March 26, 2025 • 57 mins
Treveri Cellars, Washington State’s Yakima Valley, founding sparkling wine house, produces some of the finest handcrafted sparkling wines in the United States. Family-owned and operated since its inception, Treveri prides itself on a tradition of excellence in both winemaking and service, ensuring that each bottle of sparkling wine delivers superior taste and quality. With a wide array of sparkling wines, including non-traditional varieties such as Riesling and Müller-Thurgau, Treveri largely focuses on 100% varietal sparkling wines, crafting each wine in the traditional method (Méthode Traditionnelle). Treveri Cellars was founded with the principal of producing premium sparkling wines from Washington State using the finest vineyard sources. Treveri’s wines are expressive of each varietal, and have a distinctive flavor of both the unique terroir and style of its winemakers and their German heritage. With degrees in Winemaking and Sparkling Winemaking from Karthäuserhof Winery in Germany, Head Winemaker Jürgen Grieb, along with his son, Christian, use the traditional method of producing sparkling wine, a complicated process that yields delightfully complex and fruit-forward sparkling wine. Treveri’s winemakers bring together old-world techniques and new world fruit, crafting sparkling wines that rival some of the world’s best.
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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 team thirty
answers discover their stories, personalities and passions.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, friends and listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is also
Levigne and today I'm in the Yakima Valley with Christian
Greeb of Traveri Sellers, a sparkling wine house in the
Yakima Valley. Christian, Welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell us
a little bit about Traveri.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
You bet, it's wonderful to be with you here this morning.
Just thrilled to be on the podcast. And so Traveri Sellers.
We're sparkling wine house in Washington State. We were really
the first in Washington State to dedicate ourselves to the
traditional method sparkling wine process. So everyone else maybe you know,
has had a sparkling wine or something in their lineup,
(00:48):
but nobody actually decided, hey, you know, this state can
actually do something unique and exciting with method champ.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
And waw of sparkling wines.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
So we decided to be the crazy folks in state
and starts something different. So yeah, that's that's in a
nutshell what we do we're bubbly people.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
You're probably people, and you're very public. I'm curious, do
you you're doing only traditional method no still wines, no
charmont method, traditional methods, sparkling wine. But what grapes are
you making it from? Is it all traditional?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
So yeah, that's a that's correct. So it's all it's
all bottle fermented, no stills, no charmont. But we do
like to bend the rules every once in a while.
So we we do make our let's call them traditional
champagne varieties, the Chardonnays, the pino noirs.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
The pino mignets. But we also like to.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Bend the rules a little bit and try to make
something that you know, messes with the mind a little
bit and gives it the consumer an awesome, uh you
know experience. That might not be a Champagne grape. So
it could be German varieties, it could be French varieties
that are not located in Champagne, or even Spanish rite
(02:00):
like Alberino. So we bounce around a little bit, sparkle
everything up, you know, well not quite everything, like reds
are generally not something we're sparkling up. But you know, yeah, yeah,
that's The idea is to enjoy and sort of, you know,
let the experimentation come out. I always say, in the
Northwest we're a little bit of an experimental people. I
(02:24):
think the cuisine, the culture, the the topography, all kinds
of things are very different than the rest of the country,
and so why not have that reflect who we are.
So it's in essence a bit of a community winery
in the sense that we want Washington State to taste
like Washington State and not try to fit necessarily into
(02:45):
a mold of like what champagne is. Though we use
those grapes and we make it in that method, and
we do some really cool examples that have some of that,
but a way too, let's say, break out of the
box a little bit and be experimental and really showcase
the the culture and the cuisine and the people of
the Northwest for everyone to enjoy.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I love it. So you're saying that you're representing Washington State.
Are you purchasing fruit from all over the state? Do
you have any estate fruit? Do you own vineyards? And
if so much and what.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Are you growing?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Great great question. We do about one hundred acres of
our own, and we also purchase a little bit of
fruit from others around us. So we farm organically on
the estate sites. We have Charnay, pino, pino mignet, but
we also do pino gree or we do Pinot blanc,
or we do dawn Feldon, which is a German red
(03:38):
that we make a really nice rose out of, so
Govertz tremeiner.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
So we kind of break the mold a little bit.
And especially farming organically, that is sort of a newer
thing in Washington State. I would say everything's been conventional
mostly the past thirty years.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Are all of your one hundred acres in the Yakama Valley.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Most of our acreage actually is in the Natchiz Heights.
It's on a little higher elevations, a little cooler, presents
itself a little bit better to sparkling wine.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I was going to ask, because being here in the
Yakama Valley, I find that it's a lot more you know, reds.
Not that the wines are overly big in style, but
it's Cabernet and malbek and you know, cav Fronk, which
is not necessarily pino land.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, I would say the Acma Valley's an interesting unique
topography as well. There's tons of really good sparkling wine sites.
There's a reason sixty percent of the Akma Valley's planted
in white grapes, and that's because a lot of the
sites still lend themselves to really good white wines. But
there are a good number of sites in the ACA,
the Akima Valley in particular, which I guess Red Mountain
(04:43):
is a sub avia of the Akima Valley that produce
just really big, intense red wines too. But I like
the way that you drew that up. I think the
red wines are also reserved here and they have a
higher acidity content to them, and so it kind of
showcases what we're doing. People say, well, you're kind of
in an area that there's some reds, and I'm like, yeah,
but do the reds have acid? Are they easy going?
(05:05):
Are they tanning bombs or they just blow your lips
off big red wines? Or are they you know, a
little softer, a little more reserved. And then it tells
the story of the sparkling wine too. So when we
add the elevation, which is everything's within a radius of
thirty miles that we buy the fruit from the winery,
So thirty miles from the winery in a radius circular radius.
(05:26):
You know, that kind of tells the story. We're picking
the cooler sites and when we had the elevation, we
had the coolness. They really kind of can pop, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So what's your total case production? And within that, how
many different sparkling wines are you making?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Oh yeah, I knew, I figured this question was in
there somewhere we.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Make let them know your inventory, that's.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Now you're racking my brain here. You know, we do
a fair number of different skews. Sometimes a lot of
them are one off just for Club one to be
really fun and exciting that we give to our club
members you know that you won't find anywhere else. We
make about thirty thousand cases of sparkling wine a year,
(06:10):
so the you know, and it's it's pretty well split
between what we sell here on premise and what we
sell you know, across the country through wholesale.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
And are you speaking of markets? Are you available in
all the markets across the US or internationally or specific markets?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Good question. We have a few international markets. Denmark, Japan,
and certain pockets of Canada are our sort of export markets,
but predominantly we focus on the United States for various reasons,
one of which is easier to travel and do business
in the United States. But too, I think, you know,
(06:48):
your break you have to break down a lot more
walls internationally. You know, there's there's a lot of stigma
in oftentimes a good way, a lot of respect to
European wines that have been around a long time. So
you're kind of having to battle on a much larger scale.
Washington Wine is still young, and we're doing that battle.
We just have to pick that battle and concentrate in
(07:10):
those areas where we can have successes rather than trying
to do the let's call it, you know, broad based
you know approach where we're going to put the wine
everywhere and see where it works. You know, that's we
don't want to we don't want to stumble, you know,
we want to we want to gain customers and gain friends. Actually,
(07:31):
really you know where we go.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
What year did you start this winery?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
This winery was started in two thousand and seven. Our
first release.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Was nine to ten in there. Yeah, so it takes
a little bit with with method.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
This is a project a company of patients.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Oh yes, yes, yeah, what's the best way. You never
know what you have until you have it, and you're
waiting for a long time to.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Have it, and so you know what an investment only
sparkling line, make a little still wine to bide your time.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
You just went, yeah, that's why I said.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
We were the kind of bubbly crazy people that just
jumped in head first and so let's see where it goes,
you know.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
So yeah, well, Christian, I'm curious what is it. I mean,
you're you're making wine today. I know that you had
said to me that your dad is a German national,
so you carry a dual citizenship the way you said
Dornfelder clearly says you speak German. But I'm curious, what
is your first memory relevant to wine?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Oh that's good.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
So I remember as a young young boy going back
to Germany with my dad and my mom, and you know,
my my opa had this wine cellar that was most
Europeans have a cellar, right, you know, here's your house
and then here's the cellar. That's where we keep everything.
You know, there could be potatoes whatever else down there,
(08:51):
you know, it's just everything's down in the cellar. And
my opa had a specific wine cellar, which isn't something
that you know, every person has, even in Europe, you know,
as much as Europeans drink wine, they don't always all
have a cellar. But I remember being probably about five
or six, and you know, my my Opa walked us
(09:12):
around and he said, hey, take a look at all
these bottles. I've got the birth years of everybody. And
he had labeled the birth year for everybody in the cellar.
And I mean it was a massive, beautiful collection of
German reaslings and some particular Pinot noirs. So I'll spare
everyone the German words here as I'm going through them
(09:35):
in my head. But you know, there was a lot
of good speed Bogna and a lot of great rosees
and and so it was just everywhere. And I remember
he opened a specific bottle because I had come to visit,
I guess at the time of I don't know, in
his mind ripening to have a little bit of a
taste of wine, you know, And he said, let's pull
your birth year. I've got four bottles, you know, And
(09:57):
so he pulled a bottle of Kunhouse Reasling Ossa from
eighty eight and pop the cork. And and you know,
I got it very you know, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Because you were young.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Yeah, I mean, Germans feed their kids beer and wine
all the time. It's fine, but I just it was
more of like, hey, you're not gonna it's not dinner,
you know, so we're gonna have just you get a
little taste and the adults will have the rest of it,
you know. But it was a really interesting experience as
a six year old to just being a wine cellar.
You get your your grandpa, you know, opening a bottle
(10:32):
from your birth year, and you're six years old and
you're having probably at the time, you know, I don't
know what it was rated, you know, but probably a
ninety plus point wine, you know, in the in the
major publications, And and you're going, you're.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Six years old, and you remember this moment. I love it.
I love it. Well, okay, so I'm gonna let you
jump a little more ahead in maybe not having to
remember as far back as six But along the path
of your wine journey, is there a particular wine that
stands out as one of those aha moment wines? And
what wine was it? And what's the context of the ahedness?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, you bet so. I was this is like I
was six years old. I mean, it was.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
That that did stand out, But I would say I
would say, so I was in this selling our sparkling
wine in the great state of Virginia, and there was
was this awesome account that had sort of like I
can't really explain it, but it was this great sort
of pseudo deli where you could get fine cheeses and meats,
(11:32):
and then this beautiful wine shop in the front of it.
And so I had done a tasting there and the
owner and I said, he said, let's hop over to
the to the restaurant next door. Let's grab a bike
if you have time, and I said, I'd love to,
you know I for me, connections are a big thing
and people are a big thing. And so you know,
(11:53):
I felt kind of at home. And we popped into
this restaurant and we had a wonderful meal and as
we're about to wrap up, I look down in the
wine fridge down below and.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
I see this this.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Bottle sitting there. So my dad learned it. The winery
Kutoizohoof in the Mosel Valley. Kotoizohoof is actually a used
to be owned by the Cartusian monks. They sold it
to Napoleon, who then sold it to the to the
family who own and operated still today wonderful beautiful wines.
My dad spent time at that winery while he was
(12:27):
learning to make wine. And so it's a very distinct label.
It's only label in Germany that allows this little neck
label at the top, and so you can spot it
from a mile away because the bottle looks naked and
then you look at the top and there's a capsule
in this sort of like let's call it cigar label
at the top, and you just go bang.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
You know that.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
I know that label. And it was in an unassuming place.
