Taste of Washington, thoughts...

I’m surprised that there is not a post on this already. Although the event turns in to a ‘Sh*t show’ it actually can be fun. I guess I’m lucky, I work it so I get to go through in the 1st 2 hrs. Lot’s of time to taste through stuff and not be rushed. Found a new favorite and had a couple of the middle guys. Less of the big names showed up and now it seems the next level with Mark Ryan, Gorman, Betz, Gramercy, lead the way.

Gorman Winery- From top to bottom a killer line up, there Card for the past couple of yrs has become a serious bottle of wine. His Bdx blend wines are pretty stellar and his Syrah, while not showing what I look for in Syrah is a very fine wine.

Mark Ryan- I have known this guy for a long time, I have tasted many of his first couple of releases but I have not had a chance to taste them since. His wines are big, tannic young wines, that show a great amount of structure, nice acidic backbone with nice stay.

JB Neufeld- Great young winery, really nice wines, my favorite of everything that I tasted. These wines are great young, really showy pop and pour. They make 2 different Cabs, one from Dubrul and the other from Artz on Red Mountain. Very distinctive, each Cab shows great fruit, nice glycerin on the palate, nice acid to carry them through. Artz is all about Cherry fruit and leather, Dubrul shows more jalapeno range fruit, which I think is very distinctive of Yakima. Justin and family are really nice folk. Very reasonable price as well. They, to me are in the style of Chateau Rollat, if you have not tried it, is delicious.
One last note. Justin stopped by today and popped 2 new bottles, same result, fantastic balance and no where near hot,the wines are very well crafted ABV %14.9.

Smasne- Really nice folk and very tasty wines from the four that I tried. He gave me a bottle of his Carmenere to take home. Pepper and spice, great fruit and structure. Old vine cab showed Yakima fruit and bell pepper/Jalapeno notes. Again, nice folks with very distinctive wines.

Gramercy- Syrah, Cab, Single Vn Syrah- Great wines with balance, ripeness and acidity. His last Syrah, to me was his best. Pepper, spice, dark fruit, acidity, game and good lift.

Maison Bleue- Rhone style wines Rousanne, GSM and a Syrah that I got to taste. Good balance and restraint. Really nice folks that make a really nice range of wine.

There were several others, but these are the ones that stood out.

Jb

Neufeld Artz makes me more excited for a Wa Cab than I’ve been in a while. Big props for going out there. I wish I could still stomach it.

Have yet to go. I keep telling myself “next year, next year”, but the clusterfu** of it is what doesn’t quite appeal to me. Yet I have no problems going to the beer festivals around town. Go figure.

Anyway, great notes. I’ve been a fan of Mark Ryan and Gorman for a while. I recently discovered Maison Bleue last year and loved what I had. Great wines to look for. I’ll have to keep my eyes out for the others.

Sorry Tom…but if you have not been then how can you know it is a cluster_____? Listen it is very crowded. If the crowds do not appeal to you then buy the VIP tickets and go early. I think it is a great opportunity to try the current releases from some of my favorites (Betz, Gramercy, Woodward Canyon, Buty, Andrew Will, Delille, etc) and take in producers I have little experience with (Trust, Tranche, Sheridan, Maison Bleue, etc). I have been for 6 or 7 years running and think it is a fun event. You should give it a try in 2012.

Tom

I’ve always wanted to go, but have the same feelings – that it would be too crowded to get to the wineries I wanted to visit. And $125 for the VIP early entry is just way too much money in my opinion.

But there were definitely lots of people there… here is the evidence – this is the carnage waiting in the Qwest Field recycling area that I saw earlier this morning. That’s a lot of empties!

The lines for even the most sough after wines are never more than a couple people long. Even in the General admission portion of the tasting.

Tom

I was at ToW on Sunday, and although it does seem a little like a cluster_, it’s also pretty fun. I didn’t shell out for the VIP ticket, so the line to get in was long (but moved fast), and a few places ran out early (this is the second year that Betz was wrapped up shortly before/after I arrived), but I would say that it was pretty easy overall to get to the wines and talk to some of the producers (yeah, it’s more like yelling than talking, as the place is pretty loud).

Personally I go to try out a bunch wines from producers I’m not familiar with, and often those are the ones with the shortest lines. I came home with a bunch of new places to explore: JB Neufeld, Robert Ramsay, Hamilton Cellars, Market Vineyards, …

At the end of the day, I hit 30 of the 200 or so wineries. That’s pretty serious power tasting for me, but it’s that kind of event.

On the negative side, I have to say that it bothers me that so many producers keep a special stash behind the table for “certain people” or people who know certain passwords. I saw a person work really hard on winemaker to get at a reserve bottle. It was creepy. http://www.wineberserkers.com/posting.php?mode=reply&f=1&t=43702#

Also, if you stay to the very end, it’s a little disconcerting how inebriated some of the attendees get. My pal who came with me this year, somehow decided not to spit or pour out any of the tastes. Bad mistake. Um, after 50 tastes, it was not pretty.

