Williamson Vineyards A Great Southern Idaho Oasis



The front door of the Williamson Winery. 
Left takes you to the fruit.  Right takes you to the Juice!


No matter where I travel I make it a real point to visit the local wineries. It has been something that my wife and I have done for many years. Just our way of being touristy I suppose.
This last week when we were in the Boise Valley I wanted to make at least one stop in Idaho wine country. It being a Monday, I knew that most of the self respecting places would be closed, recovering from the busy Independence day weekend.

However, we did luck out as we drove toward Lizard Butte outside of Marsing, Idaho. Litterally a driveway away from the Ste Chappelle Winery that I wrote about a few weeks ago, was a winery owned by the Williamson family.

For those of us from the Boise Valley, we grew up knowing that there were basically three major families in the fruit business from that region. The Symms, the Saxtons, and the Williamsons. Little did I know that over all these years, the Williamsons, like the Symms, have gotten very busy in the wine industry.

The Williamson's Many Wine Awards

Williamson Fruit celebrated 100 years in 2009. Originally a homestead of Lillian Williamson and her husband George Gammon. The farm has grown from having to deliver water by horse and trailer to water the trees, to being a major producer of tree fruit in the region.

The Williamson Family got into the wine business about 20 years ago. They saw the success of their neighbors and decided that putting in some vines wouldn’t be a bad idea. A few years ago they entered into an agreement with Rob Koenig from Koenig Winery, which is just down the street about 200 yards.

With Koenig at the winemaking helm, the Williamsons have done very well for themselves. They have acquired many trophies, ribbons, and accolades over the past decade.

We pulled into the fruit stand/winery at the end of the day. The very friendly winery staff actually came out to greet us, and tasted us through their portfolio. Once they found out who I was they even opened a couple of “special” bottles for us to try.

I can’t share with you the notes from the entire portfolio, but these are the notes on my favorites.

The 2011 Dry Riesling is done in an Alsace style, using german yeasts. It is an off-dry with a 1.86 residual sugar, which allows the fruit, spices, and creaminess come through from the malolactic fermentation. This would have been great with a nice buttery scallop.

Williamson’s Rose’ is called Blossom. Made from the 2011 vintage of Sangiovese grapes, this wine is subtley sweet and spicy. The wine shows flavors of wild strawberry, white pepper, and melon.

The 2006 Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon were both very drinkable. I particularly liked the characteristics of the syrah, with dark berries, black cherry, and pepper. The finish was very nice on this wine.

As a special treat I got to taste the 2006 Reserve Petite Syrah. This wine shows great potential for ageing, The nose is rich with dark berries, and the flavors of blackberry, blueberry, pepper, and tobacco make this wine fantastic!
Last, the winery offers several late harvest wines and a nice port. I suggest trying them, as they are all very nice.

You can find Williamson Orchards, and a map to their tasting room at www.willorch.com. I suggest making a stop in the next time you travel through Southern Idaho.

Cheers!

Finding the Mother Lode In Baker Oregon

Bella's in downtown Baker City

Last week, while traveling to Boise to hang out with family I stopped in a little place that I’ve promised to stop at for many years. I’ve promised Beverly at Bella’s in Baker a visit many times since first meeting her at Graybeal back in 2007. It was definitely time to make a stop.

Bella’s market in downtown Baker, just a few short paces down Main Street from the famous Geyser Grand Hotel, and nestled among several little boutique stores, is a regular oasis in Eastern Oregon for wine.

My memory of Baker was back in the 1970s when my dad helped to pave all the highways around that area. Our family spent several summers in Baker, Sumpter, and Austin Junction during my formative years. The memory that serves me, was that Baker wasn’t what you’d call “wine friendly”. It was more of a whiskey and beer kind of town.

What I found to be most interesting was that Bella’s is very wine friendly, and the town of Baker, which encircles it seems to be much more wine friendly as well. Bicyclists in their tight little spandex shorts sped down mainstreet, and there were several great pieces of art hanging in stores around. Bellas clearly reminded me of a cute little european market with wines, meats, cheeses, and espresso.

As I sipped on my San Pellegrino Aranciata, I wandered through Bella’s, including the substantial wine shop. I was amazed at the depth of selection in the shop. Far better than I have here in many of the shops in the Tri Cities, and many more labels and varietals than I’ve found anywhere else in Eastern Oregon.
One bottle that I happened on was a 2011 Rose’ by Mother Lode Cellars. It was placed among some pretty upscale Bandols that I was also eyeing. The bottle tells the story about the Mother Lode Mine, located just outside of Baker near the Cook Family Homestead. The mine, which produced 8,000 oz. of gold, and 4 million pounds of copper is now long closed.
Travis Cook, graduated with a degree in Horticulture from Oregon State University and returned to Baker with the intent of starting a winery at the Homestead. It only made sense that the wine be named after the mine. (Afterall, the name Cook’s had already been taken.)
I was talking about the wines with one of the staff, Cody, at Bella’s. She suggested that I try the Mother Lode Wine. Little did I know until later in the conversation that her name is Cook, and the wine-maker is her brother. Tricky having an inside salesperson hiding in the ultimate wine shop for the area!