The meal was delicious, but I didn't expect to see
that bottle sitting there, and so I asked, I asked
the bartender, I said, could you do you mind look
in there and showing me, Oh yeah, that's left over
from a party. And it was a nineteen seventy eight
(13:06):
uh reasling ousleysa token. So what that means is a
dry ousleys, which you rarely see.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Were dry super late harvests, correct, and.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
So it's not common. And then thinking back, I was
trying to remember when my father was at the winery
and he would have been at the winery that year,
so he would have been able to say he had
a hand in the winemaking process of that bottle.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
And here I am.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
And it was a way of tying I guess my personal,
you know, journey as a human of being a sort
of like German American and the United States selling our
wines that we produce, American wines that we're proud of,
but to also like have this moment here I am
with a you know, a really good customer friend. We're
enjoying a nice meal and then you have this just
(13:52):
bottle sitting there and the bar bar you know, the
bartender's unassuming that. And then the course the major d
comes flocking over because I order the random bottle? How
do you know about this winery? Like you know, and
it's like that I have to kind of you know
the wine, I mean, it was singing, It was phenomenal.
I mean, it was just it was an other world experience.
So the wine was great, the connection was great. So
(14:13):
that was a really and that I would say that's
my freshest AHA moment. You know, everyone has other aha
moments that get them into the wine, but that was
the most personal sort of I know it.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Kind of as you were saying, it connects, it tells
the story, because wine is a story in a bottle.
It's not just what it tastes like, but the context
of it. Funny enough that your AHA moment wasn't what
took you on a path to make sparkling wine.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
No, no, no, yeah no, that, like I said, that's
another AHA moment. But you know, I think I think that,
you know, thinking about wine in general, even sparkling wines,
wine is a you know, good wine, good food that
creates community. You know, it's really hard to not talk
to someone, you know, when you're having great wine and
great food, even they're the shyest the people or the
(15:01):
most outspoken of people like me.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Obviously I'm talking a lot, so you know.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I'm the first to have a glass of wine and
I'm talking to everybody, you know, But other folks are
saying like, oh, you know, I don't speak much. What
a great experience that was though, because the food came out,
the wine came out, and I just you know, you
feel better about life, you know, and then you can
you know, sort of have that community experience.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
No, absolutely, there's a shared experience over a bottle of wine.
So if we were to come to your home and
go into your wine cellar, wine refrigerators, in the closet,
wherever you store your wine, what would we find there today?
Is it a lot of your own wines? It's a
lot of wines. Is your dad a winemaker here in
Washington State.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yeah, he's here too at the facility. So it's family owned.
It's my parents and my wife and I who run TRAVERI.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So, but is it wines that you guys have made?
Is it wines from friends from around the world, particular
grapes or styles.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
That's a great part everything. Yeah, yeah, I mean, honestly,
I'll try to be succinct in three things that I do.
So we do have some of our wines that we keep,
and we love to do that just as a practice
of checking in on our wines and seeing where they're at.
And some of them are really special to us for
various reasons and why we would hold them back and
(16:19):
age them in our personal sellers. But if I'm going
to talk about wine from outside of Washington State, outside
of my winery, obviously I've just spoken about German wines.
So I have a fair collection of German wines. I
love even the most awkward German wines like Schoiriba and
don Foda and things like that aren't typically collected. I
(16:41):
like to collect some of that stuff. So Feffengen had
a just lights out Schoi Reba talking done as these
I think, or something similar like that. I can't quite remember,
but that was just a phenomenal split bottle that I
had literally probably three four months ago, and then I
(17:01):
got on this interesting little kick. So I have a
fair bit of champagne, usually grower champagnes. I think they're
doing the most unique interesting things because they can kind
of you know, the houses are very much set in
their style, in their way, and there's some really delicious
wines in there, but the growers will do some fun
sort of kind of blends or different looks at blends.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I says, they're not as set to having a house style.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
One hundred percent. So it's really fun to grab some
of those and age them. And I'll spare the laundry list,
but you know, I mean there's some good ones, Piard,
There's we can go down the list of really good
grower champagnes.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
But English sparkling.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Wine has been something I've really been collecting lately and
getting into. The acids are insane. They are super agable.
You know, you can pull one after ten years and
it's just just vibrant and youthful because of the acid,
you know, complex. And I think there's a lot of
now being put into English sparkling wine these days, you know,
(18:03):
especially there's a lot of French investment and things. So
that's kind of a fun one.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So lots of bubbles in your house.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yes, But as far as stills, I will admit I am.
I drink a lot of California wine too. One of
my favorite producers is Ramy. I just love the Charnais
that that David Rami produces and huge fans so that
might not be everybody's first pick that they're you know,
gonna tell you.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
They're so good.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
I just love those Charnays, so I can't get enough
of them. And I you know, so it's like when
I was signing up for you know, I'm a wine
club member actually, and that I was signing up and
they're like, okay, you know, that's kind of an interesting
experience because they're looking at me, like you really, yeah,
I do want these, and then you know, you can
check a box.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Reds are whites.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Now, the reds are delicious too, But those Chardonnays, I
was like, white only. I want the Chardonnay's. You know,
those things age so beautifully and they're just such a
fun wine to pull out, yeah, and showcase the people,
because I mean for me comparatively, it's it's a lot
less expensive than Burgundy. So and it's made in this
really fun new world style, which is what we're doing,
(19:11):
and it just it's just a nice representation I think
of American wine.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
So you mentioned that you opened a split about three
four months ago. Is there anything else you opened up
recently that drank really well?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Oh, always something that I've opened up recently that drank
really well. That's a really good question. You know, harvest
started so lately, I've just you know, maybe I've gone
back to my my regulars or my you know, my
favorites of you know, I drink a lot of sparkling wine,
(19:41):
So I did. I did open a egg le Orge
Champagne about a week ago, which was just lights out,
especially at the you know, like I'm two weeks into
harvest and you're just getting like, you know, gassed. And
it was a Sunday afternoon, which is nice as a time.
You know, we don't really harvest or do much on
(20:02):
Sunday just because it's like you need a day, you know,
you need a day during this time of year. And
so it was really nice to just sit there and
have you know, a brunch and enjoy a nice bottle.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
So you're working with a lot of different grapes and
you clearly know what you like to drink, although it's
not limited. I mean, you have a broad palette. And
I'm curious if you think there's a such thing as
a perfect variety.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Oh, you know one wine, maybe it's more a region
for this variety.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
But mosl reasoning.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Always just it hits, It just hits differently.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
One it's it's it's sort of you know, the past
for me, you know of where I've come from. And
but two, it just has this distinctiveness that makes my
I don't I don't know what it is when I
go into a Mosle reasling, I just my my gland
sala like it's then and it's probably from being six
having you know, it's the bells ringing and there's cheese,
(21:09):
you know, and I'm just yeah, I'm here, you know. So,
but I think there's something to that where it just
like that's where I cut my teeth. And so when
that kind of wine gets in front of me, Now,
reasling is delicious, I think anywhere in the.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
World when it's done well.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
But something about Mosle reasling and that slate and I
don't know, it's.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Just some level of perfection.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Yeah for me at least, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Or I really think a well made domestic sparkling wine,
I just remove my cap to that because it's just
it's it can be a really delicious, unique thing. I
think the style is a little bit different than champagne.
I love champagne, obviously, I just mentioned, you know, I
have a champagne.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
I've consumed some champagne.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
But man, when a domestic sparkling why it has made
really well, it's really exciting, I think because it's it's
like proof of concept, right that.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yeah, that's not necessarily a variety.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
No it isn't.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
That is a style, but the reason, the reasoning would
be the variety. If I was going to say a
style that kind of would be something else.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Not for those domestics sparks.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
So so you've mentioned, you know, drinking a lot of wines,
and how that first wine your your grandfather tasted you
on when you were six years old was probably a
well scored wine. You don't know for sure, but probably,
And you know you've mentioned some other very well scoring
wines and I'm wondering what your opinion is on wine,
Chris and scores, like how important is that to you
(22:33):
as a drinker or to you as a wine maker
for your own value, but also maybe you know, for
your audience or how you want to sell wine.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
This is a trap question because I feel like, you know,
either I'm going to make some people pleased or some
people angry with the response. I'll say, as a drinker,
a score means nothing to me, because there might be
wines I really enjoy and I think are just phenomenal
wine and they might have gotten like an eighty nine
or eight.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Yeah, so I think there's some of that, and you
never know some you know, we're all humans, so even
reviewers can have an off day or they got an
off bottle or whatever it was, right, So there's some
of that at play. I think the hard part for
me with scoring is, uh, there's always an element of
subjectivity involved.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So my subjective view on wine, you know, and maybe
a scorer or a critic subjective view on wine is
somehow in there, no matter how objective they try to be,
there is a certain thing that grabs a wine critic,
you know. So I think they're a value in the
sense that you know, you can see that the house
(23:43):
is making clean wines that are that are really enjoyable,
and it kind of gives you an indication, you know,
that that that house is working hard to make a
premium wine. On the flip side, I think sometimes it's
hard to get critic, you know, for you know, maybe
a lesser known region or a lesser known producer or
(24:06):
whatever it might be. I mean, look, this is probably
people's first introduction to my winery, right, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yet you're making thirty thousand cases a year, so you're
not a tiny, little, you know brand.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
That's true, you know, And so I think it is
up to you know. For me, I always say, if
you're the individual, you're the you're the final critic, you know,
you're the final critic. So if if you would like
to drink a wine a certain way, by all means
do it. You know, I think we get a little
bound by the European box of rules. And I think
(24:39):
it's Germans. You know, Germans talk about this a lot
in German culture too. It's like, well, we're bound of
rules all the time, and sometimes that's a hampering to like,
you know, change and wanting something different or something new.
And so for me it's like, I just don't want
people to get into you know, we talked earlier, you know,
before we started this a little bit about house palettes
and things. It's good to broaden your spectrum. So being stuck,
(25:04):
like I just mentioned English sparkling wine, I'm certain some
of those didn't get a ninety seven or something like that,
you know, but they're but they were outrageously delicious and
there's some really cool stuff happening, So you know, I
guess be wary. But also it's a good way to
use as a measured adults for us as value. I mean,
we do allow critics to judge your wines at times,
(25:25):
and you know, I think that's part of impart and
parcel of the industry. But I would say, like, don't
let that be or you know, if it didn't score
a ninety, you know, that's okay to still maybe try
that bottle because it might be something you personally really like.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Well, for someone who hasn't tasted your sparkling wines yet,
what do you think they're missing out on?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Fun?
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Just really approachable fun, but serious as well. So I
think you know, nobody, nobody's had a really bad day,
gone home, opened a bus, you know, open the fridge,
and opened a bottle of bubbling on. Shit, my day
went down, you know, it went it went backward. Normally
people do that and they open it up and they're like,
this is fun, this is enjoyable. So I think wine
(26:12):
first and foremost is a beverage we enjoy. It should
have some endorphin release, some enjoyment out of, you know,
the reason that we're consuming it and talking about it
and caring so much about it and the soils and
the way things are grown and what we're doing practically though,
it should be at its core something that one creates community,
two creates enjoyment, and three is really just fun to drink,
(26:37):
you know, in the sense of like, wow, these flavors
are cool. There's something completely different going on. I think that,
you know, with our wines, because they're uniquely Washington State.
It won't taste like California domestic bubbles. It won't taste
like champagne or Franchi a quorta or zec or anything
like that. It should be its own, standalone, unique Washington
(26:58):
sparkling wine movement, you know. So, I think you know
that we always it's kind of a brand, a gaudy
sort of brand statement that we put on our boxes,
but we say Washington Sparkly Wine because we really think
we've had an influence and how you know, to make
a really compelling, unique Washington State style.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
I love it. So, if space aliens were to land
in your parking lot right now and walk up to
the door, which of all of your sparkling wines would
you want to welcome them with to say welcome to
various sellers?
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Oh man, that's a good question.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I mean, what a what a you know?
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I mean, first of all, I'd ask them if they
have taste buds, you know, and what they eat on
their planet, because you know, it might not be like
the dietary sort of thing that we eat, you know,
so it might not be as enjoyable for them. But no,
let's assume that they, you know, have a some sort
of a semblance of human wine making. You know, I'd
(27:58):
probably try to start them off with some of our
really unique reserve blends that you know, come from sites
that are single vineyard, but in the sense that I'm
not doing it because they're single vineyard or something like,
I might give them a like you know, one of
(28:18):
the wines that people love in our club is the
Penal Green smarkling that we do, So maybe.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
It's something like that.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
I would you know, I always tell people I'm a
mood drinker. Makes me sound like an alcoholic I am
in the white industry, but you know, it'd be kind
of like you'd feel the mood, you know, and see what.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
But I think something off the wall to showcase something
off the wall.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Method they be landing, right, you know that's gotta come
from the chiller.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
But you know that's right, Yeah, I mean, because they
could probably get a block to block anywhere else, So
try to give them.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Something unique, a unique experience.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, So you mentioned a second ago, like if the
space aliens like depend on what their cuisine was So
let's talk about food for a second, and food and wine.
