Alex and Alison Sokol Blosser

Bill Blosser and his wife Susan Sokol Blosser are the epitome of pioneers, having taken the step of planting vines in Oregon at a time when the state had no existing wine industry to speak of. Having migrated from California, the couple arrived in Oregon in a Volkswagen Camper in 1970 and planted their first Pinot Noir vines on a 5 acre piece of land in 1971. In 1977 they completed construction on Sokol Blosser Winery and released their first vintage. Since those first vines were planted in the early 70’s, the estate has grown to 87 acres and they have added Pinot gris, White Riesling, Müller-Thurgau, and Muscat to their wine portfolio. The Oregon wine industry that they helped to create over 40 years ago has also continued to evolve, and the task of continuing the legacy of their parents has fallen to brother and sister Alex and Alison Sokol Blosser.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Alison Sokol Blosser at the 2012 Wine Bloggers’ Conference a couple of weeks ago, and we discussed her family’s history, the Dundee Hills AVA, and of course, Pinot Noir.

Solar Panels at Sokol Blosser Winery

Among the many contributions that Sokol Blosser Winery has made to Oregon wine, their commitment to leaving a small ecological footprint might leave the biggest footprint on the industry. Culminating in their certification as an organic vineyard in 2005, the winery has a long track record of pursuing sustainable viticultural practices. Additionally, Sokol Blosser was the first US winery to receive LEED Certification, and has received a number of awards for sustainability, including being named as the “Green Winery of the Year” in 2007 by Sunset Magazine, and garnering an Oregon Sustainability Award from the Oregon Secretary of State. Many wineries make claims about sustainability, but Sokol Blosser’s track record of environmental responsibility rings true in a way that you seldom see. Even the most hardened cynic would find it difficult to label their record as mere marketing fluff.

“I’m totally biased about the Dundee Hills.” Alison admitted with a smile as she poured a taste of 2009 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir. “It’s the premier sub-appellation in the Willamette Valley.” There is good reason to support Alison’s bias. Many of the pioneers of the Oregon wine industry built their reputations in the Dundee Hills, including David Lett and Dick Erath, not to mention Alison’s own parents. Add prestigious wineries like Domaine Drouhin, Archery Summit, and Domaine Serene to the rich history, and the Dundee Hills has a lot to hang its hat on.  The deep red Jory loam soil and relatively warm climate help to create the unique terroir of the AVA. Alison’s excitement and passion about her home region is evident as she talks about the elegance and earthy minerality of the wines produced within the region.

Although Sokol Blosser is by no means a single varietal producer, there is also no doubt that Pinot Noir is the workhorse of their portfolio, and Alison’s love for the variety is evident when she discusses it. “The terroir and Mother Nature are both very important with Pinot Noir, and when it comes to the winemaking you just try to be as hands-off as possible and let the fruit speak for itself.” From the organic vineyard practices to the conservative oak programs that they use, Sokol Blosser is focused on producing wines that convey the character of the vineyard. As with anyone who has subjected themselves to the struggle that is inherent in working with Pinot Noir, Alison’s love is colored with a touch of masochism. “There is so much that can go wrong every step of the way.” she says with the laugh of a person who has a few vintages under her belt. The implication in her laugh is that the same elements that make Pinot Noir such a sublime variety are also what make it a potential heartbreaker as well.

While the history and story of Sokol Blosser make them intriguing, the quality of the wines that they produce are ultimately what continues to make them a success. I tasted four different wines while I met with Alison, and each was expressive and interesting in their own way. The 2010 Willamette Valley Pinot Gris was my favorite Pinot Gris that I tasted while I was in Oregon, with perfectly balanced acidity and an elegant minerality that I rarely find in a Pinot Gris. The 2011 Pinot Noir Rosé was a refreshing delight, while the 2009 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir was the perfect mixture of soft red fruit and earthy character. The 2009 Big Tree Block Pinot Noir was the real show stopper, however. This single block Pinot is named after a large Maple tree that once grew in the block. It is a more powerful and intense Pinot Noir than the Dundee Hills Pinot, but still has the subtle character that makes Pinot Noir from this AVA so lovely.

