February 26, 2025 • 47 mins
Hyatt Vineyards launched as a regional high benchmark for wine quality, since 1985 in the Yakima Valley as a top Merlot and Riesling producer. In 1990, the leading wine media of the Wine Spectator, Seattle Times, Tri-Cities Herald and Tri-Cities Wine Festival all listed Hyatt among the best producers. Growing to 30,000cs production, Hyatt continued as a top producer for 2 decades. Today, we farm the original 87 acres which produced those award-winning wines. The Legacy of Hyatt was crafted in excellence over 40 years ago by Leland and Lynda Hyatt. In 1983, what started as a simple vineyard planting, soon turned into a booming full production winery. We’ve honed our craft to cultivate the finest wines this region for four decades. Hyatt Vineyards’ second generation is investing in remaking those top-quality wines from these old vines at the Estate with renewed labels and winemaking, bringing an innovative approach to create extraordinary experiences and legacy wines.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Wine Soundtrack USA. Listen to the passion with
which producers narrate their winery and their world. In thirty
answers discover their stories, personalities, and passions.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, friends and listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is Alice
and Levine and today I am with Caleb Foster, the
winemaker at Hyatt Vineyard in Yakima Valley. Caleb, Welcome to
Wine Soundtrack and good to see you after all these years.
It's been a decade or so, but welcome and tell
us about Hyatt Vineyard.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Hi, Alison, Well, thanks so much. I'm so delighted to
be on this program. And welcome to High Vineyards and
thank you. On the Yakamavalvelet. Yeah, so, Hia Vineyards is
here in the what we now call the hills of
the Yakma Valley. And if you take a look at
your phone and you look at the map and you
get that aerial view, there are three blotches of color.
We are on that western lobe of greenery in the
(00:53):
state of Washington and eastern Washington so irrigated farmland. And
it's the fortieth anniversary of the Yakma Valley av this
year and forty years of great wine coming out of
this area and Hyatt basically forty years ago in nineteen
eighty five, Leland bought this land and established the vineyard here.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And he established the vineyard here, which you were pointing
to me as we were walking over. How many acres
do you have and what grapes do you have planted here?
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
He started with Hindland just started with eighty acre parcel,
so we've got, you know, non including roads and all that,
about seventy two acres there. And then added a little
bit more another eighty acre parcel. So there's some grapes there.
We're harvest from ninety acres today, basically the original ninety
acres that.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
They planted in the eighties.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Though over the last thirty years he rode the growth
of American wine adoration and the wild success in Washington State,
leading the way in many ways himself, but also rode
that to growth and added blocks around.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
The area that he could drive his tractor to.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
So eighty here, sixty one hundred there, and I had
about one hundred I'm sorry, four hundred to five hundred
acres and then sold that off over the last decade
or so, and then we're back to the original.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Eighty wow, and you're one hundred percent of state fruit.
And how many cases are you producing?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So we harvested about three hundred twenty five tons last year,
relatively small yield, so cases wise kind of depends is
it what we sell we bottle. We do a lot
of custom way making for other clients around around.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
The nation, some more for what you bottle for under Hyatt.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Yeah, so we're about shy of ten thousand, some of
who do.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And the grapes you're working with are.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
The original ones, the ones you would suxpect. Cap Sovio Murlow.
This is a famous Murlow and famous wriestling house, really
famous for extraordinary murlow and extraordinary reaslings that age really
well and just taste great young. But it's a really
great part of the state for those two varieties. The
Cabernie here is very good and so we also have muscat,
(03:04):
We have a little peanut crete. We have there's some
rootstock of caberaniy fronc that was swapped over to sarah
uh and we've got mal bek and b Diverdo attempted
to cut down some of that saran regrow the yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Because Cap Frunk's growing in popularity and poor Sarah just
never does.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah, yeah, it's great, but Cap Frank's pretty hip these days.
And then we've got this really, really amazing grape, my
favorite grape in the world today, my new favorite saper Ravi.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yes, a Georgian grape. How did a Georgian grape end
up in the Yakima Valley?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
So this was the gift of the prior wine maker
and he he had gone to New York State and
had gone to an event festival there at Doctor Constantine
Frank's winery on the Finger Lakes and fell in love
with the sapper Rabbi and kastelli that he had there
and other wines. And really he told me like, I
had to bring it back. And he convinced Leland to
(03:59):
buy some cuttings. So they bought some cuttings and grafted
them here into an acre of riesling and grew that
first harvest in nineteen And when I arrived here in
the spring of twenty two, they bottled in nineteen and
I had the twin. They had the twenty and the
twenty one in barrel, which I then prepared to bottle,
and I didn't know anything about supper Avi, and what
(04:23):
little I could find on the internet was just something
I could read. I searched everywhere to buy bottles. I
couldn't For months, I couldn't find anyone who produced it
or bottles to buy on the internet. And finally in
Connecticut I found it a total wine.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
A guy was like, do you sell Soper rob And
he's like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Came in and so there's a one box in the
bottom corner of a row, and I'd like, I've just
scooped them all up and bought a case of Superavi
of all these different producers from Georgia.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And here we are, yeah, and here we are supper
ab Who knew?
Speaker 6 (04:55):
Unbelievable?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Who knew? And what's really great?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
You know, listeners, you to check this out because it
could be a grape that was fermented and made in Egypt.
It's certainly pre biblical era, but it is super old.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I mean, I believe you know they have wrecked well.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
They say in the Google that in Georgia that they
found ancient wineries and ancient tanks underground, and that the
residue that in those tanks they think is soparai.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
And so if that's true.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Then that means when Xerxes was conquering Persia, he was
celebrated in soparaty love it.
Speaker 6 (05:29):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Well. Back to your wines. You're making about ten thousand cases?
Are you in distribution in Washington and other states and
other countries a portion or all direct to consumer? I
know you were saying at one point this winery, because
it's so historical, was producing up to thirty thousand cases
a year, but at a manageable ten thousand, and where
(05:50):
are your wines found?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, we're in about ten states, maybe about fifteen, and
we're going through a generational ownership shift, and so we're
going through a rebranding, a re establishment, and a repricing.
And my job was to bring back what I worked
with Leland when I arrived here two years ago, was
to help him sell high vineyards to the next buyer,
(06:14):
wrap it up and offer the whole package. We had
people come to the table, we didn't get to the altar,
and some people walked away, but in the end that
the kids when Leland passed away, the kids really wanted
to keep it. And so for the family, what we're
doing is re establishing the fabulous reserve quality wines that
(06:36):
Leland really launched this winery with in the nineties. The
great raslings were not only critically acclaimed from the Wine
Spectator to festival tastings like the Tri Citi's Wine Festival,
which was the biggest Washing wine festival it's on. Not
only was it critically acclaimed on top one hundred list
by the Wine Spectator, but also there was popular favorites,
(06:58):
so he won both the popular and the criticle listen
in the recling and the Murleau of two years running.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Wow, yeah, got some big shoes to fill there.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
Yeah, yeah, no for real.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And it was one of the things that really attracted
me because I had the great fortune of getting into
wine in ninety one on my first harvest Woodvery Canyon
in ninety two, and so really I knew about Hyatt's
fame and I knew the great work that had been done,
and this was one of the great Washington wineries. So
I thought this was a really cool idea. Where's hyatat today?
(07:29):
And so I had a ton of respect when I
got here to meet Leland, who I had not met before.
But I was like, hey, man, you are You're kind
of the shipping like you really were one of the greats.
And he was so appreciative of that because at his
age of eighty four at the time, or eighty three
when I met him two years ago, he wasn't getting
(07:51):
that I And I was like.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
No, man, you did it.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
You were about big deal in And so so I
do feel big shoes to feel because I've got.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
A ton of reus facts for Washington wine makers, Hans.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I've been working for Rick Small and getting to know
those early years and knowing how hard it was then
and how invented you had to be, and that the
really good wines were hard wrought. Let me say they
it wasn't easy to make them, and they did, but
they were there.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
And people say, oh, washing's got a lot of potential. No,
it had potential.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
It was executed well by a few and Hyatt and
Woodward and a few others were doing it.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
So obviously you've been making wine for a while. You
just said you were at Woodward in the early nineties.
But what is your first memory relevant to wine? How
old were you, where was it, what was it?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, I think maybe one of my first memories was
to sitting at home and it's a hot summer day
around the porch and dad.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
We didn't drink wine at at home. It wasn't a thing.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
But he pulls out a what I now know it
was a gallow hardy white burgundy from the gallon jug
with a little fingerloop on it, and puts it in
a drink water glass with ice in it and drinks
that and offers me a little bit of that. I'm
like ten twelve, I don't know, and I'm like, okay,
so that's wine. Didn't really like it.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
But the meaningful taste of wine, I think was when
I still not.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
A wine drinker, was when I ended up at wood
We Canyon looking for work after college in the Wallwall Valley,
and I thought working at a winery.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Would be cool. Was tasting his shardnas. He had three shardinais.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
He had a Yakma Valley Shardinay from a vender called
Rosa Berget, which was an old nineteen sixty eight or
seventy two planting of when's he colin Chardney up here
and since.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Been ripped out, which is too bad.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
But then he had his own estate Chardnay, and he
had what was a Columbia Valley Schardney, which ended up
being from Sagemore and Gordon Brothers. So he had three
chardonnaise on the table and I remember the taste of
his nineteen ninety Woodrycanyon Sharden and I was like, what
is going on? It was so cool because it had
butterscotch and vanilla and fruit and ripe apples and pears
(10:11):
and just and that French choke. And I was like,
it was my first experience getting it.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
This was sort of your aha moment wine or or
sort of a first intro into that in wine. And
there was I know you've had many, You've had the
pleasure to drink a lot of great wines.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I have, I have, and I think the yes that
was the aha. And I mean if there was one
that was the one was like this is a really
interesting beverage. What exactly how did that do that? And
how did so The thing was there were three.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
Chardonnays and I could taste some side by side, so
I was like, why.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Is that one? They're all good? Why is that one?