Mother Lode makes a Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley grapes, a Vineyard Reserve Red that uses grapes from the family’s nearby Keating Vineyard, and a Rose’ which I mentioned, that is a blend of Riesling grapes and Counoise which are also grown at the Keating Vineyard.
I purchased the Rose’ because I knew it was going to be a hot one and I wanted a good porch wine. The 2011 is very low in residual sugar, with most of the flavor being from the fruit itself. A nice Malolactic creaminess leads back to the blueberry and black licorice flavors and nose. A very nice bottle. I’m looking forward to going back through Baker to pick up a bottle of the red blend next time through!

Cheers!

Washington Wines Perform With Balance

Steve Warner, Ex. Director of the Washington Wine Commission
Speaks to the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce

Living here in Eastern Washington and Oregon has its perks. We’re small enough that we don’t have a lot of the big city issues, but large enough that if we want to make a trip to Jack in the Box at 2 a.m. we can get a Sourdough Jack. We are even lucky enough to be right near vineyards, and even have the chance to know and hang with world class winemakers every day. Because of that, we tend to drink a lot of our local wines. Which is a good thing.

This week I had the chance to meet with and hear a presentation by Steve Warner, the Executive Director of the Washington Wine Commission. He brought up some interesting points that I thought were worth telling you about.

The Washington Wine Commission is built out of all of the Washington State Wineries, both large and small. It is funded through an excise on each gallon of wine produced in the state, or juice produced by vineyards here. The fee is extremely small, but the benefits are great. The commission works very hard to promote Washington Wines as a whole, and create good will between different winemakers in today’s highly competitive market.

A few take-aways that I had from Mr. Warner’s presentation left me pondering the growing future of wine in this region. I wanted to share with you my thoughts and opinions on these take outs.

Part of the commission’s work is looking at the buying atmosphere for the wine industry in this region. As part of focus research they developed a word cloud of various inputs from people concerning Washington Wine. The two most used words were Balance and Value.

I understood the term value, although they apparently haven’t had a bottle of Col Solare lately. The term that puzzled me though was Balance. Is it the balance between fruit, acid, and tannin that I talk about frequently in this article? Is it the balance between cost and value? Is it the way that the cellar rats have to balance the barrels when racking? What does that term mean?

I caught Mr. Warner after the presentation and asked him about this term. He said that the term was pretty unqualified in the studies, and it could mean all these things and more. This made me think this is a question that I need to ask you. I would appreciate it if people would respond on my email or blog as to what you think this term means.

Another huge takeaway from the presentation was something that I’ve heard before. That is that the U.S. is now by far the largest consumer of wine in the world. The downside is that the residents of this region only drink about 3 liters of wine each year per capita, versus the 10 liters of wine per year consumed by the residents of Europe.

My thought is that I’m doing my part to bring the per capita up. I think most of my faithful readers are doing the same. So, the question is, who are the deadbeats out there not doing their part? Come on residents of Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon! Drink more wine. And, while you’re drinking more wine make sure it’s local to this region. I’m expecting you all to go out to your nearest winery today, buy a case of wine and drink it as soon as possible!

Cheers!

Landmark Provides A Grand Detour

If you’ve ever been along lucky enough to visit Sonoma you will find the most beautiful vineyards in the world. Many of them nestled among the majestic California Redwoods, the vineyards seem to grow right out of the trees.

The thing I find most fascinating with the area is how the mists from the Pacific Ocean waft through the trees and vines in the early mornings. By midday the sun has come into full exposure and the days are dry and warm.

This combination of warm, dry days and cool, moist nights is the perfect home for what many consider the greatest Pinot Noir grapes in the world. If you ever get a chance to visit the area I highly recommend spending a few days just taking this region’s beauty in.

Kenwood, California is a small unincorporated hamlet nestled in the far north of the Sonoma region. It is here that Damaris Deere Ford, the great great granddaughter of John Deere, founded Landmark winery in 1974. The winery has focused on medium sized production, unlike many of the mega producers in the area. The center of their attention is on the vineyards themselves, and the great wines that can come from great land.

Winemaker, Greg Statch, and his team produce several different levels of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. I was lucky enough to try his signature label Pinot called “Grand Detour”.

