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We
at Woodward Canyon are pleased to be The Grape Escape featured
winery. We will try to tell
you about winemaking in this corner of the world, introduce you to our
great winemaking team and take you through the seasons in the vineyard
and the production facility.
“We”
are Rick and Darcey Small and our daughter Jordan and son Sager, and our
production and office staff, which you will meet over the next year.
Rick is the winemaker and driving force behind the character of Woodward
Canyon, or Woody, as we call ourselves.
Background
We
are located in the small community of Lowden, in the Walla Walla
Valley Appellation that is in the very southeast corner of
Washington State. The appellation is one-third Oregon and
two-thirds Washington. This
corner of the state is much different than the typical picture
of the northwest, which is one of wet, green forests. Here, the
average rainfall is from 25.4 cm to 40.6 cm and even though we
are at the same latitude as Bordeaux, it can be blazing hot
(40.5 degrees C) in the summer and freezing cold in the winter (-23.3
degrees C). This obviously produces some challenges in the
vineyards. The western edge of the appellation is sandy,
sagebrush country; with the eastern edge the foothills of the
forested Blue Mountains. The city of Walla Walla sits at the
base of the Blues, some thirteen miles from our winery and is
one of the oldest communities in the northwest. It is rapidly
becoming a wine center as interest in the wines produced here,
and subsequently the number of vineyards and wineries, is
exploding beyond our wildest imaginations. |
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While
modern winemaking (after prohibition) began in the northwest in the late
1960s, it was not until the late 1970s that wine grapes were planted and
wineries established in Walla Walla.
Woodward
Canyon Winery is a small, premium, and family-owned winery. It was
founded in 1981 with an emphasis on premium cabernet sauvignon and
chardonnay. It was the second winery, of what is now approaching thirty,
in the Valley.
Agricultural
interests come naturally to Rick, raised on a wheat ranch,
coincidentally in Woodward Canyon. He attended Washington State
University, obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, as well as
studying in the School of Architecture before returning to Walla Walla
and the family grain business. He
was exposed to wine during a post college trip to Europe, but it did not
cross his mind that it would become his passion and livelihood.
Beginning in the mid-70’s he developed a personal interest in
winemaking with his friend Gary Figgins who was to found Leonetti Cellar
in 1978. They began by making apricot and berry wines, eventually
purchasing wine grapes from some of the early vineyards in the Columbia
Basin.
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Rick
is essentially a self-taught winemaker, reading every textbook
he could get his hands on and learning by doing.
He is known for his energy and exuberance and an absolute
passion for what he does – he literally bounds out of bed to
get to the winery in the early morning. While the science of
winemaking is necessary, Rick approaches winemaking as an
artisan who crafts the wines based on what the grape holds.
Rick
planted the first of ten hectares of vineyards in 1976 on one of
the poorest, steepest portion of his family’s wheat ranch. At
that time the neighbors referred to him as “crazy Rick
Small”, because to plant grapes in wheat country was
considered odd to say the least.
The vineyard now includes cabernet sauvignon, merlot,
cabernet franc, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, dolcetto and
barbera. We have also become financially
involved in several other vineyards over the years due to
the strong belief that the quality of the wines is established
in large part in the vineyards.
From the outset, Rick
determined that quality would take precedence over quantity.
Consequently, Woodward Canyon has remained small, increasing its
production from 1,200 cases in 1981 to approximately 15,000
cases in 2000. While Rick had become known for his award-winning
ripe and toasty cabernet sauvignons and merlots as well as
barrel-fermented chardonnays early on,
wide notice of the wines occurred in 1992 when the Wine
Spectator included three of them in its review of the
world’s top one hundred wines.
We haven’t had time to look back since then. |
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Harvest
This
year there was mild winter, then a hot, early spring that turned
into a moderate summer, followed by a long, warm fall – ideal
growing conditions. erH
Here,
we have to irrigate the vines by a drip system to provide enough
water for the plants to thrive. Since the deer (who like to
munch juicy plant shoots) and coyotes (who like to chew on drip
tube) have been fenced out, the only real threat to our vineyard
is birds. You can always tell when the grapes are getting ripe
because the birds arrive. Luckily, the vineyard is miles away
from people and we can use machines that make bird distress
noises and booming cannons to dissuade them.
All
of our varieties were harvested this year, with the exception of
the dolcetto, which is only in its second leaf. The average
yield at Woodward Canyon Vineyard was twenty hectoliters per
hectare. The wines from our estate vineyard comprise
approximately twenty percent of our production, with the
remainder coming from vineyards within the Walla Walla Valley
and from the Yakima Valley and Columbia Gorge as well. |
All
of the grapes that we use are handpicked and
arrive in large wooden or plastic bins. Those bins are dumped into a
hopper and onto a sorting table where any leaves and debris are removed.
Depending upon the wine to be made, the grapes may then be crushed or
whole cluster pressed. Reds
are pressed when they have the right taste and level of color and flavor
extraction. Most wines are pressed in the large hydraulic press, but
some are still pressed in the original basket presses. Small lots of the
reds are punched down by hand, with the larger tanks being punched down
and pumped over. The majority of the wines ferment and age in a variety
of new French oak barrels. We purchase new barrels every year and rotate
them out of our facility after two years.
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Crush
is a busy, exciting and tiring time. The production team,
consisting of about seven people, works long hours seven days a
week and the rest of us try to handle everything else so that
they can concentrate on the wines. Good food helps keep everyone
going and one of our traditions is sitting down to a substantial
lunch each day, including fine cheeses, saucisson and Rick’s
fresh baked bread. It’s interesting that the salesmen and
colleagues from other wineries now seem to be stopping by to
visit at lunch. This year crush began in early September and
ended the first week of November when the last fruit came it.
The fruit was beautiful and ripe and we are very excited about
the potential of this year’s wines.
Next on the horizon is our
annual Holiday Barrel Tasting that occurs the first weekend in
December of each year. The wineries of the Valley open their
doors to the public for food, entertainment, tastings and fun.
Last year over one thousand folks went through our winery in two
days! Needless to say, the logistics are getting to be quite a
challenge. |
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