Sean P. Sullivan - Washington Wine Report

Watch out Walla Walla, there’s a new sheriff in town. Woodinville stalwart Guardian Cellars is opening a tasting room in the valley.

“It's always been kind of a desire to have something [in Walla Walla] if just the right spot came up,” says Guardian founder and winemaker Jerry Reiner, who works by day as a police officer. “It was just waiting and waiting and waiting and, fortunately, finally the planets aligned, and it fell into our lap.”

The new tasting room will be located at 202 East Main Street, across the street from Walla Walla Bread Company. Long-time fans of Guardian, which was founded in 2004, can expect to see themes familiar to the winery’s existing spaces.

“It will kind of stay in the Guardian theme of some blacks, whites, blues, and silver,” Reiner says. “We'll have the kinds of cool modern furniture that we like, and very rich feel behind it.” At present, however, the space is still a work in progress.

“With the current situation and getting supplies and everything, we can't do exactly what we want to the place yet,” Reiner says.

The tasting room will have a soft opening on Friday May 6th, the beginning of Spring Release Weekend. No reservations will be required for opening weekend, but they will begin to be accepted Monday, May 9th. Tastings will be offered Thursday through Monday, and will currently be indoors-only as the winery applies for a permit for outdoor seating.

This will be Guardian’s third tasting room and its largest space at 2100 square feet, with 1700 of that dedicated to the tasting area. The winery will continue to maintain its Woodinville and Maltby tasting rooms. Production will remain at the Maltby site.

Guardian is the fourth Woodinville winery to open a tasting room in Walla Walla Valley. Mark Ryan Winery opened a tasting room there in 2012. The winery opened a second tasting room, The Annex, in 2020. Mark Ryan’s production also now takes place in the valley, though it maintains a strong Woodinville presence with multiple tasting rooms. Barons Winery relocated its production to the valley in 2016 and opened a tasting room 2017. Finally Patterson Cellars announced earlier this year that it was opening a tasting room in Walla Walla and also moving production to the valley.

Hyatt Vineyards in Washington’s Yakima Valley has announced the hiring of Caleb Foster as general manager and winemaker. Foster started at the position earlier this month.

“I'm excited about the opportunity to help manage and drive the future at a place like this,” Foster says. “There's a great opportunity for growth and change.”

Located in Zillah in Yakima Valley’s Rattlesnake Hills sub-appellation, Hyatt Vineyards was founded in 1983 by Leland and Lynda Hyatt. The winery produces approximately 15,000 cases of wine annually and owns 83 acres of vineyards, planted primary to Riesling, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec.

The Hyatts have been openly looking to sell the winery for some time. Foster was brought on in part to help facilitate a potential sale in the future.

“It’s about envisioning what the new buyer is going to want and need and creating that at this property,” Foster says.

Foster has over 30 years of experience in the Washington wine industry, starting out as assistant winemaker at Woodward Canyon from 1991 until 1999. In 2000, he co-founded Buty Winery in Walla Walla Valley with this then wife Nina Buty. Most recently, Foster spent seven years as winemaker at Richland’s J. Bookwalter Winery before leaving the winery in the spring of 2021. Foster plans to leverage all that experience at his new position.

“I can see clearly the steps that can be made to elevate quality, both in the vineyard and in the cellar as well as elevating the marketing,” he says. In addition to helping revitalize a long-established brand, Foster says there were other aspects that made the job attractive.

“This is a great region for great flavors," he says. "When you stand on the front lawn here, it's simply gorgeous. We have an incredible address. There is a great future that can be created here.”

Image by Tessa Morse courtesy of Hyatt Vineyards. 

The following article appeared in the March 2022 issue of Wine Enthusiast 

Most wines are adorned with a capsule atop the bottle. Whether made of plastic, aluminum, tin or something else, they are so ubiquitous sommeliers have an elaborate ritual to cut through them. Screwcap bottles emulate them.

But as omnipresent as they are, the time has come for wine capsules to go away. 

Year marked by high heat, low yields, good quality

2021 was an unusual growing season in Washington, marked by a record heat event in late June, an overall hot growing season, and in many cases historically low yields. However, in the end winemakers were quite pleased with the quality of the fruit.

“It’s a strong overall vintage,” says Chris Figgins, president and winemaking director at Figgins Family Wine Estates in Walla Walla Valley. “There’s just not a lot of it.”

The growing season started with below average precipitation during the winter, leading to lower soil moisture. Bud break began March 31st, early but in the range of recent years. This was followed by a series of quite cold nights, with temperatures in the 20s for over a week.

“It was a fingernail biter,” says Marty Clubb, co-owner and managing winemaker at L’Ecole No. 41 in Walla Walla Valley. “I was really surprised there wasn't more damage.”

Bloom began May 17th in Columbia Valley, slightly ahead of recent years. As bloom continued into June, temperatures warmed up considerably and stayed warm and dry throughout the summer.

“That was really the driving factor for the whole season,” says Dan Nickolaus, vineyard manager at Wallula and Mach One vineyards in Horse Heaven Hills. He notes that the weather at bloom was not ideal.

“About the worst thing that you can have for bloom is hot, dry wind, and we did have some of that.”

It soon became clear that the state was looking at a very light crop. “When the shoots first came through, you could just see. It's like, ‘Ooh. Small clusters,’” says Figgins.

