There's No Place Like Home!

I love my job. I really do. And I know just how lucky I am in it. I happen to have a job where I get to talk about wine all day. I recently returned from my second trip down to Sonoma Valley/Napa Valley in less than a year. This time around I was sent down with a co-worker so that we could attend the Direct to Consumer Symposium that was being held in Santa Rosa. It was a great symposium that covered the topics of social media and mobile marketing; issues that we, here at Woodward Canyon Winery, are trying to stay ahead of the curve. We have both a Facebook and Twitter account and we are obviously a member of the blogging community. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day that will help us take our social media presence to the next level.

The one draw back about being down in California this past week was the torrential downpour the entire three days! I should have been expecting a bit of rain since it is winter, but I wasn’t and certainly not the amount that we saw. I thought I was getting out of the cold, foggy, wet Pacific Northwest for some warmer weather and sunshine. I’m not sure the last time I was that mixed up about a situation. And if that wasn’t bad enough it was sunny, 60 degrees and gorgeous when the plane landed back in Seattle! Now how’s that for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Santa Rosa is a cute city that reminded me of Walla Walla. The area we were in had a couple of streets filled with restaurants, wine bars and shops that reminded me of Walla Walla's Main Street. It was easy to see where Walla Walla could potentially end up down the road. To me, one of the most interesting facts about Santa Rosa is that the population sits around 161,500 residents which is close to 4 times the size of Walla Walla's population! When I first read that I couldn't believe it. It definitely did not feel that big while we were down there.

The one thing I really appreciated about our little valley is the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance and the Walla Walla Valley maps they put out each year. Maybe I was just looking in the wrong places but in all the tasting rooms I visited in both Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley I never once saw a map of either AVA. It made me realize how lucky we are and how hard our Wine Alliance works for us.

For me, one of the nicest things about visiting California was a renewal of my passion for the tasting room and the customer relations part of my job. I had forgotten how much fun I have talking to people and trying to educated them a bit on Woodward Canyon, the Walla Walla Valley and wine in general. The past couple of days back behind the bar have been fun, refreshing and a nice change of pace. And really visiting other areas always reminds me just how much I love living in the Walla Walla Valley

And now I'm off to enjoy some of this nice winter fog! I'm crossing my fingers for some sunshine this weekend. Hope to see everyone soon!

Cheers!

Shari

2009 Vintage Overview

We’re off to a new year and technically a new decade as well and I thought the best way to start 2010 would be to wrap up 2009. Not sure if everyone will agree with me but 2009 seemed to go by in a blur. We ended the year the same way we started it – cold in the valley with snow and ice covering the ground, though not as much as last winter. For a vintage that seemed to take forever to get going (I was still wondering where the sunshine and warm weather was in April and May) it ended up being a rather compressed vintage and warmer overall.



The first bud break in our Estate Vineyard in the Walla Walla Valley was towards the end of March which starts the process to try to assure that the best possible grapes are harvested. Shoot positioning, leaf stripping, lateral removal and finally cluster thinning are all part of that process. Because of the cooler, wetter spring veraison did not begin until mid July. However, a couple of really hot weeks towards the end of July and into August quickly made up for lost time.


We brought in our first fruit of the vintage, the sauvignon blanc and the chardonnay from the Estate Vineyard, at the end of August. Harvest was a bit compressed as well. Everything seemed to ripen at once which had vineyard crews scrambling to bring everything in at the same time. We have a good crew that finished in our vineyard early and then went with Rick to the Champoux Vineyard to pick our grapes from the Circle Block.

We brought in the last of the fruit the first part of October, which was just in time before the first freeze of the year swept through the valley. It was on the earlier side, the middle of October, and caught some wineries off guard. I hope those that still had fruit hanging were able to pick it shortly afterwards. Now everything is safely tucked in barrel and the wait is on.

Rick is already (or constantly, depending on how you view it) thinking about the vineyard and our next vintage. He is hoping to plant a new cover crop on the terraces next time there is snow on the ground. While he is not overly worried about damage in the vineyard due to the freeze, he won’t know for sure until he checks buds later this month.

Here’s a quick peek on what we’re looking at for the 2009 vintage.

• The cabernet franc from the Woody Vineyard (our Estate Vineyard) is coming along really nicely. It was cropped back to single cluster per shoot this year and should be a great backbone to the Estate Reserve (formally the Estate Red) program.
  
