Annual "A Celebration of Washington Wines" Event

On January 24, 2009 the eighth annual "Celebration of Washington Wines" black tie event will take place at Ste. Michelle Winery. The event is a benefit in support of the Washington State University program in Viticulture and Enology.

The "Celebration of Washington Wines" includes dinner and a reception (both accompanied by Washington wines), but the main draw of the event, and the primary fund raiser, are the auctions; a silent auction before dinner, and then a live auction after dinner. Ticket are $250.00 each. Last year's event raised over $235,000.00, and helped endow a chair at Washington State. You can see some of the auction items here. They include items designed to tempt wine enthusiasts from anywhere, like the ultimate Washington Merlot collection, wine tasting parties, resort stays, limited edition Washington wines, and a number of smaller items. The official "Celebration of Washington Wines"Web site is here, and includes ticket purchasing instructions.

The previous "Celebration of Washington Wines" events together have raised over a million in funding for the Viticulture program, which provides both certificates and degrees to students. Alumni of the program have largely stayed in Washington after graduation, continuing the tradition of great Washington wines. It really is where future wine makers, and grape growers, come from. Washington State University was responsible for the research more than fifty years ago that determined that traditional European viniculture and grapes would flourish in Washingtons's soil and climate; today there are more than 500 wineries, and 350 wine grape growers, growing more than 20 different grape varietals.

Washington Ice Wine

Washington is blessed with the rare climate conditions needed to produce ice wines, particularly in the vineyards in the Eastern half of the state. This week's cold snap, with temperatures at night falling in the low teens, has allowed a number of Washington wineries to gather the frozen and very ripe grapes required to make ice wine.

A German tradition, ice wine (eiswein to the Germans) is made when the frost hits the vines at just the right time to freeze the ripe, fully mature grapes. Because water remains frozen longer than the sweet, intensely flavorful juice of the mature grapes, gentle, careful pressing releases a few drops of concentrated juice. That concentration also means that it takes more grapes to make a single bottle of wine, which means the wine is more expensive— one reason the sweet dessert style wines are traditionally sold in half-size bottles. The harvest usually takes place in the pre-dawn hours, once the very ripe grapes have frozen, but before they have time to thaw. The marble-like grapes are pressed while still frozen.

Ice wine is always a bit of a gamble for winemakers; they don't know when, or even if, the ripe grapes will freeze, but they must leave them on the vine in case they are lucky enough to be blessed with temperature drop in the 14 to 19 degrees F. range required to completely freeze the grapes. And they must protect the grapes from legions of hungry birds, which usually necessitates covering the fruited vines with bird netting; all in aid of a gamble which might not pay off. If you click the image above of ice-covered grapes clinging to frosted vines, you can see a video from Covey Run about ice wine.

Ice wine is by no means a modern invention. There are references in Latin texts that suggest some grapes were deliberately harvested after the frost; it isn't clear whether the grapes were merely a late-harvest, or truly frozen. Certainly by the nineteenth century, ice wine was known to German vintners.

Although Canada is the largest producer of ice swine, there are a number of Washington wineries with successful ice wines in their repertoire. Chateau Ste. Michelle produced a 2006 Riesling ice wine. Columbia Winery also makes a Riesling ice wine. Although Riesling is the traditional varietal favorite for ice wine, other grape varieties are also used. Brian Carter, of Apex Cellars, uses Gewürztraminer as the base for his ice wine. Covey Run, producing occasional ice wines since 1986, has made ice wines from Semillon as well as Riesling and Chenin Blanc grapes. Kiona has a 2006 Chenin Blanc ice wine. Amavi produces ice wine from Semillon grapes. Terra Blanc produces Chenin blanc and Riesling ice wines. A few Canadian wineries are experimenting with very non-traditional red ice wines, using Cabernet Franc, Merlot, or Pinot Noir grapes. Lake Crest Winery makes a Syrah ice wine.

