Mountain, growing sought-after vineyard-designate fruit, and we had visited the on-site winery last summer on our blitz tour of Red Mountain and Prosser. But, the winery is a comparatively recent edition to the Tapteil estate. Larry Pearson set up camp there twenty-five years ago with the singular purpose of planting Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.

“I didn’t start this venture to be a winery,” he said, “I had this idea that stuck, of great experiences and wandering vineyards, that there’s something special about being able to grow a vine of Cabernet. I wanted to find a site to plant Cabernet Sauvignon.”

An engineer—a career he maintains to this day—he developed a long-term plan to get into the wine business. “Everyone comes to the wine business in a different way. There are a lot of different backgrounds. A lot of people came to the wine business from another profession, like me—I still have a day job as an engineer. I just wanted to grow the very best Cab Sauv.”

He started looking around for just the right site. “I looked up and down the valley, and I did my studies about the physical aspects of what it takes to grow grapes, and there was a little bit of experience in Washington State at the time, but there weren’t wide plantings, it wasn’t everywhere, so I did what I could to develop the physical criteria. Then I thought, well, what do the winemakers think, because I wasn’t a winemaker.”

They thought it needed a warmer climate, and as he kept asking around, he kept getting pushed down toward the Yakima Valley. He looked at Horse Heaven Hills, but wasn’t ready to live there, having come from Seattle, “That was really out in the middle of nowhere.”

Pearson is a planner and a business man who sees the romance in the vineyards. But, to achieve that, he spent many years away from it. Right after he bought his first property in June of 1984, he moved to Washington DC. He came back for in ’85 to help with the first planting of three acres, and then headed out again to make a living. Scott Williams managed the vineyards for the first few years, and then Fred Artz took over. Pearson eventually moved to Africa, and didn’t return until 1995.

All that time, he made decisions about sales, the purchase of equipment, the general flow of revenues and expense, but as for who made the calls for spraying, weeding, picking and all the other aspects of growing grapes, he had help from the pros.

Over time, he picked up the craft, and now has taken charge of the farming side of things as well. “I would count Scott and Fred as my mentors,” he said, “You can read those people to really be in tune about how to do things, and get a real practical viewpoint on how things should be done, rather than reading a book about it. Scott and Fred have been invaluable.”

Over the years, Pearson made himself available for all the plantings and other major milestones in the season. “Every time I’d be back, the more time I’d spend here and be wandering around, or getting on a tractor, I learned.”

Now, Pearson predominantly grows three varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon (his first love), Merlot and Cab Franc. Just outside of the AVA line, he has a small plot of Syrah, too.

And, while he still holds an engineering day job in the Tri-Cities, he’ll readily admit that he’s a farmer now.

Steve (right) and Todd (left) Newhouse, Upland Estate Vineyards

Steve and Todd Newhouse
Upland Estate Vineyards

After pulling into the driveway of the home of Todd Newhouse, we climbed in the truck and headed to the top of Snipes Mountain, a steep and bumpy ride ending on the summit that seemed to overlook the world.

Todd is a friendly, amiable and genuine guy. His knowledge of the family business and his energy will be the future of Upland Estates, and the Snipes Mountain AVA. Todd’s grandfather planted the first grapes in the family back in 1968, trying to see how Chardonnay would grow. Later, they took over the vineyards of the original and abandoned Upland Estates, which were some of the first to plan grapes in the state as far back as around 1915. (They have also fairly recently revived the name of Upland Estates Winery, which is reputed to be the first winery in the state to make wine from European vinifera grapes.) Todd’s father Steve Newhouse joined him early on, and together, they made it what it is, 700 acres of wine grape vineyards, plus another 700 acres of concord grapes and cherry, peach, nectarine and pear orchards. “Every year we planted a little more and a little more,” Steve said.

Upland Estates is one of the classic farming models, family owned and operated, spanning across generations. Grandfather Newhouse is still around, Steve’s brother John was involved until mid-May when he was tragically killed in an accident involving irrigation equipment, Steve’s sister is the full-time bookkeeper, and now there’s Steve’s son Todd, heir to the proverbial throne.

Steve Newhouse joined us at the top of the hill. He’s a soft-spoken, gentle man with the slow gait of a man who has worn his body down with the lifetime of labor. In 2008, Steve Newhouse was given the Erick Hanson Memorial Wine Grape Grower of the Year award by the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers.

While Steve still enjoys the orchard aspects of the business (“The cherries are nice…peaches, nectarines, pears…” he said like a man planning a fruit salad), Todd especially likes the vineyards. “The wine grapes are the most interesting. If I have a choice, I’m in the wine grapes,” he said, “I count 35 or 36 that are vinifera.”

There are 850 acres of wine grapes on Snipes Mountain, and the Newhouses own 700 of them. Basically, they not only own a whole mountain, they own a whole AVA. “Yeah, I guess that’s why I was the one that got it submitted and the name on it and everything,” Todd told us. As for the few other producers on the hill, “They were all behind us. The other three have forty acres a piece, and they were real supportive and offered me any help I needed.” Steve piped in, “We knew we had a unique spot here, and most everybody else knew it too. The reason I wanted to do it was to raise the value of the grapes, because it really is a microclimate here.”