What happened next, however, was the defining event of the season. A heat dome descended on the Pacific Northwest from June 26th and lasted through June 30th. Growers reported temperatures of 118 degrees Fahrenheit in Walla Walla Valley and 116 in Yakima Valley. Even the traditionally cooler Columbia Gorge was a scorching 108 degrees.

“On our thermal camera, we were seeing temperatures as high as 126 [degrees] on the vineyard floor,” notes Lacey Lybeck, vineyard manager at Sagemoor Farms in the White Bluffs.

This shattered all previous temperature records in every location throughout the state and beyond. Every grower and winemaker said the same thing without hyperbole.

“I've never seen triple digits in June like we had,” says Kendall Mix, winemaker at Milbrandt Vineyards and Wahluke Wine Company on the Wahluke Slope.

The good news was the record heat was well forecast. Growers watered liberally in advance. Those with overhead sprinklers used them. Generally speaking, most thought their sites survived the heat well, though some did see curled and scorched leaves depending on location, variety, and vine age.

“Young vineyards on shallow soils really suffered in some places,” notes James Mantone, founder and winemaker at Syncline Winery in the Columbia Gorge.

Once the heat dome lifted, above average temperatures continued. Kennewick saw 13 days above 100 degrees in July.

“That influenced about everything we did, from labor in the field to watering to when we would do anything,” says Yakima Valley and Red Mountain grower Dick Boushey. Many irrigated throughout the growing season, rarely if ever turning drip irrigation off.

“It was a year where I felt like we were just giving and giving to the vines, and they were just happy to take whatever we gave them,” says Lybeck.

As the season continued, just how light the crop was became more and more apparent. “Every time we reassessed crop load, it got lighter and lighter and lighter,” says Clubb.

Veraison started in mid-July in Columbia Valley, fairly well-aligned with recent years. Harvest began in the state August 11th for sparkling wine and August 12th for white wine, with the latter historically early.

The prospect of a light crop, a high heat year, and an early start indicated it might be a fast and furious harvest, with growers racing to pick fruit before sugars got too high. However, that’s largely not how the season played out.

Cooler temperatures started in mid-September and lasted through October, stretching out the season. “We had probably the nicest fall we've ever had,” says Boushey. “It went all the way into November, and it allowed us to get this fruit picked.” This took a season that at one point appeared to be barreling down the tracks and slowed it down.

“I've always been a believer that you're finishing weather makes a big difference,” says Clubb. “I think the cooler September/October really helped bring the fruit into balance.”

Still, harvest was not without its challenges, with the pandemic and other factors contributing to labor shortages and trucking shortages. In some cases this impacted what was picked, when it was picked, and how, in what one grower described as a “logistics nightmare.”

“I couldn't find bodies, and I had to work through a labor contractor, which I haven't done in a long time,” says Boushey, who notes that once harvest started, it did not relent. “I never picked so steady. It was two months, six days a week, just picking.”

Some wrapped up harvest in late September/early October and others in the middle of the month. Production vineyards, as usual, continued picking into late October/early November.

In the end, the main story was the historically low yields in many locations. Berry size, cluster size, and the number of clusters were all well below average.
At Syncline’s estate vineyard in the Gorge, Mantone says their Gamay grapes were 70 grams in 2021 instead of the typical 190-195 grams. Clubb says in 2015, Washington’s hottest year on record, his winery averaged 3.7 tons per acre across all of its sites. In 2021, the winery’s average was 2.7. Some would have been happy to just have that.

“My worst block, a mature vineyard, I picked Cabernet at .46 [tons per acre],” says Figgins. “We’re always struggling to get a ton, ton and a half [in that block], but .46?”

There are a number of theories as to why the crop was as light as it was. Some believe that a freeze event in late 2020 caused more damage than initially assessed, though others are skeptical. Some think freezing temperatures after bud break played a role. Unsettled weather during bloom in 2020 and 2021 also likely had some impact. All, however, agree that the heat dome was the major driver.

“It was probably the main contributing factor to what I would describe as the lowest yielding vintage I've ever seen,” says Clubb. The timing of the heat dome was particularly important.

“That heat hit during lag phase, so that was that period of time when we've got cell division,” says Mantone. “I think the vines just kind of like the rest of us went into survival mode.”

Overall, Cabernet Sauvignon was the most impacted variety, with many growers reporting that they were down 30% or more off their projections. In the end, however, most varieties came in light, though Syrah generally fared well.

“Everything was down,” says Katie Nelson, winemaker at Chateau Ste Michelle, the state’s largest winery.

Many reported Brix were elevated, as would be expected in a warm year. Others saw more mixed numbers.

“Brix were kind of a tale of two stories,” says Kate Michaud, winemaker at Double Canyon Winery, which gets the majority of its fruit from Horse Heaven Hills. “We had some sites that had pretty modest Brix, even in the first week of October, then other ones that were 27+.”

The heat of the year might seem to indicate it would be a low acid vintage. However, many reported that acids were above expected – though by no means high.

“The shocking thing was the acid from the vintage, that it held on,” notes Mantone.

In the end, depending on location, it was either the warmest or second warmest vintage on record looking at Growing Degree Days, a measure of heat accumulation. While the heat dome and warm summer surely had their impacts, winemakers were quite happy with the final results. “Quality is great, but it’s going to be a little shorter in certain varieties,” says Nelson.

Unlike the previous two vintages, where a lot of fruit was left on the vine due to a frost event in 2019 and concerns about potential smoke impact in 2020, growers picked every grape they could find in 2021. “Basically the state was picked out,” says Mix.