Anyway, I’ll likely attend next year. Maybe with a different guest.

I think it’s always challenging to do large tastings like this - from both sides. From the consumer side, it seems best to really set a gameplan and try to stick with it. As others have said, ain’t no way you’ll hit everyone, but hopefully you’ll get to see 20 or 30 producers - and possibly spend some ‘quality time’ with them.

I will say that it always pisses me off to see wineries run out of wine so early in a tasting . . . As far as I’m concerned there is simply no excuse for this. Happened at Rhone Rangers this weekend as well. It really is not that difficult - just bring A LOT more than you think you’ll need . . .

Cheers!

I won’t name names but as I was visiting one of the wineries they said ‘Yeah, the goal is to pour big to all the industry people and close shop and get out of here early’… I think this mentality has been going on for a while. Years past all the big guns are poured out of wine leaving just a little bit for the people that pay general admission.
I think it’s really crappy for folks to run out after the VIP which is $50 more. It seems like the goal is to showcase what you do and broaden your fan base.


Jb

We get part of their show here in Portland for the trade on Sunday, May 1st.

As a consumer who is forking over $$$ to go to the event, I must say that that attitude from the wineries sucks. Period. If you want to take part in the event, then take part in the event - and stay the majority if not the entire time. If not, then stay home.

Cheers.

With all due respect this is not accurate. Delille, Andrew Will, Woodward Canyon, Long Shadows and Gramercy were all pouring until right up to the end of the event. I do consider them to be amongst the so called “Big Guns”.

I agree with you and Larry that if you are going to bother to show up then you should have enough wine to pour through the event. Some of the wineries I noticed that ran out included Betz, Gorman and Mark Ryan.

Kudos should be given to Greg Harrington of Gramcery who not only did the pouring himself…but also poured until the end of the event and featured his John Lewis Syrah that is $75 a bottle and in very high demand. On top of that he implored other wineries via Twitter to give back to the consumers who support them…and pour to the end of the event as well.

Tom

Tom,
I don’t think that I am expressing my point very well… Kudos to Gramercy , yes I watched Greg pour all night long and I think he is a great guy for doing so. This year was a bit of an anomaly, where as wineries still had some wine to pour towards the end.
This years line up seemed different, for some reason to me. Yes you are correct that AW, Delille, LS and Woodward still had some wine left but generally speaking in years past most of the upper tier wineries had poured out by the beginning of GA. I have been to the TOW 5-6 times, mostly in 01’, 02’, 03’ and now in 99’, 00’, 01’. So I have not seen the full evolution, but back in the early days everyone use to come. I think back then only Leonetti wasn’t there. Even Quilceda doesn’t bother to show up and pour their red wine. I know, I know, they don’t need to and they sell out none the less, but it would be really nice to see more people like Greg Harrington giving back to the folks that got them there.
Maybe I’m being silly but I remember when the event use to be about the top wines made in Washington, every winery would pull out all of the stops and impress the hell out of the crowd. Remember when Cayuse use to pour every wine in his portfolio, Christophe had a waiting list for his winery and certainly didn’t have to pour everything but he did none the less.

My fear and I guess what I am opining is how long until even wineries like Mark Ryan stop coming? When I had seen the Charles Smith wine co. my 1st assumption was that K had stopped coming, but then I had seen his booth with one Syrah? Is K going to be there next yr? Charles doesn’t even come any more.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy seeing all the newbies and I like tasting a wide range of wines, but the TOW seems like a starting place for people and as soon as they make it, they send a winery rep and then a yr or two later the winery stops coming at all.
I would just like to the whole Washington wine community come together, no matter how ‘cult’ and give back to their customers who support those $45 Syrahs.
Sorry maybe I am expecting too much and not being grateful for what there is.


Jb

Maybe Sean Sullivan will add comments. A serious question. What is in this for the wineries? I see what the public gets, I’m guessing the Wa Wine Commission puts this on, but the producers pay a premium for the right to display, give up a weekend, and may or may not see a ton of direct business.

I’m guessing those who show up and pour to the end do so if:

They are new (Neufeld) and they need the exposure.

They feel tied to the greater community and feel pouring at this event is a necessary part of the business

They simply enjoy the event.


Obviously, all of these are subject to change, and while we can applaud those who participate in events like these, I can’t fault those who don’t.

I’m not in the business, but I’m not sure that this is a popular event for established wineries. It can be a bit of a zoo, and particularly later in the event, there are numbers of people who haven’t been spitting, who are far enough gone that they haven’t a chance of assessing your wine properly. Wineries don’t like pouring for people who are obviously blitzed. i can understand wineries that want to have a presence for those who will seek them out, but then get out before things deteriorate. Certainly this is not true for everyone, but there are a lot of folks who don’t know how to go about tasting wines of 15-20-25 producers in one event.