We asked them about the importance of the role of the vineyards. Todd thought for a second, “What do they say? You can screw up good grapes, but you can’t make a good wine out of bad grapes? Well, I guess grapes are pretty important.” Steve added, “You gotta have good grapes, if you start out with bad grapes, there isn’t anything you can do.”

These guys aren’t just viticulturalists. They are farmers in the broader sense. We asked them if they had any other aspirations down the road. Todd replied, “Other than farming? What else is there?”

(Read also about Ken Hart of Walla Walla fame in WINO’s Online Exclusive.)

By Cody Ellerd

When customers are drinking like fish and having a splashing good time, some Buddhists believe that it is the Laughing Buddha (a.k.a. the Patron Saint of Bartenders) who is responsible for all the fun.

It is precisely this figure, with his gleaming golden skin and proud beer belly, who welcomes visitors to the Trade Route Brewing Company, a small, two-year-old craft brewery in South Seattle that is becoming a local favorite among fans of unusual beers and Asian cuisine.

The Buddha here watches over a tasting room that owners Chris Castillo and Joe Valvo have dubbed “the tiki room,” the brewery’s bamboo-and-straw-infested entryway that would look delicious to a panda.

Not being pandas, of course, we head straight for the beer, though the exotic ingredients here, like ginger, mango, galangal and palm sugar, come straight from the panda’s neck of the woods.

“We were sitting in the backyard one day and said, ‘let’s start a brewery, and let’s make it unique,’” said Castillo. He and Valvo had been roommates and best friends at Bellevue Community College. They were both now about a decade into successful careers, Castillo at Microsoft and Valvo as a microbiologist at Puget Sound Blood Center. But they had been making beer at home since their college days, and what they had brewing was very unique indeed.

“It really all started with the Pandan Brown,” said Castillo. Valvo, who is the mad scientist, brewmaster and chef of the two-man team, was making a dark ale using Pandan leaves, a nutty tasting ingredient commonly used in Southeast Asian cooking. Valvo is also the white guy, while Castillo is Filipino, but it’s Valvo who is the resident master of Asian cuisine, with a penchant for throwing whatever is lying around his kitchen into the beer.

Castillo, the “business guy,” said the Pandan Brown Ale was “a beer we thought we could put on the market and target to Thai restaurants.” So he sold his condo for startup money and in January of 2007, they started tracking down equipment. They secured a location in South Park in May. By November of that year, they were selling beer, and were bowled over by the strong initial demand.

In addition to the Pandan Brown Ale, Trade Route is now selling a lager that Castillo says goes “perfect with sushi,” a tasty ginger pale ale brewed with galangal, a “mango weisen,” and a new spring seasonal IPA made with kaffir limes.

Whatever you think about “flavored” or “fruity” beers, put it aside. Many of these recipes were a product of necessity in the face of last year’s hops shortage as Castillo and Valvo turned to other ingredients to impart flavor. Rather than adding a flavored extract in the bottling phase, they incorporate real fruit early on in the brewing process. If this beer were an ice cream sundae, the fruit would be like the vanilla bean in the ice cream, not the saccharin cherry on top. (The Ginger Pale Ale, incidentally, is rumored to make an excellent float.) These are complex beers that have so much to give, you’ll find yourself holding your swig in your mouth, not swallowing, as the flavors evolve across your tongue.

The minimal dose of hops and savory notes make these real “food” beers that are easy to pair, and just as the duo hoped, Trade Route’s offerings have been attractive to restaurants. They’re on tap at Fremont’s venerable Chiso/Kappo, Shiku in Ballard and Wasabi Bistro. They were recently the stars of a five-course Brewer’s Dinner at Matt’s in Market, where they were paired with the likes of piquillo-pepper-stuffed Dungeness crab brandade. If you want to try it out with creations from your own kitchen, it’s sold in twenty-two-ounce bottles at Whole Foods, Top Foods, Iwajimaya and specialty beer stores like Bottleworks, The Beer Authority and Full Throttle Bottle.

Early this year, they were forced to change the original name of the brewery from Laughing Buddha to Trade Route. An Australian brewery called Lucky Drink Company, which sells beer in a Buddha-shaped bottle and has techno music playing on its Web site, came after them for trademark infringement. Castillo didn’t think that was very Zen of them, but as both he and Valvo are practicing Buddhists, they decided to go with the flow.

“It’s a mass produced beer that relies on a catchy looking bottle, and we didn’t want to be associated with it,” he said. “Changing our name goes along with the Buddhist mentality anyway—of non-attachment.”

In the end, Castillo thinks “Trade Route” better captures what they’re trying to do—incorporate a lot of ingredients from different regions of the world. They would like to continue to expand on that idea with some near-future forays into the worlds of coffee, mocha and Moroccan spices. They want to find their way into more restaurants, stay small, stay craft, keep innovating, and have you drink so much of their beer that you laugh your ass off. But if that happens, you don’t have to thank them. Thank the Buddha.