You know, you also were mentioning sort of this idea
of being stuck in rules and this is how we
do it. So how do you approach food and wine pairing?
(29:11):
Do you follow the old adage of white wine and fish,
red wine and meat, or I mean, obviously everyone knows
bubbles go with everything, but you know there is probably
there is nuance from one sparkling wine to a next.
So how do you decide how you're gonna pair food
and wine?
Speaker 4 (29:27):
That's a great question.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Some some you know, I get it, some things just
hit a certain way, and you know, and I know
that there's even science behind you know, a big cabernet
with a steak. You know, they talk about some of
those things that trigger this you know, special sort of
you know, unique like.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
The Tannin's meeting the facts, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Yeah, there's just some sort of like you know, experience there,
you know, and I get that the same you know, yeah,
one hundred percent, but the same point. You know, we
have people that love there's people that love Sharnay but
won't have like you know, the traditional shardenay pairings. You know,
like the cheese or somebody who knows right, you know.
So we do follow some of the rules, but we
(30:10):
also like to let people explore with that. So we
have an interesting and awesome label with Iron Chef Morimoto,
and he does Japanese fusion, and so it's really awesome
because we have you know, this new world sparkling wine
that we produce for his restaurants meeting Japanese Fusion, which
(30:32):
is like this clash of Japanese kitchen with who knows
what right it could be Maybe that day it's it's
sesh one meeting you know, Japan or maybe who knows right.
And so I always think like we're not even thinking
about it the same way anymore, you know, or we
shouldn't be, you know, with where food is gone. There's
some old adage rules that you can stick to. But
(30:54):
you know, what do you pair with the tuna pizza?
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Right? You know? And this is what we were, you know.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
So but we make up pino noir rose that goes
just phenomenally well with it because it's you know, there's
a little bit of the red fruit and then you
get this you know, really unique flavor from the tuna.
So some of it is fusion. I think is a
cool thing that I like to talk about with wine
and food is don't be afraid fuse things. You know,
(31:19):
there's ways to relook at the paradigm.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
It's not that the paradigm's wrong, it's just maybe we
can shift it.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
You know. It sounds like the matrix. I feel like
I'm neo talking here. You say, now.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
When you're rethinking it, it's sort of following a rule.
Are you looking for acidity or texture? Are you matching it,
contrasting it? What do you like to do?
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Yeah, I think you know.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Salt, you know, heat, acid, fat, you know, those things
all are at play. I think when you're looking at something,
you know at the same time, I also think you
can try to bend those a little bit and see
if something works. You know, Umami is a you know,
a really hard thing, so times, you know, and it
might lend itself to a red wine, it might lend
(32:04):
itself to a white wine, depending on the thing.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
So those things are at play. But I also like
to try to just conceptualize what the like the pairing
was or would be, and then try to in my
mind turn that around a little bit and say, Okay,
that works naturally, but that's tried and true. Everyone's had
maybe an experience as wine drinkers maybe have had that experience.
(32:27):
But can you just shift it a little bit, you know,
can you get somebody outside of their box and go, well,
that still tastes really good. That's not what I expected.
That still tastes really good. Maybe it's the introduction of sugar,
you know, in a wine or what you were saying earlier,
you know, tann and something. But in bubbles we don't
really talk about tann and. So maybe it's acid or sugar,
(32:49):
you know, or maybe it's variety, you know, the great variety,
and we can kind of just try to shift somebody's
mind around that a little bit.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
So is a wine drinker, red whiter, rose.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
White? I I.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
I drink scant amounts of red wine. I love red wine,
but I just always find myself pouring white wine.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I just still are sparkling.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Oh definitely, I think sparkling, right answer, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I do. I do quite enjoy stills, but but I
think sparkling. I just it just starts everything off so well,
just it's like it gets a pala going.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
It's fun, it's it's.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
It's brilliant and usually in clarity, and it's just they're
just super appealing.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
So you've been working in the valley for how many
years now.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Well since birth, I feel like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Raised in Yakima Valley. So so you know this place
very very well, and you've watched it season after season.
You're in harvest right now, and I'm curious do you
feel that in a place like this do you see
more similarity or big swings from year to year? We
know every vintage tells a difference. Sorry, so just do
you see it as a nuanced difference or do you
(34:03):
see it as really an unknown from year to year.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Wow, that's a good question, because we've had some big
years weather wise that have really changed.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
How we think about the Yakima Valley.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
But I would say we're like the slow, slow roll,
you know, we're the Sunday Cruise, you know, where things
are really consistent here.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
I think about Champagne and when they're declaring a vintage,
I would guess ninety percent of our vintages would be
a vintage year and champagne. So a lot of our
wines are labeled non vintage strictly for that reason, because
we don't want to sound senile. We don't want to
be labeling every year a vintage year. You know, that
loses the luster. So I think, you know, for this valley,
(34:52):
I really thinks it's a consistency piece that, you know.
I mean, we've been doing this since the eighties. You know,
obviously we're in twenty twenty four. People are still making wine.
There is some quality here, there's some value, there's some consistency.
It's a matter of proving that to the broader you know,
wine drinking public, that Washington State wine is something beyond
(35:14):
one producer or something beyond one style. There's a lot
of uniqueness happening here. And I know that's you know,
it's it's hard to conceptualize, you know, because we don't
have a great you know, Napa has cab Oregon, Willamett
has Pino noir, and then Yakama Valley. Oh, you grow
like thirty different grape varieties that do really well. You know,
(35:37):
like what's the deal, you know, And I think that's
that is the deal.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
And the vintage just allowed, I mean, the climate here
allows for that with this vent. So are there any
sort of signs or predictors that you look for that
are going to tell you what a vintage will be.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Spring is always really telling because it's often cold.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
Here.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
We deal with you know, hard hard winners compared to
Oregon in California, and about one in every ten we
call this the winter kill zone for plants. One in
every ten there's some sort of damage you know that
happens to the buying structural. I should say freeze damage
because frost and freeze are different, so one in every
(36:18):
ten years we have a freeze that causes damage. So
I would say, you know, there's just a uniqueness here
that it's a lot cooler, especially in the spring. And
then people are like, well, it's really hot in the summer,
and I'm like, yeah, but if it doesn't get warm,
we're not getting anything right.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
You know.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
If I think about our growing season, it's a lot
more compact than some regions, but it's longer than others,
so we're somewhere in the middle there, which creates this
really unique sort of climate that we have, which are
warmer days in the summer and really cool nights, which
I mean, this is something we've droned on for years
(36:56):
and watching wine about a diurnal ship creates a well
there you go. That's why sparkling wines do really well here.
That's why some red wines and a lot of red
wines do really well here. That's why a lot of
white wines do well here. The the let's just say,
at least a structural part of why making here is there.
And you know you don't get that out of every
(37:17):
part of the world.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Are there any sort of good luck rituals that you
have for the startup harvest or for your team.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Absolutely, we do every year a sabring and sort of
blessing of the grapes and everyone has a glass or
to of wine and just to I'm going to go
back to community. It's creating a community because when things
get you know, in the middle of harvest.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
And there everyone wants to yell.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
At each other and just give up for the day
and just say, you know, it's a nice way to
remember back of like, oh yeah, there is a light
at the end of the tunnel. That's where we started.
So usually the middle of harvest, it's we're sabering bottles.
We're you know, we're we're we have a great blessing.
And when we really kind of have like a sort
of inner community event here, you know, at the winery,
(38:04):
just to really like kick off harvests, say this is
this is the thing, you know, this is the thing
we do. I don't tap a shoe three.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
Times or jingle a bell a certain way, you know.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
I think I think, you know, it's it's kind of
like a mother Nature is going to give me what
she's produced, and I'm going to do the best that
I can to let that shine through. And you know,
I'm not going to try to change what she produced
that here because it's good. We have a harvest, there's
fruit coming in, you know, and there's a bounty, and
(38:35):
we're meant to help guide that bounty into its final
resting place, which is the bottle.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Well, speaking of guiding that you know, bounty, when you're
out in the vineyard, which you know you're doing a
lot now during harvest, but even throughout the season spending
time in the vineyard, and how much do you do
you interact with your vines? Is there a communication? Do
you talk to them? Is there a communication that goes
(39:01):
on between the two of you?
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Yeah, I mean half of it's cursing, and then I
think the vines just proved me wrong.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
You know, they're patient.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Yeah, I think, you know, farming organically, I really like
a holistic approach. So usually i'll be you know, it
sounds weird, but you'll lift the vines up and you
kind of look around inside and you make sure that
little ecosystem's working for them. So I consider it more
of being like a caretaker or a nurse, you know,
kind of you try to give them the best things
(39:36):
that you can to be healthy and thrive. You know,
I have three kids, and I think about it the
same way, right, Like you're trying to raise a child
to be, you know, a productive member of society, and
you won't do that out of hate, right, You're going
to do that out of love, because you want that
child to be a loving person.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Right.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
And so in the same way, you're going to look
at your vines and you're gonna say, I want you
to produce the best that you can, so I'm going
to do everything I can to make the best thing
that I can out of it. So organic farming, no
wheat spray, things like that, which then creates other problems.
You have other competitions, So then we.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
That's when you have to reprimand them.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So then it's kind of a you know,
oftentimes it's like when the sweet wires go on is
when most of my curse words start coming out, because
it's like, you know, the wire's not in the right spot,
the mine didn't cooperate, and you're like, I did all
this for you and you just won't listen.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
So you grew up in this area, your dad is
a wine maker. Was this something you always knew you
wanted to do or when you were little? What did
you want to be when.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
You grew up? Well, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
I think, yes, I knew that's what I want to
do when I grew up, but I didn't necessarily overtly
know it. My family's been in wine since the mid
eighteen hundreds in Germany, so it was always something that
was just a.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
Real catch or call.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Being out in the land, working with the land and
creating a product that people enjoy is something that we've
always had as part of our ethos. And so I
would say, yeah that it always has been kind of
a part of it. I hate to say, like it
seemed like destiny. But it just kind of like you
don't as much as you think about doing other things,
(41:24):
you know, which I think every child does. And there's
always one thing that's really kind of like you're naturally
kind of good at and said at and I think
that that was wine, you know, I think that was wine.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
So yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
When you're not working, how do you like to spend
your free time?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Oh man, that's a good question, like a free time,
remember that thing.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
Yeah, I own a business. Free time. That's a good question.
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
When I was you know, I'm not I'm not going
to say I'm old by any means, But when I
was younger, I like to travel a lot. Now I
just find myself like wanting a beach and a cocktail
and or a nice beautiful glass of wine and just
like zoning, you know. So my last trip was to
San Diego to just just go on a beach for
(42:12):
like ten days and not really think about all the
other things in life, you know, especially when you own
a business, I think your mind.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
Is always going.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Yeah, so trying to retract, you know, from that a
little bit, you know, And it's like, what it's hard
to beat San Diego, whether it's like seventy degrees every day,
and people are all in a good mood, and you're like,
what is happening here?
Speaker 4 (42:32):
You know?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
So I'm curious, like you, you own a sparkling wine house.
It's a family business. A lot of people drink sparkling
wines to celebrate or for romantic evenings. When you're planning
a romantic evening for you and your wife, what kind
of wines get opened? Because you drink sparkling wine all
the time, maybe every night it's a romantic evening. I
(42:53):
don't know.
Speaker 4 (42:55):
Good point, good point, But what.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Kind of wines for you guys makes a romantic evening?