As Oregon continues to grow as a wine region, it is good to see the next generation of this family winery maintaining the legacy that their parents started. For any region to move forward, you need a combination of new blood and of conscientious caretakers for existing wineries. Thankfully, it appears that the Sokol Blosser legacy is in good hands.

While I’ve known several women bloggers who have been producing great content for quite some time, there are a couple of rockstars who have hit the scene more recently that really got me to thinking about the impact that women are making on the online wine world. After a little more thought, I came up with four women who are some of the absolute best producers of wine related content on the web. They are not just producing great content of professional quality; they are creating something unique that makes them stand out from the crowded field of bloggers and YouTubers.

Lisa Mattson – The Journey of Jordan Winery

Since Lisa started working on the Jordan Winery blog in January of 2010, she has consistently produced some of the highest quality winery content that you will find online. Not only is the technical quality of the video and photography impressive, it also has a style and point of view that really does a great job of conveying the personality of the winery. If a successful winery blog is about telling the story of the winery, than Lisa is one of the top story-tellers in the wine world today. Perhaps that is why the Jordan Winery blog recently won the 2012 Wine Blog Award for Best Winery Blog, an official recognition of the fantastic work that Lisa has been doing for some time. Take her beautiful content, sprinkle in a heap of great social media engagement and elegant website architecture, and you have the recipe for one of wine’s top online content producers.

Madeline Puckette – Wine Folly

In a short amount of time (her site is around 6 months old as of this posting date,) Madeline Puckette has become one of the most unique voices in wine’s new media. After watching her video profile of Washington’s Horse Heaven Hills AVA, I described her work as Wes Anderson meets Gary Vaynerchuk, but the truth is that her content is 100% unique. A certified sommelier with video and design chops, Madeline teams with her Wine Folly teammate Chad Wasser to create a unique blend of wine content that has a vibe and personality that you won’t find anywhere else. Although her content has broad appeal, Wine Folly seems like the perfect wine site for twenty and thirty-somethings; a great mix of solid educational content and millennial-friendly aesthetics. She could be well positioned to become the voice of a new generation of oenophiles. From great video to innovative infographics, Madeline has introduced herself as a force to be reckoned with in the world of online wine content.

Leslie Sbrocco – Thirsty Girl

Leslie Sbrocco is, quite simply, a force of nature. She is a rare talent who brings a unique energy to her content that just can’t be manufactured. Although her credentials start with traditional media, including television, print columns, and books, Leslie has also carved out a spot as a producer of online content. The same charismatic persona that has made her a sought after speaker and television personality, translates perfectly to her Thirsty Girl TV YouTube segments. Whether it is her educational wine videos, or her interviews with various producers and personalities in the wine world, Leslie consistently creates entertaining and informative online videos with great production values. As the face of media changes, we will continue to see traditional media producers venture into new media, but Leslie has gotten a jump on the migration and is already among the top producers of online wine content.

Courtney Rich – QuitWINEing

I don’t even know where to start with Courtney Rich’s opus to unique and off-beat experiential wine pairings and imaginative photography. There is, without a doubt, nothing else like it on the web. Don’t let the sexy Alice in Wonderland photo that serves as the cover image of the site fool you, there is some serious content beneath the entertaining photos that accompany every post. Courtney is another certified sommelier who is using innovative online content to disseminate wine knowledge to the masses. She knows her wine. Although she is not the first to try her hand at unconventional wine pairings (perfect wine pairing for Rejection anyone?) her unique style of writing and fun photos make her blog one to follow religiously. Can you think of a guy who is doing anything this unique, and at such a high level of quality? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

While this list is far from exhaustive, each of these women is creating something unique that is worth plugging into your RSS reader and checking out regularly.