I agree John…but this is the case at all tastings of this scale. Have you been to one of the Wine Spectator’s Grand Tastings? Same thing happens but substitute Mark Ryan and Gorman with Margaux and Mouton Rothschild and you get my drift.

Tom

Anthony,
I don’t know why this has struck a cord with me (if you ask my new wife she will tell you I have to have an opinion on EVERYTHING).
But you ask a great question, from the free market system, there is simply nothing in it for the wineries. They spend a lot of money, supply a bunch of wine and time to drunk people and will be lucky if they have many customers to buy their product or remember it. So in the past year when wineries are shuttering their doors and there is a glut of wine they can look at events like TOW and realize it is not worth their time.

This sounds condescending but it’s not. The Washington wine industry does a really pour job connecting with it’s customers and avenues like TOW is sometimes, the only opportunity that they get and they need to use it towards their advantage.

To give you an example of a region that does a really good job connecting to retail and customers. Oregon. Have you ever been to Pinot camp?
The end of June every year, a lot (I won’t say all) wineries invite retailers and restaurant pep’s from around the America’s to come to Oregon for 3 days and become immersed in Pinot country, they learn vintage variations, terroir, vineyards, get to meet winemakers and end up in huge tastings with more than 60+ wineries with their whole portfolio open. This intern allows industry people to communicate with the customer better and to be able to sell Oregon’s product to more people and to get the word out. This costs each winery a ton of money, time and product. I have met many Oregon winemakers and grape grower because of this event, it was the greatest single learning event for me and many others.

I realize that these are 2 different events, but they are the same outcome, communicating to the consumer, getting the message out and selling product.
Oregon wineries have come together, realizing that by being one voice that they will sell their wine.
Washington has a bunch of independent voices that are having a hard time communicating, hence, wine sales are slugish.

Again, how many Oregon wineries have gone out of business in the past 2 years vs. Washington wineries?
How much extra bulk juice needs to be sold in Washington vs. Oregon.
How many Washington tasting rooms are in downtown Seattle?
How does Washington market itself?
How many discounts have you seen with Washington wines vs. Oregon?
What’s the average retail for lower tier Washington wines vs. Oregon?

These questions are not meant to be mean, or argumentative just an opinion and it may be wrong but this is what I have seen.

Listen, I want to see Washington grow and prosper, really, but they need to start to unify their voice and the TOW is a good place to start.

Off my soapbox now…

Jb

Good points, I think Oregon is a tough comparison. Oregon has Pinot Noir represnting the majority of the wine produced, so I think focus is a bit easier to pull off. They have their own set of issues, (malignment of the 2007 vintage), I can’t speak to closures as it has been a while since we’ve toured the valley in earnest.

Seems like it is either a good or bad thing that Washington doesn’t have a singular grape. It feels more like a cousin to California than Oregon, at least to me.

Sean- where are you? I’m sending him a text.

Jason check your pm’s in a few minutes.

Not going to disagree with any of this…but it bears mention that Taste of Washington is more than just the sunday afternoon tasting. Below is a link to the seminars that are held on the day before.


http://tastewashington.org/seattle-2011/seminars/

Tom

I’ve worked ToW in the past. It’s fine for the first 3/4 of the event… the last hour or so is annoying, mostly. Anyone serious comes in with a list, tastes their 20 or so wines, wanders around to see if they want to see anything else and leaves. The people there at the last hour are usually blitzed and you’re tired and wiped if you’ve worked the event.

As far as ‘connecting with the people’ I’m not sure that the wine industry NEEDS to in the large event meaning of the word. I know that several of the wineries located in S Seattle do monthly tastings (see http://ssaw.info/) and there are always winemaker dinners happening… but I’m simply unconvinced of the helpfulness of large events.

Oregon and Cali have a natural advantage that Washington doesn’t too - their wine country areas are close to major cities. Napa and Sonoma are 90 mins from SF. SB and environs are a bit further from LA… maybe 3 hours? Oregon wine country is what, 1 hour or so south of Portland? IN contrast, the wine country in WA is about 4 hours away and over a mountain range. You’re not doing that late fall to early spring unless you are really interested and you’re not doing that as a day trip either. What this means is that you don’t have people with a casual interest just popping over to wine country here of a Saturday. I’ve done that many times in SF. Hell, once I was in the East Bay on business and my colleague and I decided to just drive the 90 minutes to Yountville and eat at Bouchon. NOT something you’re doing in Seattle. That kind of casual connection would be very nice to have, but it’s never happening here.

As for the “how many WA wineries are struggling vs OR?” … I don’t know. You tell me.