In the end, the heat dome and low yields were the big stories of the vintage. While the heat had its impact, several producers noted how fortunate it was that the record heat came in late June and not in July or August.

“Had that heat happened three or four weeks later, I think we would have lost the vintage,” says Figgins.

All quotes from interviews conducted in December 2021 and early January 2022. Photos by Richard Duval.

The following article appeared in the April 2022 edition of Wine Enthusiast.

Bud break has begun in Columbia Valley. Sadie Drury at North Slope Management noted bud break in Syrah at Seven Hills Vineyard on March 28th. Drury also said that she has seen bud break in Cabernet Franc (pictured here), Sangiovese, and Merlot. Though Drury says bud break has currently occurred in less than 5% of buds at Seven Hills, she expects widespread bud break shortly with a series of warm days in the forecast.

Wineries, please note that the Wine Enthusiast submission schedule for Washington and Oregon has changed from the schedule that was released at the beginning of the year.

In the revised schedule, reviews for Washington and Oregon will now be published in every issue of the magazine. For Washington, this realigns the schedule to how reviews have been published in recent years. For Oregon, this is a change from every other issue, as reviews have been published in the past, to every issue.

My intention in advocating for this change was to a) make the schedule easier to understand and b) decrease the time between when wines are submitted and when reviews are published as much as possible.

With this change, wineries have two options. If you wish the reviews to be targeted to a specific issue of the magazine, you may follow the 2022 Buying Guide Tasting Schedule found on the Submit for Rating page of the Wine Enthusiast website. Alternately, if you want the wines to be tasted as quickly as possible, you can ignore that schedule and simply send in the wines when they are ready for review. 

In either case, I taste on a rolling basis and wines will generally be tasted within two to four weeks of when they were received. If you have any questions, please email me using the information on the Contact page.

For consumers, this means you can expect to see my Washington and Oregon reviews in every issue of the magazine going forward. We can all raise a glass to that!

Patterson Cellars announced today the purchase of the former Tertulia Cellars winery and its surrounding Whistling Hills Vineyard in Walla Walla Valley. The long-time Woodinville producer will move most of its production to the valley and open a tasting room there.

“My team's excited. I’m excited. It’s going to be a good move,” says owner and winemaker John Patterson.

The purchase includes Tertulia’s 9,200-square-foot production facility and tasting room space located in the southside of Walla Walla. It also includes a 14+ acre surrounding vineyard. A little over seven of those acres are currently planted, with room for an additional 1.4 acres. The Tertulia brand and inventory were not part of the sale.

The building will be rebranded as Patterson Cellars and will have a tasting room, Patterson’s fifth. Patterson will continue to have two tasting rooms in Woodinville, one at Hollywood Hill and one in the Warehouse District. The winery will also continue to operate satellite tasting rooms in Seattle and Leavenworth. Patterson himself will relocate to Walla Walla.

“I'm just looking for a little bit of a change. I'm hoping that, with the move, life will be a little slower,” Patterson says, noting this year will be his 36th harvest.

The winery plans to continue all existing vineyard contracts and hire someone to manage the new estate property. Walla Walla Valley currently comprises approximately 20% of Patterson’s fruit. Patterson produced 18,000 cases of wine in 2021. The winery plans to add 2,800 square feet of space to its new building to accommodate that production.

“We can get one vintage in [to the existing building], but we can't get two vintages,” says Patterson. “So that will be one of the first things we do.” The winery also plans to add covered outdoor spaces to serve guests.

In addition to moving the majority of production, Patterson will be winding down his healthy consulting business. This has involved everything from custom crush and equipment use to various other services for numerous western Washington wineries.

“I’ve got a lot of customers and friends that I've worked with for 15-plus years,” says Patterson. “I’ve been letting them know that I have to focus on a different phase of my business.”

Patterson Cellars was founded in 2000 in Monroe, Washington by John Patterson and his father Jack. John had previously spent 13 years at Quilceda Creek. The winery moved to Woodinville’s Warehouse District in 2007. While Patterson is relocating the winery, he remains bullish on the future of Woodinville.

“Downtown there's so much going on,” he says. “You've got the new schoolhouse, you've got Woodin Creek, and you've got all the multi-use buildings. It's exciting to see it all.” Patterson is currently serving his ninth year as president of Woodinville Wine Country, a local promotional body.

With the move, Patterson says he hopes to spend more time with the winery’s customers. “I love working with the guests when they come in and in greeting them and talking to them. For me, that’s so relaxing.”

Tertulia Cellars closed its doors in 2021 after 16 years in business. With this sale, owner Jim O'Connell continues to have two vineyards in Walla Walla Valley, Elevation Vineyard in the North Fork region and Rivière Galets in The Rocks District. METIS, a mergers and acquisitions firm specializing in Pacific Northwest wineries and vineyards, served as the exclusive transactional advisor in the sale. Terms were not announced.

Images of Tertulia Cellars and John Patterson by Richard Duval. 

Today the Institute for Enology and Viticulture at Walla Walla Community College announced the search for a new director. The institute is home to College Cellars, a teaching winery that along with the Institute have had an outsized impacted on the west coast wine industry.

“The number of graduates that are involved in various companies and businesses and wineries is astonishing,” says Marty Clubb, co-owner and managing winemaker at L’Ecole No. 41, one of Walla Walla Valley’s founding wineries. “When you create such a strong, educated network of people, it has a multiplier effect in terms of its influence.”

To wit, at present L’Ecole’s entire cellar team comes from the college. “It's been the best thing that ever happened to us,” says Clubb of his new team. “They are wine savvy. I think they’re ultimately going to help us make better wine.”