Speaker 4 (43:03):
Oh yeah, that's good.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
I think you know, you know, we talked about a
lot of the wines so we consume regularly. I think
it's just kind of a let's call it a h
the premiumization of that. So we might open a really
special bottle of one of those, you know wines that
I have in the cellar, and or it always starts
(43:27):
with sparkling you know, of some sort. Actually this last
this last anniversary, it was a mum DBX. I think
that's just a that's a beautiful wine. And like I said,
a well made domestic sparkling wine is a really cool
thing and Mum DBX is delicious, and we started off
(43:47):
with that. We went on our honeymoon to California wine
country and we were at mum and had DBX.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
So it was a nice way of kind of like.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Tying it all together.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Yeah, one hundred percent. But I you know, I think
it's sparkling. And then you know, usually just like you know,
you're picking maybe those bottles that you're saving, you know,
for a little longer, like a little more age on it,
or a very unique vintage for the region. Maybe you're
we're still in those lanes, you know kind of, but
(44:18):
maybe just getting that bottle that it's just that little
bit extra special, you know.
Speaker 4 (44:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
So, Christian, when you look back at your career, what
would you say is one of your proudest achievements to date.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
Still being in business? No?
Speaker 3 (44:34):
I think I think for us it's community and connection.
I think for any business, I you know, counting dollars
or cases or regions and all of that matters, But
what matters really most for me and for our family
and for our wineries connections to people. And so what
(44:55):
am I most proud of in business, I would absolutely
say it's connections to people and.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
To land that we're working.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
So that connection for me is really important to know
that like, hey, you know, yeah, I might be selling
to this really awesome place, but that individual is what
makes that place, you know. So that place is awesome
because that individual is awesome.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
And so for me, that's like the feather in the
cap of like creating those relationships that you can keep
going so wherever you're at, you know, if you if
you know, especially in wine business, when you have to
travel to sell your product, to be able to call
those people and they're like, oh you're in town, great,
you know, like and you can even if you you know,
it's just a quick dinner or something, or a lunch,
you know, the fact that you can connect with those
folks again, is that's special.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
That's when you think about, you know, 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 carry with you. Is it some a teacher,
a parent, something that stands out that you try to
live by.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
Or work by.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
I think a family motto of ours and this just
stretches years well before I was here. But whatever you
decide to do, you know, give it your best. So
I think that motto means a lot in the sense
of whatever I decide to do with the wine or
(46:18):
with the the grapes, you know, it's to do the
best that you can for it. You know, you don't
want to leave you hear professional athletes say this a
lot when they retire. They said, I didn't want to
leave anything out there. You know, while I was in
my career, I didn't want to leave anything out there.
I think that's kind of the model that we run
our business by of like, you know, but you have
(46:41):
to balance it. It's work life, you know. I mean,
but I think you know while you're doing it, and
while you're committing yourself to the to the trade. I mean,
wine really is a trade in a lot of ways.
There's a lot of science, there's a lot of you know,
other things to it, but you know, it is something
that oftentimes has passed down, oftentimes learned. The practical side
is learned within the family and within the whine making.
(47:02):
And so it's kind of like, Okay, what you decide
to do, do your best at I mean I tell
my kids all the time. I'm like, if you want
to be a garbage man, I don't care, but you
better be the best garbage man I've ever seen in
my life.
Speaker 4 (47:13):
Like, really commit yourself to it, you.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
Know, own own what you're doing, and love your craft,
you know, because if you don't, you have one craft.
Or I mean, look at the statistics on job changes
in society. I mean people are usually changing jobs a
lot because they're searching for that thing. So when you
when you find what you're doing and you love what
you're doing, which I do, it's like you've got to
(47:37):
commit your just commit yourself to it because like it's
not grasses and greener necessarily you know somewhere, so absolutely.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
So complete this sentence. For me, a table without wine is.
Speaker 4 (47:49):
Like a table without wine.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
Oh man, I see I have like a philosophical problem
with this because I don't know.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
A table with that one. I guess it would It
wouldn't be life, you know, is like not living. It's
like not living.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
You know, it doesn't exist, it doesn't exist.
Speaker 3 (48:13):
Yeah, so I would say is not living? You know,
A table with that wine is not living because you should.
Wine and food are very much you know. That's I
think that's why, you know, alcoholism rates and things in
Europe are a lot lower. It's just seen at dinner
as part of the food, and so when you've consumed
your food, you know, you know that, hey, that was it.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
You know, since you always have wine on your table.
We have wine on the table right now. And you're
sitting at a table and there's an empty seat next
to you, who from any walk of life, living or deceased,
famous or not famous, do you wish you could sit
next to and open up a bottle of your sparkling
wine and share with them.
Speaker 3 (48:54):
This sounds really odd, but the Cartusian monks, who are
the wine makers at Cartoizohole where my dad learned, would
be really just. I would love to know how reasoning,
you know, and their view of making wine and what
fourteen hundreds, you know, what our fifteen hundreds was like
compared to what we're doing today, because I mean, the
(49:15):
science is so different, you know, and understanding is so different.
So how did you make a wine that continued to
be satisfying? And people, I mean I know that everyone
says I mixed it up, and yeah, yeah, yeah, I
get that. But you still have to. I mean, even
if they did some of that, there was still probably
the best wine was always reserved for the best occasions,
So there had to be best wine, right And how
(49:37):
did you make the best wine? How did you go
through that? Because I feel like sometimes despite all the
knowledge we have, we're we've lost some knowledge in the
trade essence of you know how things, you know, how
being in like in tune with like you know how
plants are growing and things like that. You know, That's
that's all they had to rely on, right, you know,
(49:59):
so they were very in tune with a certain aspect
of it, but maybe had no none of the science.
I feel like nowadays it's a lot of the science,
but we're missing some of that.
Speaker 4 (50:10):
So where's the middle ground? You know?
Speaker 3 (50:11):
So I'd love to talk to them to say what
was it like?
Speaker 2 (50:14):
You know, I was it like not to have refrigeration?
Speaker 4 (50:17):
Yeah? How'd you keep wine clean? You know? Like? How
did you rack? How did you settle? You know?
Speaker 3 (50:22):
I mean obviously we know some of these things, but
you never know. I mean, like every winemaker is their tricks.
You watch a certain winemaker do a certain thing, or
a certain viticulturists do a certain thing in the vineyard.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
That's different than the other.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
Even though it's the same practice, they just had their
unique way of doing it, you know, So.
Speaker 4 (50:37):
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Well, Christian, we would come to that part where let's
talk a little bit about your wines and how they
align themselves with music, our little wine soundtrack game. While
we've been talking and I've been sipping on one of
your sparkling wines. It is not a traditional blend. It
is a blend of reasoning. No sorry, sorry, Grunervelt.
Speaker 4 (51:02):
Verse, Tremeiner and Muller thirty out. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, yeah, So let's start with this one. Tell me,
you know, maybe like a quick description, and then what
kind of genre, musician or specific song does it conjure
up for you?
Speaker 3 (51:16):
I like, I've been thinking about this and the answer
might kind of perplex you, but I'll get to why
that this. This is a non traditional blend. So I
poured this because you know, I think you probably show
up and everyone's pulling a reserve kuba or something, which
I do have here for us to try after this.
But the one we poured you first was our Totonia blend,
(51:36):
so that's our heritage. It kind of kind of gives
us a connection to our heritage. And I poured this
because it's it's just fun. It's just different, right, it
changes the kind of paradigm in the mind of like
what's being produced.
Speaker 4 (51:50):
In certain regions.
Speaker 3 (51:52):
Now applying that to music, you know, yeah, and this
is probably the modern German in me. It's kind of
like a house trance, you know, like it's just it's
it's the variety. The category is different, right, It's not
in the if I poured you the reserve, right, I
might say like jazz, smooth jazz, or classical music or
(52:13):
something like that. Right, it evokes elegance and things. This
is fun and it's just meant to be fun, and
it's meant to be enjoyed and and and I think
you know, you know, the house trance music is is
kind of you know, in the same same vein you know,
it's play of clubs. It's meant to be fun and
enjoyed and and and consumed without sort of regret because
(52:36):
it's like just you let the mind go and you
enjoy it and you don't worry about the paradigms that
exist in society or that you know at that moment and.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
What about your pino gree sparkling wine.
Speaker 3 (52:49):
Yeah, and that's a little more I mean, to be fair,
that is a champagne grape. You know, it's an alloud
grape and champagne. So it is a little more what
do we call something like that, maybe like you know,
maybe modern jazz, you know, you know, kind of because
it's like it's still refine, but it has some experimentation
(53:10):
to it, because you know, how often do you find
a labeled pinogree on its own?
Speaker 2 (53:14):
And what about your blunk to blunk?
Speaker 3 (53:16):
And so we'll go backward. I think that's more. We're
gonna set the stage. It'll be fun, you know. I
think dressing up and going to the symphony is a
really fun outing and your mind can really be perplexed
and moved by the music. So I think the sophistication
level changes, you know, uh, in your mind. So you're
kind of moving through the gears. I think with our wines,
(53:36):
you know, you can go from the classical you know,
uh mind benders, you know, where it's still an enjoyable
evening and and elevated evening down to hey, let's just party,
let's have a really good time and enjoy a wine.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
Okay, one more. You're a Pino no war You're blunked
in war man.
Speaker 4 (53:54):
That's like funk.
Speaker 3 (53:55):
You know, like it's like, uh, you know, you should
you should be jammed. I think Pino just lives and
you know, like like just it's got its own category,
you know, of funk music. I think is is you know,
like I don't know why. It just always comes to
mind with Pino Noir. It's just earthy and and and edgy,
and I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
Yeah, you survived, you did it, You did it. Okay,
we've been talking a while. It's been really fun at
talking with you. But I have one last question two
parter quick question. Where in the world is at the
top of your bucket list to explore? You've traveled a lot,
You've you you do travel a lot. You explore the
(54:36):
world of wine. Where do you want to go that
you have not been?
Speaker 3 (54:41):
One place bucket list is Portugal, but in particular port
I just I you know, that's a red wine. Like
I said, I drink scant amounts of red wine, but
port just blows me away.
Speaker 4 (54:52):
When you go to a place.
Speaker 3 (54:54):
And they're pouring a you know, I'll get two hundred
year old port in your mind is just bent, you know.
And I know there's preservation happening there with the you know,
the alcohol, but I mean, what a beautiful country and cuisine.
Speaker 4 (55:05):
You know that.
Speaker 3 (55:06):
I've had experience within the US, but I haven't been
able to yet it, which just sounds senile being in
you know, Germany and Portugal are not far away, but
it's just a it's just a country.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
Everyone has to get somewhere for the first time. And
so for somebody who hasn't come here to Yakima Valley,
how can they come here and how can they find you?
What will they find when they come here in terms
of visiting you?
Speaker 3 (55:29):
Absolutely? Uh okay, I've got two quips about this. I'll
keep one really quick. But a one critic mentioned the
Yakma Valley being tacos and reasoning at one point, and
I think it was meant to be kind of like
a put down or a stab, and I thought, oh,
you have that's what you're missing in life. I think
that's what everyone's missing, as a little tacos and reasoning,
(55:51):
and so I think in that esense, you know, that's
what you'll find in the Acma valley. You know, people
compare happen so Nooma and things all the time.
Speaker 4 (55:59):
I think while wall.
Speaker 3 (56:00):
Is probably the more let's see refined, normal, high end
the wine experience that you're expecting. In the Aqua Valley,
you're often going to find an owner, You're off going
to find a grower. You're often going to find a
people working the land there.
Speaker 2 (56:15):
Well, and here we're you're a state property, so drive
up a hill, vineyards around and a big tasting room.
What do you offer here when people come?
Speaker 3 (56:26):
So we do do a little small bite, so go
with the food, and we offer flights of wine. We
offer bottle service. You can make a reservation, hang out
on the patio for a while. We have little events
and things. It's definitely worth a visit. Will take care
of you. We'll make sure you have a good time.