I still remember the first time that I heard Johnny Cash’s original American Recordings album. There is something haunting about the vulnerability of an aged Cash’s gravelly voice singing over a simple acoustic guitar. There is an intense honesty that comes across in the music once you have stripped away all of the excess instrumentation and production that had gone into Cash’s earlier albums. I got the same feeling while listening to Randall Grahm’s speech at the 2012 Wine Bloggers’ Conference in Portland last weekend.

Randall Grahm’s history in the industry has been a colorful one, to say the least. From being one of the original “Rhône Rangers” (or THE original “Rhône Ranger”), to establishing his well-documented penchant for innovative marketing and forays into literary parody, Grahm has become a larger-than-life figure within the wine community.

I will admit to having a bit of what my wife describes as a “man crush” on Randall. As someone who has spent the majority of his professional career in some area of the marketing world, but who also has a strong affinity for the more romantic elements of the vinous universe, how could I not? Grahm is a remarkably talented writer with a highly evolved sense of humor. The famous Bonny Doon Vineyard newsletters, many of which were partially reprinted in Grahm’s wonderful book, Been Doon So Long, are still some of the most entertaining and wonderful prose ever composed on the subject of wine. Add to that the mountain of creative brands and labels that Grahm’s companies released to the world, and you have one of the most incredible marketing minds that the wine industry has ever produced. And therein lies the problem.

The Randall Grahm that I heard speak last week exuded the characteristic humor and literary references I have come to expect, but there was an added tinge of wizened world weariness. This was a more vulnerable version of Randall Grahm, one who laid bare some of the deeper aspects of his persona to our motley gathering of wine bloggers. Having read Been Doon So Long, and knowing about his efforts to reclaim his pursuit of true vins de terroir, I found this incarnation of Randall Grahm to be a natural result of his evolution, and a refreshing voice in a wine industry wilderness. Grahm seems to have weighed the various aspects of his life’s work and found some areas wanting. He expressed his regret about allowing himself to become, first and foremost, a marketer, as well as the “clown prince” of the California wine industry. He also mentioned that he “[doesn’t] really like the wine industry very much anymore,” an admission that the modern state of the industry just doesn’t carry the same magic for him that it used to. The overwhelming pressure of economic forces has sucked much of the creative freedom and, for lack of a better word, the “fun” out of the wine industry as well.

Within Randall Grahm’s address there were a number of themes that seemed to surface in ways both explicit and implicit. Among the most prevalent was the idea that when you are crafting your personal brand, you should be careful what you make of yourself because you just might be stuck with it. Much like choosing a spouse, you have to ask yourself whether or not you really want to live with the person that you are inviting to be a part of your very being. Grahm skillfully positioned himself as a brilliant and eccentric court jester of the wine world, an image that has grown tiresome to maintain.

The laments of the modern state of the wine industry, and to an equal extent the world in general, were not the full focus of Grahm’s speech. Where the first half of the address had the feel of a jeremiad about the marketing-centric landscape that Grahm himself helped to create, the second half took on the same restorative trajectory that the latter part of his career seems to have settled into. Much like his journey to shed the mass market elements of his brand portfolio in order to fully focus on his true life’s calling, Grahm encouraged his listeners to pursue meaning in their blogging endeavors, rather than financial gain (which is an unlikely result anyway.)

While some might view Grahm’s perspective on the exploration of the essential nature of wine compared to the technical flavor profiles and descriptors quixotic and possibly even absurd, there is little question that the true essence of wine’s beauty has little to do with whether the aroma in the glass is blackberry or boysenberry. Grahm posits the idea of wine writing that is a form of wine phenomenology, a nod to the fact that all wine writing is essentially about the wine writer. While most writers would admit (when asked) that wine tasting can be influenced by a wide range of factors, few acknowledge this fact in their actual writing, preferring to maintain the facade of objectivity around an inherently subjective experience.  The challenge that Grahm presented, that of developing a new language for wine writing, one that is more reliant on beauty and the exploration of the essence of the wine than on a laundry list of technical descriptors is one that I have heard before, but seldom so sincerely and passionately as Grahm presented.