But I was like total nomoue. I'm not.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I couldn't judge it then, like I can now, like
my memory is judging it far better than I was.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
No, but but it opened up sort of a window
to you, which you've obviously or a door it opened
and you've crawled through that door and pursued it with
more knowledge. I guess, is there another aha moment wine?
One of those wines that kind of set you on
a path of either you know a grape you wanted
to do or was it just the environment you were
in that made it an aha moment?
Speaker 4 (11:23):
There were many. There were many. I can remember back
to Woodwigan.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I remember this year like he was pouring the eighty
eight were low and when I first started there, and
I remember at the end of the day, it's a
hot summer day and I'm taking the empty bottles out
to the trash and as I take out the empty bottles,
like there's a little bit at the bottom of a bottle,
so I like pull the cork and just slam it right,
(11:49):
and I'm walking over the trash and I'm halfway across
the gravel yard and I'm like.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
Dude, chocolate.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I was like, whoa, that was amazing, and like I
totally got chocolate in them a lot and there wasn't.
Speaker 6 (12:04):
Any chocolate there, but WHOA, that's a cool trip. Let's
see what else we could do. That was a moment
of like, how does this happen?
Speaker 4 (12:13):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So now, all these years later, with all the great
wines you've you've drunk, if we were to come to
your home right now, what would we find in your house?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Like?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
What do you do you collect wine? Do you hold
onto wine? And if so, are there particular particular varieties,
particular regions or particular producers or do you just have
a you know, a smattering of things.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, it's a smattering, a huge on variety. So I'm
always exploring. I want to try a new, unique wine.
And I've got a lot of washing wine because I trade.
I'm really curious about what my neighbors and friends are doing.
I tend not to collect too much wine. And the
reason is is I've learned, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Dollar for dollar, time for time, that I.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Am better off going and getting a really great wine,
although it may seem to be a high price, then
stashing away boxes.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
And boxes and boxes Bordeaux.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
A thousands of dollars and waiting for it to get
old Like I'm just just it's stored perfectly by some
wine store. I'll just go down and get the eighty
nine for two hundred dollars and I won't have to
have spent the money years ago.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
So is there anything recently that you opened up from
your cellar that drank really well?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
So the two winemakers I work with here, Hazen, He's
us Baragan twin brothers.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
They're fantastic.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I love these guys and they're crazy good way sweet
wine makers, extremely good.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
At sweet wine making.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
So I've been running around and bringing all these German
recings to them. So I was up in Seattle and
just grabbed a whole bevy a case of German reslings
and we drank some crazy good German releasing at at
lunch the other day.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Any particular producer stand out.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I always love Prum, I love uh Prau.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I'm kind of bad with names, but basically I tend
to pursue single vineyard material because you know, at this stage,
I understand what that's all.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
About, and I'm not as picky to that.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
What I when I think of a European wine when
I go to buy it, what I'm looking at on
the label is almost always turning around first. I want
to see the importer and if one of those dozen
great importers, then I know it's one of the best
ones from the region.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
It's into worth every dollar, no matter the price. And
then so I know that.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
The great importer is getting the right wines from the
consistently from the right vintages that cornered the right houses.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And then it's being delivered and cared for in the transit,
and it's arriving at the store and it's price right.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So so German raisings ye ye, So you've spoken with
some great a of certain grapes. But do you think
there's a such thing as a perfect variety?
Speaker 4 (15:05):
No? Maybe I have to change my mind.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
I mean I would be like, no way, are you
read your mind? But Sabarabi kind of comes close.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Really.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
You know the thing about making Sabarabi is it's it's staggering,
like I had to make it to really understand what
I was dealing.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
With because I had what makes it so perfect? In
your mind?
Speaker 6 (15:25):
It is a party in a box.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
It is so much flavor and aroma, right, that's what
That's what I love in a wine is powerful aromas.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
And most red wines are a little subdued, committed whites
this is just unchained.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
It's just erupting in flavor right out of the fermenter,
and it's just got so much going on, and then
it echoes all that out on the palette, which not
a lot of red wines do.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
It's just like, what is happening here?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
It's just like a rage party of a flavor.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And what what I realized after for many two years,
I was like, I get it, Like eight thousand years
of soaparabi. You'd be like, now that's been through drought
and famine and war and and floods, and it's like
it's so clear, and it's like I can see why
over those thousands of people are like, shave thisby.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
So one of the oldest varieties might be the most
perfect variety, right.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
I'm very suspicious.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Speaking of perfection, we talked a little bit before about
how you're filling big shoes because of the history that
Hyatt Vineyards has. I think you have, you know, solid
enough feet and history that you can do this. But
you were talking about all the great scores that the
that the murlaws and the reasonings used to get and
at a time where scores were super important. What is
(16:50):
your opinion today of wine critics and scores very mixed.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I've been really lucky to hard bough, but been really lucky.
I've been on heaps of.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Top one hundred lists.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Probably I've made myself a dozen wines that have gotten
on a dozen of the top one hundred wine lists,
from the Wine Spectator to Wine Enthusiasts, to Seattle Magazine,
to Parker, to Food and Wine Magazine to Food Wine
Wine Guide.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
And Wines and Spirits.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
So I've ried, I've ridden that roller coaster and done
really really well.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
There. Love it. It has a lot of value.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I'm a bit of a closet critic of critics because.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
I'm like, really, you can't taste wine or decide if
it's good enough for you.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I'm like, why any and somebody who's in you know,
some far away state to tell you whether the wine's
good enough.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
But the problem is if you're not.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
You know, if you're a consumer of whatever car tires
or whatever you're buying, you know, car tires to wine,
Consumer Reports is going to give you a great review
of car tires, and then you've got this review system
for wine.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
So it is, it is a huge world of wine.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It's hard you've got the New York Times review books,
and so you know, you're I get it why these
lists are made.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
I understand that.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
And yet, on the other hand, what's true that's happening
today is that and it's unstoppable and it's devastating a
lot of people.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Who write about wine.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Is that the flattening of the world of criticism, and
that the magazines are less relevant because now it's about Facebook.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
It's about your.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Friend dming you and telling you where to go and
making a list of your wineries to visit when you
go to town.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
You know, go to the value.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, you know publications are closing right,
left sole less critics out there. You're gonna have to
judge for yourself.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Yeah, it is harder, and it's still part of the industry.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I mean, you know, wine stores and whatnot still promote
scores and it still can be effective. But we've definitely
seen as a producer, I've seen the waning of the
influence of scores and the rise of crowd sourced value.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So you've been making wine for a long time and
worked at great wineries like Woodward. You've been here for
a couple of years, so now you have vintages under
your belt here under the Hyatt Vineyard label. For somebody
who hasn't tasted Highatt Vineyard wines, what do you think
they're missing out on? And I guess part of that
question is what's the new face? How would you describe
(19:15):
the new face of Hyatt Vineyard?
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Yeah? I think the best new face of Highatt Vineyard
is the preservation of its greatness of old.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
That's really my job. I feel what are they missing
out on?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
The missing out on the core classic heart flavor of
Washington State.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Yak My Valley was the first ABA. Basically it was
where so many of historic Washington wines came from.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
And there were wineries like Woodry Canyon that made the
rose Bridge charton ay and Leonetti was making his Murlo
from vineyard just a few miles from here from vineyards,
but hy It sold fruit to others, and so many
of the famous, very successful wines from Washington State were.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Sourced in this part of the state.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
And you'd miss out on if you'd miss out on
the gorgeous view and just living here in wine country.
I mean, when I think about what is wine country,
it is the front lawn of High up vineyards.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
It is stunning.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
You're looking literally out on the heart of the Yakma
Valley and on a clear day you're looking at two volcanoes,
you're looking deep into the Cascade Mountains, and it is
absolutely exactly what you think of when you think of
wine country.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
So, if Space Aliens were to arrive at your property
right now and walk up to the door, which of
your wines would you say, Welcome to Hyatt Vineyard.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Well, love Space Aliens for one.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And so apparently Douglas Adams or maybe it was Bieberbrocks said,
you know, space aliens are thirsty and they really need sugar.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
Didn't you say that?
Speaker 3 (20:55):
So I would definitely serve the black musket that are.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Really a native sugar.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
So this is a a black musket, it's a rose
and it has residual sugar al though it's got good
acidity so it's balanced, it's not over the top. But
this is the wine you would give the space aliens.
I like that.
Speaker 7 (21:14):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
I think it's bold.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Indeed, that's right, and it's pink. It's not threatening, it's
really lovely.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So it's a wine drinker. Redwater rose. Yes, please, thank
you still are sparkling.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Uh still ah see.
Speaker 7 (21:30):
Okay, so.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
You're making a variety of wines from a sweet black
muscat not overly sweet, a dry reasling, a dry rose, saparavi,
cabernet sarrah, like all these different grapes that you're working
with that make different style wines. I'm curious when it
comes down to parrying wine with food, how do you
approach that. Are there certain things that you look for
(21:57):
in the wine or certain things you look for in
the food. Are you looking for balance or are you
not really interested and you just want to drink what
you want to drink?
Speaker 6 (22:05):
Yeah, I am.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
I am an idealistic because you know, they've had those
amazing meals when things are put together. So if i
really want a pair of food and wine, I'm actually
not really good at that. I mean, I'm like, okay,
I'm fine, but I go to dinner at a great restaurant.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
I asked somebody like, dude, what you go with this?
Does he?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Even the professionals ask the professional to.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Be really honest, that's out because I'm I'm a C
minus cook and I'm like a B minus so at best,
I know I really understand wine. But The funny thing
is is I don't understand. I want to know more
about that chemistry between the magic of food and the
magic of wine because.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
I've had the magic happen. I've seen those.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Sparks fly, and it's just nothing quite like it. Like
I just went to Surrell up in Seattle just Wednesday
night for tenor Killer Killer food and absolutely stunning, impeccable
wine service.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
He had these really exotic, fascinating wines. It's in Washington
Wine List entirely and had these totally cool, really rare,
small production wines which I would just fit perfectly, And
to me, they're fascinating.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
It's like CG coal dealer.
