Sean P. Sullivan - Washington Wine Report

I am beyond humbled to have been recognized with a Toast! Award for ‘Wine Industry Champion’ as part of this year's Auction of Washington Wines. The Auction is in its 35th year and has raised over $55M to provide money for Seattle Children's Hospital, Washington State University's Viticulture & Enology program, and the Auction of Washington Wines' Industry Grant. 

Growers in Washington are seeing the start of veraison, the changing of color of the grapes. This means the beginning of harvest will soon be at hand.

Les Collines Vineyard sits like a sentinel at the base of the Blue Mountains. The Walla Walla Valley stretches out to the west. On a clear day, the views extend all the way to the Tri-Cities. If wine grapes truly do like a view, they couldn’t do much better.

“On an aesthetic level, it's a gorgeous site,” says vineyard manager Brad Sorensen. “It seems like a very natural place to grow grapes.” Sorensen spent 14 years managing vineyards in Sonoma and Napa Valley – including sites for stalwarts Far Niente and Paul Hobbs – before taking over managing Les Collines in 2018.

French for ‘the foothills,’ Les Collines was established in 2001. At 212 planted acres, Sorensen says it is the largest contiguous vineyard in Walla Walla Valley. The entire site itself is close to 300 acres. 19 varieties are planted, with fruit going to 50+ wineries.

Les Collines’ location by the Blue Mountains gives it two distinct advantages growing wine grapes. The first is its elevation, which ranges from a high of 1,370 feet in the southeast corner down to a low of 1,140 feet in the northwest corner. This is higher than many valley vineyards.

The vineyard’s higher elevation means that, during the heat of the afternoon, Les Collines is typically two to seven degrees Fahrenheit cooler than lower elevation sites in the valley. Meanwhile Les Collines is warmer than lower elevations during the evening, as cool air flows down to lower parts of the valley. The site’s proximity to the Blue Mountains also means it takes the sun longer to reach the vineyard in the morning.

On Thursday, July 7th, I took a day trip out to the Royal Slope. Though grapes have been grown in the area since the 1980s, Royal Slope only recently received appellation status, becoming Washington’s 15th federally approved growing region in 2020. In a sign of Washington’s fast moving times, the state now has 20 approved appellations, the most recent of which was Rocky Reach in June. Others are currently proposed.

After nine and a half years, I am moving on from Wine Enthusiast.

I started at the magazine as a contributing editor at the beginning of 2013. Since that time, I have reviewed nearly 13,000 wines and authored over 90 articles for Enthusiast.

I began by covering parts of Washington along with Southern Oregon and Idaho. Since the beginning of 2015, I have covered Washington in its entirety. As of this year, I have also been covering all of Oregon and Canada for the magazine.

During my tenure, I have tried to cover the regions in my beat to the fullest of my abilities with the passion and integrity required of any critic. Given how fast the Pacific Northwest wine scene is evolving, doing the region justice has been no easy task. This is an extremely exciting time in the region. The wines have never been better than they are today. I have tried to reflect all this. It has been an honor to tell this story to the readers of Wine Enthusiast.

It has also been a great privilege to work with some of the finest wine writers and critics in the business over the last nine and a half years. In particular, I want to thank my colleague and friend Paul Gregutt for initially recommending me to Wine Enthusiast. I also want to thank Lauren Buzzeo for hiring me when she was tasting director and then continuing to support me as managing editor and earlier this year as executive editor.

Leaving Wine Enthusiast after so long is no doubt bittersweet, and I leave with some business unfinished. I want to offer my sincerest of apologies to producers in Oregon and Canada, who welcomed me with open arms when I took over covering these regions at the beginning of this year and also generously offered me their time over the last six months.

As I said to many people when I took the position, I very much understand how disruptive reviewer changes are for wineries and in fact entire wine regions. I do not take such changes lightly. For making another change this quickly, I am truly sorry. However, I guarantee you the time we spent together was not wasted.

My reasons for leaving Wine Enthusiast are professional, not personal. Some know I have had health issues over the years. I want everyone to know that my leaving Wine Enthusiast has nothing to do with that. I am fine.

I will have more to say about my plans going forward in the future. I will say for now, however, that this is not the end of my time writing about and reviewing Northwest wine. Rather it is the beginning of a new chapter.

I intend to continue writing about Pacific Northwest wineries and rating and reviewing the area’s wines as I have for the last 18 years. This includes wines from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia. More to come.