This wine features a blend of fantastic grapes from throughout the region including Flocchini, Kanzier, Spring Hill Ranch, Armagh, and Juul Vineyards. The grapes are hand harvested and cold soaked before fermentation. Stach then ferments and ages the various barrels, blending the various juices to come up with just the right flavors for the final blend.

The 2010 “Grand Detour” features a spectacular nose of wild strawberries. There is a faint background of grilled mushrooms. The color of the wine is a beautiful ruby to purple in the bowl of the glass.

In the mouth this wine has flavors of strawberry, ginseng and corriander, mixed with plum and blood orange. It has beautiful, soft and silky tannins, and a soft acidity.

Initially I popped the cork on this bottle just to write this column. However, after my first sniff and taste I felt like I had just opened the door to royalty in my house and I was underdressed for the occasion. When I handed my wife my glass her eyes glazed over and I could tell this wine was something special.

Having a special bottle in my possession, I changed dinner plans to something that would compliment such a great wine. Some soft cheeses and aged meats went very well with this fantastic juice.
I realize that this bottle isn’t in the under $10 range, or even the under $15 range that I normally report on. This baby has a MSRP of $40. Just know that every drop is worth it.

As for where you can find this wine, I suggest asking for it at your favorite local wine shop. If they are a shop that supports California wines they should have access to this great juice.

Cheers!

Two New Wine Shops To Make Me Smile!

Wine and More in Kennewick

I’m so excited when a new wine shop opens. It’s like Christmas, my birthday, and the 4th of July all mixed into one. This month, with two new wine shops opening nearby, I’m like a kid on Halloween candy as well.

I want to start off by telling you about my long-time friend Patty Wolk, and her new wine shop in the Southridge district of Kennewick. Patty and her friend Anita Kenfield have opened a great little shop on 3600 Zintel Way called Wine And More.

Having been around the wine business for a long time, Patty new the magic combination required in order to make a shop like this successful. The shop includes the wine and gift items that you find in many wine shops, but also includes a little bistro where you can get some great food and just sit and enjoy a glass of wine with friends.

As a matter of fact, that is just what I did yesterday. As I sat in the shop enjoying a San Pelligrino I started visiting with newlyweds Mark and Marsha Reis who were enjoying a lunch of Chardonnay and a couple of small plates of food. We got to talking and sharing food, and became the best of friends in just a few minutes.

We enjoyed the Northwest Steak Planks, which are crostini planks with hand-carved beef and gorgonzola. We also had the Red Mountain Flat Bread with artichokes, feta, grilled chicken, and herbs. Absolutely fabulous!!

Wolk and Kenfield were very thoughtful in opening their shop together. Anita, who has a long career in retail focused on gift items that are unique and fun. Jewelry and art adorns the store that isn’t available just anywhere. It is hand made and selected.

Patty, who really understands the wine business wanted to focus on wines that are unique. Her thought was that anyone can get a bottle of wine from the Northwest. She focused on varietals and getting the best wines from regions where those varietals shine. Her selections of world wines are as fabulous as her local wines.

I see Mary Ann and I hanging out with Mark and Marsha and numerous other people at Wine and More for years to come.

If you’re looking to come to Kennewick this weekend, their Grand Opening Celebration continues Saturday with a visit from the amazing Charlie Hoppes from Fidelitas. Champagne tastings are on Sundays, and every day there are wine flights available.

Second, I know that I’ve been ranting and raving about how the sky is falling here in the Tri-Cities when it comes to alcohol sales. On the other hand, the new laws here In Washington have allowed for us to have a wine megastore here in the area. Mid-Columbia Wine and Spirits has opened in Richland this month, and a Kennewick store opening in July.

The store’s owners, Micheal Shemall and Rajiv Malhan, who own hookedonwine.net, were able to use the new laws to leverage their business into the retail environment. The selection is the largest I’ve seen, with bottles ranging from 375ml to 6 liters in size, and from just a few dollars to thousands.

You can find just about anything your heart desires when it comes to selection. If you’ve been looking for a rare Brunelo di Montelcino that you enjoyed on your honeymoon in Italy I’m pretty sure you’ll find it there.

My good friend Sabrina Griever is one of the wine stewards and managers at the store. Tell her I sent you.

Cheers!

The Interesting Facets of Tempranillo

I’m a big fan of wines that aren’t Bordeaux. Don’t get me wrong. Oh, do I love the rich flavors of a good Cabernet or Merlot. Although, there is just something so mysterious about wines that aren’t like anything else. So many times I just want to step out of the box and try something a little different and mysterious for a change.