Speaker 6 (23:12):
Wow. Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
So I'm sitting here with a table full of grapes
because it's harvest season, and you've been doing harvest in
this area or in Washington for more than two decades now. Yeah,
oh three decades. I'm blocking out how long that is?
So three decades of making wine in Washington, in Yakhama
(23:34):
Valley but also some other areas. And we know every
vintage tells a different story. But in your experience, what
do you see here in this area or in Washington
as in general? Do you see more similarity vintage to
vintage or is it more nuanced variation or is it
really big variation.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
So I had a really great fortune of working in
South Africa and in New Zealand, and what that taught
me was the power of your region. It is the
single most definitive power.
Speaker 6 (24:05):
In your wind is your regional character.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
And so yeah, coming home to the desert from the
ocean in.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Cloudie Bay was massive learning cycle. And then coming back
from Stellenbosch was again another really really big lesson because
Stellenbosh was more like Eppa and so.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Coming home to.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
The desert, I really got it. That makes Washington more
of a more Now I understood.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Better where our flavors were fitting in the marketplace.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Does that make sense to where like, okay, the whole
the whole tendency of Washington, say, the whole Columbia Valley
desert basin is going to give us something in our
corral that's different than their corrals. And we're just not
gonna make wines like theirs. They're different zonal wines. And
so make wines from your home state taste like your
(25:02):
home state.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
And then what.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Am I seeing over time of the thirty years is
I'm seeing harvests and seeing quality generally rise because of
brilliance in the vineyard and wine making. But then also
harvests are coming earlier, so we're harvesting less in October
more in September. So that's a time frame, and I
think one of the interesting things about that, if you
(25:25):
want to geek out about it for a minute, is when.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
You ripen fruit in the summer prior to the equinox. Okay,
so you've got the.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Summer, the excess light of summer, and you're ripening your
fruit to harvest, then that's a different wine than if
you're going to ripen that same fruit post equinox in
the leaning hours and the cooling temperatures. So you're seeking
ripeness after that, and you're looking to escape.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
In our region, you're looking to escape that.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Harve, that harvest frost, of the harvest moon, that killing frost.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
You want to get past that, stay into a ripening cycle.
But you're can ripe in slower, You're cana ripe in
uh less.
Speaker 6 (26:10):
If you go past the equinox.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Right right after after the equinox, you're going to ripen
more slowly, and you're gonna wripe in less amount of
ripeness is going to arrive than.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
If you were going to ripen in the Uh. You
know in the time frame.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Beforehand that the wines which ripen before the equinox are
of a different character.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
They're bigger, blousier, they're darker, they are richer. But the
wines that I fell in love with, the wines that.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
To me are the reference point in Washington State, are
the wines that ripened after the equinox.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
And the equinox is generally around when.
Speaker 6 (26:47):
About September twenty three.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
So when harvests were later, they were there were more
after the equinox, And now with harvest and sooner, almost
everything is picked before that time, so it's all ripening
through heat.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Yeah, it'd be really interesting to know.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
I would put a dollar bet that more than half
of Washington harvest now is picking before the equinox.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
Huh interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
So are there any signs or predictors that you look
for to tell you what a vintage is going to be?
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Like a lot?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
That is where I have been focusing a lot of
really this part of my career. I'm really interested in
pulling together those clear, permanent signs.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Zelmolong had real fortunate at working for her, with her
for a decade.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
She con told it to me and Nina Beauty and
we had a great time together. And she brought to
me the structure of wine making and the structure with
Phil Freese, her husband, the structure of wine growing, which
I thought was a little loosey goosey on natural.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
You'll never understand it. And she's like, no, no, we
already understand it. Here the rules. And I was like, whoa, Well,
nobody's ever told me this and she was like, well, yeah,
not a lot of people know it, to be honest.
And so you asked, what am I seeing in terms
of the structure.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah, sort of signs or predictors that will tell you
what to expect or guide you.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
I don't know if you can.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
I mean, it was even mind blowing to me that
she would just tell me, well, Cabernet, we know caberne
ripens at one hundred and ten days from flowering to harvest.
If maybe a little more, maybe one hundred and twenty
five days more, but it is a one hundred and
ten days is a good ripe.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Finergy Cabernet. It doesn't matter when it flowers. That's what
it does, because that's the genetics of the grape. And
I'm like what And she's like, try.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
It and Chardonnay ripens it ninety to ninety five days.
And I was like, no, sir, I'm like, because it's
different of you.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
She's like, no, it's not. It's genetics.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Then, so there isn't really a sign or predictor to vintage.
It's the grape.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Genetics is driving a massive amount of what we're tasting.
It's and that's the thing is a lot of us think, oh,
we're artisans. And I had to really break this belief that.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I'm an artisan. It's so different only time. No, No,
not really. Actually, you're kind of in the way. A
lot follow the rules. Understand that.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
You know, it's like gravity and ultra you know, it's
like the four forces of you know, the universe. There
are rules to wines, rules to genetics, and there's a
reason why your wine tastes way it does because it's genetically.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
So if you know that it's more genetic with the grapes,
I mean, obviously you can't make a grape a little
different than it is, but you spend time in the vineyard.
Do you communicate with the vines? Do you have to
tell them to behave and follow what they're supposed to do?
Do you have a friendly relationship with them or do
you communicate with them?
Speaker 6 (29:36):
I like to think I have a friendly relationship.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
They seem to make lovely wine when out after the
whole season's over, they seem to be friends like you. Yeah, yeah,
we seem you know, they come out and they show up,
so I guess we do. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I community with the wines, I like to think so.
To me, I'm really fascinated with the whole cycle of it.
I mean, that's what really keeps me involved. There's this
huge natural cycle to wine which is magical and mysterious,
and there are rules and if you follow them, you're
a lot better off.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
To follow the rules. To know the rules, it's how
you can break them.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
And then in both the vineyard and the cellar, and
then the other half of the wine business that I'm
in love with is the people. This is really a
people business.
Speaker 6 (30:23):
We just happen to have this amazing fluid between us.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
And you have a small team. You were talking about
the two guys that make the sweeter wines and w
hoop in here a while. Do you guys have any
rituals that you do at the start of harvest or
have you established any new rituals for the winery or
did they have any they've made you partake in since
they have a longer history here than you.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, that's great. I'd love to have that. I'm not
a huge ritual guy. It sounds a.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
Bit lame really on the sound rule.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
But there they they definitely love to gather.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
It's a gray crew here that everybody gets along really well.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
We tend actually throw it.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Because we don't eat pizza a lot, we tend to
throw a big pizza party to get started.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
So that's a tradition there.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
It is. There is we throw an end of harvest party,
which is a lot of fun. They do a beerty
I roast. They roast a whole pig or a goat.
If they can get the goat, we do the goat.
We prefer that. And the beutya that they make is fantastic,
so great. Yeah, yum yum.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
So when you were little, what did you want to
be when you grew up?
Speaker 4 (31:32):
An astronaut? Yeah? Close?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Did you get to that?
Speaker 3 (31:37):
My parents and uncles told me, you know you won't
like the Air Force, don't.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
I'm like, well, an astronaut. So anyway, that's as close
as I got about twelve years old.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
So you've gone into wine pretty early, like right out
of college.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Yeah, total, look, yeah, right out of college I did.
Speaker 6 (31:54):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
And so when you're not working, how do you like
to spend your free time.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
On the water of the mountains, rock climbing, you know,
with friends?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, socializing.
Speaker 6 (32:09):
A great, great dinner at this restaurant.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
And when you're when you're planning a romantic evening for
you and your wife, I know you're not going to
cook for her, But what sort of wines get open
to say this is not a typical night but a
special night.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Yeah, ones get open are wines that she loves, and
kind of wines. She likes big robust reds.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
But like me, likes them with some perfume and prettiness.
Her dad is a really big Bordo collector, and he's
got a lot of beautiful and wines that he still
opens up for us. All so I've had to enjoy
some gorgeous vintage porthos through his cellar, and so we
enjoy that She's reluctant white wine lover, but I've been
able to show her some really great white.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Wines are amazing.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
She trusts you a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, When you
look back at your career, what would you say is
one of your proudest achievements to date?
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Wow, I've just been so grateful for all the people
I've met and worked with.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
And you don't achieve anything in this business alone.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
You're just a fraud egoist if you think you did,
because there is so much work that goes in the
vineyard to get that fruit to deliver to you and
the quality that you just.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Got it at.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
And I adore and really pay a lot of attention
to those people more and more as I go and
throughout my career, the work that they do to get
the fruit to the quality that you need to make
gorgeous wine. And then you never make gorgeous wine alone.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
It's not possible. And so I don't do anything. I
never did, no matter how small wine I ever had.
But I don't know, I just there are some really
crazy moments.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I think one of the moments that really will always
stick with me, I think was I was shopping at
QFC Merser Island. We're sort of mid nineteen nineties. I
would start two thousand and six and Nina and I
had started Beauty and Wallah wall So it's probably fifteen
vintages in or so in my career. And I'm waiting
in line getting groceries and I just pulled they have
the Food and Wine little pocket guide there for sale.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
I'm like, oh, cool, don't check that out. I wonder
what they say about Washington. So I flipped through it
and I pull up.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
The Washington page and my white wine is on the
list of the top five wines to taste in Washington State.
Speaker 6 (34:41):
And I was just literally almost fainted.
Speaker 7 (34:44):
I like turned and I looked around me and like, what,
I'm on the top list of the wine that must
have representative wines in the state of Washington.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Was this pre cell phone days, because otherwise your cell
phone would have blown up, right, ye?
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Boys? The beginning of beginning of Facebook, where I like,
you know, I as an online and all unbelievable. It
was just one of those things.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Where like, wow, you can make it to the top
of the last unbelievable was extraordinary.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
So when you look back, when you when you think
about how you live your life or how you approach work.