Randall Grahm would not have been described as uninteresting at any point in his career in the wine industry. Every stage of his life in wine has been fascinating for one reason or another, and this stage in his career is no exception. What you will now find when talking with Randall Grahm is a more balanced and measured figure, less fire and smoke, but generating more warmth. Having taken the wine world by storm in his earlier life, he is now spending his time trying to calm the storm and to simply bring beauty into the place that he occupies. Though not exactly what I was expecting, hearing Grahm speak actually exceeded my expectations. While the cartoon image that was built in his earlier days will doubtless be difficult for him to shed, he does seem to be making every effort to move from scamp to sage. Regardless of how history remembers him, Randall Grahm is now adding meaning to the wine world.

Top photo taken from SFGate.com. Video is courtesy of Austin Beeman (@AustinBeeman)

Last week the 2012 Wine Bloggers’ Conference was held in Portland, Oregon. This was my second time to attend the conference, the first having been the 2010 conference in Walla Walla. WBC12, as the attendees referred to the conference, was a fantastic mixture of fellowship, education, and party. I was probably more desirous of coming away from this conference having learned something to sharpen my craft than I was two years ago, and true to that desire, I gained a lot from this gathering.

Much like I had hoped that it would, my trip to the Wine Bloggers’ Conference in Portland last week has renewed my energy and desire to get back into a consistent form of blogging. I came away with a number of ideas that I am really excited about, and I hope to start acting on those in the next couple of weeks. That being said, I am about to get very busy. I will be starting work on my first full harvest in a matter of a week or two, which will pretty much mean that my new place of residence for the next couple of months will be the winery. I am going to try to document my harvest experience here, but I also have some other posts that I want to get out in the next few weeks. I have a couple of posts that I’m really excited about that I have mostly finished, but that I wanted to edit a little further. This post mostly serves the purpose of letting you all know that I will be targeting a couple of posts a week. I will probably be targeting more long-form posts that are column-like in nature. I came away from the conference with a Randall Grahm initiated desire to only write if my writing has meaning and if I am adding something of beauty and/or significance to the online world. Hopefully you will enjoy it, but I know I will enjoy writing it.

Catch you on the flipside.

Regardless of any of that, I am on my way to Portland tomorrow for the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference. I always feel like a child that is awaiting a trip to Disney World in the weeks preceding the conference. As the tweets fly around the Twitterverse with the hashtag #wbc12, I become even more excited with every passing day. Emails and Facebook invitations to extra-curricular tasting events with various wineries start to flood my inbox, and I start to think about how little of the next few days will be spent without a wine glass in my hand, and I smile. Visions of Pinot Noir start dancing in my dreams. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

For all of my excitement about the wines that I will be tasting and the info that I will be taking in about the Oregon wine world, my favorite part of the Bloggers’ Conference is all of the awesome people that I will get to see again, and the new ones that I will be meeting. My first conference in Walla Walla was when I first got to meet a number of people who I already considered friends, and who now I consider to be good friends. Many of these people have been extremely supportive of my journey into the belly of the wine industry, pointing me at interview opportunities and even giving me a place to stay while in their respective areas. Getting to see these people again feels a bit like a homecoming. This kind of event is a perfect example of the wonders of living in the social media age. If it weren’t for blogging, Twitter and Facebook, I never would have met good friends like Josh Wade, Drew Lazorchak, Ed Thralls, Joe Herrig, Joe Roberts, Paul Mabray, and Jeff Weissler, just to name a few of the many wonderful friends that I’ve made since I started blogging. This is really a great community to be a part of, and I can’t wait to see everyone again.

The last few years have seen a rash of QR codes adorning wine bottles, with more and more wineries gradually reworking their labels to incorporate the codes in one way or another. The overall approach in regards to QR codes seems somewhere in the neighborhood of the Put a Bird On It sketch from Portlandia, with the solution to all of a wineries marketing needs is to put a QR code on it. The question is, what do all of these QR codes actually do? In reality, usually the answer is a resounding, “Not much.”