We really want to showcase Washington wine. And we're kind
of right at the start of the Aqua Valley, so
(56:48):
it's a great spot to go because it really opens
up the rest of the valley. You can get the
pallette going, or you can end the day with us
and have a little bite. And I wouldn't say, you know,
we always use cleanse the palette, you know, after a
long day of wine tasting, but I mean it is.
It's a way of kind of having something fresh at
the end of the end of it.
Speaker 2 (57:07):
Fantastic Christian. Thank you for joining us on Wine Soundtrack.
I'm ready to go taste some more bubbles because like
you said, it's fun.
Speaker 4 (57:15):
Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (57:15):
So let's go have fun.
Speaker 1 (57:19):
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 team thirty
answers discover their stories, personalities and passions.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, friends and listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is also
Levigne and today I'm in the Yakima Valley with Christian
Greeb of Traveri Sellers, a sparkling wine house in the
Yakima Valley. Christian, Welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell us
a little bit about Traveri.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
You bet, it's wonderful to be with you here this morning.
Just thrilled to be on the podcast. And so Traveri Sellers.
We're sparkling wine house in Washington State. We were really
the first in Washington State to dedicate ourselves to the
traditional method sparkling wine process. So everyone else maybe you know,
has had a sparkling wine or something in their lineup,
(00:48):
but nobody actually decided, hey, you know, this state can
actually do something unique and exciting with method champ.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
And waw of sparkling wines.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
So we decided to be the crazy folks in state
and starts something different. So yeah, that's that's in a
nutshell what we do we're bubbly people.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
You're probably people, and you're very public. I'm curious, do
you you're doing only traditional method no still wines, no
charmont method, traditional methods, sparkling wine. But what grapes are
you making it from? Is it all traditional?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
So yeah, that's a that's correct. So it's all it's
all bottle fermented, no stills, no charmont. But we do
like to bend the rules every once in a while.
So we we do make our let's call them traditional
champagne varieties, the Chardonnays, the pino noirs.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
The pino mignets. But we also like to.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Bend the rules a little bit and try to make
something that you know, messes with the mind a little
bit and gives it the consumer an awesome, uh you
know experience. That might not be a Champagne grape. So
it could be German varieties, it could be French varieties
that are not located in Champagne, or even Spanish rite
(02:00):
like Alberino. So we bounce around a little bit, sparkle
everything up, you know, well not quite everything, like reds
are generally not something we're sparkling up. But you know, yeah, yeah,
that's The idea is to enjoy and sort of, you know,
let the experimentation come out. I always say, in the
Northwest we're a little bit of an experimental people. I
(02:24):
think the cuisine, the culture, the the topography, all kinds
of things are very different than the rest of the country,
and so why not have that reflect who we are.
So it's in essence a bit of a community winery
in the sense that we want Washington State to taste
like Washington State and not try to fit necessarily into
(02:45):
a mold of like what champagne is. Though we use
those grapes and we make it in that method, and
we do some really cool examples that have some of that,
but a way too, let's say, break out of the
box a little bit and be experimental and really showcase
the the culture and the cuisine and the people of
the Northwest for everyone to enjoy.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I love it. So you're saying that you're representing Washington State.
Are you purchasing fruit from all over the state? Do
you have any estate fruit? Do you own vineyards? And
if so much and what.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Are you growing?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Great great question. We do about one hundred acres of
our own, and we also purchase a little bit of
fruit from others around us. So we farm organically on
the estate sites. We have Charnay, pino, pino mignet, but
we also do pino gree or we do Pinot blanc,
or we do dawn Feldon, which is a German red
(03:38):
that we make a really nice rose out of, so
Govertz tremeiner.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
So we kind of break the mold a little bit.
And especially farming organically, that is sort of a newer
thing in Washington State. I would say everything's been conventional
mostly the past thirty years.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Are all of your one hundred acres in the Yakama Valley.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Most of our acreage actually is in the Natchiz Heights.
It's on a little higher elevations, a little cooler, presents
itself a little bit better to sparkling wine.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I was going to ask, because being here in the
Yakama Valley, I find that it's a lot more you know, reds.
Not that the wines are overly big in style, but
it's Cabernet and malbek and you know, cav Fronk, which
is not necessarily pino land.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, I would say the Acma Valley's an interesting unique
topography as well. There's tons of really good sparkling wine sites.
There's a reason sixty percent of the Akma Valley's planted
in white grapes, and that's because a lot of the
sites still lend themselves to really good white wines. But
there are a good number of sites in the ACA,
the Akima Valley in particular, which I guess Red Mountain
(04:43):
is a sub avia of the Akima Valley that produce
just really big, intense red wines too. But I like
the way that you drew that up. I think the
red wines are also reserved here and they have a
higher acidity content to them, and so it kind of
showcases what we're doing. People say, well, you're kind of
in an area that there's some reds, and I'm like, yeah,
but do the reds have acid? Are they easy going?
(05:05):
Are they tanning bombs or they just blow your lips
off big red wines? Or are they you know, a
little softer, a little more reserved. And then it tells
the story of the sparkling wine too. So when we
add the elevation, which is everything's within a radius of
thirty miles that we buy the fruit from the winery,
So thirty miles from the winery in a radius circular radius.
(05:26):
You know, that kind of tells the story. We're picking
the cooler sites and when we had the elevation, we
had the coolness. They really kind of can pop, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So what's your total case production? And within that, how
many different sparkling wines are you making?
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Oh yeah, I knew, I figured this question was in
there somewhere we.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Make let them know your inventory, that's.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Now you're racking my brain here. You know, we do
a fair number of different skews. Sometimes a lot of
them are one off just for Club one to be
really fun and exciting that we give to our club
members you know that you won't find anywhere else. We
make about thirty thousand cases of sparkling wine a year,
(06:10):
so the you know, and it's it's pretty well split
between what we sell here on premise and what we
sell you know, across the country through wholesale.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
And are you speaking of markets? Are you available in
all the markets across the US or internationally or specific markets?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Good question. We have a few international markets. Denmark, Japan,
and certain pockets of Canada are our sort of export markets,
but predominantly we focus on the United States for various reasons,
one of which is easier to travel and do business
in the United States. But too, I think, you know,
(06:48):
your break you have to break down a lot more
walls internationally. You know, there's there's a lot of stigma
in oftentimes a good way, a lot of respect to
European wines that have been around a long time. So
you're kind of having to battle on a much larger scale.
Washington Wine is still young, and we're doing that battle.
We just have to pick that battle and concentrate in
(07:10):
those areas where we can have successes rather than trying
to do the let's call it, you know, broad based
you know approach where we're going to put the wine
everywhere and see where it works. You know, that's we
don't want to we don't want to stumble, you know,
we want to we want to gain customers and gain friends. Actually,
(07:31):
really you know where we go.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
What year did you start this winery?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
This winery was started in two thousand and seven. Our
first release.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Was nine to ten in there. Yeah, so it takes
a little bit with with method.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
This is a project a company of patients.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Oh yes, yes, yeah, what's the best way. You never
know what you have until you have it, and you're
waiting for a long time to.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Have it, and so you know what an investment only
sparkling line, make a little still wine to bide your time.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
You just went, yeah, that's why I said.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
We were the kind of bubbly crazy people that just
jumped in head first and so let's see where it goes,
you know.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
So yeah, well, Christian, I'm curious what is it. I mean,
you're you're making wine today. I know that you had
said to me that your dad is a German national,
so you carry a dual citizenship the way you said
Dornfelder clearly says you speak German. But I'm curious, what
is your first memory relevant to wine?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Oh that's good.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
So I remember as a young young boy going back
to Germany with my dad and my mom, and you know,
my my opa had this wine cellar that was most
Europeans have a cellar, right, you know, here's your house
and then here's the cellar. That's where we keep everything.
You know, there could be potatoes whatever else down there,
(08:51):
you know, it's just everything's down in the cellar. And
my opa had a specific wine cellar, which isn't something
that you know, every person has, even in Europe, you know,
as much as Europeans drink wine, they don't always all
have a cellar. But I remember being probably about five
or six, and you know, my my Opa walked us
(09:12):
around and he said, hey, take a look at all
these bottles. I've got the birth years of everybody. And
he had labeled the birth year for everybody in the cellar.
And I mean it was a massive, beautiful collection of
German reaslings and some particular Pinot noirs. So I'll spare
everyone the German words here as I'm going through them
(09:35):
in my head. But you know, there was a lot
of good speed Bogna and a lot of great rosees
and and so it was just everywhere. And I remember
he opened a specific bottle because I had come to visit,
I guess at the time of I don't know, in
his mind ripening to have a little bit of a
taste of wine, you know, And he said, let's pull
your birth year. I've got four bottles, you know, And
(09:57):
so he pulled a bottle of Kunhouse Reasling Ossa from
eighty eight and pop the cork. And and you know,
I got it very you know, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Because you were young.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Yeah, I mean, Germans feed their kids beer and wine
all the time. It's fine, but I just it was
more of like, hey, you're not gonna it's not dinner,
you know, so we're gonna have just you get a
little taste and the adults will have the rest of it,
you know. But it was a really interesting experience as
a six year old to just being a wine cellar.
You get your your grandpa, you know, opening a bottle
(10:32):
from your birth year, and you're six years old and
you're having probably at the time, you know, I don't
know what it was rated, you know, but probably a
ninety plus point wine, you know, in the in the
major publications, And and you're going, you're.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Six years old, and you remember this moment. I love it.
I love it. Well, okay, so I'm gonna let you
jump a little more ahead in maybe not having to
remember as far back as six But along the path
of your wine journey, is there a particular wine that
stands out as one of those aha moment wines? And
what wine was it? And what's the context of the ahedness?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, you bet so. I was this is like I
was six years old. I mean, it was.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
That that did stand out, But I would say I
would say, so I was in this selling our sparkling
wine in the great state of Virginia, and there was
was this awesome account that had sort of like I
can't really explain it, but it was this great sort
of pseudo deli where you could get fine cheeses and meats,
(11:32):
and then this beautiful wine shop in the front of it.
And so I had done a tasting there and the
owner and I said, he said, let's hop over to
the to the restaurant next door. Let's grab a bike
if you have time, and I said, I'd love to,
you know I for me, connections are a big thing
and people are a big thing. And so you know,
(11:53):
I felt kind of at home. And we popped into
this restaurant and we had a wonderful meal and as
we're about to wrap up, I look down in the
wine fridge down below and.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
I see this this.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Bottle sitting there. So my dad learned it. The winery
Kutoizohoof in the Mosel Valley. Kotoizohoof is actually a used
to be owned by the Cartusian monks. They sold it
to Napoleon, who then sold it to the to the
family who own and operated still today wonderful beautiful wines.
My dad spent time at that winery while he was
(12:27):
learning to make wine. And so it's a very distinct label.
It's only label in Germany that allows this little neck
label at the top, and so you can spot it
from a mile away because the bottle looks naked and
then you look at the top and there's a capsule
in this sort of like let's call it cigar label
at the top, and you just go bang.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
You know that.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
I know that label. And it was in an unassuming place.
The meal was delicious, but I didn't expect to see
that bottle sitting there, and so I asked, I asked
the bartender, I said, could you do you mind look
in there and showing me, Oh yeah, that's left over
from a party. And it was a nineteen seventy eight
(13:06):
uh reasling ousleysa token. So what that means is a
dry ousleys, which you rarely see.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Were dry super late harvests, correct, and.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
So it's not common. And then thinking back, I was
trying to remember when my father was at the winery
and he would have been at the winery that year,
so he would have been able to say he had
a hand in the winemaking process of that bottle.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
And here I am.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
And it was a way of tying I guess my personal,
you know, journey as a human of being a sort
of like German American and the United States selling our
wines that we produce, American wines that we're proud of,
but to also like have this moment here I am
with a you know, a really good customer friend. We're
enjoying a nice meal and then you have this just
(13:52):
bottle sitting there and the bar bar you know, the
bartender's unassuming that. And then the course the major d
comes flocking over because I order the random bottle? How
do you know about this winery? Like you know, and
it's like that I have to kind of you know
the wine, I mean, it was singing, It was phenomenal.
I mean, it was just it was an other world experience.