Is there a piece of advice that somebody gave you
along the way that you that really, you know, reverberated
with you. Was it a teacher, a mentor a parent,
or just a colleague, but something that really stays with you.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
So many, so many great pieces of advice. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
When I think about my career, well, you know, my
parents love the fact that I got into wine and
just thought that's super cool and follow your you know,
following your dreams.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
They didn't encourage astronaut, but they were happy about Winemaker.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
That's right, that's right, that's right. I want to be
back down here on earth. Keep me grounded, keep me grounded. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
So it was interest because when I brought the wine
to the dinner table and home, even though we didn
drink wine at home, it was as if there was
this whole missing on the table the whole time, Like my.
Speaker 7 (36:05):
Parents are great cooks, really good cooks, and it was like,
why didn't we have wine at the table all the time?
What were you guys thinking, Like that was the last piece,
it would have made dinner perfect, Like, I know, we
just didn't understand why.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
So back to the advice.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
My dad.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
I remember I was in college and I couldn't decide
what to do, what to major in, And I wrote
him that letter because my all my parents are teachers,
so I thought it was really important that I like
follow the family way and become a teacher. And I
didn't want to, and I sort of said that in
the letter, and he said, you shouldn't. Don't if you
don't want to be a teacher.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
Do what you love.
Speaker 6 (36:44):
You love rafting, you love this outdoor life, Go do that.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
And he told cautionary tales of my grandfather and even
his life where you know you can feel trapped and
then Phil, you have to live up to that and
he said, no, go do what you love.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
You will find a way through it. And I just
remember reading that letter.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
I was like, God, that that's the greatest gift you
know a parent could give to a child.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Is like, go be free, don't copy me.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah, big advice, And you did find your way.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
It did, Yeah, really did so.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Complete the sentence for me. A table without wine is like,
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (37:24):
A bummers A bummer, dude.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
It's like a day off.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
A day off from what wine or your childhood home.
So we're sitting at a table, your bottles of wine
that you've made, you've crafted, are sitting on the table,
and there's empty seat next to you. Who I know?
You said that you like to share wine and it's
about community and with people. But who in any walk
(37:53):
of life would you love to share a bottle of
your wine with that you've never had the opportunity, may
never have the opportunity. It's aspirational. They may not even
be alive anymore. But who do you wish you could
sit and have a bottle of wine with and share?
Speaker 6 (38:08):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (38:09):
Can I do TV?
Speaker 3 (38:11):
So I'm gonna go back to Xerxes, like seriously, Like
I really want to be.
Speaker 7 (38:14):
Like Serxes church purshop.
Speaker 6 (38:17):
I'd be like why what would what would you know?
Speaker 4 (38:19):
What would wine be? Like? What would he have a
sensibility of wine?
Speaker 6 (38:22):
Like would my wines resonate with his wines? Like I'd
love to find out, Like here's.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
Wine from twenty fourteen, what do you think you know?
What does that compare to like B C Wines?
Speaker 3 (38:35):
And then the other person who I would love to meet,
who passed away before I got in the in the business,
is Walter Clore.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
I from Washington State. I'd love to ask.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Him what was on your mind when you were telling
people in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
One you should play Caberty, So you know, what what
was he thinking? Why did he say that?
Speaker 3 (38:57):
I'd love to know what Walter Klore was thinking when
he was driving around in state of Washington, because he
was right, and he was brilliant, and he had.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Too few people to He was just a vanguard. He
was on the van guard. I'm really curious about what
that was about.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
So, you know, you were talking about how it's really
the genetics of the grape and it's not the vintage
that you've seen what vintage does, but it's earlier, but
you're not seeing terrible things. But you know, we know
climate change is out there. You were talking about a
grape like Saparavi that's been around eight thousand years. You
think we're going to be drinking wine in five hundred
(39:38):
years or a thousand years from now?
Speaker 4 (39:41):
Yeah, for certain. I mean, if you all know, you know,
throw stones at one another. If Trump doesn't get elected,
then we'll all live. But I don't know if he does,
but yeah, of course we'll trink wine. I don't think
we would not what all we be drinking? We yeah,
(40:07):
global warm.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
We now know there's an upper limit to temperature on grapes.
We've heard those suffering stories. I've seen vines die overnight.
So yeah, there's an upper limit. So there will be
environments which are growing wine today which we'll have to
walk away from. I will have to be pulled out
and stop farming grapes there and move on and go
(40:28):
into other places.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Canada will be even better.
Speaker 6 (40:31):
Yeah, be amazing.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
So in parts of Washington State which we'd have thought like, no,
I just ain't gonna work, there are starting to taste
already delicious.
Speaker 6 (40:43):
Really yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
Wow, spooky good.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Spooky, well, spooky in general.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. So, I mean there was Connorley. I've harvested,
harvested from Coronelly for like twenty seven vinages, and we
saw these ripening charts. It's a S curve of the
sugar growing from like sixteen up to twenty.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
Four, right and whatnot and this, But we put it
on and they had the history of it.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
But eighteen years put it on a chart of the
two months Ofpeptember October, and the S curve basically starts
like September at the souls at the equinox, and ripens
at Halloween in the first in the first decade, and
in the second decade it ripens, it starts in August,
it ripens before the end of September, So the exact
same s curve of ripeness just moves forward thirty to
(41:34):
forty days on the calendar. So the grape will do
its thing, it's just doing it earlier.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
So if you were being sent off to outer space,
a deserted island somewhere, and you can only take three
bottles with you, what three bottles of wine would you choose?
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Wow, I'd pick an amazing saper Avi from Georgia or
maybe one of my own so I can talk.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
Making when I get there with the martians. Uh.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Well, no, you're going to be alone enjoying these wines,
your three dream wines. Oh no, that you could talk
to the fish, I don't know, Yes, talk to the trees,
like the vines.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Okay, yeah, what else? Would I would bring?
Speaker 3 (42:20):
A really really really gorgeous late harvest wriestling. Those are
staggeringly good. Maybe a nice wine, and then I'd probably
bring like one of my favorite Chardonnays.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
I'm a shardenay hound. Still love it. I was raised
on it and love it still.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Any particular producer that you might grab if you could.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Yeah, you know what, if I'm leaving on a spaceship,
I'm gonna grab a.
Speaker 4 (42:48):
Bottle of wood Cannon Estate, Woodwick Canyon, Shardon May.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah, it was an AHA moment. Wine's the one you
take off with you the planet with it. Well, Caleb,
we are almost to the end, but I didn't warn
you about this, but we always like to play a
little game at the end where we pair wine with
music because wine conjures up emochus in us and music
(43:15):
does the same, and it's a great way to kind
of describe your own wine maybe through music. So starting
with your dry reasoning, which I was sipping at the
beginning of this, I don't know, maybe if you give
like three words to describe the wine, and then what
genre musician specific song do you equate with it?
Speaker 4 (43:36):
Wow? So a little bit of ginger, lemon, lime, and
so those are the flavors, and then.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Good acidity, but some nice richness.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Yeah, and then the song that's ringing in between my
ears right now is Avalon by Roxy music.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Okay, okay, what about the Black Muscat Rose. It's like
because it's it's a little sweet, but not in a
cling way. I mean the acidity balances it out, so
it's more it comes off more as rich right when you.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Say, yeah, oh my god, I love this recipe. The
Twins make it the Bodyground Twins.
Speaker 4 (44:17):
It's so good.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
This is like pop girl music, you know, really fun
early pop music.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Okay. What about Cabernet Savignon from Hyghen.
Speaker 4 (44:35):
What's the song? Just waiting for it to come up?
Speaker 3 (44:38):
So Cabernet, You've got that gorgeous current, a little bit
of rich leather, uh and that beautiful with the British.
Speaker 4 (44:48):
Called beet root. I love that and I love that comment.
What's the song?
Speaker 3 (44:55):
It's like classic hard rock maybe Boston more than a feeling?
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
And what about your new love supper Avi.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Oh my, I can't it a thousand words or not
enough to describe this wine.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
It is.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Party in a box. It's just so much going on. People,
You've got to try this.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
And what's the music.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
It's like, I just I'm hearing some sort of ancient
classic Persian music or some you know, traditional music from
Georgia's ringing out in my ear.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
Something foreign, exotic and gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Okay, So on that note, my last question for you
two parter. The first is what wine region in the
world is at the top of your bucket list? I
think you kind of mentioned it at the very beginning.
But where where? Where do you want to go that
you need to plan?
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Yeah, I mean I've got to see superavi and i'd
say it to environment, I've got to see this, super
fascinated by that.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
I've always been really.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
Interested to see Central Spain because I think that's probably
where a Washington winemaker to get.
Speaker 4 (46:08):
A lot of lessons.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
I'm growing fruit from central dry Spain, and I've never
seen northern Italy. I love County Classico, I love multiple
Giano and.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
By mo Esco.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
And if people want to come here and visit here,
where can they find you? What will they find if
they come here to Hyatt Vineyard? What's the experience? What's
offered here?
Speaker 3 (46:33):
It is the beautiful, pastoral, quiet wine country that you
dream of. And there's this stunning lawn, a football field lawn,
beautifully received, lovely family reception. Ashley Kemple is a tremendous
host cares for people who really understands wine, and you
just you'll settle into this incredible fresh air that comes
(46:55):
off the Cascade Mountains. It's beautiful light, western breeze, beautiful
perfect weather in wine country up in the hills of
one of Washington State's most beautiful parts of the world.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
And you have a tasting room. Do you offer tastings?
Do you offer other things?
Speaker 3 (47:10):
Yeah, effectively open every day and we have tastings. I'll
start to do some tours, some sellar tours. We've got
the venyard you can walk through here. We've got harvest
host r ving. We've gotten space for a dozen RVs
every night. And yeah, and then we're going to be
offering some very special year long experiences here at Hyatt
(47:32):
in the future as well.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Right well, Caleb, thank you for joining us on Wine Soundtrack.
