Cheers!

MARYSVILLE — There’s a joke in the wine business that goes like this:

What’s the best way to make a little money making wine?

Start with a lot of money.

John Bell of Marysville is learning about that now as he launches Willis Hall Winery out of a converted backyard garage and shop.

"It’s not," he quipped, "for the faint of wallet."

Bell last fall crushed his first grapes as a commercial winemaker.

He got his start as a member of the Boeing Wine and Beer Makers Club, a group of about 130 amateur brewers and vintners that occupies a special niche in the growing Washington wine industry.

These guys aren’t making your average home brew, said Andy Perdue, the editor of Northwest Wine Press magazine, who has judged the club’s annual tasting contests and was impressed.

"With an amateur competition, you don’t expect that level," he said. "I’m deeply impressed with the Boeing wine club."

For Bell, the new business is a labor of love, the outcome of more than 20 years of interest in wine.

"It’s kind of like a hobby gone awry," he said.

It all started when he got a promotion at Boeing and became a lead engineer. That meant taking suppliers out to dinner, he said.

"As the Boeing guy at the table, they deferred to me on the wine list," Bell said. "I literally could not tell a red wine from a white wine."

Embarrassed, he embarked on a quest to learn about wine from a consumer standpoint. But wine appreciation classes couldn’t quench what he calls his "thirst" for wine knowledge.

Bell decided "the only way to learn more about wine is to make it," he said. "I didn’t know jack about wine till I started to make it."

Since Bell works for Boeing, he could join the employees-only wine club. The club was formed in 1972, coinciding with the start of the modern era for Washington’s wine industry. Boeing’s amateur winemakers from were among the early customers of what are now premier vineyards around the state.

That makes a huge difference in the quality of the wine club members make, Perdue said. The biggest secret to being a good winemaker is "not screwing up good grapes," he said.

And getting those top grapes requires connections.

"These guys have grown up with the industry. No wonder they have good connections," Perdue said. "There are a number of commercial wineries who would love to have the fruit the guys at the Boeing wine club have. "

Along with having access to the best fruit, the wine club members have decades of experience making wine. They meet monthly and are willing to share the secrets of their success — and the failures, Bell said. That taught him a lot.

Bell is the eighth amateur Boeing winemaker to graduate to the commercial ranks. Some of his predecessors have been very successful.

Cadence Winery in Seattle, run by former Boeing engineer Ben Smith, has been a remarkable success, Perdue said. "He’s about the hottest winemaker in Washington right now. Talk about an instant cult winery."

The Boeing wine club is "a damn good club," added Myles Anderson, director of the Institute for Enology and Viticulture at Walla Walla Community College. "They offer an awful lot of experience and educational seminars and training."

Bell apparently is a quick study. He joined the club and made his first wine in 1999. That vintage won awards at the club’s annual tasting, and in 2002 he won best-of-show awards at both the Evergreen and Western Washington state fairs.

Perdue gave that same wine — a 2001 made from viognier, a white wine grape known for its floral taste and aroma — a perfect score at the Boeing club contest that year.

That got Bell thinking. "I ought to be out there selling it," he said. "I’m making all this wine. I should be getting some money back from it."

Bell’s still waiting to make that money.

Commercial winemaking is a capital-intensive business.

"You have to have a really good business plan," Anderson said. "You have to have a business plan that’s anchored in a lot of money."

There are significant raw material and equipment costs — everything from $900-a-ton grapes to bags of corks that can cost $500 for 1,000. Oak barrels from France run $900, and racks to keep those barrels from rolling cost more.

"Everything comes in $10,000 increments," Bell said.

Bell figures he’ll have spent close to $250,000 on his fledging winery by the end of the year, and he won’t have any wine to sell — and thus won’t have any revenue — until next spring.

Bell has tapped his 401(k) retirement account to finance the start-up and plans to keep his day job working with engine manufacturers on plans for Boeing’s future airplane programs for a least a couple of years until his wine sales take off.

But, "as soon as I get this going … I’m out of Boeing," the 57-year-old said. "I’ve been there 31 years, and that’s enough."

Bell is being optimistic, according to Anderson. Most small wineries don’t recoup their start-up costs for five to seven years.

Bell also is coming into the market at a tough time, added Anderson, who himself made the jump from amateur winemaker to pro in the ’90s when he and a friend founded Walla Walla Vintners.

"There some risks to it we didn’t have 10 years ago," he said. "There are more wineries, and the competition is really keen."

But Perdue said Willis Hall Winery shows promise. Bell has not taken any of the shortcuts that can cut costs but which reduce quality, he said.

"The fact that he wanted to go that route speaks volumes about where he wants to go," Perdue said. "I’m excited to taste his wine."

"If nothing else," Bell quipped. "I won’t go thirsty."

Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.