So the wine was great, the connection was great. So
(14:13):
that was a really and that I would say that's
my freshest AHA moment. You know, everyone has other aha
moments that get them into the wine, but that was
the most personal sort of I know it.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Kind of as you were saying, it connects, it tells
the story, because wine is a story in a bottle.
It's not just what it tastes like, but the context
of it. Funny enough that your AHA moment wasn't what
took you on a path to make sparkling wine.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
No, no, no, yeah no, that, like I said, that's
another AHA moment. But you know, I think I think that,
you know, thinking about wine in general, even sparkling wines,
wine is a you know, good wine, good food that
creates community. You know, it's really hard to not talk
to someone, you know, when you're having great wine and
great food, even they're the shyest the people or the
(15:01):
most outspoken of people like me.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Obviously I'm talking a lot, so you know.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I'm the first to have a glass of wine and
I'm talking to everybody, you know, But other folks are
saying like, oh, you know, I don't speak much. What
a great experience that was though, because the food came out,
the wine came out, and I just you know, you
feel better about life, you know, and then you can
you know, sort of have that community experience.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
No, absolutely, there's a shared experience over a bottle of wine.
So if we were to come to your home and
go into your wine cellar, wine refrigerators, in the closet,
wherever you store your wine, what would we find there today?
Is it a lot of your own wines? It's a
lot of wines. Is your dad a winemaker here in
Washington State.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yeah, he's here too at the facility. So it's family owned.
It's my parents and my wife and I who run TRAVERI.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
So, but is it wines that you guys have made?
Is it wines from friends from around the world, particular
grapes or styles.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
That's a great part everything. Yeah, yeah, I mean, honestly,
I'll try to be succinct in three things that I do.
So we do have some of our wines that we keep,
and we love to do that just as a practice
of checking in on our wines and seeing where they're at.
And some of them are really special to us for
various reasons and why we would hold them back and
(16:19):
age them in our personal sellers. But if I'm going
to talk about wine from outside of Washington State, outside
of my winery, obviously I've just spoken about German wines.
So I have a fair collection of German wines. I
love even the most awkward German wines like Schoiriba and
don Foda and things like that aren't typically collected. I
(16:41):
like to collect some of that stuff. So Feffengen had
a just lights out Schoi Reba talking done as these
I think, or something similar like that. I can't quite remember,
but that was just a phenomenal split bottle that I
had literally probably three four months ago, and then I
(17:01):
got on this interesting little kick. So I have a
fair bit of champagne, usually grower champagnes. I think they're
doing the most unique interesting things because they can kind
of you know, the houses are very much set in
their style, in their way, and there's some really delicious
wines in there, but the growers will do some fun
sort of kind of blends or different looks at blends.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I says, they're not as set to having a house style.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
One hundred percent. So it's really fun to grab some
of those and age them. And I'll spare the laundry list,
but you know, I mean there's some good ones, Piard,
There's we can go down the list of really good
grower champagnes.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
But English sparkling.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Wine has been something I've really been collecting lately and
getting into. The acids are insane. They are super agable.
You know, you can pull one after ten years and
it's just just vibrant and youthful because of the acid,
you know, complex. And I think there's a lot of
now being put into English sparkling wine these days, you know,
(18:03):
especially there's a lot of French investment and things. So
that's kind of a fun one.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So lots of bubbles in your house.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yes, But as far as stills, I will admit I am.
I drink a lot of California wine too. One of
my favorite producers is Ramy. I just love the Charnais
that that David Rami produces and huge fans so that
might not be everybody's first pick that they're you know,
gonna tell you.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
They're so good.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
I just love those Charnays, so I can't get enough
of them. And I you know, so it's like when
I was signing up for you know, I'm a wine
club member actually, and that I was signing up and
they're like, okay, you know, that's kind of an interesting
experience because they're looking at me, like you really, yeah,
I do want these, and then you know, you can
check a box.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Reds are whites.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Now, the reds are delicious too, But those Chardonnays, I
was like, white only. I want the Chardonnay's. You know,
those things age so beautifully and they're just such a
fun wine to pull out, yeah, and showcase the people,
because I mean for me comparatively, it's it's a lot
less expensive than Burgundy. So and it's made in this
really fun new world style, which is what we're doing,
(19:11):
and it just it's just a nice representation I think
of American wine.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
So you mentioned that you opened a split about three
four months ago. Is there anything else you opened up
recently that drank really well?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Oh, always something that I've opened up recently that drank
really well. That's a really good question. You know, harvest
started so lately, I've just you know, maybe I've gone
back to my my regulars or my you know, my
favorites of you know, I drink a lot of sparkling wine,
(19:41):
So I did. I did open a egg le Orge
Champagne about a week ago, which was just lights out,
especially at the you know, like I'm two weeks into
harvest and you're just getting like, you know, gassed. And
it was a Sunday afternoon, which is nice as a time.
You know, we don't really harvest or do much on
(20:02):
Sunday just because it's like you need a day, you know,
you need a day during this time of year. And
so it was really nice to just sit there and
have you know, a brunch and enjoy a nice bottle.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
So you're working with a lot of different grapes and
you clearly know what you like to drink, although it's
not limited. I mean, you have a broad palette. And
I'm curious if you think there's a such thing as
a perfect variety.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Oh, you know one wine, maybe it's more a region
for this variety.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
But mosl reasoning.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Always just it hits, It just hits differently.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
One it's it's it's sort of you know, the past
for me, you know of where I've come from. And
but two, it just has this distinctiveness that makes my
I don't I don't know what it is when I
go into a Mosle reasling, I just my my gland
sala like it's then and it's probably from being six
having you know, it's the bells ringing and there's cheese,
(21:09):
you know, and I'm just yeah, I'm here, you know. So,
but I think there's something to that where it just
like that's where I cut my teeth. And so when
that kind of wine gets in front of me, Now,
reasling is delicious, I think anywhere in the.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
World when it's done well.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
But something about Mosle reasling and that slate and I
don't know, it's.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Just some level of perfection.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Yeah for me at least, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Or I really think a well made domestic sparkling wine,
I just remove my cap to that because it's just
it's it can be a really delicious, unique thing. I
think the style is a little bit different than champagne.
I love champagne, obviously, I just mentioned, you know, I
have a champagne.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
I've consumed some champagne.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
But man, when a domestic sparkling why it has made
really well, it's really exciting, I think because it's it's
like proof of concept, right that.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yeah, that's not necessarily a variety.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
No it isn't.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
That is a style, but the reason, the reasoning would
be the variety. If I was going to say a
style that kind of would be something else.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Not for those domestics sparks.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
So so you've mentioned, you know, drinking a lot of wines,
and how that first wine your your grandfather tasted you
on when you were six years old was probably a
well scored wine. You don't know for sure, but probably,
And you know you've mentioned some other very well scoring
wines and I'm wondering what your opinion is on wine,
Chris and scores, like how important is that to you
(22:33):
as a drinker or to you as a wine maker
for your own value, but also maybe you know, for
your audience or how you want to sell wine.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
This is a trap question because I feel like, you know,
either I'm going to make some people pleased or some
people angry with the response. I'll say, as a drinker,
a score means nothing to me, because there might be
wines I really enjoy and I think are just phenomenal
wine and they might have gotten like an eighty nine
or eight.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Yeah, so I think there's some of that, and you
never know some you know, we're all humans, so even
reviewers can have an off day or they got an
off bottle or whatever it was, right, So there's some
of that at play. I think the hard part for
me with scoring is, uh, there's always an element of
subjectivity involved.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
So my subjective view on wine, you know, and maybe
a scorer or a critic subjective view on wine is
somehow in there, no matter how objective they try to be,
there is a certain thing that grabs a wine critic,
you know. So I think they're a value in the
sense that you know, you can see that the house
(23:43):
is making clean wines that are that are really enjoyable,
and it kind of gives you an indication, you know,
that that that house is working hard to make a
premium wine. On the flip side, I think sometimes it's
hard to get critic, you know, for you know, maybe
a lesser known region or a lesser known producer or
(24:06):
whatever it might be. I mean, look, this is probably
people's first introduction to my winery, right, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yet you're making thirty thousand cases a year, so you're
not a tiny, little, you know brand.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
That's true, you know, And so I think it is
up to you know. For me, I always say, if
you're the individual, you're the you're the final critic, you know,
you're the final critic. So if if you would like
to drink a wine a certain way, by all means
do it. You know, I think we get a little
bound by the European box of rules. And I think
(24:39):
it's Germans. You know, Germans talk about this a lot
in German culture too. It's like, well, we're bound of
rules all the time, and sometimes that's a hampering to like,
you know, change and wanting something different or something new.
And so for me it's like, I just don't want
people to get into you know, we talked earlier, you know,
before we started this a little bit about house palettes
and things. It's good to broaden your spectrum. So being stuck,
(25:04):
like I just mentioned English sparkling wine, I'm certain some
of those didn't get a ninety seven or something like that,
you know, but they're but they were outrageously delicious and
there's some really cool stuff happening, So you know, I
guess be wary. But also it's a good way to
use as a measured adults for us as value. I mean,
we do allow critics to judge your wines at times,
(25:25):
and you know, I think that's part of impart and
parcel of the industry. But I would say, like, don't
let that be or you know, if it didn't score
a ninety, you know, that's okay to still maybe try
that bottle because it might be something you personally really like.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Well, for someone who hasn't tasted your sparkling wines yet,
what do you think they're missing out on?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Fun?
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Just really approachable fun, but serious as well. So I
think you know, nobody, nobody's had a really bad day,
gone home, opened a bus, you know, open the fridge,
and opened a bottle of bubbling on. Shit, my day
went down, you know, it went it went backward. Normally
people do that and they open it up and they're like,
this is fun, this is enjoyable. So I think wine
(26:12):
first and foremost is a beverage we enjoy. It should
have some endorphin release, some enjoyment out of, you know,
the reason that we're consuming it and talking about it
and caring so much about it and the soils and
the way things are grown and what we're doing practically though,
it should be at its core something that one creates community,
two creates enjoyment, and three is really just fun to drink,
(26:37):
you know, in the sense of like, wow, these flavors
are cool. There's something completely different going on. I think that,
you know, with our wines, because they're uniquely Washington State.
It won't taste like California domestic bubbles. It won't taste
like champagne or Franchi a quorta or zec or anything
like that. It should be its own, standalone, unique Washington
(26:58):
sparkling wine movement, you know. So, I think you know
that we always it's kind of a brand, a gaudy
sort of brand statement that we put on our boxes,
but we say Washington Sparkly Wine because we really think
we've had an influence and how you know, to make
a really compelling, unique Washington State style.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
I love it. So, if space aliens were to land
in your parking lot right now and walk up to
the door, which of all of your sparkling wines would
you want to welcome them with to say welcome to
various sellers?
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Oh man, that's a good question.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I mean, what a what a you know?
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I mean, first of all, I'd ask them if they
have taste buds, you know, and what they eat on
their planet, because you know, it might not be like
the dietary sort of thing that we eat, you know,
so it might not be as enjoyable for them. But no,
let's assume that they, you know, have a some sort
of a semblance of human wine making. You know, I'd
(27:58):
probably try to start them off with some of our
really unique reserve blends that you know, come from sites
that are single vineyard, but in the sense that I'm
not doing it because they're single vineyard or something like,
I might give them a like you know, one of
(28:18):
the wines that people love in our club is the
Penal Green smarkling that we do, So maybe.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
It's something like that.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
I would you know, I always tell people I'm a
mood drinker. Makes me sound like an alcoholic I am
in the white industry, but you know, it'd be kind
of like you'd feel the mood, you know, and see what.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
But I think something off the wall to showcase something
off the wall.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Method they be landing, right, you know that's gotta come
from the chiller.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
But you know that's right, Yeah, I mean, because they
could probably get a block to block anywhere else, So
try to give them.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Something unique, a unique experience.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, So you mentioned a second ago, like if the
space aliens like depend on what their cuisine was So
let's talk about food for a second, and food and wine.
You know, you also were mentioning sort of this idea
of being stuck in rules and this is how we
do it. So how do you approach food and wine pairing?