I'm going to raise a glass and toast you with
some soft Robbie and good to see you.
Speaker 4 (47:41):
Great to see you.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Thanks for listening to a new episode of Wine Soundtrack USA.
For details and updates, visit our website windsoundtrack dot com.
Welcome to Wine Soundtrack USA. Listen to the passion with
which producers narrate their winery and their world. In thirty
answers discover their stories, personalities, and passions.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, friends and listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is Alice
and Levine and today I am with Caleb Foster, the
winemaker at Hyatt Vineyard in Yakima Valley. Caleb, Welcome to
Wine Soundtrack and good to see you after all these years.
It's been a decade or so, but welcome and tell
us about Hyatt Vineyard.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Hi, Alison, Well, thanks so much. I'm so delighted to
be on this program. And welcome to High Vineyards and
thank you. On the Yakamavalvelet. Yeah, so, Hia Vineyards is
here in the what we now call the hills of
the Yakma Valley. And if you take a look at
your phone and you look at the map and you
get that aerial view, there are three blotches of color.
We are on that western lobe of greenery in the
(00:53):
state of Washington and eastern Washington so irrigated farmland. And
it's the fortieth anniversary of the Yakma Valley av this
year and forty years of great wine coming out of
this area and Hyatt basically forty years ago in nineteen
eighty five, Leland bought this land and established the vineyard here.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And he established the vineyard here, which you were pointing
to me as we were walking over. How many acres
do you have and what grapes do you have planted here?
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
He started with Hindland just started with eighty acre parcel,
so we've got, you know, non including roads and all that,
about seventy two acres there. And then added a little
bit more another eighty acre parcel. So there's some grapes there.
We're harvest from ninety acres today, basically the original ninety
acres that.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
They planted in the eighties.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
Though over the last thirty years he rode the growth
of American wine adoration and the wild success in Washington State,
leading the way in many ways himself, but also rode
that to growth and added blocks around.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
The area that he could drive his tractor to.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
So eighty here, sixty one hundred there, and I had
about one hundred I'm sorry, four hundred to five hundred
acres and then sold that off over the last decade
or so, and then we're back to the original.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Eighty wow, and you're one hundred percent of state fruit.
And how many cases are you producing?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So we harvested about three hundred twenty five tons last year,
relatively small yield, so cases wise kind of depends is
it what we sell we bottle. We do a lot
of custom way making for other clients around around.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
The nation, some more for what you bottle for under Hyatt.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Yeah, so we're about shy of ten thousand, some of
who do.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And the grapes you're working with are.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
The original ones, the ones you would suxpect. Cap Sovio Murlow.
This is a famous Murlow and famous wriestling house, really
famous for extraordinary murlow and extraordinary reaslings that age really
well and just taste great young. But it's a really
great part of the state for those two varieties. The
Cabernie here is very good and so we also have muscat,
(03:04):
We have a little peanut crete. We have there's some
rootstock of caberaniy fronc that was swapped over to sarah
uh and we've got mal bek and b Diverdo attempted
to cut down some of that saran regrow the yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Because Cap Frunk's growing in popularity and poor Sarah just
never does.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah, yeah, it's great, but Cap Frank's pretty hip these days.
And then we've got this really, really amazing grape, my
favorite grape in the world today, my new favorite saper Ravi.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yes, a Georgian grape. How did a Georgian grape end
up in the Yakima Valley?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
So this was the gift of the prior wine maker
and he he had gone to New York State and
had gone to an event festival there at Doctor Constantine
Frank's winery on the Finger Lakes and fell in love
with the sapper Rabbi and kastelli that he had there
and other wines. And really he told me like, I
had to bring it back. And he convinced Leland to
(03:59):
buy some cuttings. So they bought some cuttings and grafted
them here into an acre of riesling and grew that
first harvest in nineteen And when I arrived here in
the spring of twenty two, they bottled in nineteen and
I had the twin. They had the twenty and the
twenty one in barrel, which I then prepared to bottle,
and I didn't know anything about supper Avi, and what
(04:23):
little I could find on the internet was just something
I could read. I searched everywhere to buy bottles. I
couldn't For months, I couldn't find anyone who produced it
or bottles to buy on the internet. And finally in
Connecticut I found it a total wine.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
A guy was like, do you sell Soper rob And
he's like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Came in and so there's a one box in the
bottom corner of a row, and I'd like, I've just
scooped them all up and bought a case of Superavi
of all these different producers from Georgia.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And here we are, yeah, and here we are supper
ab Who knew?
Speaker 6 (04:55):
Unbelievable?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Who knew? And what's really great?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
You know, listeners, you to check this out because it
could be a grape that was fermented and made in Egypt.
It's certainly pre biblical era, but it is super old.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I mean, I believe you know they have wrecked well.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
They say in the Google that in Georgia that they
found ancient wineries and ancient tanks underground, and that the
residue that in those tanks they think is soparai.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
And so if that's true.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Then that means when Xerxes was conquering Persia, he was
celebrated in soparaty love it.
Speaker 6 (05:29):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Well. Back to your wines. You're making about ten thousand cases?
Are you in distribution in Washington and other states and
other countries a portion or all direct to consumer? I
know you were saying at one point this winery, because
it's so historical, was producing up to thirty thousand cases
a year, but at a manageable ten thousand, and where
(05:50):
are your wines found?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, we're in about ten states, maybe about fifteen, and
we're going through a generational ownership shift, and so we're
going through a rebranding, a re establishment, and a repricing.
And my job was to bring back what I worked
with Leland when I arrived here two years ago, was
to help him sell high vineyards to the next buyer,
(06:14):
wrap it up and offer the whole package. We had
people come to the table, we didn't get to the altar,
and some people walked away, but in the end that
the kids when Leland passed away, the kids really wanted
to keep it. And so for the family, what we're
doing is re establishing the fabulous reserve quality wines that
(06:36):
Leland really launched this winery with in the nineties. The
great raslings were not only critically acclaimed from the Wine
Spectator to festival tastings like the Tri Citi's Wine Festival,
which was the biggest Washing wine festival it's on. Not
only was it critically acclaimed on top one hundred list
by the Wine Spectator, but also there was popular favorites,
(06:58):
so he won both the popular and the criticle listen
in the recling and the Murleau of two years running.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Wow, yeah, got some big shoes to fill there.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
Yeah, yeah, no for real.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And it was one of the things that really attracted
me because I had the great fortune of getting into
wine in ninety one on my first harvest Woodvery Canyon
in ninety two, and so really I knew about Hyatt's
fame and I knew the great work that had been done,
and this was one of the great Washington wineries. So
I thought this was a really cool idea. Where's hyatat today?
(07:29):
And so I had a ton of respect when I
got here to meet Leland, who I had not met before.
But I was like, hey, man, you are You're kind
of the shipping like you really were one of the greats.
And he was so appreciative of that because at his
age of eighty four at the time, or eighty three
when I met him two years ago, he wasn't getting
(07:51):
that I And I was like.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
No, man, you did it.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
You were about big deal in And so so I
do feel big shoes to feel because I've got.
Speaker 6 (08:01):
A ton of reus facts for Washington wine makers, Hans.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I've been working for Rick Small and getting to know
those early years and knowing how hard it was then
and how invented you had to be, and that the
really good wines were hard wrought. Let me say they
it wasn't easy to make them, and they did, but
they were there.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
And people say, oh, washing's got a lot of potential. No,
it had potential.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
It was executed well by a few and Hyatt and
Woodward and a few others were doing it.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
So obviously you've been making wine for a while. You
just said you were at Woodward in the early nineties.
But what is your first memory relevant to wine? How
old were you, where was it, what was it?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, I think maybe one of my first memories was
to sitting at home and it's a hot summer day
around the porch and dad.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
We didn't drink wine at at home. It wasn't a thing.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
But he pulls out a what I now know it
was a gallow hardy white burgundy from the gallon jug
with a little fingerloop on it, and puts it in
a drink water glass with ice in it and drinks
that and offers me a little bit of that. I'm
like ten twelve, I don't know, and I'm like, okay,
so that's wine. Didn't really like it.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
But the meaningful taste of wine, I think was when
I still not.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
A wine drinker, was when I ended up at wood
We Canyon looking for work after college in the Wallwall Valley,
and I thought working at a winery.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Would be cool. Was tasting his shardnas. He had three shardinais.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
He had a Yakma Valley Shardinay from a vender called
Rosa Berget, which was an old nineteen sixty eight or
seventy two planting of when's he colin Chardney up here
and since.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
Been ripped out, which is too bad.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
But then he had his own estate Chardnay, and he
had what was a Columbia Valley Schardney, which ended up
being from Sagemore and Gordon Brothers. So he had three
chardonnaise on the table and I remember the taste of
his nineteen ninety Woodrycanyon Sharden and I was like, what
is going on? It was so cool because it had
butterscotch and vanilla and fruit and ripe apples and pears
(10:11):
and just and that French choke. And I was like,
it was my first experience getting it.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
This was sort of your aha moment wine or or
sort of a first intro into that in wine. And
there was I know you've had many, You've had the
pleasure to drink a lot of great wines.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I have, I have, and I think the yes that
was the aha. And I mean if there was one
that was the one was like this is a really
interesting beverage. What exactly how did that do that? And
how did so The thing was there were three.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
Chardonnays and I could taste some side by side, so
I was like, why.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Is that one? They're all good? Why is that one?
But I was like total nomoue. I'm not.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I couldn't judge it then, like I can now, like
my memory is judging it far better than I was.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
No, but but it opened up sort of a window
to you, which you've obviously or a door it opened
and you've crawled through that door and pursued it with
more knowledge. I guess, is there another aha moment wine?
One of those wines that kind of set you on
a path of either you know a grape you wanted
to do or was it just the environment you were
in that made it an aha moment?
