Anybody know what’s going on at McCrea Cellars??? Any recent experience w/ their wines?? Are they still in business??
McCrea Cllrs was founded by Doug McCrea way back in the '90’s to focus on Rhone varietals from WashState. He would be showing
his wines at HdR & RhoneRangers. His marketing lady was Susan Neel. The wines were, at the time, some of the best Rhones outta WashState.
McCrea Cellars is now apparently owned by Susan & Bob Neel. The WebSite is terribly stale, offering wines from the early 2000 vintages.
The WebSite makes no mention of Doug.
He apparently started the Salida wine bar in Yelm WA and now makes Spanish style WashState wines under the Salida Cellars label.
Anybody had any of these Spanish-style wines. This is not to be confused w/ the Vino Salida Cellars, a wnry in CO that makes wine.
Anyhow…just sorta curious about the back story on Doug McCrea, an old…errrrr…long-time friend I’ve not seen in yrs.
I was shopping at a local wine store in Seattle about five(?) years ago, and Doug McCrea was pouring his Spanish variety wines. We talked for quite a while, because there was almost no one else there, and Doug loves to talk. It turned out that Doug is a musician, and we mostly talked about music. Unfortunately, his wines were not to my taste. Several showed brett influence, and all tended too ripe.
One of my employees was learning wine making about fifteen years ago and worked at McCrea Cellars as a cellar hand. At that time Doug was using only free run juice, and not pressing at all. My friend got some lightly pressed juice for free, and made more wine than any of us cared to drink, even though it was decent, without flaws. He bottled it with crown caps because that is what he had on hand from beer making. He said that Doug was literally pouring money down the drain by making no use of pressed juice.
The Salida wine bar shows on Yelp as permanently closed.
I loved his wines but have not seen them in a while – at least the Rhone varietals. I was not aware of his shift into Spanish style wines. His Rhones were some of the best in the late 90s when I started buying wines in the Seattle area. It sounds like he may have hit some hard times, at least according to this article: Doug McCrea: A Small Paean and a Large Plea For Ideas | The Pour Fool
I remember loving his syrahs and rousanne, but pretty much everything I tasted from him back in the day was quite good. He must have been one of the earliest to make syrah in the state.
Edit: I think McCrea and Glen Fiona were the two earliest to produce a WA syrah in and around 1994. Glen Fiona also seems to have disappeared. They made great wines and kept their prices pretty reasonable. Alas I long ago drank any that I had of both of them, so not certain how well they continued to age.
Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. And a wine I’ve not had in a long time. I recall I bought a bunch of his syrahs on closeout many years ago because he was selling/retiring, but it may have just been a regular closeout. My recollection is they were a great deal and enjoyed immensely. Rulo was another WA syrah that I lost track of but used to really enjoy. Have you had any of their wines Tom?
Those were some of the first Rhone varieties I had from WA. Nice wines as I recall. I hope the folks are OK. I loved them because at the time there was one of those shipping bans NY would come up with. It would have been before Granholm v. Heald. Anyway, I remember talking to the woman on the phone and asking where I could get the wines because she couldn’t ship at the time and she said, “Don’t worry. I’ll ship some wines to you.” I loved her for that.
From what I can find, it was David Lake and Columbia Winery in 1991, followed shortly thereafter by McCrea, Columbia Crest and a number of other producers . . .
I met Doug a couple of times at HdR, including at the infamous ‘Syrah Shootout’ that would take place at the old Villa Creek Restaurant a few days before the main event. There would be about 50 syrahs laid out in paper bags throughout the restaurant and winemakers and a few others would go around and taste each and then vote for their top wine. The winner was given a gaudy as hell jacket that was to be warn at the main event and then next year at this specific ‘competition’. IIRC, Doug one this more than once, including one of the two years that I attended.
He really was a fantastic rhone supporter, being the first or one of the first to bottle lots of different rhone varieties in WA - Grenache Blanc, Mourvedre, Cinsault and many others.
Reading the piece above was pretty sad - I do hope he is okay.
Oddly enough just got an e mail from them yesterday. Offering a dealers choice case special on library wines(much like Ravenswood). $295.00 per case. Very much enjoyed the wines in the past so will probably be getting one(though they no longer accept credit cards. Just Venmo, PayPal, ect). Also have an Airbnb on their property now which they are offering.
Here’s Doug with Christophe Baron at the 2004 HdR where they were co-presentors.
I recall liking the wines, never saw them in my market.
great wines from WA served at lunch that day!
I was a fan too. Looks like I still have 10 bottles, ranging in vintage from 2004 to 2007. I only got to meet Doug once, but he seemed like a good guy and I enjoyed the wines. Bob and Susan Neel used to put on nice tasting events at their house, and we always had a good time at those. I’ve definitely wondered what happened…
I recall a few fire sales (mystery wines?) of mcrea wines a few years back, but haven’t seen nor heard of them since. I had believed they had stopped production, but that is a fuzzy recall
We drank a bunch of McCrea wines in the late aughts and early teens. Good values on secondary market when Brentwood was locally focused. The single most beautiful bottle I’ve ever opened was an etched multicolor 3L of 2002 Cuvee Orleans opened for my daughter’s first bday in 2016. That glass must have been stupid expensive to produce, perhaps more than I paid for it filled with wine. Alas I have consumed all bottles by now.
I’m not on the e-mailing list but may reach out to Bob Neal. My knowledge is that he maintained ownership of McCrea library wines and I have chatted with him via facebook a time or in past couple of years.
These were my “aha” Rhone wines. I once ordered a McCrea Mourvedre at a business dinner, moderately priced, a couple different bottles were ordered by others. After a few people sampled then drank the McCrea we ended up ordering 5-6 more bottles of that mourvedre.
They stopped making wines a bit more than a decade ago. I think they were hit by a combination of the 2008 recession and the downturn in interest in syrah. Since then, they have been selling off inventory.
Very nice wines, I still have a few (although not many). Not sure that I ever tried the Salida Cellars wines.
Their website appears to be still active. They are selling a 2010 Counoise, a 2009 Sirocco, a 2010 Yakima Valley Syrah, a 2011 Mourvedre, a 2009 Cuvee Orleans Magnum, a 2010 Boushey Syrah, and a 2008 Amerique syrah. All very reasonable prices. I assume they still have them and will take orders? I am resisting though still tempted!
I am not sure what inspired Doug to build a winery near Yelm. Maybe it was the presence of JZ Knight and her Ramtha School of Enlightenment.Maybe he had the hots for Linda Evans, who lives nearby…just to be close to Ramtha. Doug told me that folks who were visiting JZ would bring a bottle of Ch d Yquem. Evidently the wine shop in Yelm sold a tremendous amount of it.
He told me he had to chase crazies off his property with a .38.
Didn’t Doug have involvement with a winery in Woodinville…Silver something?? That was in the '80s.
