Fall is in the air

Sorry that posts have been so sparse lately. October has been a fairly crazy month here at the winery. Not only have the guys been bringing in fruit like mad and trying to wrap up harvest, but we’ve been busy in the tasting room and out on the market. With all the fruit ripening at once and then the early freeze the first of October, we actually finished a bit ahead of schedule. In fact, Colin, our French intern, had the distinction of being one of the only interns to make it all the way through harvest. He also has the distinction of, hands down, eating the most food and also having the best knowledge of American slang. Colin joined us from the Purpan University in Toulouse, where we get an intern from each harvest. With school starting back up for him next week he has already left us to return to France, and we wish him the best of luck!

The first of October, we hosted dinner for the 2009 Road Trip Washington Wine. For the past couple of years the Washington Wine Commission and 65 wineries throughout the state of Washington have joined together to put on a wonderful opportunity to bring in 40 wine buyers from throughout the United States and show them what Washington and Washington wine is all about. Here's a link to a local news station's clip on the trip. Notice which vineyard they are shooting the footing at and who is in it! “Road Trip” this year started with a reception in Seattle Sunday evening at the Space Needle. The group was then up bright and early Monday morning for the bus ride over to Walla Walla for a full day of wine tastings and educational stops that concluded with a wonderful dinner here at Woodward Canyon that was hosted by us and our next door neighbors, L’Ecole. Chris and Island Ainsworth, Saffron Mediterranean kitchen located in downtown Walla Walla, were gracious enough to come in with the staff from Saffron, on their night off, to prepare the meal for us. And they did an amazing job! The meal was beautifully paired with wines from L’Ecole and Woody that culminated with dessert and library wines from all the wineries in attendance. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen that many older vintages from big producers in the same place. The next three days took the group back through Washington with stops in the Tri-Cities (Pasco, Richland and Kennewick), Yakima, Red Willow and finally Woodinville.

The tasting room staff has been gearing up for Fall Release weekend, November 6th, 7th and 8th. This weekend has progressively become a busier and busier weekend for the wineries here in the valley. We’ve decided to do a couple of different things for Fall Release this year. We will be releasing the 2007 Charbonneau Red this year. If you haven’t had the Charbonneau Red it’s a wonderful Bordeaux-style blend that we produce, sourced entirely from the Charbonneau Vineyard which overlooks the Snake River outside of Pasco, Washington. Rick started making the Charbonneau Red back in 1985 and we’ve been producing one whenever we get a vintage that yields excellent fruit. The 2007 is no exception – soft and subtle, with a typical Charbonneau Red nose of sweet pipe tobacco and complex spices, integrated with cherry and cassis. I’ve always said that the Charbonneau Red has a softer side to it, one that on the first sip, invites you in and holds you captive. Black cherries and leather lingers on the palate and with it’s lush mouth feel, it’s another great showing of the Charbonneau Vineyard.

Also new Fall Release weekend is the fact that we are hosting most of it in our new “Reserve House”. Starting Friday, November 7ththrough Sunday, November 8th, we’ll pour through our flight of wines next door and we’re accompanying the wines with specially matched bites. If you haven’t visited the “Reserve House” yet, now’s your chance without having to make an appointment.

One last quick note of interest, is that we are running a Fall Special featuring the 2006 “Artist Series” Cabernet and both the 2007 Nelms Road Merlot and 2007 Nelms Road Cabernet. We are offering a 20% discount if you purchase a full case of any of the three wines or a mixed case of any combination of the three. You can either order online or call the winery at (509) 525-4129.

Hope to see everyone through the winery in the next few weeks. It’s going to be a fun fall!

Harvest 2009

So harvest is well under way for us here at Woodward Canyon. The end of August saw us bring in all of the sauvignon blanc and chardonnay from our Estate Vineyard. Since then we’ve moved right along, bringing in almost all of the merlot, some of the cabernet franc and the grenache, and then the American clone of the barbera, all from the Estate Vineyard. We also source from a number of different vineyards throught Washington State. Yesterday we brought in merlot from Weinbau and today it was syrah from Champoux. So far everything looks good and the boys are excited.