Speaker 4 (11:23):
There were many. There were many. I can remember back
to Woodwigan.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I remember this year like he was pouring the eighty
eight were low and when I first started there, and
I remember at the end of the day, it's a
hot summer day and I'm taking the empty bottles out
to the trash and as I take out the empty bottles,
like there's a little bit at the bottom of a bottle,
so I like pull the cork and just slam it right,
(11:49):
and I'm walking over the trash and I'm halfway across
the gravel yard and I'm like.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
Dude, chocolate.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I was like, whoa, that was amazing, and like I
totally got chocolate in them a lot and there wasn't.
Speaker 6 (12:04):
Any chocolate there, but WHOA, that's a cool trip. Let's
see what else we could do. That was a moment
of like, how does this happen?
Speaker 4 (12:13):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So now, all these years later, with all the great
wines you've you've drunk, if we were to come to
your home right now, what would we find in your house?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Like?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
What do you do you collect wine? Do you hold
onto wine? And if so, are there particular particular varieties,
particular regions or particular producers or do you just have
a you know, a smattering of things.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, it's a smattering, a huge on variety. So I'm
always exploring. I want to try a new, unique wine.
And I've got a lot of washing wine because I trade.
I'm really curious about what my neighbors and friends are doing.
I tend not to collect too much wine. And the
reason is is I've learned, you know.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Dollar for dollar, time for time, that I.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Am better off going and getting a really great wine,
although it may seem to be a high price, then
stashing away boxes.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
And boxes and boxes Bordeaux.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
A thousands of dollars and waiting for it to get
old Like I'm just just it's stored perfectly by some
wine store. I'll just go down and get the eighty
nine for two hundred dollars and I won't have to
have spent the money years ago.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
So is there anything recently that you opened up from
your cellar that drank really well?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
So the two winemakers I work with here, Hazen, He's
us Baragan twin brothers.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
They're fantastic.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
I love these guys and they're crazy good way sweet
wine makers, extremely good.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
At sweet wine making.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
So I've been running around and bringing all these German
recings to them. So I was up in Seattle and
just grabbed a whole bevy a case of German reslings
and we drank some crazy good German releasing at at
lunch the other day.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Any particular producer stand out.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I always love Prum, I love uh Prau.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
I'm kind of bad with names, but basically I tend
to pursue single vineyard material because you know, at this stage,
I understand what that's all.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
About, and I'm not as picky to that.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
What I when I think of a European wine when
I go to buy it, what I'm looking at on
the label is almost always turning around first. I want
to see the importer and if one of those dozen
great importers, then I know it's one of the best
ones from the region.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
It's into worth every dollar, no matter the price. And
then so I know that.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
The great importer is getting the right wines from the
consistently from the right vintages that cornered the right houses.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And then it's being delivered and cared for in the transit,
and it's arriving at the store and it's price right.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
So so German raisings ye ye, So you've spoken with
some great a of certain grapes. But do you think
there's a such thing as a perfect variety?
Speaker 4 (15:05):
No? Maybe I have to change my mind.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
I mean I would be like, no way, are you
read your mind? But Sabarabi kind of comes close.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Really.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
You know the thing about making Sabarabi is it's it's staggering,
like I had to make it to really understand what
I was dealing.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
With because I had what makes it so perfect? In
your mind?
Speaker 6 (15:25):
It is a party in a box.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
It is so much flavor and aroma, right, that's what
That's what I love in a wine is powerful aromas.
Speaker 6 (15:34):
And most red wines are a little subdued, committed whites
this is just unchained.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
It's just erupting in flavor right out of the fermenter,
and it's just got so much going on, and then
it echoes all that out on the palette, which not
a lot of red wines do.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
It's just like, what is happening here?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
It's just like a rage party of a flavor.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
And what what I realized after for many two years,
I was like, I get it, Like eight thousand years
of soaparabi. You'd be like, now that's been through drought
and famine and war and and floods, and it's like
it's so clear, and it's like I can see why
over those thousands of people are like, shave thisby.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
So one of the oldest varieties might be the most
perfect variety, right.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
I'm very suspicious.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Speaking of perfection, we talked a little bit before about
how you're filling big shoes because of the history that
Hyatt Vineyards has. I think you have, you know, solid
enough feet and history that you can do this. But
you were talking about all the great scores that the
that the murlaws and the reasonings used to get and
at a time where scores were super important. What is
(16:50):
your opinion today of wine critics and scores very mixed.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I've been really lucky to hard bough, but been really lucky.
I've been on heaps of.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Top one hundred lists.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Probably I've made myself a dozen wines that have gotten
on a dozen of the top one hundred wine lists,
from the Wine Spectator to Wine Enthusiasts, to Seattle Magazine,
to Parker, to Food and Wine Magazine to Food Wine
Wine Guide.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
And Wines and Spirits.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
So I've ried, I've ridden that roller coaster and done
really really well.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
There. Love it. It has a lot of value.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I'm a bit of a closet critic of critics because.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
I'm like, really, you can't taste wine or decide if
it's good enough for you.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I'm like, why any and somebody who's in you know,
some far away state to tell you whether the wine's
good enough.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
But the problem is if you're not.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
You know, if you're a consumer of whatever car tires
or whatever you're buying, you know, car tires to wine,
Consumer Reports is going to give you a great review
of car tires, and then you've got this review system
for wine.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
So it is, it is a huge world of wine.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It's hard you've got the New York Times review books,
and so you know, you're I get it why these
lists are made.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
I understand that.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
And yet, on the other hand, what's true that's happening
today is that and it's unstoppable and it's devastating a
lot of people.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Who write about wine.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Is that the flattening of the world of criticism, and
that the magazines are less relevant because now it's about Facebook.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
It's about your.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Friend dming you and telling you where to go and
making a list of your wineries to visit when you
go to town.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
You know, go to the value.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, you know publications are closing right,
left sole less critics out there. You're gonna have to
judge for yourself.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Yeah, it is harder, and it's still part of the industry.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I mean, you know, wine stores and whatnot still promote
scores and it still can be effective. But we've definitely
seen as a producer, I've seen the waning of the
influence of scores and the rise of crowd sourced value.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
So you've been making wine for a long time and
worked at great wineries like Woodward. You've been here for
a couple of years, so now you have vintages under
your belt here under the Hyatt Vineyard label. For somebody
who hasn't tasted Highatt Vineyard wines, what do you think
they're missing out on? And I guess part of that
question is what's the new face? How would you describe
(19:15):
the new face of Hyatt Vineyard?
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Yeah? I think the best new face of Highatt Vineyard
is the preservation of its greatness of old.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
That's really my job. I feel what are they missing
out on?
Speaker 3 (19:30):
The missing out on the core classic heart flavor of
Washington State.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Yak My Valley was the first ABA. Basically it was
where so many of historic Washington wines came from.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
And there were wineries like Woodry Canyon that made the
rose Bridge charton ay and Leonetti was making his Murlo
from vineyard just a few miles from here from vineyards,
but hy It sold fruit to others, and so many
of the famous, very successful wines from Washington State were.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Sourced in this part of the state.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
And you'd miss out on if you'd miss out on
the gorgeous view and just living here in wine country.
I mean, when I think about what is wine country,
it is the front lawn of High up vineyards.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
It is stunning.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
You're looking literally out on the heart of the Yakma
Valley and on a clear day you're looking at two volcanoes,
you're looking deep into the Cascade Mountains, and it is
absolutely exactly what you think of when you think of
wine country.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
So, if Space Aliens were to arrive at your property
right now and walk up to the door, which of
your wines would you say, Welcome to Hyatt Vineyard.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Well, love Space Aliens for one.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And so apparently Douglas Adams or maybe it was Bieberbrocks said,
you know, space aliens are thirsty and they really need sugar.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
Didn't you say that?
Speaker 3 (20:55):
So I would definitely serve the black musket that are.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
Really a native sugar.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
So this is a a black musket, it's a rose
and it has residual sugar al though it's got good
acidity so it's balanced, it's not over the top. But
this is the wine you would give the space aliens.
I like that.
Speaker 7 (21:14):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
I think it's bold.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Indeed, that's right, and it's pink. It's not threatening, it's
really lovely.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So it's a wine drinker. Redwater rose. Yes, please, thank
you still are sparkling.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Uh still ah see.
Speaker 7 (21:30):
Okay, so.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
You're making a variety of wines from a sweet black
muscat not overly sweet, a dry reasling, a dry rose, saparavi,
cabernet sarrah, like all these different grapes that you're working
with that make different style wines. I'm curious when it
comes down to parrying wine with food, how do you
approach that. Are there certain things that you look for
(21:57):
in the wine or certain things you look for in
the food. Are you looking for balance or are you
not really interested and you just want to drink what
you want to drink?
Speaker 6 (22:05):
Yeah, I am.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
I am an idealistic because you know, they've had those
amazing meals when things are put together. So if i
really want a pair of food and wine, I'm actually
not really good at that. I mean, I'm like, okay,
I'm fine, but I go to dinner at a great restaurant.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
I asked somebody like, dude, what you go with this?
Does he?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Even the professionals ask the professional to.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Be really honest, that's out because I'm I'm a C
minus cook and I'm like a B minus so at best,
I know I really understand wine. But The funny thing
is is I don't understand. I want to know more
about that chemistry between the magic of food and the
magic of wine because.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
I've had the magic happen. I've seen those.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Sparks fly, and it's just nothing quite like it. Like
I just went to Surrell up in Seattle just Wednesday
night for tenor Killer Killer food and absolutely stunning, impeccable
wine service.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
He had these really exotic, fascinating wines. It's in Washington
Wine List entirely and had these totally cool, really rare,
small production wines which I would just fit perfectly, And
to me, they're fascinating.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
It's like CG coal dealer.
Speaker 6 (23:12):
Wow. Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
So I'm sitting here with a table full of grapes
because it's harvest season, and you've been doing harvest in
this area or in Washington for more than two decades now. Yeah,
oh three decades. I'm blocking out how long that is?