An article in a recent post on the eMarketer Digital Intelligence blog states that QR codes are not really giving consumers what they want. Not surprisingly, consumers are most interested in discounts, coupons, or free items when they scan a QR code. At very least, it seems that they want more than a link to the company website. Go figure.

To be fair, most wineries are going beyond just supplying a link to their website from a QR code. A common practice is to link to tasting notes for the wines, which is a step in the right direction, but I keep thinking that we can do better. If you are going to do tasting notes, include a cool video of the winemaker sharing something besides the normal, “cigar box aromas with a palate of ripe red berries” type thing. Maybe use the QR code to get more eyes on a piece of content that will help reinforce your branding in some way. Or you could always give the people what they want and use it to allow people to get something free or a discount on their next purchase. There are a lot of directions that you could go with this, but the key element that is missing in many cases is a plan. Like Stephen Covey says, you have to “begin with the end in mind.” What are your goals for having a QR code on the bottle? Is it just to make you look cool and up to date? There can be some limited PR value in that, but if the content that is being linked to with the QR code is worthless, your inclusion of the code is pretty much worthless as well.

Oh, and another thing; if you are going to use QR codes, you should make sure that the page that your code links to is viewable on mobile devices. This is one case where you can be absolutely certain that your visits will be coming from a mobile device, so linking to a Flash page that all iPhone users will be left out in the cold on or a page that is unreadable on a mobile screen makes no sense at all.

As with most elements of marketing, the key is to actually think about your goals and come up with ideas that will help you achieve those goals. If you are trying to get people to sign up to your email list or Facebook followers, maybe you can try hosting a contest that requires people to submit their email address (make sure to give people the option of whether they receive emails later if you go this direction) or that requires them to “Like” your Facebook page. If you are trying to generate online sales, maybe you offer a discount or free shipping on a customer’s next order of six bottles or more.

QR codes can be an effective tool for a winery to use, but only if they offer consumers something of value when they scan. I’m a firm believer that the wine world is ripe for wineries to take a leadership role and establish themselves as innovators. A survey of the industry as a whole will reveal a lot of repetition on the same themes. Whether you are talking about your social media efforts or using QR codes, don’t skimp on the planning phase. Let everyone else put a bird on their bottles while you are doing something that will really have an impact on your business.

Forgive this crudely crafted gem. I promise, it will get better from here.

Dear Reader,

I know, it has been a long time since you last heard from me. I’m sorry that I have been remiss in keeping the lines of communications open. I could make up an excuse about why I have been away, but you deserve better than that. Still, I do have excuses. Oh, you wouldn’t believe the excuses that I can come up with. I am a mean, green, excuse making machine.

To start with, I’ve been, like, really busy. I got this job that keeps me working all the time. I really love the work, but I am sooooooo busy. I don’t remember the last time I had a 40 hour work week. Even when I’m not working, I’m working. Still, I love my work.

Oh, who am I kidding? The truth is, I’ve been cheating on you. I’ve been finding my creative fulfillment in the arms of another, or something along those lines that keeps the shoddy pretense of this letter in place. I’ve been acting out the fantasy that I have had the whole time that we have been together. I’ve been working for a winery. Not just any winery, a winery that really gets me, you know? They let me come up with crazy ideas, and then actually act on them. They understand the value of a strong brand, and the value of social media in strengthening that brand. They have faith in me, and they appreciate the work that I do for them. They have vision. They even recently gave me the title of Social Media Director, a title that didn’t even exist for them when I arrived.

Anyway, I know this sounds like a “Dear John” letter, but the fact is, I miss you. I hope that you will have me back. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any intention of cutting off my relationship with my other love, I just want you back too. I know, it’s selfish of me to want to have my cake and eat it too, but there it is. I am creatively fulfilled in my work, but I want the relationship that we had. I want to talk with you, and share my life and experiences with you. I want to cuddle with you (okay, maybe that’s going too far.) I guess what I’m saying is, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for leaving you, and I’m sorry for…, everything.