Another one of the valley’s founding wineries, Woodward Canyon, has also seen the impact of the college. Woodward recently underwent a generational transition, where founders Rick Small and Darcey Fugman-Small transitioned leadership to their daughter Jordan and son Sager. Sager is a graduate of the program.

“One of the things I didn’t really expect to see was how entrepreneurial the program turned out to be,” says Small, noting the number of graduates that have gone on to start wineries and other businesses. These graduates have also taken key positions throughout the Washington wine industry as beyond.

The Institute was founded in 2000 (Full disclosure: I am currently an adjunct instructor at the college.) Since that time, the program has had over 350 students. Many of them have gone on to have successful careers as growers, cellar hands, winemakers, and hospitality workers.

Sabrina Lueck, interim director of winemaking at the college, credits the program’s success to the hands-on experience students get. “Our students truly learn by doing,” she says. “We have eight acres of vineyards and a 2,000 case winery where our students really do have true ownership over the product.”

The intimate size of the program and its tight relationship with the Washington wine community are also pivotal to its success.

“I think that we have a nearly unparalleled ability to refer students into jobs where they're going to thrive, because we get to know our students and their motivations, their goals,” says Lueck. “Then our program has been integrated in this community for [over] 20 years, so our staff members understand the needs of our local industry as well.”

The impacts of the program have been felt well beyond Walla Walla Valley and Washington. Graduate Joel Sokoloff is currently vineyard manager at highly regarded Soter Vineyards in Willamette Valley. He previously held the same position at Cayuse Vineyards in Walla Walla Valley, one of the top estates in the world.

“The biggest strength [of the community college] is giving an excellent foundation for being successful, no matter which route you want to take in the wine industry,” Sokoloff says. “They really help students find what they're interested in.”

Maryam Ahmed, founder of Maryam + Company in Napa Valley, is also a graduate of the program. Prior to founding her own company, she spent nearly five years as director of public programs at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa. Ahmed says the college offers a unique opportunity for students to gain direct experience and be embedded in a community that is home to over 120 wineries and tasting rooms.

“I really wanted a hands-on program,” she says of why she choose the college. “It was an amazing opportunity to both get this degree and be completely immersed in a wine region and a community that supports the school too.”

Lueck has been at the college since 2011, starting teaching there at the tender age of 23. She has served as interim director since 2021 and is leaving the college to work at the esteemed German producer Weingut Keller.

“I am leaving, but I love this program,” says Lueck. “The most rewarding and exciting thing for me has been the success of the graduates.”

With Lueck leaving, there will be a chance for the next generation of leaders to carry the torch, teaching new students and taking the program to the next level. Lueck says the next director, who she will have a role in hiring, will have the opportunity to have an enormous impact on Northwest wine.

“One of the missions of the college is to be the catalyst that transforms our students lives and the communities that we live in, and I truly believe we do,” Lueck says. “I've seen the impact that our program has had on our students individual lives and also our winemaking community here.”

Applications for the position are currently open.

Image of Institute for Enology and Viticulture and Sabrina Lueck by Richard Duval. Image of students in vineyard courtesy of the Institute for Enology and Viticulture.

This week Mark Ryan Winery announced it had purchased full ownership of Underground Wine Project. The dual project between Woodinville’s Mark Ryan Winery and Walla Walla’s Sleight of Hand Cellars began in 2014.

“I love Underground Wine Project, but it’s never been a top priority for either side,” says Mark Ryan founder and winemaker Mark McNeilly. “This was a good business decision for us, and I also think it was a good business decision for them.”

Underground Wine Project includes Mr. Pink Rosé, Idle Hands Red Blend, and Devil’s Playground Cabernet Sauvignon. All three wines will now be folded into the Mark Ryan portfolio, which includes Mark Ryan Winery, Board Track Racer, Lu & Oly, Flowerhead, and Megan Anne Cellars. Of the three Underground wines, Mr. Pink is the driver at 15,000 cases in the last vintage. McNeilly anticipates broadening that wine’s reach.

“Rosé is such a hot SKU right now,” he says. “I suspect we can grow Mr. Pink. It's got a lot of potential.” McNeilly anticipates Idle Hands and Devil’s Playground might also grow.

“I want me and my team to step back and look at all the Mark Ryan family of wines and see where the Devil's Playground and Idle Hands fit in, but I think they’re very viable and we’ve had great success with them,” he says. “I think we can go a little bit more broad in distribution for all these SKUs.” Of note, McNeilly says Underground’s commitment to philanthropy will continue.

The 2021 vintage of Mr. Pink, due out in February, will be the first release of Underground Wine Project under Mark Ryan.

 L’Ecole No. 41, Valdemar Estates, Walla Walla Steak Co., and Crossbuck Brewing to open in Woodinville’s new Schoolhouse District in 2022

Woodinville is about to get a new wine tasting and culinary destination with a Walla Walla flair. L’Ecole No. 41, one of Walla Walla valley’s oldest and most venerated wineries, announced today it will be opening a tasting room in Woodinville. The tasting room – the winery’s first outside Walla Walla Valley – will be part of Woodinville’s new Schoolhouse District. The area will also be home to Walla Walla’s Valdemar Estates, Walla Walla Steak Co., and Crossbuck Brewing.