(29:11):
Do you follow the old adage of white wine and fish,
red wine and meat, or I mean, obviously everyone knows
bubbles go with everything, but you know there is probably
there is nuance from one sparkling wine to a next.
So how do you decide how you're gonna pair food
and wine?
Speaker 4 (29:27):
That's a great question.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Some some you know, I get it, some things just
hit a certain way, and you know, and I know
that there's even science behind you know, a big cabernet
with a steak. You know, they talk about some of
those things that trigger this you know, special sort of
you know, unique like.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
The Tannin's meeting the facts, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Yeah, there's just some sort of like you know, experience there,
you know, and I get that the same you know, yeah,
one hundred percent, but the same point. You know, we
have people that love there's people that love Sharnay but
won't have like you know, the traditional shardenay pairings. You know,
like the cheese or somebody who knows right, you know.
So we do follow some of the rules, but we
(30:10):
also like to let people explore with that. So we
have an interesting and awesome label with Iron Chef Morimoto,
and he does Japanese fusion, and so it's really awesome
because we have you know, this new world sparkling wine
that we produce for his restaurants meeting Japanese Fusion, which
(30:32):
is like this clash of Japanese kitchen with who knows
what right it could be Maybe that day it's it's
sesh one meeting you know, Japan or maybe who knows right.
And so I always think like we're not even thinking
about it the same way anymore, you know, or we
shouldn't be, you know, with where food is gone. There's
some old adage rules that you can stick to. But
(30:54):
you know, what do you pair with the tuna pizza?
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Right? You know? And this is what we were, you know.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
So but we make up pino noir rose that goes
just phenomenally well with it because it's you know, there's
a little bit of the red fruit and then you
get this you know, really unique flavor from the tuna.
So some of it is fusion. I think is a
cool thing that I like to talk about with wine
and food is don't be afraid fuse things. You know,
(31:19):
there's ways to relook at the paradigm.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
It's not that the paradigm's wrong, it's just maybe we
can shift it.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
You know. It sounds like the matrix. I feel like
I'm neo talking here. You say, now.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
When you're rethinking it, it's sort of following a rule.
Are you looking for acidity or texture? Are you matching it,
contrasting it? What do you like to do?
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Yeah, I think you know.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Salt, you know, heat, acid, fat, you know, those things
all are at play. I think when you're looking at something,
you know at the same time, I also think you
can try to bend those a little bit and see
if something works. You know, Umami is a you know,
a really hard thing, so times, you know, and it
might lend itself to a red wine, it might lend
(32:04):
itself to a white wine, depending on the thing.
Speaker 4 (32:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
So those things are at play. But I also like
to try to just conceptualize what the like the pairing
was or would be, and then try to in my
mind turn that around a little bit and say, Okay,
that works naturally, but that's tried and true. Everyone's had
maybe an experience as wine drinkers maybe have had that experience.
(32:27):
But can you just shift it a little bit, you know,
can you get somebody outside of their box and go, well,
that still tastes really good. That's not what I expected.
That still tastes really good. Maybe it's the introduction of sugar,
you know, in a wine or what you were saying earlier,
you know, tann and something. But in bubbles we don't
really talk about tann and. So maybe it's acid or sugar,
(32:49):
you know, or maybe it's variety, you know, the great variety,
and we can kind of just try to shift somebody's
mind around that a little bit.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
So is a wine drinker, red whiter, rose.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
White? I I.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
I drink scant amounts of red wine. I love red wine,
but I just always find myself pouring white wine.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I just still are sparkling.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Oh definitely, I think sparkling, right answer, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I do. I do quite enjoy stills, but but I
think sparkling. I just it just starts everything off so well,
just it's like it gets a pala going.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
It's fun, it's it's.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
It's brilliant and usually in clarity, and it's just they're
just super appealing.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
So you've been working in the valley for how many
years now.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Well since birth, I feel like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Raised in Yakima Valley. So so you know this place
very very well, and you've watched it season after season.
You're in harvest right now, and I'm curious do you
feel that in a place like this do you see
more similarity or big swings from year to year? We
know every vintage tells a difference. Sorry, so just do
you see it as a nuanced difference or do you
(34:03):
see it as really an unknown from year to year.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Wow, that's a good question, because we've had some big
years weather wise that have really changed.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
How we think about the Yakima Valley.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
But I would say we're like the slow, slow roll,
you know, we're the Sunday Cruise, you know, where things
are really consistent here.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
You know.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
I think about Champagne and when they're declaring a vintage,
I would guess ninety percent of our vintages would be
a vintage year and champagne. So a lot of our
wines are labeled non vintage strictly for that reason, because
we don't want to sound senile. We don't want to
be labeling every year a vintage year. You know, that
loses the luster. So I think, you know, for this valley,
(34:52):
I really thinks it's a consistency piece that, you know.
I mean, we've been doing this since the eighties. You know,
obviously we're in twenty twenty four. People are still making wine.
There is some quality here, there's some value, there's some consistency.
It's a matter of proving that to the broader you know,
wine drinking public, that Washington State wine is something beyond
(35:14):
one producer or something beyond one style. There's a lot
of uniqueness happening here. And I know that's you know,
it's it's hard to conceptualize, you know, because we don't
have a great you know, Napa has cab Oregon, Willamett
has Pino noir, and then Yakama Valley. Oh, you grow
like thirty different grape varieties that do really well. You know,
(35:37):
like what's the deal, you know, And I think that's
that is the deal.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
And the vintage just allowed, I mean, the climate here
allows for that with this vent. So are there any
sort of signs or predictors that you look for that
are going to tell you what a vintage will be.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Spring is always really telling because it's often cold.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
Here.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
We deal with you know, hard hard winners compared to
Oregon in California, and about one in every ten we
call this the winter kill zone for plants. One in
every ten there's some sort of damage you know that
happens to the buying structural. I should say freeze damage
because frost and freeze are different, so one in every
(36:18):
ten years we have a freeze that causes damage. So
I would say, you know, there's just a uniqueness here
that it's a lot cooler, especially in the spring. And
then people are like, well, it's really hot in the summer,
and I'm like, yeah, but if it doesn't get warm,
we're not getting anything right.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
You know.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
If I think about our growing season, it's a lot
more compact than some regions, but it's longer than others,
so we're somewhere in the middle there, which creates this
really unique sort of climate that we have, which are
warmer days in the summer and really cool nights, which
I mean, this is something we've droned on for years
(36:56):
and watching wine about a diurnal ship creates a well
there you go. That's why sparkling wines do really well here.
That's why some red wines and a lot of red
wines do really well here. That's why a lot of
white wines do well here. The the let's just say,
at least a structural part of why making here is there.
And you know you don't get that out of every
(37:17):
part of the world.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Are there any sort of good luck rituals that you
have for the startup harvest or for your team.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Absolutely, we do every year a sabring and sort of
blessing of the grapes and everyone has a glass or
to of wine and just to I'm going to go
back to community. It's creating a community because when things
get you know, in the middle of harvest.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
And there everyone wants to yell.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
At each other and just give up for the day
and just say, you know, it's a nice way to
remember back of like, oh yeah, there is a light
at the end of the tunnel. That's where we started.
So usually the middle of harvest, it's we're sabering bottles.
We're you know, we're we're we have a great blessing.
And when we really kind of have like a sort
of inner community event here, you know, at the winery,
(38:04):
just to really like kick off harvests, say this is
this is the thing, you know, this is the thing
we do. I don't tap a shoe three.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
Times or jingle a bell a certain way, you know.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
I think I think, you know, it's it's kind of
like a mother Nature is going to give me what
she's produced, and I'm going to do the best that
I can to let that shine through. And you know,
I'm not going to try to change what she produced
that here because it's good. We have a harvest, there's
fruit coming in, you know, and there's a bounty, and
(38:35):
we're meant to help guide that bounty into its final
resting place, which is the bottle.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Well, speaking of guiding that you know, bounty, when you're
out in the vineyard, which you know you're doing a
lot now during harvest, but even throughout the season spending
time in the vineyard, and how much do you do
you interact with your vines? Is there a communication? Do
you talk to them? Is there a communication that goes
(39:01):
on between the two of you?
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Yeah, I mean half of it's cursing, and then I
think the vines just proved me wrong.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
You know, they're patient.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Yeah, I think, you know, farming organically, I really like
a holistic approach. So usually i'll be you know, it
sounds weird, but you'll lift the vines up and you
kind of look around inside and you make sure that
little ecosystem's working for them. So I consider it more
of being like a caretaker or a nurse, you know,
kind of you try to give them the best things
(39:36):
that you can to be healthy and thrive. You know,
I have three kids, and I think about it the
same way, right, Like you're trying to raise a child
to be, you know, a productive member of society, and
you won't do that out of hate, right, You're going
to do that out of love, because you want that
child to be a loving person.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Right.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
And so in the same way, you're going to look
at your vines and you're gonna say, I want you
to produce the best that you can, so I'm going
to do everything I can to make the best thing
that I can out of it. So organic farming, no
wheat spray, things like that, which then creates other problems.
You have other competitions, So then we.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
That's when you have to reprimand them.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So then it's kind of a you know,
oftentimes it's like when the sweet wires go on is
when most of my curse words start coming out, because
it's like, you know, the wire's not in the right spot,
the mine didn't cooperate, and you're like, I did all
this for you and you just won't listen.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
So you grew up in this area, your dad is
a wine maker. Was this something you always knew you
wanted to do or when you were little? What did
you want to be when.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
You grew up? Well, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
I think, yes, I knew that's what I want to
do when I grew up, but I didn't necessarily overtly
know it. My family's been in wine since the mid
eighteen hundreds in Germany, so it was always something that
was just a.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
Real catch or call.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Being out in the land, working with the land and
creating a product that people enjoy is something that we've
always had as part of our ethos. And so I
would say, yeah that it always has been kind of
a part of it. I hate to say, like it
seemed like destiny. But it just kind of like you
don't as much as you think about doing other things,
(41:24):
you know, which I think every child does. And there's
always one thing that's really kind of like you're naturally
kind of good at and said at and I think
that that was wine, you know, I think that was wine.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
So yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
When you're not working, how do you like to spend
your free time?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Oh man, that's a good question, like a free time,
remember that thing.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
Yeah, I own a business. Free time. That's a good question.
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
When I was you know, I'm not I'm not going
to say I'm old by any means, But when I
was younger, I like to travel a lot. Now I
just find myself like wanting a beach and a cocktail
and or a nice beautiful glass of wine and just
like zoning, you know. So my last trip was to
San Diego to just just go on a beach for
(42:12):
like ten days and not really think about all the
other things in life, you know, especially when you own
a business, I think your mind.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
Is always going.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Yeah, so trying to retract, you know, from that a
little bit, you know, And it's like, what it's hard
to beat San Diego, whether it's like seventy degrees every day,
and people are all in a good mood, and you're like,
what is happening here?
Speaker 4 (42:32):
You know?
Speaker 2 (42:32):
So I'm curious, like you, you own a sparkling wine house.
It's a family business. A lot of people drink sparkling
wines to celebrate or for romantic evenings. When you're planning
a romantic evening for you and your wife, what kind
of wines get opened? Because you drink sparkling wine all
the time, maybe every night it's a romantic evening. I
(42:53):
don't know.
Speaker 4 (42:55):
Good point, good point, But what.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Kind of wines for you guys makes a romantic evening?
Speaker 4 (43:03):
Oh yeah, that's good.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
I think you know, you know, we talked about a
lot of the wines so we consume regularly. I think
it's just kind of a let's call it a h
the premiumization of that. So we might open a really
special bottle of one of those, you know wines that
I have in the cellar, and or it always starts
(43:27):
with sparkling you know, of some sort. Actually this last
this last anniversary, it was a mum DBX. I think
that's just a that's a beautiful wine. And like I said,
a well made domestic sparkling wine is a really cool
thing and Mum DBX is delicious, and we started off
(43:47):
with that. We went on our honeymoon to California wine
country and we were at mum and had DBX.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
So it was a nice way of kind of like.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Tying it all together.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
Yeah, one hundred percent. But I you know, I think
it's sparkling. And then you know, usually just like you know,
you're picking maybe those bottles that you're saving, you know,
for a little longer, like a little more age on it,
or a very unique vintage for the region. Maybe you're
we're still in those lanes, you know kind of, but
(44:18):
maybe just getting that bottle that it's just that little
bit extra special, you know.