With the start of harvest around the winery comes the start of “crush lunch” for the cellar boys. Rick and Darcey have made it a point to feed the guys every day, and since none of us are huge fans of deli sandwiches we get to experiment a bit with food. Rafa (our cellar master) and Manuel and Kiko (our cellar guys) are huge assets to this winery and a large part of our success. Rick and Kevin get the credit for making the wines and then those of us who sell the wines gets some recognition as well, but those three receive none of it. And really, they should probably get a lot of it. They do the every day things around the winery to make everyone’s life a bit easier. They do everything from pruning and picking in the vineyard to sorting grapes when they come in to cleaning the tasting room and moving wine for us. We're pretty lucky. I don’t know if we could ask for three harder working guys.

Every year, around this time, we also receive an intern from the Purpan School in France. We have been very lucky in the past having hosted some great students. This year is no different. Colin, pictured in blue, will be with us until the last of October. He's a fantastic worker and a really nice guy.

Speaking of lunch, last Tuesday we hosted a pizza lunch for the buyers from W2U out at the winery. We ended up making about 20 pizzas for 45 people, which included the wine buyers, local winemakers and drivers. Thomas and I got to put the pizzas together while Rick cooked them, before he took off to drop bins at Sagemoor. I also found a new favorite pizza – red sauce, fresh basil, sautéed onions, yellow peppers, artichokes, ground sausage and bleu cheese. Delicious!

Harvest Time!

Today we kicked off the 2009 harvest at Woodward Canyon. Rick and the guys brought in two loads of chardonnay grapes from our Estate Vineyard this morning and sent them through the whole cluster press. This is where the entire grape clusters are pressed very gently to extract the juice. Whole cluster pressing is often used in the production of high quality whites and minimizes the amount of malic acid and tannins that are naturally found in the skins and stems. From there we will move all the juice into stainless steel tanks overnight before it is moved again into new French oak barrels and neutral barrels where the yeast is added and fermentation is started.

And our first day of harvest coincides very well with the pre-harvest party put on by the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance for all the members in celebration of the upcoming harvest. So we’ll get together one last time before winemakers’ wives become harvest widows for another year.

Woodward Canyon's Vineyard Tour

Can you believe it’s August already? And, can you believe that we are going on almost 10 straight days of pushing into triple digits on the thermostat? I remember, what seems like only a month ago, sitting around thinking Mother Nature had forgotten us and dreaming about sunny weather. I’m not complaining though, I’d much rather have 100 degree weather than the rain and snow that seemed to drag much farther into the spring than I would have liked. The one day I wouldn’t have minded the weather being a little cooler was last Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Rick took the tasting room staff on a tour of some of Woodward Canyon’s primary vineyards. At 7:00 AM, with coffee in hand, we headed out for the Charbonneau Vineyard, which is located just East of the Snake River and about 12 miles East of Pasco, Washington. Started in 1981, it is roughly 40-acres of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, riesling, chardonnay, semillon and sauvignon blanc. We source cabernet sauvignon and merlot, from blocks that were planted in 1981, that we blend together to make our Charbonneau Red (sorry, currently sold out) during select years.

Leaving Charbonneau Vineyard, we drove around Pasco heading for Sagemoor Vineyard. Sagemoor was founded in 1968 by Alec Bayless and is one of the oldest producing vineyards in the state. It is just North of Pasco and overlooking the Columbia River. We source a large amount of our “Old Vines” (sold out of our current vintage, older vintages available in magnums) and “Artist Series” fruit from Sagemoor. We made a quick stop to look at the grape clusters and the vines, where on some of our older blocks, Blocks 3 and 9, planted in 1972, the trunks looked more like little trees than vines. I was pleasantly surprised to see the first signs of veraison (where the grapes turn from green to purple) on some of the clusters in Block 3, which is primarily used for “Old Vines” Cabernet.