If you take me back you can expect me to spend a lot more time talking about the business side of wine, since that’s really where I am at right now. Although I have always avoided talking about social media and marketing in the past, that is so much a part of my journey at this point of my life in wine, that I can’t help but talk about it. I will still talk about my experiences with the wine itself, but the truth is that you will probably have to hear me talk a lot about my experiences with the “other woman”.

Despite all of this, I just want you to know that I…, well, I really do love you. I just love the job too. This is the last time that I am going to mention any of this, so let’s just put it behind us and move forward in our relationship. I believe in us.

Faithfully (mostly) yours,

Ben

Wine events come in all shapes and sizes, and last weekend Seattle hosted one of the biggest annual wine and food events in the Northwest, Taste Washington. This was my first time to attend Taste Washington, and I spent the majority of the day Saturday serving guest some of Chef Frank Magana’s mind blowingly delicious goodies. The Chorizo Stuffed Prawns wrapped in prosciutto that sent aromatic vapors of spicy sausage and crustaceans wafting into my face all day taunted me throughout the event, and I will admit to succumbing to temptation a few times to sneak off and throw back a couple of the delectable prawns.

For all of the great wines that the event had, and there were some great ones, my favorite part of any big event is the people that I get to spend time with. I really didn’t have a lot of time to taste wine as I was feverishly serving epicurean delights, so the opportunity to spend time with some great people was an even bigger part of the experience. Working with Chef Magana and his wife Tricia is always a fantastic experience. Tricia and I worked frenziedly trying to keep up with the rush of people there to taste the beautiful Almond Crusted Salmon with Mango Salsa, the afore-mentioned prawns, and the Crazy for Cabernet cupcakes from D’Vine Cupcakes.

Following the show on Saturday, I went out for a great dinner at Poquito’s Mexican Food with my good friend Drew Lazorchak. Drew was at the show demoing his great bottle-top aerator, the Soiree. I enjoyed some delicious ceviche and a cerveza while catching up with Drew. The ambiance at Poquito’s was a great setting for visiting with friends, and they have a really interesting menu of cocktails (which I will talk a bit more about in a minute.)

Sunday I worked in the Alexandria Nicole Cellars tasting room in Woodinville. The tasting room in the Hollywood Schoolhouse is one of my favorite tasting rooms in Woodinville, so working there was a wonderful experience. I have also decided that there needs to be a game made of finding all of the various occurrences of our iconic “A” logo around the tasting room. The logo is creatively displayed in a variety of different mediums, and the overall feel of the room is tastefully eclectic.

After finishing up the day in the tasting room, I met back up with the gang at Taste to help with loading up the van with all of our equipment, and then headed out for drinks with friends. Frank, Tricia and I met up at Jimmy’s with Victor Palencia, head winemaker at Jones of Washington, who was recently named Wine Press Northwests winery of the year for 2012, and Shane Collins from Tsillan Cellars. Getting to hang out with some great winemakers is always a treat, and Shane and Victor are also two of the nicest guys that I have met in the industry. Victor is remarkably humble for a guy who just lead a winery to being named winery of the year. Victor shared some of his delicious Sauvignon Blanc with us, as well as a yet-to-be-released Malbec that seems destined to grow up to be another fantastic wine. As a side-note, if you find yourself at Jimmy’s, you MUST try their Calamari Fries, which might well be the best squid I’ve ever stuck in my face hole.

Following our drinks with the young gun winemakers, we made our way to Revel for dinner with our friends Sean Sullivan, of Washington Wine Report fame, and Annie Hong. Although I always enjoy meeting new friends, meeting up with old ones always feels a bit like coming home. Sean and I have been friends since we met at the 2010 Wine Bloggers’ Conference in Walla Walla, and Annie is quite possibly one of the warmest and kindest people on the face of the planet. It is hard to imagine a better experience than enjoying great food and wine with friends, and Revel offers fantastic “Urban-style Korean comfort food”, some good wine pairing options, and a great aesthetic, which only leaves you to take care of the friend part.