Note to producers: My intention is to review and score all wines that have been submitted prior to today’s date for Wine Enthusiast. Please contact me if you have any questions. 

 The following article was written by Michael Fagin. Fagin is an operational meteorologist providing weather forecasts to clients in the Pacific Northwest and providing custom forecast for groups climbing Mt. Everest and other major peaks. Michael is also a travel writer with a focus on weather and wine.

In the interest of completeness, below is the full statement I was provided by Chateau Ste Michelle on Monday June 20th regarding moving white wine production to eastern Washington and the listing of its Woodinville property for sale. Much of this statement was quoted in my original article:

Chateau Ste Michelle, the Pacific Northwest’s largest winery by a mile, has put its flagship Woodinville property up for sale. The 118 acre site, which includes the iconic chateau that adorns the winery’s labels, was listed earlier this month by CBRE Inc., a commercial real estate company based in Dallas, Texas. The price has not been disclosed. The winery will also move all of its white wine production, which has previously been taking place in Woodinville, to eastern Washington.

"With this change to our winemaking operations, we are evaluating how to best utilize the facility going forward, including exploring a potential sale of our Woodinville property, or perhaps a portion of it," Ste Michelle said in a statement to media. "While a sale of the property has not been predetermined, we are considering all options as we continue to look for ways to improve how we produce our wines, strengthen our commitment to sustainability, and grow the Chateau Ste Michelle brand."

The property listing includes Ste Michelle’s chateau, tasting rooms, a banquet facility, office space, a theatre, a 100,000+ square foot warehouse, and 50,000 square feet of barrel storage. The listing states that the expansive property is “primed for redevelopment and can accommodate a variety of uses, such as industrial, residential, office & life science, all of which are in short supply in Seattle’s burgeoning Eastside.”

Ste Michelle’s 1M+ case white wine production will move to its Canoe Ridge winemaking facility in eastern Washington’s Horse Heaven Hills starting with the 2022 vintage. Given the sheer size of its white wine efforts, presumably other facilities will be used as well. Ste Michelle's red wine production has taken place at Canoe Ridge since 1993. That site has occasionally had a tasting room over the years but is not currently open to the public.

Over the years, I have often told the story of the inception of Washington Wine Report. It turns out that the story I was telling was wrong.

The story that I have told innumerable times goes like this.

In 2005, a friend and I travelled out to Yakima Valley and visited a series of wineries. After this trip, my friend asked me to write up my notes and scores of the wines we tasted. I did so and emailed the notes to him. He subsequently distributed those notes and reviews to his friends. These friends shared them with their friends and so on and so on.

Washington Wine Report was born. I called it that at the top of the emails because that was what it was – a report on Washington wines. It began the year of that trip as an email distribution list. 15 years ago today, June 17th 2007, I launched Washington Wine Report as an on-line site. Over the next several years, I transitioned from the long-form PDF reports I distributed via email to being fully on-line.

As I approached today’s on-line anniversary, I started to wonder, what was the date when my friend and I first went out to Yakima Valley? When exactly did all this really start?

I did some digging into my historical records. In the 2000s, I kept weekly planners detailing what I did each day. I looked through 2005. I found no record of a trip to Yakima Valley. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I looked through 2006. I also found no record of a trip to Yakima Valley. How could I have not written down such a momentous turning point in my life?

I reached out to my friend who accompanied me to Yakima Valley that year to see if he had any remembrances or any pictures. He had both.

It turns out the year he and I travelled to Yakima Valley was 2004 according to his pictures. I subsequently looked at my planner for that year and confirmed the same. It was April 25th 2004. We went out to the valley for Spring Barrel Weekend.

Bloom has begun in Columbia Valley. Lacey Lybeck at Sagemoor Vineyards reports seeing bloom in Weinbau Vineyard Chardonnay on the Wahluke Slope on June 4th. Lybeck also saw bloom in Chardonnay at Sagemoor and Bacchus vineyards in the White Bluffs on June 6th. 

Today the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) approved Washington’s newest appellation, Rocky Reach. The approval comes on the heels of three appellations last year, bringing the state’s total number of viticultural regions to 20. Here we take an in-depth look at the appellation.

Overview

Rocky Reach is located in the northwestern section of the Columbia Valley, just south of the Lake Chelan appellation. The appellation’s approval brings Columbia Valley’s number of sub-appellations to 16.

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.