Next on the tour was the Champoux Vineyard in the Horse Heaven AVA outside of Alderdale, Washington. The original, older blocks of Champoux were planted in 1972, making them some of the older vines in Washington. Rick, a partner in the Champoux Vineyard along with Quilceda Creek, Andrew Will, Badger Mountain/Powers and Vineyard Manager Paul Champoux, started using fruit from the Champoux Vineyard, known then as Mercer Ranch Vineyard, in 1977 for his own personal wine. Today, we pull fruit from Block 1 and 2 and from Circle Block for the “Old Vines” and from Block 3 and Baby ‘Poux for the “Artist Series”. My favorite part of Champoux was the Circle Block, named for the method of irrigation for that one particular block. It is a form of overhead irrigation with a central pivot that rotates over the crop to irrigate.

Then it was an hour and a half drive to White Salmon for lunch before heading up to the Celilo Vineyard. Celilo was probably the most impressive vineyard on the tour because of the view. Looking out East was a spectacular view of the Columbia River Gorge and to the West, on a clear day, you can see all the way to Mount Hood. Unfortunately for us, it was a bit hazy and the view to Mount Hood wasn’t as clear as it normally is. The vines, themselves, were much taller than the other vineyards we had visited, having been trained that way using the Scott Henry trellising system. Scott Henry, from Henry Estate Winery, designed this method to help encourage his vines to ripen more fruit rather than more shoots and leaves. Rick has been using Celilo fruit for close to 20 years, sometimes bottling a single vineyard designated chardonnay but more often blending it with fruit from our Woodward Canyon Estate Vineyard to produce the Washington State Chardonnay. Celilo, which is normally much cooler than our Estate Vineyard and sees more rainfall annually, produces fruit with higher acidity that blends well with our Estate fruit to produce a wine that is beautifully balanced.

Leaving Celilo, we then trekked the three hours back to Woodward Canyon. I have a new found respect for Rick and Kevin who take turns making that drive to check on the vineyards numerous times throughout the year. Stopping at all the vineyards made for a long day, and we didn’t even have to do any grape sampling. But it was fun to get out of the tasting room for the day and to actually see the vineyards that we talk about all the time and use in our wines. I now have a much better understanding of where our wines come from before I ever lay eyes on them. And a quick thanks to Bob Pruett, our weekend tasting room associate, for all the great pictures throughout the tour!

Cheers,

Shari

2009 Wine Bloggers Conference

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend the North American Wine Bloggers Conference, or the WBC, which is the second annual conference that is attended by wine bloggers, wine industry, wine media and those just interested in wine. And, I am still trying to catch up on sleep from my weekend in Sonoma. It was three fantastic days of nothing but food, wine and blogging about food and wine. And the good news for those who have not heard yet, is that the WBC is coming to Walla Walla next year, June 25th through June 27th. I can’t wait to introduce some of the bloggers to our wines for the first time.

I started my journey to Sonoma Thursday evening, by flying out of Walla Walla and through Seattle on my way to San Francisco. It turned into quite the trip when I just about missed my connecting flight in Seattle because the boarding gate had changed from what was printed on my boarding pass in Walla Walla. A quick ride on the airporter and an even quicker run through the airport got us to the gate just in time to board for our final destination. Two hours later, an hour and a half flight and thirty minutes of circling, and we were in one of my favorite cities, San Francisco! Too bad I didn’t have a free day to spending roaming the streets.

It was up early the next morning so that I could catch my shuttle that would take me the two hours to Santa Rosa and the Flamingo, where the conference was being held. Upon checking in, it was time to meet and greet, catch lunch and do some wine tasting. Then, it was time for live wine blogging, which is basically sixty seconds to taste a wine and blog or “tweet” about it to the online masses. Next up was the 2009 American Wine Blog Awards and then dinner with Chris Alden as the keynote speaker. The day ended with the after-hours party hosted by the Russian River Valley Winegrowers. The after-hours party was really just Russian River Wineries showing up to pour their wines for us to taste. Every where I looked were pinots. It’s always fun to try something different and that we aren’t producing anymore.

Saturday morning was a fantastic day to be at the WBC. It started off with breakfast and seminars by Barry Schuler of Meteor Vineyards and Jim Gordon of Wines and Vines Magazine at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, or as it was called that morning, the Original CIA. Then it was time to play the lottery and board the shuttle for the days travels through Napa. I really do believe that it was playing the lottery, because each shuttle had a different route for the day. I think I lucked out when I got on to shuttle #2! I really don’t know how anyone’s day could have beat ours!