“It’s something we’ve been approached about for decades,” L’Ecole co-owner and managing winemaker Marty Clubb says of opening a satellite tasting room in Woodinville. “We always wanted to make sure we were pursuing the right opportunity.” For a winery located in a historic schoolhouse whose name means “the school” in French, what better opportunity could there be than opening in Woodinville’s nascent Schoolhouse District?

This downtown area gets its name from Woodinville Schoolhouse No. 23, which was built in 1909. The brick building has been vacant for more than a decade and is currently being renovated to house Walla Walla Steak Co. and Crossbuck Brewing.

The district will include a “wine walk,” which L’Ecole and Valdemar will be part of, retail spaces, 261 residential units, and 30,000 square feet of public outdoor space. It will also include a renovated YMCA and on-site parking. With the City of Woodinville and HAL Real Estate as its partners, MainStreet Property Group completed The Schoolhouse District project with GenCap Construction Corp. as the general contractor. It is now fully managed by Insite Property Solutions.

Rocky Pond Winery in Orondo, Washington announced today the hiring of Elizabeth Keyser as winemaker. Keyser had previously been assistant winemaker for California’s HALL Family Wines, which includes HALL, Walt, and Baca.

“I'm at my point in my career where I am ready and looking for more creative license and the opportunity to take more ownership in the [winemaking] process,” Keyser says of joining Rocky Pond. “I'm really excited to be moving to Washington.”

Keyser’s appointment follows Rocky Pond’s hiring of renowned Napa Valley consultant Steve Leveque in 2020. Leveque has worked with a who’s who list of clients that includes Chalk Hill, Opus One, Robert Mondavi, and HALL. Keyser’s connection to Leveque while at HALL is part of what drew her to Rocky Pond.

“I’ve benefited so much from having Steve as a mentor,” Keyser says. The pairing now gives Rocky Pond a formidable duo.

Rocky Pond was founded in 2013 by David and Michelle Dufenhorst, who planted the first vineyard in the proposed Rocky Reach appellation that same year. They subsequently planted a second vineyard starting in 2018. Rocky Reach is now home to seven vineyards in addition to a large amount of tree fruit acreage. Rocky Pond is currently the only winery in the proposed appellation.

Keyser says the youth of this nascent wine area was part of the appeal. “One of the things that attracted me most to Rocky Pond is we are truly pioneers of this region,” she says. “We have the opportunity to take almost a blank slate and work on the best set of varietals for the region and define this special piece of land.”

Keyser grew up in the suburbs of New York City and attended Miami University, focusing on communication and marketing. After graduation, she initially looked to work in those areas.

“At that point in time in my life, I never thought that I’d be working with an agricultural product or wanting to be a winemaker,” Keyser says. “I thought that I wanted to maybe go into PR for a fashion house or something along those lines.”

However, after attending a wine tasting with her parents at a local retailer, she was offered a seasonal job at the company. Keyser subsequently spent three years working for Zachy’s Wine & Liquor in Scarsdale, New York.

“For the first time, it was like everything was aligning in terms of my intellectual curiosity and my hunger for more knowledge around wine,” Keyser says.

In 2014 she worked as a harvest intern and production assistant at Cedar Creek Ranch & Vineyards in California. She subsequently worked as a cellar assistant at Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard in Dundee, New York and as a harvest laboratory technician at A to Z Wineworks in Newberg, Oregon.

From there, Keyser spent a harvest at Hardys Tintara in Australia’s McLaren Vale region before returning to California to intern at Cliff Lede in Napa Valley. She joined HALL Family Wines in 2017. Along the way, Keyser obtained a master’s degree in enology from Cornell University.

In recent years, the Dufenhorsts have moved aggressively to establish Rocky Pond’s presence. They planted two vineyards in Rocky Reach and a third in the nearby Lake Chelan viticultural area. In 2020, they hired John Ware as president. Ware had spent 20 years at Quilceda Creek, most recently as vice president and general manager.

Though Rocky Reach is young as a wine growing region, the area shows great promise. Its bedrock and soils are distinctive from most other areas of the Columbia Valley. It is also considerably warmer than the surrounding regions, allowing a wide assortment of varieties to ripen. Leveque says the area’s “rare combination” of factors is what attracted him to consult for Rocky Pond.

“All of these special and unique attributes provide grapes with complexity, concentration and vineyard-derived personalities that I have not seen anywhere else within the greater California-Oregon-Washington Pacific stretch,” says Leveque.

With the announcement, former winemaker Shane Collins, who has been with Rocky Pond since 2017, will become director of viticulture. Keyser will begin working at Rocky Pond February 1st.

Image of Elizabeth Keyser courtesy of Rocky Pond Winery.  

Okay folks, another year, another challenge. The variety for 2022 will be Chardonnay!

In recognition of my new role at Wine Enthusiast covering Oregon and Canada in addition to Washington and Idaho, I’m expanding the challenge to include the entire Pacific Northwest – Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia.

Why Chardonnay? Because although it is ubiquitous, it is also a somewhat underappreciated grape variety.

In Washington, it’s the state’s second most produced grape variety, yet never quite gets its due. There’s also been increased interest in working with Chardonnay from producers around the state lately. Meanwhile what’s happening with Willamette Valley Chardonnay is in my opinion the most exciting story in American wine in the last decade. The variety is also quite popular in Idaho and British Columbia.

You’re welcome to focus on one particular state or area or explore the region in full as you see fit. As in previous challenges, I invite everyone to explore and taste beyond your usual favorite producers.