One of my favorite regions for wines with an interesting set of flavors is Spain. And, one of my favorite wines from that region is Tempranillo. Named from the diminutive Spanish word “Temperanillo” which means early, the grapes are some of the first harvested in the warm Spanish growing season. Often times Tempranillo is harvested weeks before any of the other varieties.

This grape, used to make Rioja, is considered to be the noble grape of Spain. It was used up until just a few decades ago to produce mostly jug wines. Over the past few years it has become more and more popular as a blend or single variety high end specialty wine. Tempranillo has gained quite a following in the last few years, and now it is becoming a popular grape even here in the Western U.S..

What I like about Tempranillo is it’s rich and spicy flavors of berries, plum, leather, and fresh tobacco as a general set of characteristics. It is low in acidity and sugar making it great for those who don’t like acidic wines. Other flavors such as vanilla can be easily infused through the oak of good barrel aging.

In my very difficult research for this article I decided to talk about two different methods for Tempranillo out of the same winemaker. I received two bottles from Matchbook wines out of Dunnigan Hills. I chose a bottle of mostly Tempranillo blend, and another bottle that was a Tempranillo Rose’.

The Matchbook 2009 Tempranillo is 90% Tempranillo, 5% Graciano, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine offers rich flavors of black berries, cinnamon, clove, cocoa, and vanilla. It is dark in color and has just enough umph to hold up to a pesto or tapas.

The 2011 Rose’ of Tempranillo. Unlike the blend I just talked about, this wine was bled from the skins right at crush before the colors would darken. It was then cold fermented in stainless steel for 3 months rather than barrel aged for up to 18 months in oak barrels. The result is a much more delicate wine with a nose of cream soda, with flavors of watermelon and peaches. With a residual sugar of under .5% this fairly dry wine has most of its flavor from the fruit and malolactic fermentation.

These versions of Tempranillo are very soft and delicate. I’ve also had many from the northwest that were much more full bodied. The results are always an overall spiciness with great food pairing abillites.

The next time you’re a little weary of the same old merlot I hope you’ll give Tempranillo a try. There are several offerings on most grocery shelves, and many of our local wine shops have even more choices.

Enjoy!

Gallo Wines Buys Into Northwest Wines

Gosh!! I Love it when I’m right! I’ve been saying for years that E & J Gallo Company from Modesto, California was going to join the Northwest winemaking scene soon. It was only a matter of time until the Gallo family owned a piece of the Washington and Oregon wine biz.

Guess what got announced this week? You got it. The Gallo family purchased both Columbia Winery, and Covey Run from Ascentia Corporation. Ascentia, who also sold off their interest a couple of weeks ago of a couple of other northwest wineries to Precept Brands, must be doing some pretty stealthy capitalization because they are cutting loose some nice properties.

I’ve been a big fan of Gallo wines ever since I sold for them through Graybeal Distributing. Gallo is really a company that’s really got it together when it comes to making, marketing, and branding their wines.

The one thing that has always held the company back from true success in the northwest was that we are pretty proud of our own wines. In most cases it is nearly impossible to convince a person from this part of the world that a Californian wine would be superior to any rot gut from around here. Truly, wine in California or Europe is overall significantly better, and sometimes cheaper. But, we here in this region are proud of our own brands.

A couple of years ago Gallo started to really get it right. They looked at the success of brands like Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, and Precept Brands and realized that they needed to produce wines through other local labels like those companies do. Box and jug wines are way out of vogue and the Gallo numbers were dropping quickly.

Gallo started by picking up some big European brands like Gascon Malbec. Everything at Gascon stayed the same, but the ownership and money flow was different. Great wine at a great price.

Recently, before the big 1183 fiasco hit us here in Washington I picked up some booze to stock up. I picked up a bunch of New Amsterdam Gin. One of my favorites. The Lady at the store told me that they sold tons of the stuff. When I told her it was a Gallo product she just about passed out.

Now, with Gallo picking up stock in the northwest we are sure to see the lines get a lot more blurry. One thing I can tell you is that the Gallo distributors are going to see a huge increase in their numbers out of this.

Covey Run was founded in 1982 in Prosser, and was one of the benchmark wineries that kick started the Washington wine industry. Helen Willard, one of my good friends from the Prosser area started Covey Run as Quail Ridge with her late husband Leon. Helen still walks the vineyards of the winery every day with her dogs.
Columbia Winery started in the garage of Dr. Lloyd Woodburne in Laurelhurst, Washington in 1962. In 1979 they were joined by pioneer winemaker David Lake and the rest is history. Known as Washington’s first premium wine brand, the winery has grown exponentially through the years.

Congrats to all in this purchase. I know that both the winemaking staff, the founders, and the Gallo brand will be strengthened by this.

Cheers!!