• The cabernet sauvignon from the old hillside out of the Estate Vineyard is also very promising. Almost 20 years old and planted in shallow soil this cabernet will most likely be used to enhance the Estate Reserve and Walla Walla Valley Cabernet programs.
  
• Kevin and Rick are considering a separate bottling of around 100 cases of the Woodward Canyon Estate Chardonnay. As they have tasted through the wines both are pleased with all our chardonnay and feel that a few special barrels can stand alone as an Estate bottling.


• The cabernet from Champoux Vineyard Circle Block and Sagemoor Vineyard Block 3 is looking great. The fruit from those two blocks is what we normally used as the anchor for the “Old Vines” Cabernet program.


• Rick and Kevin are also excited about what we have in barrel from Champoux Vineyard Block 2.

There’s still a lot of time before the 2009 vintage is in the bottle but it looks like it’s shaping up to be another fine vintage for us. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

In the meantime I’m enjoying the current releases we have available at the winery. Check out our website for a list of the wines and order online. Also, last week while doing inventory we came across a number of cases of the 2006 “Artist Series” Cabernet in magnum form. If you missed out on purchasing some of the 750s now is your chance to get some of this vintage before we completely sell out of it. We do have plenty of the 2007 "Artist Series" Cabernet available and it's pouring beautifully! And if you have older vintages of the "Artist Series" Cabernet and "Old Vines" Cabernet and aren't sure about opening them, don't forget to check out our drink/hold page on the website. It will give you an idea on when the best time to open them would be.

Sounds like we just had some people come into the tasting room. I’m going to stick my head out and say hello. If you come through the valley this year, stop in and say hi and I’ll pour you some wine. Happy New Year everyone! Hope your new year’s resolution somehow include drinking some amazing wine this year.

Cheers!

Shari

Happy Holidays!

From our family to your family,

Happy Holidays!

I hope this post finds everyone someplace warm and surrounded by those they love. Have a wonderful holiday season and hope to see everyone sometime in 2010!

Cheers!

Shari

Get Ready ... it's Holiday Barrel Weekend!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday filled with family, friends, food and great wine! I know that as I sit here and write this I’m still stuffed from yesterday’s feast. The food was wonderful so of course I ate more than I should have. But Thanksgiving would not be Thanksgiving if you did not over eat. So I'm just keeping with the tradition.

Now that one holiday is behind me it’s time to turn my attention to next weekend’s Holiday Barrel Tasting. This week will be spent decorating around the winery and making things look festive. We will once again be pouring all the wines in our production building and just hold the sales in our regular tasting room. We will be showcasing our new releases the 2007 “Artist Series” Cabernet, the 2008 Estate Barbera and the 2007 Columbia Valley Merlot along with a barrel sample of next year’s release, the 2008 “Artist Series” Cabernet.

Chef Paul will once again be on hand to prepare small bites for munching during your tasting. Paul and his wife Abby came through over Fall Release Weekend and were already throwing around ideas of how to prepare this year’s pasture-fed lamb from Upper Dry Creek Ranch. Chef Paul’s lamb is always a special treat and we can’t wait to find out what he has planned for us! And don’t forget about Paul’s fabulous toppings and spreads. I’m always a big fan of either the baked artichoke or the baked brie. Both are excellent with Rick’s bread which he’ll be baking all three days.

Don’t forget to take advantage of our 2007 “Artist Series” Cabernet and our Nelms Road holiday pricing we have going on right now. The ’07 “Artist Series” is being offered at a holiday/introductory price of $44 a bottle and both of the Nelms’ (the ’07 Cab and ’07 Merlot) are being offered at a holiday price of $20 a bottle. And since neither is a quote/unquote “special” both offers still receive the 10% discount when purchased as a case or part of a case. Any of the three wines would make a great addition to your holiday table.

Now my stomach is starting to growl at me. Guess it’s time to grab some leftovers. Hope to see everyone this coming up weekend!

Cheers!

Food and wine pairings

We’re going into the holiday season where one of the most asked questions is which wines pair best with which food? For holiday dinners, Thanksgiving in particular, it’s always a hard question to answer. These dinners are usually served in more of a buffet style and there hundreds of different flavors to try to pair with. This is not the easiest task for anyone. What I have always done was put out a couple of different wines and let people pair with what they have. This seems to have worked well for me in the past and it’s an easy way for everyone to find something that they enjoy.