Although fatigue was starting to set in after an already full weekend of activity, I decided to meet up again with Drew, who had returned to Poquito’s with a group of Seattle wine and food aficionados, lead by journalist Chris Nishiwaki, SIP Northwest Publisher Kristin Ackerman, and Seattle’s Best Restaurants founder Stacee Edwards. There were a number of intriguing items on the cocktail list at Poquito’s, but I chose the Black Tea & Lychee Caipirinha, which turned out to be a great decision, as the black tea turned out to be a wonderful fit for the spirits and lychee. My stay at Poquito’s was short-lived, and we quickly set out for my new favorite bar, Canon.

To begin, Canon is absolutely silly with atmosphere. When you walk into the bar you feel like you are walking through a time portal and are being transported into a classic speakeasy. The fine spirits that are stacked to the rafters behind the bar serve as the palate that mixologist Jamie Boudreau paints his libation masterpieces with. I enjoyed a truffle bourbon drink that was beyond divine. When you go in, do yourself the favor of telling Jamie to surprise you. You will be glad that you did. Canon is the absolutely perfect setting for getting to know new friends and spending time with old ones, the kind of place where longterm friendships are born and grow.

Drew, Stacee, and I had such a great time that we closed the bar, which of course meant embarking on a search for some good food cart action. We ended up finding a great hotdog place, the name of which is lost in a fog of truffle bourbon and other assorted whiskey cocktails. All I know is that you can find the place outside of a Shell (or was it a 7-11?) in downtown Seattle. All of the dogs had a perplexing dollop of sour cream cream cheese (thanks to Jameson for the correction in the comments) in the middle, that somehow seemed to work with the most unlikely dog varieties. Even my German dog included the sour cream, and our experience elicited a long and innuendo-laden conversation about the cream filled dogs.

All of the best experiences in life are enhanced by sharing them with friends. With all of the great things that Taste Washington has to offer, perhaps the best is the opportunity that it provides us to spend time experiencing some of the best things in life with friends. You can wander the convention floor and taste some of the best in Washington food and wine, and then when everyone has adjourned, you can enjoy the company of interesting and fun people in one of the many fantastic restaurants and bars that Seattle has to offer. It is the perfect recipe for revelry and hedonistic bliss, and really, what more could you ask for?

For those of you who are not familiar with Alexandria Nicole Cellars, or ANC for short, they are a Washington winery with tasting room locations in Prosser and in Woodinville. The production facility and Destiny Ridge Estate Vineyard is located in the Horse Heaven Hills near Patterson. They are a boutique winery with around 10,000 cases a year of production. My history with the winery goes back to the 2010 Wine Bloggers’ Conference, where I tasted a couple of their wines and was instantly hooked. I quickly found my way to their tasting room after moving to Washington, and have continued to be one of my favorite wineries in the state. Loving the wines as I do, I was thrilled beyond words to have the opportunity to work with them, and I am very excited about the projects that we have in the works right now.

As far as the wines go, the majority are made from our estate vineyards. Destiny Ridge Vineyard has around 260 acres of grapes planted, with an incredible array of different varieties being represented. The winery produces a number of fantastic wines from Rhône varieties, including Viognier, Marsanne, Rousanne, Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre. They also make some blockbuster Bordeaux wines, including a blend called Destiny that is one of the nicest Bourdeaux blends that I have had in the state.

I look forward to what the future has in store for me at ANC. I am working with some fantastic people there, which makes the gig that much sweeter. I will continue to post occasional things related to the work that I am doing at ANC, but I will not be using Vinotology to shill wine. There are some fun things that I will be in the middle of that can give you some insight into the workings of a Washington winery. I will be attending Taste Washington with Alexandria Nicole Cellars at the end of the month, and I hope to see many of my WA Wine friends there.