So three decades of making wine in Washington, in Yakhama
(23:34):
Valley but also some other areas. And we know every
vintage tells a different story. But in your experience, what
do you see here in this area or in Washington
as in general? Do you see more similarity vintage to
vintage or is it more nuanced variation or is it
really big variation.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
So I had a really great fortune of working in
South Africa and in New Zealand, and what that taught
me was the power of your region. It is the
single most definitive power.
Speaker 6 (24:05):
In your wind is your regional character.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
And so yeah, coming home to the desert from the
ocean in.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Cloudie Bay was massive learning cycle. And then coming back
from Stellenbosch was again another really really big lesson because
Stellenbosh was more like Eppa and so.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Coming home to.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
The desert, I really got it. That makes Washington more
of a more Now I understood.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Better where our flavors were fitting in the marketplace.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Does that make sense to where like, okay, the whole
the whole tendency of Washington, say, the whole Columbia Valley
desert basin is going to give us something in our
corral that's different than their corrals. And we're just not
gonna make wines like theirs. They're different zonal wines. And
so make wines from your home state taste like your
(25:02):
home state.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
And then what.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Am I seeing over time of the thirty years is
I'm seeing harvests and seeing quality generally rise because of
brilliance in the vineyard and wine making. But then also
harvests are coming earlier, so we're harvesting less in October
more in September. So that's a time frame, and I
think one of the interesting things about that, if you
(25:25):
want to geek out about it for a minute, is when.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
You ripen fruit in the summer prior to the equinox. Okay,
so you've got the.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Summer, the excess light of summer, and you're ripening your
fruit to harvest, then that's a different wine than if
you're going to ripen that same fruit post equinox in
the leaning hours and the cooling temperatures. So you're seeking
ripeness after that, and you're looking to escape.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
In our region, you're looking to escape that.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Harve, that harvest frost, of the harvest moon, that killing frost.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
You want to get past that, stay into a ripening cycle.
But you're can ripe in slower, You're cana ripe in
uh less.
Speaker 6 (26:10):
If you go past the equinox.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Right right after after the equinox, you're going to ripen
more slowly, and you're gonna wripe in less amount of
ripeness is going to arrive than.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
If you were going to ripen in the Uh. You
know in the time frame.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Beforehand that the wines which ripen before the equinox are
of a different character.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
They're bigger, blousier, they're darker, they are richer. But the
wines that I fell in love with, the wines that.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
To me are the reference point in Washington State, are
the wines that ripened after the equinox.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
And the equinox is generally around when.
Speaker 6 (26:47):
About September twenty three.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
So when harvests were later, they were there were more
after the equinox, And now with harvest and sooner, almost
everything is picked before that time, so it's all ripening
through heat.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Yeah, it'd be really interesting to know.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
I would put a dollar bet that more than half
of Washington harvest now is picking before the equinox.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
Huh interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
So are there any signs or predictors that you look
for to tell you what a vintage is going to be?
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Like a lot?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
That is where I have been focusing a lot of
really this part of my career. I'm really interested in
pulling together those clear, permanent signs.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
Zelmolong had real fortunate at working for her, with her
for a decade.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
She con told it to me and Nina Beauty and
we had a great time together. And she brought to
me the structure of wine making and the structure with
Phil Freese, her husband, the structure of wine growing, which
I thought was a little loosey goosey on natural.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
You'll never understand it. And she's like, no, no, we
already understand it. Here the rules. And I was like, whoa, Well,
nobody's ever told me this and she was like, well, yeah,
not a lot of people know it, to be honest.
And so you asked, what am I seeing in terms
of the structure.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah, sort of signs or predictors that will tell you
what to expect or guide you.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
I don't know if you can.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
I mean, it was even mind blowing to me that
she would just tell me, well, Cabernet, we know caberne
ripens at one hundred and ten days from flowering to harvest.
If maybe a little more, maybe one hundred and twenty
five days more, but it is a one hundred and
ten days is a good ripe.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Finergy Cabernet. It doesn't matter when it flowers. That's what
it does, because that's the genetics of the grape. And
I'm like what And she's like, try.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
It and Chardonnay ripens it ninety to ninety five days.
And I was like, no, sir, I'm like, because it's
different of you.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
She's like, no, it's not. It's genetics.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Then, so there isn't really a sign or predictor to vintage.
It's the grape.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Genetics is driving a massive amount of what we're tasting.
It's and that's the thing is a lot of us think, oh,
we're artisans. And I had to really break this belief that.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I'm an artisan. It's so different only time. No, No,
not really. Actually, you're kind of in the way. A
lot follow the rules. Understand that.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
You know, it's like gravity and ultra you know, it's
like the four forces of you know, the universe. There
are rules to wines, rules to genetics, and there's a
reason why your wine tastes way it does because it's genetically.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
So if you know that it's more genetic with the grapes,
I mean, obviously you can't make a grape a little
different than it is, but you spend time in the vineyard.
Do you communicate with the vines? Do you have to
tell them to behave and follow what they're supposed to do?
Do you have a friendly relationship with them or do
you communicate with them?
Speaker 6 (29:36):
I like to think I have a friendly relationship.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
They seem to make lovely wine when out after the
whole season's over, they seem to be friends like you. Yeah, yeah,
we seem you know, they come out and they show up,
so I guess we do. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I community with the wines, I like to think so.
To me, I'm really fascinated with the whole cycle of it.
I mean, that's what really keeps me involved. There's this
huge natural cycle to wine which is magical and mysterious,
and there are rules and if you follow them, you're
a lot better off.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
To follow the rules. To know the rules, it's how
you can break them.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
And then in both the vineyard and the cellar, and
then the other half of the wine business that I'm
in love with is the people. This is really a
people business.
Speaker 6 (30:23):
We just happen to have this amazing fluid between us.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
And you have a small team. You were talking about
the two guys that make the sweeter wines and w
hoop in here a while. Do you guys have any
rituals that you do at the start of harvest or
have you established any new rituals for the winery or
did they have any they've made you partake in since
they have a longer history here than you.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, that's great. I'd love to have that. I'm not
a huge ritual guy. It sounds a.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
Bit lame really on the sound rule.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
But there they they definitely love to gather.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
It's a gray crew here that everybody gets along really well.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
We tend actually throw it.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Because we don't eat pizza a lot, we tend to
throw a big pizza party to get started.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
So that's a tradition there.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
It is. There is we throw an end of harvest party,
which is a lot of fun. They do a beerty
I roast. They roast a whole pig or a goat.
If they can get the goat, we do the goat.
We prefer that. And the beutya that they make is fantastic,
so great. Yeah, yum yum.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
So when you were little, what did you want to
be when you grew up?
Speaker 4 (31:32):
An astronaut? Yeah? Close?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Did you get to that?
Speaker 3 (31:37):
My parents and uncles told me, you know you won't
like the Air Force, don't.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
I'm like, well, an astronaut. So anyway, that's as close
as I got about twelve years old.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
So you've gone into wine pretty early, like right out
of college.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Yeah, total, look, yeah, right out of college I did.
Speaker 6 (31:54):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
And so when you're not working, how do you like
to spend your free time.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
On the water of the mountains, rock climbing, you know,
with friends?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, socializing.
Speaker 6 (32:09):
A great, great dinner at this restaurant.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
And when you're when you're planning a romantic evening for
you and your wife, I know you're not going to
cook for her, But what sort of wines get open
to say this is not a typical night but a
special night.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Yeah, ones get open are wines that she loves, and
kind of wines. She likes big robust reds.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
But like me, likes them with some perfume and prettiness.
Her dad is a really big Bordo collector, and he's
got a lot of beautiful and wines that he still
opens up for us. All so I've had to enjoy
some gorgeous vintage porthos through his cellar, and so we
enjoy that She's reluctant white wine lover, but I've been
able to show her some really great white.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
Wines are amazing.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
She trusts you a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, When you
look back at your career, what would you say is
one of your proudest achievements to date?
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Wow, I've just been so grateful for all the people
I've met and worked with.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
And you don't achieve anything in this business alone.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
You're just a fraud egoist if you think you did,
because there is so much work that goes in the
vineyard to get that fruit to deliver to you and
the quality that you just.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Got it at.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
And I adore and really pay a lot of attention
to those people more and more as I go and
throughout my career, the work that they do to get
the fruit to the quality that you need to make
gorgeous wine. And then you never make gorgeous wine alone.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
It's not possible. And so I don't do anything. I
never did, no matter how small wine I ever had.
But I don't know, I just there are some really
crazy moments.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I think one of the moments that really will always
stick with me, I think was I was shopping at
QFC Merser Island. We're sort of mid nineteen nineties. I
would start two thousand and six and Nina and I
had started Beauty and Wallah wall So it's probably fifteen
vintages in or so in my career. And I'm waiting
in line getting groceries and I just pulled they have
the Food and Wine little pocket guide there for sale.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
I'm like, oh, cool, don't check that out. I wonder
what they say about Washington. So I flipped through it
and I pull up.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
The Washington page and my white wine is on the
list of the top five wines to taste in Washington State.
Speaker 6 (34:41):
And I was just literally almost fainted.
Speaker 7 (34:44):
I like turned and I looked around me and like, what,
I'm on the top list of the wine that must
have representative wines in the state of Washington.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Was this pre cell phone days, because otherwise your cell
phone would have blown up, right, ye?
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Boys? The beginning of beginning of Facebook, where I like,
you know, I as an online and all unbelievable. It
was just one of those things.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Where like, wow, you can make it to the top
of the last unbelievable was extraordinary.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
So when you look back, when you when you think
about how you live your life or how you approach work.