This year, early in the 2 F. morning chill on December 16, workers at Horse Heaven Hills vineyard began harvesting about seven tons of frozen Riesling grapes, according to Kevin Corliss, director of operations for Chateau Ste. Michelle winery. The particular vines are from the same block used to produce Chateau Ste. Michelle's highly rated Single Berry Select wine. Winemaker Wendy Stuckey said that "the grapes sounded like bullets when they hit the hopper." The grapes produced about 200 gallons of the extremely sweet, rich juice. This year's harvest was the seventh successful ice wine harvest for Chateau Ste. Michelle. With luck, we should be able to purchase the wine in 2010.

After a week of being snow-bound, I'm looking forward to a bottle as my reward. In fact, given the way that past vintages have increased in price, and improved with age, this may well be a wine worth buying and storing for very special occasions.

Wine Sulfites

A friend of mine recently mentioned that she can't drink red wine because it has sulfites in it., and they give her headaches. I was a bit startled because pretty much all wine has sulfites, either naturally, as a byproduct of the fermentation process, or as a preservative.

In 1987 the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began requiring that any food that has more than 10 parts per million of sulfites needs a warning label that says "contains sulfites." Sulfites are frequently used as a food preservatives because they removes the oxygen that bacteria need to survive. Sulfites are commonly used in the production of wines, sausages, fruit juice and bagged salad products. Dried fruit in particular is preserved with sulfites, so anyone who has a problem with sulfites in wine will likely have a problem with dried fruit.

Winemakers add sulfites to prevent micro-organisms, oxidation, and, particularly in red wines, discoloration. The ancient Egyptians and Romans would burn elemental sulfur in wine amphoras, producing sulfite residues which dissolved when the wine was added. The sulfites added to wine dissolve into either bound sulfites, when the sulfites join with other compounds during fermentation and thus don't affect the flavor or odor of the wine, or free sulfites which remove oxygen and thus prevent damage to the wine. Aged red wines have very little residual sulfite, and dry whites two to three years after bottling also tend to have fewer sulfites.

People who are allergic to sulfites should avoid them, of course, especially people who are asthmatics, since they seem more susceptible than the general population. It is possible to avoid sulfites by sticking to wines that are certified as organic or biodynamic; those wines sulfite content are regulated and are generally required to be no more than 100 parts per million. Washington wineries produce a variety of organic wines.

Since aged red wines typically have lower amounts of sulfites than white wines. I suspect that my friend was reacting not so much to the sulfites, but suffered the so-called "Red Wine Headache," a phenomena that isn't completely understood, but which does affect many people. There's a good discussion of the issues here.

There's a third problem with sulfur and wine, sometimes, in that occasionally when you open a bottle of wine you'll catch a faint whiff of sulfur; it might remind you of rotten eggs, or of the scent of a just-struck match. Sometimes, all you have to do is decant the wine, and let it breathe a bit. But if the odor lingers, you might want to try "the penny trick," if you have an older, clean, genuinely copper penny, drop it into the wine. Alternatively, a gentle stir or two with a sterling silver spoon will work just fine. Either method causes the sulfur odor to dissipate, and you can enjoy your wine.

Dry Wine

People often talk about "dry wine" as something markedly special. You'll sometimes hear people use the word "dry" in reference to wine as a synonym for excellent. In an informal survey of academics at a party where all of them were drinking wine, and considered themselves fairly knowledgeable about wine, three people told me that a dry wine was an aged wine; two people told me dry wine was put on the labels of high quality white wines.

They were wrong, of course. "Dry," for wine, or beer, refers to the fact that the beverage is comparatively low in sugar because fermentation has converted the natural sugar of the grapes into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Sometimes the process is referred to as "fermenting out" the sugar. The naturally occurring yeast that causes fermenting has consumed the sugar and converted it to alcohol, carbon dioxide, and heat. The wine master ordinarily stops the fermentation before the sugar is consumed, but in order to make a dry wine, the yeast is allowed to do what it does best. In Europe the law stipulates that in order to be labeled "dry" the final wine is .4% or less (that's 4 grams per liter).