Lunch, for us, was at Stags' Leap where we had a beautifully catered lunch around their fire safe pond, while listening to Vineyard Manager Kirk Grace speak on “Napa Green.” After a quick walk through the vineyard we hopped back on the shuttle for our next destination, Palmaz Vineyards, where Palmaz, Madonna and Viader hosted us to a nice tasting and covered the topic of family-owned and generations in the wine industry. The facility at Palmaz is pretty spectacular. Carved out of the side of Mount George, the height of the wine cave is equivalent to an 18 storey building. Next stop on our day was at Quintessa for the Napa Grand Tasting, where 40 wineries showed up to pour their Cabernets for us. Thankfully, there were a few whites and bubbles mixed in, that helped me refresh my palate.

Final stop on the tour was dinner at Domaine Chandon, in the Etoile Restaurant, which was hosted by Parry Cellars, Louis M. Martini, O’Brien Estate, Newton and of course Domaine Chandon. We had a wonderful three-course meal paired with eight different wines. The meal was amazing! We were greeted at the door with a sparkling cocktail, made from their dry sparkling wine, ice and a little lime. Our first course was the corn chowder with Dungeness crab and paired with the O’Brien Chardonnay and the Newton Chardonnay. Next we moved onto the roasted beef tenderloin with summer legumes, chanterelle mushrooms and Umbrian black truffle all paired with the Domaine Chandon Pinot Noir, Louis M. Martini Lot No 1 Cabernet, Louis M. Martini Cabernet, O’Brien Merlot and the Parry Cellars Cabernet. We finished off dinner with a Valrhona chocolate pate with summer berries paired with the Domaine Chandon Pinot Meunier. I was so full I was afraid that they were going to have to roll me out to the shuttle. After the bumpy and curvy two hour ride back to the Flamingo, I must admit, that I had to skip the after-hours party which was hosted by ViniPortugal and the European WBC.

Sunday, I spent the day traveling back to Walla Walla, which I finally got in at 9:00. It had been a really long day, but well worth the trip! It was great to see the difference between Napa and Walla Walla. As much as I loved being down there though, it was so nice to see home. It made me really appreciate my little comfortable tasting room and lack of traffic on the roads. It was also good that I got to see how the WBC ran and what we were going to have to do to make WBC10 a success in Walla Walla next year. I know that I, for one, can’t wait until we are invaded by bloggers!

Private Tasting at Woodward Canyon!

Now that our Reserve House is up and running, we are happy to offer the opportunity to make an appointment for an intimate, private tasting with a knowledgeable Woodward Canyon staff member. Sit down with your group to both current releases and some limited-reserve wines that aren’t available for tasting through the regular tasting room. Light fare is included with the tasting. We have a couple of options, so for more information please visit the Woodward Canyon website or contact me at reservehouse@woodwardcanyon.com.

Last Friday, we held our first of many private tastings here in our Reserve House. I had the pleasure of hosting a great group of people from Walla Walla, North Carolina and Ohio, who had all gathered here in the valley for a little wine tasting before taking off on a cruise. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of tasters for my first private tasting. They were wonderful! We tasted through three current release wines and three limited wines. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and really enjoy the wines. I can’t wait for the next group now. I just hope it goes as well as the first one did.

Also, I wanted to let everyone know about the great summer special we are running right now on our Non-Vintage Red Wine! Normally $19 a bottle, we are offering it at $15 a bottle up to a case and then anything over a case we’re offering it at $12.50 a bottle. That’s a case of great wine for $150! Visit our online wine shop to order yours now or for more details or email myself at shari@woodwardcanyon.com or Marlene at marlene@woodwardcanyon.com . This is a limited time offer, so get yours now!

I also wanted to let everyone know that I’m getting ready to head down to Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley, California at the end of the week for the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference! I can’t wait. It is going to be a great opportunity to visit California and network with other wine bloggers. And, to tell you the truth, I’m also really excited to visit California! So if you are also planning on being at the conference, please say hi, I would love to meet you.