Is there a piece of advice that somebody gave you
along the way that you that really, you know, reverberated
with you. Was it a teacher, a mentor a parent,
or just a colleague, but something that really stays with you.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
So many, so many great pieces of advice. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
When I think about my career, well, you know, my
parents love the fact that I got into wine and
just thought that's super cool and follow your you know,
following your dreams.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
They didn't encourage astronaut, but they were happy about Winemaker.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
That's right, that's right, that's right. I want to be
back down here on earth. Keep me grounded, keep me grounded. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
So it was interest because when I brought the wine
to the dinner table and home, even though we didn
drink wine at home, it was as if there was
this whole missing on the table the whole time, Like my.
Speaker 7 (36:05):
Parents are great cooks, really good cooks, and it was like,
why didn't we have wine at the table all the time?
What were you guys thinking, Like that was the last piece,
it would have made dinner perfect, Like, I know, we
just didn't understand why.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
So back to the advice.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
My dad.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
I remember I was in college and I couldn't decide
what to do, what to major in, And I wrote
him that letter because my all my parents are teachers,
so I thought it was really important that I like
follow the family way and become a teacher. And I
didn't want to, and I sort of said that in
the letter, and he said, you shouldn't. Don't if you
don't want to be a teacher.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
Do what you love.
Speaker 6 (36:44):
You love rafting, you love this outdoor life, Go do that.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
And he told cautionary tales of my grandfather and even
his life where you know you can feel trapped and
then Phil, you have to live up to that and
he said, no, go do what you love.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
You will find a way through it. And I just
remember reading that letter.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
I was like, God, that that's the greatest gift you
know a parent could give to a child.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Is like, go be free, don't copy me.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah, big advice, And you did find your way.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
It did, Yeah, really did so.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Complete the sentence for me. A table without wine is like,
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (37:24):
A bummers A bummer, dude.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
It's like a day off.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
A day off from what wine or your childhood home.
So we're sitting at a table, your bottles of wine
that you've made, you've crafted, are sitting on the table,
and there's empty seat next to you. Who I know?
You said that you like to share wine and it's
about community and with people. But who in any walk
(37:53):
of life would you love to share a bottle of
your wine with that you've never had the opportunity, may
never have the opportunity. It's aspirational. They may not even
be alive anymore. But who do you wish you could
sit and have a bottle of wine with and share?
Speaker 6 (38:08):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (38:09):
Can I do TV?
Speaker 3 (38:11):
So I'm gonna go back to Xerxes, like seriously, Like
I really want to be.
Speaker 7 (38:14):
Like Serxes church purshop.
Speaker 6 (38:17):
I'd be like why what would what would you know?
Speaker 4 (38:19):
What would wine be? Like? What would he have a
sensibility of wine?
Speaker 6 (38:22):
Like would my wines resonate with his wines? Like I'd
love to find out, Like here's.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
Wine from twenty fourteen, what do you think you know?
What does that compare to like B C Wines?
Speaker 3 (38:35):
And then the other person who I would love to meet,
who passed away before I got in the in the business,
is Walter Clore.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
I from Washington State. I'd love to ask.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
Him what was on your mind when you were telling
people in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
One you should play Caberty, So you know, what what
was he thinking? Why did he say that?
Speaker 3 (38:57):
I'd love to know what Walter Klore was thinking when
he was driving around in state of Washington, because he
was right, and he was brilliant, and he had.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Too few people to He was just a vanguard. He
was on the van guard. I'm really curious about what
that was about.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
So, you know, you were talking about how it's really
the genetics of the grape and it's not the vintage
that you've seen what vintage does, but it's earlier, but
you're not seeing terrible things. But you know, we know
climate change is out there. You were talking about a
grape like Saparavi that's been around eight thousand years. You
think we're going to be drinking wine in five hundred
(39:38):
years or a thousand years from now?
Speaker 4 (39:41):
Yeah, for certain. I mean, if you all know, you know,
throw stones at one another. If Trump doesn't get elected,
then we'll all live. But I don't know if he does,
but yeah, of course we'll trink wine. I don't think
we would not what all we be drinking? We yeah,
(40:07):
global warm.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
We now know there's an upper limit to temperature on grapes.
We've heard those suffering stories. I've seen vines die overnight.
So yeah, there's an upper limit. So there will be
environments which are growing wine today which we'll have to
walk away from. I will have to be pulled out
and stop farming grapes there and move on and go
(40:28):
into other places.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Canada will be even better.
Speaker 6 (40:31):
Yeah, be amazing.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
So in parts of Washington State which we'd have thought like, no,
I just ain't gonna work, there are starting to taste
already delicious.
Speaker 6 (40:43):
Really yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
Wow, spooky good.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Spooky, well, spooky in general.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. So, I mean there was Connorley. I've harvested,
harvested from Coronelly for like twenty seven vinages, and we
saw these ripening charts. It's a S curve of the
sugar growing from like sixteen up to twenty.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
Four, right and whatnot and this, But we put it
on and they had the history of it.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
But eighteen years put it on a chart of the
two months Ofpeptember October, and the S curve basically starts
like September at the souls at the equinox, and ripens
at Halloween in the first in the first decade, and
in the second decade it ripens, it starts in August,
it ripens before the end of September, So the exact
same s curve of ripeness just moves forward thirty to
(41:34):
forty days on the calendar. So the grape will do
its thing, it's just doing it earlier.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
So if you were being sent off to outer space,
a deserted island somewhere, and you can only take three
bottles with you, what three bottles of wine would you choose?
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Wow, I'd pick an amazing saper Avi from Georgia or
maybe one of my own so I can talk.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
Making when I get there with the martians. Uh.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Well, no, you're going to be alone enjoying these wines,
your three dream wines. Oh no, that you could talk
to the fish, I don't know, Yes, talk to the trees,
like the vines.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Okay, yeah, what else? Would I would bring?
Speaker 3 (42:20):
A really really really gorgeous late harvest wriestling. Those are
staggeringly good. Maybe a nice wine, and then I'd probably
bring like one of my favorite Chardonnays.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
I'm a shardenay hound. Still love it. I was raised
on it and love it still.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Any particular producer that you might grab if you could.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Yeah, you know what, if I'm leaving on a spaceship,
I'm gonna grab a.
Speaker 4 (42:48):
Bottle of wood Cannon Estate, Woodwick Canyon, Shardon May.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah, it was an AHA moment. Wine's the one you
take off with you the planet with it. Well, Caleb,
we are almost to the end, but I didn't warn
you about this, but we always like to play a
little game at the end where we pair wine with
music because wine conjures up emochus in us and music
(43:15):
does the same, and it's a great way to kind
of describe your own wine maybe through music. So starting
with your dry reasoning, which I was sipping at the
beginning of this, I don't know, maybe if you give
like three words to describe the wine, and then what
genre musician specific song do you equate with it?
Speaker 4 (43:36):
Wow? So a little bit of ginger, lemon, lime, and
so those are the flavors, and then.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Good acidity, but some nice richness.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Yeah, and then the song that's ringing in between my
ears right now is Avalon by Roxy music.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Okay, okay, what about the Black Muscat Rose. It's like
because it's it's a little sweet, but not in a
cling way. I mean the acidity balances it out, so
it's more it comes off more as rich right when you.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Say, yeah, oh my god, I love this recipe. The
Twins make it the Bodyground Twins.
Speaker 4 (44:17):
It's so good.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
This is like pop girl music, you know, really fun
early pop music.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Okay. What about Cabernet Savignon from Hyghen.
Speaker 4 (44:35):
What's the song? Just waiting for it to come up?
Speaker 3 (44:38):
So Cabernet, You've got that gorgeous current, a little bit
of rich leather, uh and that beautiful with the British.
Speaker 4 (44:48):
Called beet root. I love that and I love that comment.
What's the song?
Speaker 3 (44:55):
It's like classic hard rock maybe Boston more than a feeling?
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
And what about your new love supper Avi.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Oh my, I can't it a thousand words or not
enough to describe this wine.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
It is.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Party in a box. It's just so much going on. People,
You've got to try this.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
And what's the music.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
It's like, I just I'm hearing some sort of ancient
classic Persian music or some you know, traditional music from
Georgia's ringing out in my ear.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
Something foreign, exotic and gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Okay, So on that note, my last question for you
two parter. The first is what wine region in the
world is at the top of your bucket list? I
think you kind of mentioned it at the very beginning.
But where where? Where do you want to go that
you need to plan?
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Yeah, I mean I've got to see superavi and i'd
say it to environment, I've got to see this, super
fascinated by that.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
I've always been really.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
Interested to see Central Spain because I think that's probably
where a Washington winemaker to get.
Speaker 4 (46:08):
A lot of lessons.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
I'm growing fruit from central dry Spain, and I've never
seen northern Italy. I love County Classico, I love multiple
Giano and.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
By mo Esco.
Speaker 2 (46:23):
And if people want to come here and visit here,
where can they find you? What will they find if
they come here to Hyatt Vineyard? What's the experience? What's
offered here?
Speaker 3 (46:33):
It is the beautiful, pastoral, quiet wine country that you
dream of. And there's this stunning lawn, a football field lawn,
beautifully received, lovely family reception. Ashley Kemple is a tremendous
host cares for people who really understands wine, and you
just you'll settle into this incredible fresh air that comes
(46:55):
off the Cascade Mountains. It's beautiful light, western breeze, beautiful
perfect weather in wine country up in the hills of
one of Washington State's most beautiful parts of the world.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
And you have a tasting room. Do you offer tastings?
Do you offer other things?
Speaker 3 (47:10):
Yeah, effectively open every day and we have tastings. I'll
start to do some tours, some sellar tours. We've got
the venyard you can walk through here. We've got harvest
host r ving. We've gotten space for a dozen RVs
every night. And yeah, and then we're going to be
offering some very special year long experiences here at Hyatt
(47:32):
in the future as well.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Right well, Caleb, thank you for joining us on Wine Soundtrack.
I'm going to raise a glass and toast you with
some soft Robbie and good to see you.
Speaker 4 (47:41):
Great to see you.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Thanks for listening to a new episode of Wine Soundtrack USA.
For details and updates, visit our website windsoundtrack dot com.
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!