This year we decided the best way to inform our customers would be to take a food and wine pairing class that was being offered at the Tri-Cities extension of Washington State University. Andy Perdue from Wine Press Northwest and Christopher with Yoke’s Fresh Market led the class where we learned a little bit about different varietals and what they paired the best with. If you are looking to pair something with turkey a pinot noir is always a good match but here at Woody we like a good chardonnay or even a merlot or sauvignon blanc. A holiday ham goes well with similar wines also. There are times, with the right ham, that I’ll go out on a limb and pair it with a nice syrah. For those who serve roast beef as their main course you can never go wrong with a big hearty red, usually big cabs or merlots.

A few key things to remember when trying to come up with a pairing with red wine …

• Versatile wines are always going to show better with acidity playing an important part. A wine that is high in acid will stand up better against food than a wine that is lacking.
  
• Fruity wines tend to have versatility and they don’t compete with flavors.
  
• Wines can be enjoyed with spicier food, they just need to be a bit higher in acidity and usually with a little residual sugar.
  
• To tame a big red, pair it with a food that is high in protein. Proteins help to bind and smooth out tannins.
  
• Wines can be an ingredient in foods – and when done well a good ingredient too. If you add wine to the food plan on serving it with dinner also.
  

And a few key points to remember when pairing with a white …

• Sweetness does matter. Some desserts are better off enjoyed by themselves some can be paired very well with a wine.
  
• Acidity is one of the most important things.
  
• Bubbly is very versatile and (in my opinion) a very essential part to any holiday meal.
  

And when in doubt, pork and poultry are great matches with whites! If I have questions the website that I frequently check is http://www.winewebcentral.com/winepairing/. It’s a great one that suggests different wines to pair with most main dishes.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday season! Happy Thanksgiving and hope to see everyone through for Holiday Barrel weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Woody team!

Fall Release Weekend!

It’s a cold overcast day that lets me know that fall has officially arrived. I’m sitting at my desk in a fleece vest trying to stay warm and still trying to recuperate from Fall Release Weekend last weekend. Fall Release is a big weekend in the Walla Walla Valley that started as Cayuse Release and Abeja Release Weekend and has grown in numbers over the past few years. I remember working Fall Release Weekend last year in the tasting room with only two other people and it was crazy. This year we wanted to try to eliminate the over-crowded feel and open it up a bit. We decided to do all of our tasting in the “Reserve House” instead of the regular Tasting Room. We poured through a mixture of both current release wines and some reserve wines, including our new release the 2007 Charbonneau Red. Chefs Charles Calder and Jay Entrikin prepared a wonderful Asian-themed spread that complimented the wines that we were pouring. Rick and Darcey were on hand to pour wine, serve food and mingle with guest. It was a really fun weekend and a good chance to catch up with many of our longtime customers and to meet some new ones as well!

And now that Fall Release Weekend has come and gone is time to start planning for Holiday Barrel Weekend. Holiday Barrel is always the first full weekend in December, which does not give us much time to turn around and get ready for it. This year we will be doing barrel samples of the 2008 “Artist Series” and have the 2007 “Artist Series” Cabernet, the 2007 Columbia Valley Merlot and the 2008 Estate Barbera as our featured releases. This is perfect since we are close to being sold out of both the 2006 Columbia Valley Merlot and the 2007 Estate Barbera. We still have some of the 2006 “Artist Series" Cabernet available which means we will have nice sample packs available.

Holiday Barrel will, once again, be held in the production building with sales in the Tasting Room. Chef Paul Williams will be on hand to prepare all the food and Cheryl Cosner-Williams of Upper Dry Creek Ranch will also be around to sell lamb sampler packs. Chef Paul’s lamb creations are always customer favorites. Our newest “Artist Series” label artist, Irene Yesley, will be available to sign bottles and posters.

The 2007 “Artist Series” Cabernet is a new release and will be offered at an introductory price of $44 a bottle. The 10% case discount will still apply to this wine. Also, we are offering both the 2007 Nelms Road Merlot and the 2007 Nelms Road Cabernet for $20 a bottle, with a 10% case discount. All three are excellent wines and will make a fine addition to any holiday meal.

And don’t forget to join Thomas at 20something - the new vintage at the Fremont Studios in Seattle on November 21st from 6 to 10 pm. He’ll be pouring our 2008 Estate Sauvignon Blanc that evening. Come early and grab a taste before it’s all gone!

If we didn’t see you during Fall Release Weekend I hope to see everyone sometime during Holiday Barrel Weekend!

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!