If you’re up for the challenge, leave a comment here or on my Washington Wine Report Facebook page stating, “I accept the 2022 Northwest Chardonnay Challenge.” During the month, have at least one bottle of Northwest Chardonnay of your choice. At the end of each month/beginning of the next, I will post to my Facebook page asking what wine people had to keep us all accountable.

Here’s to more Northwest Chardonnay in 2022! Who’s with me?

On Monday Nina Buty, co-founder of Buty Winery in Walla Walla, announced that the winery would be closing. News of the winery's “retirement” came in an email to list members.

“The decision was personal,” Buty says of closing the winery. “There is a point where you intuitively know it's time, and I felt very clear about that.”

Buty co-founded the winery with Caleb Foster in 2000, when she was a 24-year old graduate from Walla Walla’s Whitman College. The winery was at the very front end of a wave of new producers in Walla Walla, which is now home to over 120 wineries and tasting rooms.

“Wine is one of the reasons that so many other things have flourished in Walla Walla and that there's such a bigger breadth and depth of options of things to create in this little town,” Buty says of watching the community’s growth over the last 22 years.

Buty pioneered and helped popularize Cabernet Sauvignon-Syrah blends in Washington, with its first vintage of those wines in 2001. The winery focused on two areas, the Rocks District, which it used for its Rediviva of the Stones, and Horse Heaven Hills, which it used for its Columbia Rediviva. While intentionally made Cabernet-Syrah blends are now relatively common in the state, Buty still sees room for exploration.

“I think there is such a beautiful possibility for that blend in Washington,” she says.

Buty was also one of the first wineries beyond Cayuse Vineyards to work with Rocks District fruit, initially sourcing from Cayuse’s Cailloux Vineyard starting in 2000. The winery subsequently planted its own site, Rockgarden Estate, in the Rocks District in 2008. The area is now a hot bed of activity and received appellation status in 2015. Meanwhile Phinny Hill Vineyard in the Horse Heavens, where the winery sourced fruit for its Columbia Rediviva, is now considered one of the state's top sites for Cabernet Sauvignon.

I am thrilled to announce today an expansion of my responsibilities at Wine Enthusiast. As of the beginning of this year, I will be covering Oregon and Canada for the magazine, in addition to my current responsibilities of Washington and Idaho. I am truly excited for the opportunity to cover the Pacific Northwest and Canada in full.

Let me start by saying that I have a great admiration for Oregon wines and winemakers. I have tasted and enjoyed the state’s wines for many years. In fact, some of my earliest wine inspirations two decades ago came from Oregon. I also briefly reviewed Southern Oregon wines for Wine Enthusiast from 2013 to 2014, and I covered Oregon wine as part of my beat as Northwest correspondent for Vineyard & Winery Management magazine from 2013 to 2017. I have previously attended IPNC, ¡Salud!, and the Oregon Wine Symposium. I have spent a good deal of time in the state with winegrowers. I am excited to spend more time there in the coming years and to focus on the region, its producers, and its wines more intently. I firmly believe Oregon is making some of the highest quality wines in the world and that the region has accomplished as much as any American wine region. It will be an honor to cover all parts of the state the state, to review the wines, and to help tell the story.

Canadian wine meanwhile is, for many Americans, a gem that remains hidden. For a variety of reasons, few of the country’s wines are imported to the US. That is a shame, as there are wonderful wines being made in Canada. I have traveled to Canadian wine country previously and have tried many of the wines. I also reviewed Canada for Wine Enthusiast briefly from 2013 to 2014. I look forward to peeling back the curtain on the exciting wine being made there.

For people and producers in those regions who may not be familiar with me, I grew up on the east coast and moved to Seattle, Washington in 2000. It was at that time that I became interested in wine. I started Washington Wine Report as a friends and family email list in 2005, reviewing and writing about the state’s wines and wine regions. I launched Washington Wine Report as an on-line site in 2007 – fifteen years ago this year. I left the corporate world (biotech and software) at the end of 2009 to dedicate myself to writing about wine full-time. I began writing for Seattle Metropolitan magazine late the following year and started writing for Wine Enthusiast at the beginning of 2013. I continue to write for both magazines. During that time, I have reviewed almost 15,000 wines and have written over 400 articles. I have also written over 1,800 blog posts for my own site.

Prior to coming to the west coast, my background was in science and research. Both very much inform how I approach tasting and reviewing wine. They also inform how I think about the subject more generally. My goal in reviewing wine is to be objective as one can be, to provide consistency in approach, and to give every wine the exact same shot as every other wine. To accomplish this, all wines I review for Wine Enthusiast are sampled blind in varietal sets without exception. In these tastings, I do not sort by any other factor than variety, including price, appellation, or vintage (read more about how I taste wine here).

In writing about and reviewing wine, I also believe that it’s important to be regionally based and to spend time in wine country. It’s important to kick the dirt, to have one’s finger on the pulse, and to get to fully know the producers, their history, and their wines. I look forward to doing each of these things in my new coverage areas. I will try and represent these regions as fully and as passionately as I can. In addition to spending time in the regions I cover, I also always have an ‘open door’ policy. That is to say, I am always happy to meet with producers, talk with them on the phone, and, in today’s world, Zoom with them to get to know them and their wines more fully.

For those who are already familiar with my work and are wondering how this change might impact what I currently do, I do not anticipate making any changes in the approach I have had at Wine Enthusiast for the last nine years. In terms of reviewing, I have typically tasted approximately 1,400 wines per year for Wine Enthusiast, which is nowhere near my capacity. I will have some assistance in processing samples (specifically opening boxes and sorting wines), which will assist with throughput. Otherwise the way that I taste and review wines will remain unchanged. The effort that I have put into covering Washington and Idaho will remain unchanged. If anything, I expect that covering other regions will add to the perspective I bring, which will benefit all.