In order to make non-dry or "sweet" wine, the winery may add sweet grape juice (or juice concentrate) back to a dry wine; this is typically done in order to increase the alcohol content, rather than to make it taste sweeter. In California, winemakers are legally prohibited from adding sugar to wine. Other ways include adding additional alcohol to the wine, which is how Port or other "fortified" wines are made, or, most commonly, by stopping the natural fermentation process by adding sulfur to the wine, or cooling it to the point that the yeast can't survive, or a combination of both. Then of course, with the right sorts of wine, bottle aging tends to increase the dryness of a wine.

In English, you'll notice wine labels with "dry" or sometimes "Extra Dry" as a description; you may note sec, trocken, secco, or asciutto, on imported wines. The very dry wines often have a lovely character, but they can take a bit of getting used to if you typically drink Rieslings or other, sweeter wines. Keep in mind that most red table wines are dry by nature, even if they lack a label to that effect. Your Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon are likely dry.

You don't have to make the transition all at once, though. The Chateau Ste Michelle Dry Riesling, for example, retains much of the character and robustness of their traditional Riesling, just without quite so much sweetness. This makes it awfully nice with food, especially zesty, spicy, rich, or salty dishes. And gives you a chance to experiment with a wine that's familiar, extremely drinkable, but a good deal less sweet.

Very dry wines are also excellent to cook with, for making fondue, marinades, dressings, and reductions, because they're very flavorful without becoming syrupy. The process of experimenting is half the fun of buying and consuming unfamiliar wine, of course.

Kosher Wine

When I was a kid, kosher wine pretty much meant the standard non-Pesach corn syrupy-sweet Manischewitz. In California, friends celebrating Passover (which requires four glasses of wine to be consumed during the course of the seder) introduced me to the wide variety of excellent, and non-sulfide containing, kosher wines. I discovered not only excellent Israeli kosher wines, but California kosher wines from Herzog Cellars and others. California wineries produce a wide variety of white and red wines (traditionally, seders usually involve red wines, but Californians may be less orthodox in that respect).

I wondered if Washington produced kosher wines, and set about to find out. But, I hear you ask, what does it mean for a wine to be kosher?

In order for a wine produced outside of Israel (where the rules are much stricter) to be kosher all the production of the wine after the grapes are picked must involve handling only by sabbath-keeping Jews under the direction of a rabbi or Kashrut trained supervisor.

No work, at all, may be done on the sabbath. That means from sunset to sunset, Friday to Saturday.

Any barrels, or storage tanks or wine-making equipment must be kosher. There must be no contamination at all from non-kosher food products. No departure however minor is acceptable. This makes strict vegetarians very happy.

The exception to these rules is meshuval wine, that is, wine that is been pasteurized, or brought to boiling and cooled. Modern winemakers use flash pasteurization, bringing the wine to the boiling point within seconds and then "flash" cooling it down. Experts say this method doesn't adversely affect the wine at all.

I should point out that kosher for Passover involves a separate set of requirements, because of the necessity for purity. You can read more about kosher wine production here, here, and here.

Unfortunately, I have only been able to locate one kosher wine producing winery in Washington: Pomum Cellars winery in Woodinville. You can see a video review of two of their kosher wines, Pomum Cellars' 2005 Shya Red and Pomom Cellars' 2005 Syra. If you're still curios about kosher wine, I recommend the Kosher Wine Review, which includes lists by country of production as well as a list of meshuval wines (particularly useful in terms of catering, since the wine is still deemed kosher even if served by non Jews). Tree of Life Judaicia and Books in Seattle sells kosher wine, but none from Washington. I note that online purveyor Kosher Wine Online seems to offer kosher wine from every conceivable location except the Pacific Northwest, but I'm hoping . . .

Mulled Wine

We're not really sure where the word "mulled," as in mulled wine (or cider) comes from. The first extant use of it in the context of wine or cider heated with spices and sweetening is from 1607, in G. Wilkins Miseries Inforst Marriage "I can drinke Muscadine and Egges, and Muld-sack." (OED mulled). But we do know that slightly sweetened wine, heated with spices and fruit, goes back to the middle ages.

