By Scot Overturf

When you look at the grocery store wine shelves and end displays, most of the stock comes from big families. The established wine reps who sell them generally wield more power in the fight for shelf space. Numerous products under the Gallo umbrella would be a prime example. 

Yet some small producers manage to get in. How is that? If you have a blue-chip reputation as an importer, like Jorge Ordonez or Eric Solomon, the stores will make room for you. You can fill a niche to gain point of difference. Sometimes, excelling with awards or high scores can do it. Sometimes not. 

Termes, a deliciously overachieving Spanish Tempranillo ($25) was a house favorite of mine these past years. Last year it rated #2 in a Top 100 wines of the world list and the collectors snapped it all up . . . and then forgot about it this year. 

It’s sitting on the shelves again, this time at $22. 

How do you build on that one year’s great success? I talked with two micro newbies who both opened Washington wineries just in time for the bad economy.
CAVU Cellars is a pilot’s acronym for  “ceiling and visibility unlimited.” It occupies one of the five incubators on Piper Avenue at the Walla Walla Airport (basically a village of micro wineries). 

Those are fun-looking, small buildings; a unique treat for any visitor wine touring. If you graduate from the enology program at Walla Walla Community College and produce micro amounts of juice, you qualify to try to get a lease up to six years long there. 

It is a neat way to assist a startup. I spoke with co-owner and pilot Jim Waite, proud father of CAVU’s winemaker and co-owner, Joel. 

He told me Joel learned a lot, studying with one of Washington’s most knowledgeable walking wine encyclopedias, the late Stan Clarke. His strong foundation continued as he was snapped up by Maryhill Winery right after graduation in ’07. 

His parents, Jim and Karen, helped him build his dream, his own winery, just a year later. Providentially, a friend, helped him establish wonderful fruit contracts with vineyards like Alder Ridge and Les Collines. 

Watch for a very limited 15-20 cases of isolated Petit Verdot released next winter. You almost never see it like that. Usually a blending grape, it will be fun to see if Joel can succeed with PV like he did with his first Malbec. 

It garnered Double Gold at the Seattle Wine Awards. That means all five judges on the panel agreed it was a top example, a benchmark for the varietal. Try to get five judges to agree on anything. It’s hard! 

His Cabernet, called Horizon Red, also struck Double Gold; quite a feat for a rookie. Even his Barbera has found success and Petit Syrah comes out this fall. 

Are point of difference in his varietals and heady awards enough to succeed? Time will tell but I know one thing. The next time I’m at the airport, I’m going to the back street of the micros, the incubators.

Sean Boyd is a future Big Dog most people have never heard of. How would they? He only makes 1,000 cases of Rhone varietals under his Rotie Cellars label. Much of his time is spent refining his skills as assistant at Waters Winery, a Syrah specialist not to be missed, who makes a silky Cabernet called Interlude and is located 10 yards from Gramercy Cellars, near Pepperbridge. 

This is the uptown from downtown, south of  town (Walla Walla) where the big fish of micro wineries swim. 

Names like Rulo, Chateau Rollat, Beresan, Isenhower, Saviah, Northstar, and Va Piano are a five-minute drive. These guys got game and come to play. If Rotie Cellars is worthy, Sean has to come out of the blocks strong. It’s not, so he got a tasting room downtown. Just Kidding! 

His first Grenache blend was hot: #14  in Paul Gregutt’s annual Top 100 Washington Wines, 94 points from The Wine Enthusiast (most winemakers never score that high) and other acclaim that made it ungettable. 

I had the fun of stumbling onto Sean before he first released, while tasting with him at Waters. When he found out we were both Grenache fans, he readily barrel-tasted me on his treasure. Several things impressed me. 

Sean is a good old boy, much preferring to engage you rather than impress you. His wines were bright in flavors, with a translucence to their expressions. You could easily taste through the oak and read into the youthful fruit. 

Alcohol levels were not dominant because fruit was not overripe. I had found a young lion who wanted to make balanced, unique, expressive wines, while eschewing the formula for trophy wines and high scores. I told him his GSM was the bomb . . . make that, his calling card. 

This year his Syrah gripped me. (It’s good to be gripped. You are not cheating on your spouse yet it is very pleasurable.) Sean is a bear of a man, perfectly built for rugby and no stranger to hard work.
When I called him for this article, I asked “What challenges could your small winery possibly have after the opening reviews and scores you received from the press?”

He growled back, “Don’t get me started. I could go on for hours. Yeah, you sell out your first vintage on the accolades but you still have to move your second and third. The fourth one is breathing down your neck at crush. 

“Finding the time to work on my winery, working at Waters, and raising a young family is a balancing act. Don’t get me wrong. I could never afford to do Rotie Cellars at this point in my life if it was not for Waters Winery and their support. 

“The true robber of time for a little guy like me is marketing. I have a nice tasting room downtown now but if I am in other cities getting placements, I’m taking away from what I love; interacting with the customers in the tasting room, jawing over my wines.”
Sean reminds me of pioneers like Mike Grgich and Joe Heitz that became icons behind their product. He is moving in the right direction; just acquiring savvy help in the Seattle market with his new rep that came highly recommended. 

That should free him up some. Sean went on his Mecca this year, to the Rhone Valley, home to France’s greatest Syrahs and Grenache blends. He was surprised that it was not the pure Syrahs of the north that most captured his imagination. It was the exciting blends from Chateauneuf du Pape (CDP). There, they use up to 13 specific grape varieties, both reds and whites, to make incredible blends that are unique, complex, delicious and not overdone… just like his. 

Sean used the term “freedom” several times, describing what winemakers have here and do not have in France. The French winemakers here would agree. That’s why they are here. Sean’s short term goals are to make 400 cases this year; pre-sell 40-50 percent of stock on release to wine club members and release date attendees (get on the bus, I mean list), keep 20-30 percent to sell in the tasting room so you can keep your doors open and your presence known year round, and place the rest in other markets and restaurants. Ultimately, he would like to see Rotie Cellars reach about 3,000 cases and eventually hire a west coast wine rep. 

Go meet this man. He is part of the future of Walla Walla, Grenache and Mourvedre, just like Doug McCrea was when he pioneered Grenache in 1989 and all the grapes of CDP since then. 

Sean’s speech picks up speed with excitement when he discusses the dramatic upheaval that is the geologic history of his vineyard sources at Snipes Upland Vineyard. This is where the soul of the winemaker can join the soul of the wine . . . in the vineyard. 

His Mecca a short time ago floods back to him when he thinks of the 1300-foot rise, the cobblestones that reflect and retain the warmth of the sun, the flavor of roasted cloves of no, not Chateauneuf du Pape but Upland Vineyard in Washington. He warmly savors the images. “It looks just like Chateauneuf.”
There are literally hundreds of micro wineries in Washington. Pioneers, innovators, hobbyists, and lifestyle owners make up the mix. Some are provincial and some are worldly. 

You will kiss some toads, to be sure, but you will find some of the best wines of Washington as well.  A stop at most micros will result in your getting an intimate discussion with one of the owners or the winemaker. You will have a chance to learn more than you could at many larger wineries while doubling your fun in the process. 

If you like the wine, remember to buy at least a bottle or two. The bragging rights are terrific, especially if they only make 15-20 cases.
 
Cheers,
Scot