I have long said that this is the Golden Age for wine in the Pacific Northwest. I believe that with all of my heart. I look forward to continuing to cover this unique period of time in this area and to now cover the region in full.

One of the hallmarks of Washington wine is consistency.

Part of the state’s recipe for success is ever-warm summers in the Columbia Valley, where grapes always ripen. The desert-dry conditions also mean irrigation is required, giving growers control over the timing and amount of water vines receive. Combined with cool nights that retain acidity, these factors have led to quality so consistently high some have questioned whether Washington truly has vintage variation.

Though the answer has always been yes, the qualitative range from year to year is surely narrower than many other viticultural regions. Recent years, however, have shown more readily apparent differences across vintages, as growers and vintners grapple with a rapidly changing climate.

Quality has remained high throughout, but contrasts in style can be sharp, as shown in two recent years, 2018 and 2019.

Read the full story here.

In recent years, a number of producers in Washington have explored a different style for the state, one that involves picking significantly earlier than the norm and focusing more intently on acidity. One example is a new winery in Walla Walla Valley called itä wines.

“My palate tends more toward a lighter, more acid driven style of wine,” explains owner and winemaker Kelsey Albro Itämeri. This style is driven by both when she picks fruit and how she decides to do so.

“When I make picking decisions, I'm looking honestly for a balance between finished alcohol and acidity,” Itämeri says. “I haven't become too wrapped up in tasting for phenolics. Perhaps people think that I'm a wild child.”

Founded in 2019, itä is located in one of the winery incubator buildings in the airport region of Walla Walla, opening its doors is 2020. The winery name has multiple meanings. It’s a shortened version of Itämeri’s name, translates to “east” in Finnish, and is a reference to a diminutive modifier in Spanish.

In addition to picking decisions, itä’s wine style is also driven by its fruit sources, which currently come from two sites, Les Collines Vineyard and Breezy Slope. Both are nestled in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, near where Itämeri’s parents own property. Itämeri currently has test plantings on that property, with the goal of eventually having the wines be from estate fruit.

“I just really wanted to explore the terroir, the conditions, and the varieties that can really thrive in this little, tiny section of the Walla Walla Valley,” Itämeri says. She believes Les Collines is well-suited to her style.

“You don't have to be scared to pick so early because you're going to have a really beautiful expression of phenolics, even on the early side,” Itämeri says. In addition to the itä wines being markedly lower in alcohol and having brighter acidity than most currently coming out of Washington, they also see next to no new oak.

“I can't afford new oak!” Itämeri says laughing. “I don't like the way it tastes. Why would I make that wine?”

Thus far the itä offerings have included two different styles of Semillon, a Syrah, a Merlot, a promising Pinot Noir, and a rosé of Primitivo. The Merlot in particular is a revelation, distinct from anything I have seen come out of Washington to date.

“When I'm thinking about what I want the finished wine to be, I think about when are people going to drink it and where are they going to be and how will it make them feel?” Itämeri says. “When I think about the [Merlot] that I want to make, I think about coming home after a bad day, and this is the one you want – the wine that’s going to love you back.”

Though Washington remains largely dominated by fuller bodied red wines, Itämeri and others have shown lighter bodied styles can be made in Washington and made at high quality. They’ve also shown there is more than enough room for stylistic variation in the state.

“You kind of have to just stick to your guns a little bit and be like, ‘This is how I want to win’ and play the game appropriately,” Itämeri says.

Washington is the nation’s second-largest wine-producing state, with more than 1,000 wineries and 60,000 acres of grape vines. Despite its standing and influence, many misconceptions persist. Here are the top six. 

On Friday Christophe Baron, founder and vigneron at Bionic Wines, announced the promotion of Elizabeth Bourcier from assistant vigneron to resident vigneron for all of the estate’s Walla Walla Valley brands. Bourcier will now have primary responsibility for crafting some the world’s most sought after and highly acclaimed wines, including those from Cayuse Vineyards, Horsepower Vineyards, Hors Catégorie Vineyards, and No Girls.

“Elizabeth is an incredible talent and since our 2017 vintage, Elizabeth has been in charge of creating Bionic Wines’ full production,” Baron said in an email to his customers. “To recognize her accomplishment, I’m thrilled to formally announce Elizabeth as Resident Vigneronne of Bionic Wines.”

Baron will remain involved in Bionic Wines but will now give more time to Champagne Christophe Baron. This is a Pinot Meunier-dedicated project that Baron began in the 2014 vintage, using grapes from his family’s vineyards in France’s Marne Valley.

The announcement also referenced Baron’s involvement in “other exciting upcoming projects.” This will come as no surprise to anyone who has met the Frenchman once dubbed the Bionic Frog due to his always-active motor.

In 1997, Baron pioneered planting in the region of Walla Walla Valley now known as the Rocks District. Since then, he has continuously expanded plantings and also pushed viticultural and qualitative boundaries in the valley, focusing on biodynamic farming and crafting wines that express the terroir of each vineyard.

