NCW wines getting more attention
Russ Hemphill, my metro department editor, sent me the link to a 2005 New York Times article on Washington’s growing wine industry. The article praised wines from Leonetti Cellar and Abeja, among others. Both wineries are in Walla Walla. I just happened, the day before, to run across an article I had clipped from the New York Times (yes, real paper) that had been written in 2004 about the Washington’s red “stealth” wines that were just then beginning to make their mark among East Coast critics. It also touted Leonetti’s wines and others made from grapes grown in the Red Mountain region near Walla Walla. I’m not sure why or how that article resurfaced, but it was well timed since I had just been out to visit Rob Newsom at his Boudreaux Cellars in Icicle Canyon. The story runs on Monday’s Ag/Biz page. Newsom learned his wine making skills from Leonetti’s owner Gary Figgins and Abeja’s owner John Abbott. His wines are made from grapes grown in many of the same vineyards as their wines. Newsom’s wines are making a mark of their own these days, but he’s not the only one. Luscious reds from other local wineries like Fielding Hills, Saint Laurent, C.R. Sandidge and others have been making their way on to various top 100 wine lists. The word is getting out. North Central Washington wineries are producing the new “stealth” wines.
A couple links of interest:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05E7DB1F30F933A15754C0A9639C8B63
http://www.washingtonwine.org/press-room/acclaim.php
Rick, I am glad to hear some good news…or any news at all…about our NCW wines. I frequently berate Food and Wine and Ray Isle, their Sr. wine editor, for thinking that Walla Walla represents WA wines. We have excellent wines up here, from the Canadian border on south. Locals know many of them, but few outside our area are familiar with our wines. Some of that, of course, is because of the limited production and distribution of many of our wineries. Most are small family gems hiding here in the crown of northwestern WA vacation land. I’d name a few but couldn’t possibly leave anyone out,so I won’t start. You speak of Rob..a nice, interesting man..but all the winemakers have interesting stories and backgrounds which to us adds to our interest in their wines.
And I just learned that I cannot go back into what I have written, to edit anything unless I delete all that comes after what I want to edit! My picky, proofreading personality cannot stand to see that I have omitted a comma or some such.
Amen to the above comment from Joanne.
And Kudos to both the comments on your blog and the NYTimes articles whatever year of their publication.
NCW’s wine time, though, has not yet come…though it is developing.
Alex