Washington’s new winery boom is in full stride and showing signs of picking up this fevered pace with the unparalleled success of some of the “old guard” wineries in the state, particularly a winery that was the subject of my very first column, Quilceda Creek Vintners.
There’s no doubt that its perceived perfection in the bottle (100 point rating in the newest issue of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate for the 2002 &2003 vintages of cabernet sauvignon) has reverberated across the region’s wine scene. This is really a pretty amazing accomplishment and can be compared to a major league pitcher throwing back-to-back no-hitters.
Other well established trail-blazing wineries such as Woodward Canyon, L’Ecole #41, Leonetti and Walla Walla Vintners have done incredible things to catapult the Walla Walla Valley into the limelight and helped launch a growth spurt in that southeast corner of our state that is nothing short of staggering. Currently more than 80 bonded wineries have taken up shop in and around Walla Walla, and that number is sure to rise as the world continues to flock to that sleepy little college town, once known for sweet onions, wheat and a prison.
But alongside all this explosion of adoration for other wine areas of the state, there has been more of a quiet uprising in the winery-laced area around Woodinville. “We currently have 30 bonded wineries in the Woodinville Wine Country and many more sure to follow”, said Sean Boyd of Woodinville Wine Cellars. “The close proximity to the Seattle and Bellevue markets and the draw from the large anchor wineries such as Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia makes Woodinville an ideal location for a production facility and tasting room.”
If you are an aspiring winemaker and wish to launch a winery in this new era of the Washington wine industry, it makes a lot of sense to align yourself with a dynamic association of wineries that can collectively capture a broader audience of potential tasters and buyers.
This is not an absolute requirement if you can devote a couple of decades to developing wines that garner huge press – resulting in the world beating a path to your door. This has been the case with Quilceda Creek, in a rural setting near Snohomish, or Andrew Will Winery, on Vashon Island.
The success of these new and old wineries on the west side of the state shows that world-class wines can be made anywhere, and at this stage of Washington’s wine revolution, Woodinville seems to be a pretty hot prospect because of its ability to draw the tourists and tasters.
“I’d love to eventually have a facility to produce my wines but, more importantly, have a tasting room in Woodinville,” said Chris Gorman of West Seattle, whose Gorman Winery burst onto the scene this past year and promptly sold out.
A few of the small boutique wineries that have sprung up around Woodinville and that have most likely escaped broad detection but are certainly worthy of exploration are:
Arlington Road Cellars, Covington Cellars, Cuillin Hills Winery (pronounced Coo-lin), Des Voigne Cellars, Edmonds Winery, Mark Ryan (who considers himself from “Hoodinville”), Page Cellars, Red Sky Winery, Stevens Winery and William Church Winery, to name a few. There has also been a relocation of Chatter Creek Winery from Seattle.
I must admit that I have yet to visit many of these wineries. I look forward to adding them my “must taste” list, and given that there is a story behind every label, I’d like to begin a little series of “Woodinville Wine Tales” in future columns.
This summer it would be a good idea to add a visit (or revisit) to Woodinville for a fun and informative wine outing. You can run the gamut from a glorious chateau (by the way, have you checked out the concert schedule at Chateau Ste. Michelle’s tunes on the green? Wow!) to a funky warehouse where you can taste with the winemaker on a tasting bar fashioned from a couple of barrels and a sheet of plywood (my personal favorite way to go).
For more information on the happenings in and around Woodinville and a list of wineries, visit the association Web site: www.woodinvillewinecountry.com.
Jeff Wicklund can be reached at 425-737-2600, 360-756-0422 or wick@purplesmilewines.com.
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