Back then, mulled wine was called Ypocras, or Hippocras (after Hippocrates, the legendary physician). It was considered a seasonal tonic, stored after making for a month or so, then heated again and served.

In Scandinavia, the beverage is called Glögg, or Gløgg to the Danish, Glögi to the Finns. Spices, primarily cinnamon, cloves, and sometimes, cardamom, are added to a red wine base that's been slightly sweetened with sugar. Sometimes brandy, akavit or vodka are added at the last. It's not meant to be boiled because the alcohol content is considered a main feature. Glögg is served in generously sized mugs, sometimes expressly made for the purpose, and accompanied with almonds, raisins, and warm gingerbread. Swedes also often serve Glögg, with ginger bread and sometimes, with lussebullar, a sweet saffron-flavored raisin bun, and has close ties with Christmas. The Norwegians serve Glögg before a traditional rice pudding.

In Germany, Glöhwein is made by heating slightly sweetened red wine with cinnamon and lemon rinds, without letting it boil, until the cinnamon has suffused the wine. An additional shot of schnapps or brandy just before serving is optional. Glöhwein is traditionally sold along with hand-crafted gifts in the open-air Christmas markets in November and December.

For more modern American-style mulled wine, the basic method consists of finding a palatable but affordable red wine; usually a dry red is used, often a burgundy, but there's nothing wrong with using a Merlot, a Shiraz, or a Cabernet sauvignon, or even a Zinfandel. And there's a good German tradition that calls for a white wine to be mulled, so consider a Riesling or a Viognier too. Don't use an expensive wine for mulling, but don't use something you wouldn't happily put in a glass and drink, either.

You want to use a non-reactive pot to simmer (but not boil) the wine; a crock pot is a lovely way to prepare, and serve, mulled wine since the wine is kept at an even temperature, allowing you and your guests to socialize and come back for seconds, without requiring a cook to stand over a pot.

Zest a half a lemon or orange, and add the juice and zest to the wine. Add between an eighth and and half cup of sugar, to taste, two or three sticks of cinnamon, two or three whole cloves, and, depending on preferences, a crushed Cardamom pod, or a star anise or two, or one or two slightly crushed black peppercorns. Let them simmer without boiling for a least a half hour, stirring every few minutes, and adjust the sugar and spices to taste.

Depending on preferences, you might want to add a splash of brandy to each mug before serving, or as much as a half cup to the mulled wine mixture. Other possibilities include a vanilla bean, but I'd make and use vanilla sugar, instead. You might find a small square of cotton or cheesecloth with the zest and spices tied up in it makes a less cloudy beverage, and easier clean up. Many people prefer to use thinly sliced rounds of lemon and orange, keeping rind and fruit but removing seeds is better option than juice and zest, and makes a very pretty presentation, especially when served with an additional cinnamon stick as a stirrer.

Here are some recipes though for several different versions, including one from an English Victorian cookbook (scroll down or search the page for the word "mull").

About those Rieslings

I've been particularly enjoying Rieslings from Oregon and Washington, of late; most notably the Hogue 2007, the Ste. Michelle 2007, and Columbia Winery's 2007 Cellarmaster's Reserve. Riesling, as you probably know, is a very sweet grape, and tends to make sweet wines. Many Rieslings are largely served as dessert wines. The Pacific Northwest climate, with its cool nights, and the soil conditions of eastern Washington, and the Columbia valley, grow particularly fine Riesling grapes. I started looking at Rieslings in particular because my mom, after seven years in Germany, developed a fondness for them, and the same climate conditions that make Rieslings flourish in Germany's Rhine and the Alsace apply to Oregon and Washington, especially the Columbia valley.

The Riesling grape is an old variety, popular in medieval Europe, and, according to DNA research by Ferdinand Regner, Riesling is likely descended from an old grape known as Gouais Blanc, or in German Weißer Heunisch. Vines were brought to Burgundy from Croatia by the Romans. Another parent is a cross between a wild vine and Traminer, which suggests to wine historians that Riesling was a Rhine development. Nineteenth century German emigrants brought traditional Johannisberg Riesling vines to New York, California, and Washington, and they've flourished ever since.