I'm off now, time to get ready for Orca International, our Japan Distributor to come in for a tour and tasting this evening. Oh how I love the summertime around the winery. There is always something going on!

Cheers!

Shari / Guest Services

Summer Days in France

Rick and I recently returned from three weeks in the south of France – part just relaxing and part work (I know, tough job….but hey, it has taken us almost 30 years to get to this point).
We first spent a few days in Avignon on our way to the Riviera. While there, we visited Châteauneuf-du-Pape (pictured here on the right). It is quite rural and not as much on the tourist map as some other wine regions. The actual town is small and in contrast to other wine regions in France, it has tasting rooms in the town apart from the wineries, just as we do in Walla Walla. While we enjoyed the reds, we really were excited by the whites – something that you do not necessarily associate with Châteauneuf. We allocated some space in our luggage to bring a few bottles back. By the way, not to add a sales pitch, but those bubble-wrap Wine Skins really do protect the wine and the things in your suitcase, take up very little room, and are inexpensive.

We then spent two weeks in a hilltop village between Nice and Antibes. Our routine most days was to wander down the hill (pictured left) to get a petit café or Orangina and a Financial Times, shop at the fresh market, the boucherie or poissons monger, fromage monger, boulangerie and maybe the fresh pasta shop or patisserie. We also had to stop at the grocery store to get stocked up on vin rosé and the few things you could not find at the fresh market. Then we would lug it back up the hill (if you climb the hill instead of taking the bus – you can eat more) and enjoy the rosé with lunch. We went through a lot of rosé – particularly since it was less than $5.00 a bottle. We also sampled the other wines of the region.

One thing became clear very soon: with that type of eating and drinking, you have a pretty small carbon footprint. We ate melons from Var, Dorade and gambas from the Mediterranean, vegetables, herbs and cheese all locally grown or made, and drank the local wines. They all married beautifully which is why the cafes and restaurants all serve those same seasonal products; just with their own twist.

Many Northwest chefs here in the States have been at the forefront of that kind of dining and while we have always embraced that notion here at Woody, we are taking it even further. For several years we have been organically growing a garden at the base of the vineyard with tomatoes, potatoes, beets, and carrots for our staff. Any excess is sold to local restaurants. Last year we experimented with drying tomatoes and packing them in olive oil so we could avoid the nasty faux tomatoes found in the stores in the winter. Our oil-packed tomatoes on wood-fired pizza or in pasta sustained us through the winter. This year we added Walla Walla Sweets and several varieties of cucumbers to the mix. The cucumbers are ripe and Rick has already been using his Mom's pickle recipe (see finished product above), as well as one for Asian pickles he found online. Later this summer raised beds and berry trellises will go in between our new Reserve House and the parking lot so that next year we can expand our plantings with the idea being that we serve as much of our own produce and that of other local farmers as possible when we do events here at the winery. The idea of being "locavores" resonates with us.

Now back to France. After leaving our village on the Mediterranean, we stopped in Narbonne and Toulouse to meet the family of last year's crush intern and to meet the intern who will be arriving later this month and his family. Their families were gracious and fed us very well! Both interns come from Purpan University in Toulouse.

Then onto Bordeaux where we stayed with another former intern – this one came to us through Experience International 15 years ago! He is now the international managing director of Chateau Haut Brion's "Clarendelle" – their version of Nelms Road. He and his family were wonderful hosts and arranged a tour of Haut Brion for us one morning – lovely wines with great restraint that will age well. A very traditional winery in one sense, but very modern in their use of technology and in their approach to marketing.

While in Bordeaux, we attended VinExpo, a huge wine exposition with wines from China to Israel to California - in fact there were 2,400 exhibitors from 48 countries. In addition to tasting there in general, we participated in a tasting of the 2006 and 2008 Grand Cru Classé St Emilion. It was very interesting to compare the two vintages. One thing that struck me was the tannins – strong, but well balanced with the fruit. At that tasting, we ran into another past intern who was pouring for his family's Chateau Guadet.

Finally it was time to get on the TGV and head for the Paris Airport and home. We had a great time, ate and drank delicious things, saw some old friends and didn't even gain a pound - thanks to that hill!

Darcey