White Heron & Competitions

When we started in 1986 and for many years afterwards we entered competitions as a way to get the winery noticed. If you come into our tasting room and peruse our scrapbook you will find information about medals we have won tucked away here and there.

Eventually we realized that none of the reviews (also tucked away in our scrapbook) or medals made any difference in our sales. This was primarily because we never won the super triple gold platinum award. This is because the un-oaked, fruit forward, and unfined style of wine we make does not fare well in competitions. We then stopped entering competitions as, on average, it costs $40 per wine to enter.

Why does the White Heron style not fare well in competitions?

A recent competition near here featured over 200 wines. I have myself worked as a judge in wine competitions. You are served a flight of comparable wines, say five Chardonnays. You rate these Chardonnays without food or atmosphere. You then move on to the next flight of Chardonnays. From each flight a wine is selected, assuming enough judges liked the wine. The wine selected is the wine that tastes the best compared to the other wines in the flight in that environment. The ‘winning’ wines from each flight are then returned to be tasted where eventually the ‘best’ wine of all is selected.

Tips for Sips

Why tasting fees make a whole lot of sense

By Cameron Fries, White Heron Cellars

In the good old days, wineries poured tastes for free and everybody was happy. When the Napa Valley surpassed Disneyland as California’s number one tourist attraction, they deemed it was time to start charging for tasting. In effect, this is a reasonable concept as there are wineries that get over 250,000 visitors a year. That adds up to a lot of wine poured even at a one ounce pour—to be exact 9,377 bottles of wine.

It took us a bit longer to start charging for tasting here in Washington. This is because Washington State law did not allow wineries to sell wine by the glass. Eventually the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) changed the rules primarily to allow wineries to charge for tasting, and we can now also sell wine by the glass.

From the winery point of view, charging for tasting is good for several reasons. First, it eliminates the people who are just stopping by for free tastes. Second, it helps to cover the cost of the tasting room.

If a winery makes wine with any character at all, then there will be people who do not like the wine. Often we receive visitors in our tasting room who like to ask many questions, tour the winery, and taste the wine. Often we will spend more than an hour with these people. They then say, “thank you very much,” and leave with no wine in hand.

Stealing Champagne

What’s In a Name? Apparently Everything

In the world of wine we tend to believe that the place or vineyard that the wine comes from has an influence on quality.  In other words certain areas become more famous than others as their quality shows through. The most famous example in the United States is the Napa Valley; the most famous example in Washington State is the Walla Walla Valley.

In order to protect these place names from fraud and dilution of quality Europeans passed laws protecting these names with the so called appellation system (appeller is the French verb for ‘to call’, as in “that area is called Washington”). Here in the States we are creating more and more American Viticultural Areas (AVA’s) all the time. Currently in Grant County we have one AVA – the Wahluke Slope – and one in progress around Quincy to be called ‘Ancient Lakes of the Columbia Valley’. There will be at least one more AVA in Grant County before all is said and done, the Royal Slope.

For the nonce the AVA system differs from European appellations in that there are no quality laws. In European appellations grapes can only be planted in designated areas, grapes must reach certain ripeness levels, and so forth. American AVA’s may evolve in that direction one day but for the moment the only point of an AVA is to state that the grapes come from the designated region.

Screw the Future

The value of screw tops and why we’re not ready for them
By Cameron Fries, White Heron Cellars

The screw top closure is definitely the future of wine. I once read an article which quoted a New Zealand wine maker, and I can remember neither the publication nor the wine maker. But at least I am being honest in that I am stating up front the idea is not mine. In any case, let us pretend for a moment that cork had never existed and that screw tops were the norm. A cork salesman arrives and says, “Hey, I have a new closure for you. It will leak far more often than your screw top. And it will on occasion—two to ten percent of the time—make your wine taste terrible, or at the very least, significantly reduce the wine’s fruit characteristics. And the wine drinker will either need a special tool for opening the bottle, or they can push the cork into the wine, or if they hit the bottom of the bottle just right on a tree trunk, it will pop the cork out. But all of these problems will be reduced to nothing because of the neat pop the cork makes when pulled out of the bottle.”

The Name Game

In the world of wine we tend to believe that the place or vineyard that the wine comes from has an influence on quality.  In other words certain areas become more famous than others as their quality shows through.  The most famous example in the United States is the Napa Valley; the most famous example in Washington State is the Walla Walla Valley.

Sour Grapes

How vineyard managers aren’t getting the attention they deserve

By Cameron Fries

It is interesting that the French language does not have a word for winemaker. As I do not speak Italian or Spanish, I thought I would try an online translator, and neither language appears to have a direct word for winemaker. I receive French language enological journals, and occasionally of late one will see them use the English word. This is being driven by our Anglo obsession with the winemaker rather than the vineyard.

A Bottle is as a Bottle Does

By Cameron Fries

There is a joke in the wine industry that a certain famous wine publication out of San Francisco does not bother to taste the wine anymore, they just weigh the bottle. The heavier the bottle, the more points are automatically awarded. After all, a fancy package that feels hefty in the hand must taste better then a package that weighs less.

Over the years I have made several packaging decisions for “green” reasons or for cost saving measures in order to pass these savings on to the consumer. Inevitably one gets caught up in perceptions that a package that does not fit the “norm” is not quite right. Unless, of course, the package is way out there; such as a blue bottle or bottles in the form of a fish. And in the last decade, the Australians have enjoyed having lots of fun with their labels which opened up the door for Americans to do the same.

When I worked in Switzerland, we actually used so-called hock bottles (the tall bottles that Riesling and Gewurztraminer often come in) for Chardonnay. When I was working at Worden’s Washington Winery in Spokane in 1984, we had a small batch of Chardonnay to bottle. There were some hock bottles piled in a corner and thinking nothing of it I bottled the Chardonnay up. Needless to say the market reacted negatively–the wine was put in the “wrong” bottle.

Winter Kill

Central Washington’s biggest viticultural problem can be winter kill from severe arctic outbreaks.  These tend to occur on average two out of every ten years.  During the winter of 1995-96 we had two weeks of severe cold and our thermometer here in Trinidad (an old ghost town above Crescent Bar between Quincy and Wenatchee) registered -10 F.  Many vineyards throughout the state were severely damaged although we only experienced two percent bud damage.  In the winter of 2002-03 we had a very brief two day arctic outbreak which damaged some vineyards, mostly those planted in flat locations and here on our hillside we were once again fine.

Of the Earth

Understanding terroir, sort of.

By Cameron Fries, White Heron Cellars

The European appellation system exists for one purpose, and that purpose is to tell people that the wine comes from a specific region. Why would they go to so much trouble to create an entire legal system and its attendant panoply of niggling lawyers (not all lawyers niggle, but just enough do to give the whole tribe a bad name) simply to define a given region? Because they believe very strongly that each vineyard with its unique soil composition, unique exposure to the elements and unique directional orientation will produce a unique wine.

The Money Trail

Prohibition left a nasty little stain on the wine industry.

By Cameron Fries, White Heron Cellars

In 2004 we went to France to travel a bit with our son who had just finished a year as an exchange student.  We took eighteen bottles of wine with us as gifts for host families.  Also, when I am abroad, I like to taste the local wines and occasionally try one of mine to see how it fits in.  The French customs agent asked if we had anything to declare, and I replied, “Eighteen bottles of wine.”  He looked at me with incredulity and said “Surely you know we make wine in France!”

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