I suppose, if I had to choose between the Rieslings I've tried so far, I'd pick Columbia Winery's 2007 Cellarmaster's Reserve, but I've not had a bad Pacific Northwest Riesling yet— and I'm finding I like both the dry varieties, like the Chateau Ste. Michelle 2007 Dry Riesling, as well as the sweeter variants. That said, I'm curious about some of the Rieslings from outside the Columbia valley, and found an interesting list of Riesling recommendations to try.

I'm also curious about the German tradition of Eiswein, or "ice wine," in which the grapes are harvest very late, long past when they would usually be picked, in order for the water to evaporate via freezing. That means that the juice from the pressed grapes is richer, and much more saturated with sugar, producing a sweeter "dessert" wine. Pacific Rim Winery, rather than freezing the grapes on the vine in the traditional fashion, picks Riesling grapes then freezes them, pressing the grapes while they are still frozen, to produce Riesling Selenium Vineyard Vin De Glaciere. Chateau Ste. Michelle in 2006 was able to make a traditional ice wine, producing Chateau Ste. Michelle 2006 Eroica Riesling Ice Wine, which, while it sounds lovely (it's one of five times in a forty year history that the winery has had the right conditions for ice wine), seems to run around $75.00 a bottle.

I think I'll have to wait for another opportune late harvest freeze.

Highlighting Female Winemakers of Washington

Most of us know (and are quite proud) of Washington's booming wine industry; last time I checked the Washington Wine Commission, the number of wineries had increased to an impressive 580! While we refill our wine glasses and raise them in celebration, let's throw in one more celebratory fact; how many of these Washington wineries boast a female winemaker?

This idea crept into my head when I read Suzi Beerman's article about female winemakers. Aptly called From Grape to Glass, Women Make Washington Wine, the writer provides interesting background information about the people behind some of the popular Washington wines, stressing on gender mainly because in the traditionally winemaking has been hyped as a best-done-with-muscular-arms-on-a-man sort of profession.

And thus I came up with this list. Do note there is an impressive number of female winemakers but for this article I am writing about a few noteworthy ones who are making waves in the wine industry. A few of them are winemakers featured in Beerman's article but a number of them are names I came across via the Washington Wine Commission website.

1. Forgeron Cellars in Walla Walla. Marie-Eve Gilla, who is part owner and winemaker, definitely seems to have found her life's calling when she turned to winemaking. As it is, her name has been espoused by those who compare Walla Walla to "the next Napa"!

2. Chinook Wines in Prosser. Twenty-five years of winemaking means this winery is in a genre all by itself. Kay Simon and Clay Mackey are the experts behind this popular brand; Simon is the winemaker whilst Mackey is the viticulturist where their love for the profession blends with their vast expertise to bring us some rather delightful wines like the Chinook Wines Cabernet Franc Rosé which recently won the 2008 Washington Wine Award for best Rosé.

3. Nefarious Cellars in Chelan. Another husband and wife team. Dean Neff is the brains behind the red wines while Heather Neff adds the know-how to the white wines. Incidentally, Heather's 2006 Viognier was in the spotlight in the 2008 Washington Wine Awards; it was a tie with Rulo Winery's delicious Viognier.

4. aMaurice Cellars in Walla Walla. An excellent winery run by the Schafer family. Anna Schafer is the winemaker in this team where they pool together their knowledge and expertise to produce some of the tantalizing Washington wines. Interesting news bit - in 2007 Seattle Magazine referred to her as "Washington's hottest young winemakers who are changing the face of Washington wine ...".

Ami K.

Storing your Wine

When you start buying specific wines because you like them, you start buying wine by the case, because, well, you're going to drink it, eventually, and it's cheaper by the case. Now, me, for instance, I found a Washington Shiraz I liked very much indeed, and then I found a Riesling, and a Gewürztraminer . . .

Before you know it, instead of a couple of bottles in a cupboard, and an opened bottle in the 'fridge, you've got 36 bottles of wine.