Bourcier is a Kirkland, Washington native who moved to Walla Walla Valley in 2001 at age 18 to study at the Institute for Enology and Viticulture at Walla Walla Community College. She was in the Institute’s first graduating class. (Full disclosure: I am an adjunct instructor at Walla Walla Community College.) Bourcier subsequently completed a bachelor’s degree in viticulture at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

After working in the tasting room at Bonny Doon Vineyard in California, Bourcier spent time at Finca Koch in the Mendoza region of Argentina before returning to Walla Walla. She began working as a laboratory technician at Cayuse Vineyards in 2008. In 2010, Baron promoted her to assistant vigneronne.

At that time, Bourcier also took primary responsibility as vigneronne for Bionic Wines’ No Girls brand, which she had co-produced since its first vintage in 2008. The name comes from a sign painted on the wall of a bordello in Walla Walla when it closed in the mid-20th century, an indication of changing times for women in the valley. Over the last decade, the No Girls wines have consistently earned top scores. In 2012, Bourcier also founded her own brand, La Rata, crafting a Priorat-inspired blend of Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah. The wine quickly established a well-deserved cult following.

In the 13 years since she joined the winery, Bourcier has brought to Bionic Wines an incisive palate and also an unerring commitment to low-intervention winegrowing and making that matches Baron’s. While Baron’s accomplishments are nearly unrivalled since he founded Cayuse in 1997 – Bionic Wines has over 85 wines rated 95 points or above at Wine Enthusiast magazine where I serve as a contributing editor – the wines have only continued to become more refined as Bourcier has taken an increasingly prominent role.

Now Bourcier will have primary responsibility for Bionic Wines’ entire Walla Walla Valley portfolio. This includes wines from its vineyards in the Rocks District – which Baron and Bourcier refer to as ‘the stones’ – as well its vineyard by the north fork of the Walla Walla Valley River, used for the Hors Catégorie Syrah.

“Christophe has trusted my gut and palate with every vintage. The stones [in Walla Walla Valley] are unlike anything else in the world, and my goal has always been to let that carry through into the wine,” Bourcier said in the customer email.

In addition to a significant change for Walla Walla Valley, Bourcier’s appointment also seems to mark a turning point for the Washington wine industry more generally. (NB: Bionic Wines is located on the Oregon side of Walla Walla Valley.) While women remain underrepresented as winemakers and vigneronnes in the Columbia Valley, they now occupy two of the most prominent and influential positions in the appellation. Last year, Katie Nelson was named winemaker at Chateau Ste Michelle, Washington’s largest winery and most recognizable brand. Now Bourcier will oversee one of the Northwest’s most highly regarded estates.

“Women have come a long way, although I think you still have to work harder as a female to prove yourself – in the winemaking world you have to put yourself out there and be more quietly confident because the only way to the top is through hard work,” Bourcier said in the email. “My vision is to never let that quality diminish. It’s an exciting time for women in wine, especially in the Walla Walla Valley.”

“We've done really good things in existing buildings with a kind of down and dirty, garage feel,” says Mark Ryan founder Mark McNeilly. “I don't think it's going to feel much different than that, but we're going to try to elevate the kind of ‘Mark Ryan 2.0’ experience.”

McNeilly says this will involve focusing more on education as well as the winery’s history. Mark Ryan’s current space in Woodinville’s nearby Hollywood District will subsequently become a tasting room for its Board Track Racer wines.

“We have a strong commitment to that Hollywood Schoolhouse area, so we're going to keep our existing space,” McNeilly says. “But we just needed more physical space for the Mark Ryan label, and we needed more parking.”

Indeed, as the Hollywood District has flourished since its redevelopment over a decade ago, parking at many of the tasting rooms has become increasingly hard to come by. Long Shadows also currently has a tasting room in this area, which it will give up when it moves. Dane Narbaitz, president and partner at Long Shadows, agrees the new facility’s abundant parking was part of the appeal.

“We've got club members that show up and want to pick up wines, but of course they want to come in and taste the new releases as well,” Narbaitz says. “They’ll call and say ‘I can't find parking within half a mile of here. Can you just bring my wines out and put them in my trunk?’ That’s really sad to miss out on those opportunities.”

The new building was originally designed for Teatro Zinzanni, a long-running dinner circus theater. However, when Teatro abandoned plans to occupy the space last year due to the pandemic, the facility owners decided to turn it into tasting rooms. The building will use the original structural plans, but the space will now be divided between four wineries.
“The structure itself is really cool,” says Narbaitz. “It’s kind of got a modern industrial feel to it. Very upscale, but it's got steel beams and exposed concrete and wood finishes.”

Each winery is designing its own space, which will include outdoor patios and upstairs decks. The Long Shadows tasting room will also have private rooms as well as club rooms that can be combined for larger groups.

“We’ll have the ability to offer something a little more special, a little more memorable,” Narbaitz says. In addition to bountiful parking, for wineries already in the Hollywood Schoolhouse area, the new site will offer considerably more space.

“We’d kind of outgrown our [current] space a few years ago honestly,” says Fidélitas managing director Will Hoppes. He says the winery’s new tasting room will have at least five times more seating than its existing Hollywood space, making for a more relaxed visitor experience.

As always, contributing photographer Richard Duval roamed the wine regions of Washington during the past several months, capturing scenes from harvest. Among the thousands of images he took are two Syrah picks on the same day, though miles and hours apart.

The first, from a brisk early morning pick, was at Dineen Vineyard in Zillah, with the fruit headed for Orenda Winery in Carnation. This was followed by an early afternoon pick from the Discovery Vineyard, nestled along the Columbia River in the Horse Heaven Hills. Here vineyard Manager Oliver May ties down the bins headed to Darby Winery in Woodinville.