About two weeks ago I received one of those phone calls that you never want to receive. I listened dumbly as my mother informed me that my grandfather had passed away. The news was hard to even process, as my grandfather was a man so full of life that I almost expected to find my own way into the grave before he did. His death was not something that I was prepared for.

I think I always knew that my “Pappy” would pass suddenly, having spent the days leading up to his death engaged in hard labor. I never knew my grandfather to be one to lounge around. He worked harder in his 70s and 80s than most people ever will during their life, and not because he had to. I honestly don’t think that there was anything in life that he enjoyed more than a hard day’s work. That isn’t to say that my grandfather didn’t know how to have fun. Despite working harder than anyone that I have ever known, he also pursued his hobbies with equal gusto. For most of my life I can remember him taking annual pilgrimages across the country to go fishing in various locals, often deciding spur-of-the-moment to embark on a trip to go flounder fishing.

When I first saw the Dos Equis commercials featuring a man alleged to be “The most interesting man in the world”, I always felt that my grandfather could give him a run for his money. Pappy grew up dirt poor, in the most literal sense possible. He grew up farming in central Texas, living in a small house with a dirt floor. With all the determination that poverty can breed in a young man, he managed to finish among the top of his high school class, despite missing a significant amount of class time to work on the family farm. There was nothing more important to him than education; he knew that it was his ticket to a better life for himself and his family. The same drive that got him through high school got him through a stint in the Air Force and a college degree.

Stories of the following years of my grandfather’s life are made up of a mixture of verifiable facts and yarns with the bouquet of “big fish”. The two elements are often too tightly intertwined to tell truth from fiction, but always have enough verisimilitude to be believable. Here are some of the facts:

Fact – My grandfather worked in the oil business for Champion Chemicals and became the head of their international sales division.

Fact – During his time with Champion, my grandfather traveled all over the world, and specifically spent a great deal of time in the Middle East.

Fact – These travels lead my grandfather to develop friendships with a number of foreign dignitaries, including the royal families of several Middle Eastern countries.

Beneath these facts dwell a bevy of unverifiable tales, most of which I have no reason to doubt. Pappy would tell us stories about landing in one of the many Muslim countries that he would routinely visit, and his plane would be stopped by a Rolls Royce owned by a ruling prince prior to reaching the gate so that he could be whisked off the plane to deliver a gift of a ham sandwich and a bottle of Scotch. He would talk about meeting a young Saddam Hussein, who even then seemed a little “off” to him. He also claimed to have inadvertently invented the leisure suit when he visited a tailor in Europe and handed a design for a suit that was based on a safari getup, but that could be worn with a tie in casual situations. It just so happened that his plane ride to Paris coincided with a gaggle of designers traveling to a fashion show, and he swears that within a year he was seeing variations on his suit everywhere. With all of the other improbable things that happened in my grandfather’s life, I almost believe even the unlikely leisure suit story.

My grandfather wasn’t perfect. He possessed that racism that is common among members of his generation from the South. I can remember watching Cowboys games with him when I was a kid, and him informing me that Randall Cunningham would never win a championship because there had never been a black man smart enough to play quarterback in the NFL. He was also opinionated to a fault, which I am quite certain lead certain locals to tag him a “son’ bitch.” Despite these faults, he was a hard man to dislike, or to not respect. He was a wise man, a shrewd business person, and extremely generous.

When I look at the person that I have become, many of the best parts of my character are part of a heritage that I received from my grandfather. He taught me that anything worth doing is worth doing with all you can muster. He taught me the value of chasing what is really important to you, and not being denied when you set out to achieve your dreams. Most importantly, he taught me the value of family. When I think about the fact that I will never see him in this world again, I certainly feel the grief that is common in these situations, but I also realize that I carry him with me everywhere I go. With every dream that I achieve, goal that I accomplish, and day’s work that I complete, my Pappy will live on.