They won't all fit in the cupboard, and there's no sense in putting a Shiraz in the fridge, and so you start thinking about what to do with all your lovely wine. Now, oenophiles will buy wines with the intent of keeping it until it "ages," and "develops," for several years—but they're also buying wines that are upwards of $25.00 a bottle.

That's not what I'm talking about right now, though maybe, some day . . . I'm talking about the table wines that you find locally, possibly from artisanal winemakers, or bottles from a particular winery that you got an amazing deal on. We're talking storing wine so you can enjoy it later, rather than storing wine to age it. We're talking about storage for two years or less.

First of all, these are the things you want to avoid. Don't store your wine where it will be exposed to:

  • Light
  • Odor
  • Vibrations (from motors, or fans, or compressors, for instance)

You want the location to be:

  • Warm (around 54 degrees F. but not higher than say 68 F)
  • Dark
  • Quiet
  • Dry
  • Very little fluctuation in temperature

That means not on top of the fridge, or in an open wine rack in the kitchen. But possibly inside a cool cabinet, with a door you can shut, or a linen closet, or a coat closet.

You could certainly buy special shelves or wine racks, but honestly, an empty cardboard wine box meant to hold a dozen bottles from your local store, turned on its side, is quite adequate. You'll want to turn the wine bottles on their side, whereever you store them, to keep the cork moist. Traditionally, you'd store your wines "label side up," so you could watch for sediment, but with modern table wines, that's less of an issue—but do keep an eye on sediment with artisanal wines. You also want to make very sure that the temperature is fairly constant, not a lot of fluctuation on either side of 54 F. And you don't want to shift the bottles around, either. Store them until you're ready to move them in order to drink them.

Now, if you want special shelves/wine racks, there are a lot of possibilities that won't break the bank. Make sure that the racks will fit your space though, and that your cabinet or closet door will close properly. There are options at Ikea, ranging from Hutten 9-bottle $9.99 wood racks, to Omar, self-assemble metal racks that hold 24 bottles at $34.99. Or you can take a look at Crate & Barrel for something a bit more exotic.

Washington Wine Regions

There are hundreds of wineries in Washington state, though many of them are tiny artisanal wineries producing limited quantities of hand crafted wines. Here's a list of the major wine producing areas of the state, with a sampling of wineries from each. Keep in mind that some wineries are not open to the public, or have limited tour and tasting schedules, so check the Web site before beginning your private tour— or take a list to your local wine shop.

Seattle—In the western half of the state of Washington, Seattle is a commercial, cultural and technology hub of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle sits on Puget sound, and is surrounded by mountains and water. Although not the Washington capital, Seattle is the largest population of any city in the state. And Seattle has several wineries, many of them tiny but amazing artisan wineries. A few of the Seattle wineries: Cadence Winery, E. B. Foote winery, Fall Line Winery, Owen and Sullivan Winery, Stomani Cellars, Wilridge Winery.

Woodinville—A suburban city about 18 miles NE of Seattle, or thirty minutes by car, with a number of wineries. The larger wineries include Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Winery, Domaine Ste. Michelle, maker of sparkling wines, but there are a number of small boutique and artisanal wineries in the Woodinville/Redmond area.

Yakima Valley—Yakima, with cool weather, and volcanic soil is an agricultral paradise in Eastern Washington. In additional to numerous orchards, there are many wineries, large and small. Prosser- In the eastern half of the Yakima Valley, about three and a half hours from Seattle, Prosser is the home of a number of wineries, including some of the state's oldest. A few of the more easily found vintages include Covey Run Winery, Hogue Cellars, Kiona Vineyards and Winery, and Snoqualmie.

Colombia Gorge—An area that runs along the Columbia River and between Washington and Oregon, three or or four hours from the Seattle area depending on traffic, but quite reasonable from either Portland, Oregon, or Prosser, Washington. There are a number of wineries, large and small, as well as vineyards. Columbia Gorge (an official appellation) Washington wineries include: Columbia Crest and Klickitat Canyon.

If you want to create your own private Washington wine tours, make sure to visit the Washington Wine Commission's site, where you can generate your own tour map.

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