Woodward Canyon Winery March 2001

Washington State visit 2001

For those of you not familiar with the wines of the Washington State region then let us enlighten you. Earlier this month Chris visited the area to see for himself how good the wines actually are and to visit our “web-site winery” friends at Woodward Canyon in the Walla Walla district of the state.

The things I do in the name of research. Firstly, let me point out that there is a major problem between myself and going to the vineyards of Washington and that is the time it takes to get there from Manchester. The next problem is the fact that I am terrified of flying. Yes I know it’s safer than walking across the road but if I get hit by a bus I’m not going to fall 3 miles to the roadside!! However, things got off to a flying start (sic!!) when I was upgraded by the fine people at BA to Club Class (Hopefully a mention might earn me another the next time I am forced onto a plane). Having your own TV was a good enough distraction from the general panic I feel whilst flying and my calmed state was helped further by the fine Champagne and then the particularly fine Meursault that was served with my dinner.

Anyway, my destination was Seattle where I was to meet up with Adrian our main web-designer who had gone out a week earlier to find some camera equipment to film part of our visit. From Seattle we moved up to Microsoft country in Redmond. Here we stayed with my Sister and her family which was very nice even if she does have nutty children and a mad dog!! One of the main benefits of staying with my sister is that like the rest of my family she loves a nice glass of wine. So I was lucky enough to try a whole range of local wines whilst staying. The highlight being a bottle of Leonetti Merlot, which was absolutely wonderful. Very rich, stylish and immaculately crafted, it had layers of flavour and texture. Very nice indeed! Also Chateau St Michelle which is widely available in the UK is an excellent winery with plenty of good wines in the range particularly their single vineyard wines such as Horse Heaven Cabernet. Some other good wines we tried included L’ecole No.41 whose white wines are extremely well priced and give good fruit and depth.

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Since 1998 the Washington State region has set about establishing itself as a serious player in the UK wine market. Helped by successively good vintages since 1998 the area has also seen extensive development in teaching, research and extension programmes to help develop the industry. The main areas of production are centered on four main zones - The Puget Sound, Walla Walla, Yakima Valley and the Columbia Valley. Since 1995 extensive plantings have been undertaken to increase the area under vine. Most of this additional planting has taken part in Walla Walla. As a direct result of this extensive planting programme the Washington State region has increased output from 227,000hl in 1995 to 378,500hl in 2000. In total there are now 161 commercial wineries with about half of them currently exporting wines out of the U.S.

So early on the Wednesday morning of our visit we set off from Redmond to travel the 5 hours to the Walla Walla district. The trip itself was an experience as on the way we passed through huge stretches of forest, the Cascade Mountains (which were covered in snow), vast stretches of apple orchards and then finally into the extremely hot and barren semi-desertic region that includes Walla Walla.

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The main intention of our visit to Walla Walla was to go and meet Rick and Darcey Small who own Woodward Canyon. As regular readers will know, Woodward has been our featured winery all year. As a thank you for their hard work we thought the least we could do was go over and visit them for ourselves. It was also our intention to film the vineyard and winery for use on the web site later this year.
Arriving at the vineyard in late morning we met Rick and Darcey and immediately set off in a four-wheel drive for a visit to the vineyards. Thank God for four wheels drive is all I can say because without it we were in for one steep walk. The vineyards are deeply undulating and rise to a couple of hundred feet above the valley floor. Standing on top allowed us an impressive view across this vast area of mainly wheat farms. The land that Rick’s vineyards are planted on were originally wheat fields leading locals to dub Rick “Crazy Rick Small” when he decided to swap wheat for grapes.

As we walked through the vineyards it was easy to get carried away by Rick’s enthusiasm for the job he does. Whether it’s new buds flowering, drip-irrigation systems or a new wind machine all are treated with the same huge dose of enthusiasm. Here is a man who clearly loves what he is doing.

From the vineyards we drove the couple of Kilometers back to the winery where we were extremely lucky to be treated to a selection of wines straight from the barrel. The wines in particular that stood out amongst the vast array were the best Merlot I have ever tasted which was just sublime. It had the most enormous character and was ripe with beautiful vanilla and smoke coming from the oak. It really was the best thing I’d tried all year – absolutely divine. We then tried a different Merlot from a much higher yielding site. Although excellent, the difference between this wine and the previous low-yield Merlot was considerable with the former displaying much more power and structure. We also had a really interesting Cabernet Franc, which was rich, and not green like many Loire examples can be. It had some excellent depth and a fine flavour of berry fruits.

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At this point we reconvened our drinking around the lunch table. Not only is Rick a great winemaker but he makes the finest pizza ever tasted from his own home made dough cooked in his home made wood oven. His true passion is bread making which having tasted his Pizza I can say without doubt that his dough is as great as his wines!!!! We tasted a number of wines with lunch including a Cabernet Franc Rose which had some great strawberry character and a lovely rounded style.
We tried a Riesling that was just about off-dry with great Germanic style fruit flavours but was so much more rounded and fleshy than the European version. Very appealing and designed for the style of fusion cooking that’s popular in the Seattle area.
Also on offer were some excellent Cabernet from the exclusive old-vines series. These wines pack a real punch and benefit greatly from the new oak treatment that they receive. Very rich and full on with the fruit and oak but well-balanced and immaculate style.

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At one point during the lunch the winemakers of L’Ecole No. 41 (the adjoining property to Woodward) came out to practice chipping golf balls into wine barrels. On smelling Rick’s pizza across the field they soon joined us and shared a glass and a slice.

After lunch we bought some wines from the vineyard store to remind us of our visit and made our goodbyes.

If the trip left me with any lasting impression it’s that being a vineyard owner looks like a great life. Hard work for sure, but what a great way to make a living. Mind you, I’d never leave the barrel room for long enough to do any work!!!

And yes, I got stuck in Economy on the way home!!