Speaker 4 (44:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
So, Christian, when you look back at your career, what
would you say is one of your proudest achievements to date.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
Still being in business? No?
Speaker 3 (44:34):
I think I think for us it's community and connection.
I think for any business, I you know, counting dollars
or cases or regions and all of that matters, But
what matters really most for me and for our family
and for our wineries connections to people. And so what
(44:55):
am I most proud of in business, I would absolutely
say it's connections to people and.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
To land that we're working.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
So that connection for me is really important to know
that like, hey, you know, yeah, I might be selling
to this really awesome place, but that individual is what
makes that place, you know. So that place is awesome
because that individual is awesome.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
And so for me, that's like the feather in the
cap of like creating those relationships that you can keep
going so wherever you're at, you know, if you if
you know, especially in wine business, when you have to
travel to sell your product, to be able to call
those people and they're like, oh you're in town, great,
you know, like and you can even if you you know,
it's just a quick dinner or something, or a lunch,
you know, the fact that you can connect with those
folks again, is that's special.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
That's when you think about, you know, 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 carry with you. Is it some a teacher,
a parent, something that stands out that you try to
live by.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
Or work by.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
I think a family motto of ours and this just
stretches years well before I was here. But whatever you
decide to do, you know, give it your best. So
I think that motto means a lot in the sense
of whatever I decide to do with the wine or
(46:18):
with the the grapes, you know, it's to do the
best that you can for it. You know, you don't
want to leave you hear professional athletes say this a
lot when they retire. They said, I didn't want to
leave anything out there. You know, while I was in
my career, I didn't want to leave anything out there.
I think that's kind of the model that we run
our business by of like, you know, but you have
(46:41):
to balance it. It's work life, you know. I mean,
but I think you know while you're doing it, and
while you're committing yourself to the to the trade. I mean,
wine really is a trade in a lot of ways.
There's a lot of science, there's a lot of you know,
other things to it, but you know, it is something
that oftentimes has passed down, oftentimes learned. The practical side
is learned within the family and within the whine making.
(47:02):
And so it's kind of like, Okay, what you decide
to do, do your best at I mean I tell
my kids all the time. I'm like, if you want
to be a garbage man, I don't care, but you
better be the best garbage man I've ever seen in
my life.
Speaker 4 (47:13):
Like, really commit yourself to it, you.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
Know, own own what you're doing, and love your craft,
you know, because if you don't, you have one craft.
Or I mean, look at the statistics on job changes
in society. I mean people are usually changing jobs a
lot because they're searching for that thing. So when you
when you find what you're doing and you love what
you're doing, which I do, it's like you've got to
(47:37):
commit your just commit yourself to it because like it's
not grasses and greener necessarily you know somewhere, so absolutely.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
So complete this sentence. For me, a table without wine is.
Speaker 4 (47:49):
Like a table without wine.
Speaker 3 (47:59):
Oh man, I see I have like a philosophical problem
with this because I don't know.
Speaker 4 (48:05):
A table with that one. I guess it would It
wouldn't be life, you know, is like not living. It's
like not living.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
You know, it doesn't exist, it doesn't exist.
Speaker 3 (48:13):
Yeah, so I would say is not living? You know,
A table with that wine is not living because you should.
Wine and food are very much you know. That's I
think that's why, you know, alcoholism rates and things in
Europe are a lot lower. It's just seen at dinner
as part of the food, and so when you've consumed
your food, you know, you know that, hey, that was it.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
You know, since you always have wine on your table.
We have wine on the table right now. And you're
sitting at a table and there's an empty seat next
to you, who from any walk of life, living or deceased,
famous or not famous, do you wish you could sit
next to and open up a bottle of your sparkling
wine and share with them.
Speaker 3 (48:54):
This sounds really odd, but the Cartusian monks, who are
the wine makers at Cartoizohole where my dad learned, would
be really just. I would love to know how reasoning,
you know, and their view of making wine and what
fourteen hundreds, you know, what our fifteen hundreds was like
compared to what we're doing today, because I mean, the
(49:15):
science is so different, you know, and understanding is so different.
So how did you make a wine that continued to
be satisfying? And people, I mean I know that everyone
says I mixed it up, and yeah, yeah, yeah, I
get that. But you still have to. I mean, even
if they did some of that, there was still probably
the best wine was always reserved for the best occasions,
So there had to be best wine, right And how
(49:37):
did you make the best wine? How did you go
through that? Because I feel like sometimes despite all the
knowledge we have, we're we've lost some knowledge in the
trade essence of you know how things, you know, how
being in like in tune with like you know how
plants are growing and things like that. You know, That's
that's all they had to rely on, right, you know,
(49:59):
so they were very in tune with a certain aspect
of it, but maybe had no none of the science.
I feel like nowadays it's a lot of the science,
but we're missing some of that.
Speaker 4 (50:10):
So where's the middle ground? You know?
Speaker 3 (50:11):
So I'd love to talk to them to say what
was it like?
Speaker 2 (50:14):
You know, I was it like not to have refrigeration?
Speaker 4 (50:17):
Yeah? How'd you keep wine clean? You know? Like? How
did you rack? How did you settle? You know?
Speaker 3 (50:22):
I mean obviously we know some of these things, but
you never know. I mean, like every winemaker is their tricks.
You watch a certain winemaker do a certain thing, or
a certain viticulturists do a certain thing in the vineyard.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
That's different than the other.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
Even though it's the same practice, they just had their
unique way of doing it, you know, So.
Speaker 4 (50:37):
Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
Well, Christian, we would come to that part where let's
talk a little bit about your wines and how they
align themselves with music, our little wine soundtrack game. While
we've been talking and I've been sipping on one of
your sparkling wines. It is not a traditional blend. It
is a blend of reasoning. No sorry, sorry, Grunervelt.
Speaker 4 (51:02):
Verse, Tremeiner and Muller thirty out. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, yeah, So let's start with this one. Tell me,
you know, maybe like a quick description, and then what
kind of genre, musician or specific song does it conjure
up for you?
Speaker 3 (51:16):
I like, I've been thinking about this and the answer
might kind of perplex you, but I'll get to why
that this. This is a non traditional blend. So I
poured this because you know, I think you probably show
up and everyone's pulling a reserve kuba or something, which
I do have here for us to try after this.
But the one we poured you first was our Totonia blend,
(51:36):
so that's our heritage. It kind of kind of gives
us a connection to our heritage. And I poured this
because it's it's just fun. It's just different, right, it
changes the kind of paradigm in the mind of like
what's being produced.
Speaker 4 (51:50):
In certain regions.
Speaker 3 (51:52):
Now applying that to music, you know, yeah, and this
is probably the modern German in me. It's kind of
like a house trance, you know, like it's just it's
it's the variety. The category is different, right, It's not
in the if I poured you the reserve, right, I
might say like jazz, smooth jazz, or classical music or
(52:13):
something like that. Right, it evokes elegance and things. This
is fun and it's just meant to be fun, and
it's meant to be enjoyed and and and I think
you know, you know, the house trance music is is
kind of you know, in the same same vein you know,
it's play of clubs. It's meant to be fun and
enjoyed and and and consumed without sort of regret because
(52:36):
it's like just you let the mind go and you
enjoy it and you don't worry about the paradigms that
exist in society or that you know at that moment and.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
What about your pino gree sparkling wine.
Speaker 3 (52:49):
Yeah, and that's a little more I mean, to be fair,
that is a champagne grape. You know, it's an alloud
grape and champagne. So it is a little more what
do we call something like that, maybe like you know,
maybe modern jazz, you know, you know, kind of because
it's like it's still refine, but it has some experimentation
(53:10):
to it, because you know, how often do you find
a labeled pinogree on its own?
Speaker 2 (53:14):
And what about your blunk to blunk?
Speaker 3 (53:16):
And so we'll go backward. I think that's more. We're
gonna set the stage. It'll be fun, you know. I
think dressing up and going to the symphony is a
really fun outing and your mind can really be perplexed
and moved by the music. So I think the sophistication
level changes, you know, uh, in your mind. So you're
kind of moving through the gears. I think with our wines,
(53:36):
you know, you can go from the classical you know,
uh mind benders, you know, where it's still an enjoyable
evening and and elevated evening down to hey, let's just party,
let's have a really good time and enjoy a wine.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
Okay, one more. You're a Pino no war You're blunked
in war man.
Speaker 4 (53:54):
That's like funk.
Speaker 3 (53:55):
You know, like it's like, uh, you know, you should
you should be jammed. I think Pino just lives and
you know, like like just it's got its own category,
you know, of funk music. I think is is you know,
like I don't know why. It just always comes to
mind with Pino Noir. It's just earthy and and and edgy,
and I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
Yeah, you survived, you did it, You did it. Okay,
we've been talking a while. It's been really fun at
talking with you. But I have one last question two
parter quick question. Where in the world is at the
top of your bucket list to explore? You've traveled a lot,
You've you you do travel a lot. You explore the
(54:36):
world of wine. Where do you want to go that
you have not been?
Speaker 3 (54:41):
One place bucket list is Portugal, but in particular port
I just I you know, that's a red wine. Like
I said, I drink scant amounts of red wine, but
port just blows me away.
Speaker 4 (54:52):
When you go to a place.
Speaker 3 (54:54):
And they're pouring a you know, I'll get two hundred
year old port in your mind is just bent, you know.
And I know there's preservation happening there with the you know,
the alcohol, but I mean, what a beautiful country and cuisine.
Speaker 4 (55:05):
You know that.
Speaker 3 (55:06):
I've had experience within the US, but I haven't been
able to yet it, which just sounds senile being in
you know, Germany and Portugal are not far away, but
it's just a it's just a country.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
Everyone has to get somewhere for the first time. And
so for somebody who hasn't come here to Yakima Valley,
how can they come here and how can they find you?
What will they find when they come here in terms
of visiting you?
Speaker 3 (55:29):
Absolutely? Uh okay, I've got two quips about this. I'll
keep one really quick. But a one critic mentioned the
Yakma Valley being tacos and reasoning at one point, and
I think it was meant to be kind of like
a put down or a stab, and I thought, oh,
you have that's what you're missing in life. I think
that's what everyone's missing, as a little tacos and reasoning,
(55:51):
and so I think in that esense, you know, that's
what you'll find in the Acma valley. You know, people
compare happen so Nooma and things all the time.
Speaker 4 (55:59):
I think while wall.
Speaker 3 (56:00):
Is probably the more let's see refined, normal, high end
the wine experience that you're expecting. In the Aqua Valley,
you're often going to find an owner, You're off going
to find a grower. You're often going to find a
people working the land there.
Speaker 2 (56:15):
Well, and here we're you're a state property, so drive
up a hill, vineyards around and a big tasting room.
What do you offer here when people come?
Speaker 3 (56:26):
So we do do a little small bite, so go
with the food, and we offer flights of wine. We
offer bottle service. You can make a reservation, hang out
on the patio for a while. We have little events
and things. It's definitely worth a visit. Will take care
of you. We'll make sure you have a good time.
We really want to showcase Washington wine. And we're kind
of right at the start of the Aqua Valley, so
(56:48):
it's a great spot to go because it really opens
up the rest of the valley. You can get the
pallette going, or you can end the day with us
and have a little bite. And I wouldn't say, you know,
we always use cleanse the palette, you know, after a
long day of wine tasting, but I mean it is.
It's a way of kind of having something fresh at
the end of the end of it.
Speaker 2 (57:07):
Fantastic Christian. Thank you for joining us on Wine Soundtrack.
I'm ready to go taste some more bubbles because like
you said, it's fun.
Speaker 4 (57:15):
Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (57:15):
So let's go have fun.
Speaker 1 (57:19):
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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