S. Puget Sound is wine country, too
Sunday, November 26, 2006 12:14 AM PST
By Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleOLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- They are among South Sound's best-kept secrets.
A handful of boutique wineries in Thurston, Mason and Lewis counties that have cropped up since the late 1980s are challenging the conventional wisdom that the only good wines come from Eastern Washington, California and Europe.
As wine sales peak during the holiday season, small family wineries from Rainier to Tenino and from Olympia to Shelton are increasingly appealing to palates nationally and internationally, even though South Sound shoppers might not have heard of them.
"I don't know how many times I've gone to pour wine someplace and somebody will go, 'God, there's a winery in Chehalis?"' said Rhett Mills, owner of Widgeon Hill Winery, founded 10 years ago in Chehalis. "The business was my father's labor of love and it's becoming mine."
Washington state is the nation's second-biggest wine producer with 450 wineries; only California produces more wine.
Fewer than a dozen wineries call Thurston, Lewis and Mason counties home, vintners say. They typically import grapes by truck from Eastern Washington's arid fields, then press and ferment the grapes in or near their homes.
A few offer tasting rooms. Most do not, preferring instead to sell to restaurants and wine shops through distributors or directly to private customers.
And they're comfortable with the fact that customers in urban areas far from Washington state might know more about them than wine drinkers just down the road.
"I'm better known in Chicago and Seattle than I am in Olympia," said Bob Andrake of Boston Harbor, who specializes in merlot and cabernet sauvignon. He markets under the name Andrake Cellars and Hurricane Ridge.
Andrake sells his wine in 17 states.
"We knew that if we made good wine, Washington state would come along and discover us," Andrake said. "This state makes good grapes. It's up to us to make good wine."
South Sound's small vintners are part of a statewide industry that has boomed in the past several years.
According to the Washington Wine Commission:
-- The number of wineries statewide grew from 88 in 1995 to at least 450 this year.
-- The annual harvest of grapes has grown from 62,000 tons in 1995 to more than 123,000 tons this year.
The soils of Eastern Washington and the state's climate, with long, warm summer days and cool evenings, combine to provide ideal growing conditions for wine grapes.
"The arid climate and volcanic soil of Eastern Washington are good for grapes, and the longer hours of sun help to build up sugar content," said Deborah Daoust, spokeswoman for the wine commission. "And the cool nighttime temperatures have a beneficial effect on acidity."
Harmful bugs that can kill grape roots also dislike Washington soil, Daoust said.
There's a certain romance to bottling wine, vintners say. But it's not automatically profitable.
"There's an old joke about winemaking that goes, 'Do you know how to make a million dollars running a winery? You need to start with $2 million,"' Mills said.
Rick Hoonan, president of the Olympia Wine League, agrees that profit is not the motive that lures most smaller vintners.
"If somebody wants to get rich, they do not want to get into this business," he said.
When Carolyn Lakewold, owner of Gibbons Lane Winery of Tenino, entered the business in 1997, a single barrel of French oak used for aging the wine cost $400, she said.
"Now, it could cost as much as $1,100," she said.
The rising cost of gasoline also has pinched the region's smaller vintners.
"You're sourcing grapes from 250 miles away," Mills said. "I made five trips this year to Prosser to buy grapes in a diesel, flatbed pickup. You're looking at $150 just for the fuel to get the grapes."
Mills said he produces about 500 cases of several varietals a year, which vintners say would be, at best, barely enough to cover his equipment, transportation and purchasing costs.
Mills said he makes wine because of his passion for it and to keep up the tradition of his father, who died last year.
He called his wine business "self-sufficient. That's all we're hoping for."
Mills earns his main income as a real estate appraiser.
Lloyd Anderson, a former forester, founded Walter Dacon Wines, named for his grandfather, three years ago in Shelton. He couldn't predict when he would be profitable.
"My wife and I took all of our personal funds and invested in it ourselves," Anderson said. "I still have a whole bunch of equipment to buy."
Anderson offers tastings on his property and said they are an effective way to spread the word about his wines.
Though South Sound restaurants carry his wine, they favor California wines.
"They're enamored with California wines because they have huge followings and do a lot of marketing," Anderson said. "There's a saying that if you're in the restaurant business, your wine list has to have a certain number of California wines on it."
Anderson is undeterred.
"It's very, very hard work making wine, but it's fabulous," he said.
Andrake, who produces about 3,000 cases of wine a year, said he has not made regular profits, even though he sells out his stock each year.
Asked if his company has been profitable, Andrake, who began his business in 1997, said: "I believe this will be the year."
Although they have low profiles locally, South Sound wines do sell and have a small following, said Patrick Hub, owner of the Olympic Wine Merchant, a downtown Olympia wine shop. He thinks competition from hundreds of other wineries statewide makes it hard for South Sound wines to stand out.
"They're in this huge group of wines that are available," he said. "You'll be doing well to get a little piece of the action and to sustain the operation."
Price, too, is important, Hub said.
He said most customers tend to pay from $10 to $20 for a bottle of wine. But South Sound vintners say they must charge from $25 to $50 to cover their costs and make the businesses worth the effort.
"Grocery stores aren't going to stack up wine selling for $30 a bottle," Hub said. In Hub's shop, he said, about eight of his 75 wine stacks sell for more than $20.
If South Sound vintners want to grow faster, Hub said, they should consider introducing some labels that sell for less than $20.
"There are a lot of small wineries in this state turning out decent juice between $10 and $20," he said.
Jim Jones, owner of downtown Olympia's Wine Loft, said he carries the McCrea, Gibbons Lane and Walter Dacon labels.
"They all move well," he said.
Jones thinks the loyalty of fans of South Sound wines compensates for their relatively small numbers.
The veteran of South Sound wineries, McCrea Cellars in Rainier, is a profitable venture producing about 4,000 cases a year, said Susan Neel, in charge of sales and marketing for the winery, founded in 1988.
The company sells about half of its wine around Seattle, the rest in 20 other markets including Chicago, California and Japan, Neel said.
It also is served at Olympia's Water Street Cafe.
Like most of South Sound's vintners, McCrea does not offer a tasting room, and Neel isn't concerned that many South Sound shoppers don't know about her labels.
"A lot of people don't know there are wineries in the area, but it's a national and international market," she said.
Some local vintners, in fact, are comfortable keeping low profiles. They produce in South Sound because this is where they want to live, Lakewold said.
"We're here because we want to hide," she said. "I don't feel overlooked at all. We get a lot of national press and we have a huge mailing list we send out every year."
Ratings by the wine trade publications often are touted by winemakers and dealers. In the past two months, for example, McCrea wines have won 15 "90 plus" ratings from Wine & Spirits magazine, Neel said.
South Sound vintners, though beneficiaries of good ratings, tend to play them down.
"Everybody has a different palate; what may be very good for yours may not go well for somebody else," Mills said.
"I always tell people it's what you like, it's not what I tell you to like," added Andrake.
Water Street Cafe's wine director said South Sound vintners stand up well among all of the competition.
"We wouldn't carry them just because they're local; they're good wines," said Lenny Young. "You don't have to be living in Walla Walla to make good wine."
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