April 2, 2025 • 41 mins
In 2008 Jessica Munnell approached Tom Merkle about working together to create a wine that featured his grapes. A partnership was formed that became Wautoma Wines – made of the best Cabernet Sauvignon from Wautoma Springs. Eight years later Rachel Mercer joined the duo and the three set their sights on increasing production and opening a Tasting Room. In December 2019, Wautoma Springs Tasting Room in Prosser, WA, opened. A small tasting space that showcases tapas, tinned seafood, local produce and Wautoma Springs wines.The epitome of a boutique winery, producing extremely small-lot, hand-crafted wines from people who know the business inside and out. This isn't a venture capitalist's or a lawyer's winery - not that there's anything wrong with that. We know the soil. We know the vines. And we know how to make good wine. Our story is in every bottle.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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 Alison
Levine and today I'm in the Yakima Valley at Watuma
Springs with Jessica Minnell, the owner and winemaker. And Jessica,
welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell us a little bit
about Watoma Springs.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well, Hi, Allison, thank you so much for being here
and coming to visit us all away from Los Angeles,
and you brought the hot weather with you. So, Watoma Springs.
We are a boutique small winery here in Yakama Valley,
one of many of those. I think we're well over
one thousand wineries in Washington State now wow. And the
(00:48):
majority of those wineries we're all probably what I'd say,
maybe this is me rough guessing ninety percent of the
one thousand wineries, or probably ten thousand cases or less.
We're one small winery in seeing lots of other beautiful
small wineries that you're going to be visiting on your trip.
Wa Thomas Springs is the name of our winery, and
(01:10):
it's actually the name of my business partner's first vineyard
that he planted and is where I met him twenty
four years ago. Now, I was a bit of culturist
at the beginning of my career, and my region included
his vineyard, which happened to be planted right next to
Cold Creek Vineyard, which is kind of an iconic vineyard
in Washington State. So he got the land. I think
(01:33):
he was originally on planting cherries and then he saw, oh,
there's right next to him. It was literally Cold Creek Vineyard,
separated by this cold creek that never actually has any water,
and he was like, you know, they seem to be
tuned pretty good with their Caberney savignon. So I think,
maybe I'll just plant Caberney savignon instead of cherries. And
so that's what he did, and that was in nineteen
(01:54):
ninety nine when he planted that vineyard, and his grapes
from that vineyard have made into a lot of really
great reserve wines in Washington. And so we worked together
for a few years and I made the switch over
to the dark side of wine making in two thousand
and three. I quit my job and went to Australia
for a harvest and came back to the States pursuing
(02:16):
a career in wine making and was lucky enough to
get to do that. And so years later when my
husband I started our family, and I decided to take
some time off to stay home with when our daughter
was born. Tom Merkele my business partner. He wanted had
he wanted to be involved in a winery. He's a
great grower, and I think he had some friends, you know,
(02:37):
colleagues that were great growers with that were starting to
start their own wineries and he wanted to do that
as well. But he is a slippery slope. He got
drawn in. But he's so he has his own vineyards
that he manages and owns, and he's partners in a
few vineyards, and then he oversees all the vineyards for
(02:58):
one of the biggest growers in the States. So he's
a little bit too busy to be starting in his
own winery. So anyway, we started talking. I was finally
not no longer working for I had been working for
Chef to Saint Michel, where it was a big noto
to have your own brand, So you know, it was
released from that, so I was able to start my
own project, and he wanted to be involved. So we
(03:20):
just were like, Okay, let's see how this goes. And
for about a decade we made around two hundred cases
of wine a year, all reds from his vineyards, and
we had a great broker that sold the wine locally
here in the Yakama Valley and up into the Tri Cities.
And I went back to work, worked for different wineries
and we, you know, kept it going. I would make
(03:42):
the wine wherever it happened to be working. You know,
the most places be like, oh yeah, sure, two hundred cases,
go ahead, not yourself happy. And so with the hope
someday that you know, we would do this full time.
I would open a tasting room and I would quit
my job and I'd be doing Watima Springs full time.
And that happened. I quit working for other people in
twenty seventeen and we opened this space in two at
(04:04):
the end of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Well, so now you have grown, and your total case
production now is i'd say about twenty five hundred cases.
And you and you're sourcing from all of Tom's vineyards.
How many acres are you sourcing from, and what are
the various grapes that you're working with.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
So we are taking, you know, in general, a few
tons out of a block, and he has well Wat
Timas Springs is probably it's all reds, and it's all Bordeaus,
maybe around one hundred and twenty acres there Jmst Vineyard
he's the t and the Jmst which is the north
just north west of Wa Timas Springs is where all
(04:43):
of our whites come from. That's probably between two hundred acres.
Connor Lee is another vineyard just outside of Othello, cooler site.
We get a little bit of them all back there,
so and that's probably you know, two hundred plus an
acre vineyards. So, oh, I have no idea how many
acres this guy is. You get to you get to
(05:04):
just pick from all of that exactly exactly exactly. We
have our rose marked out, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Now obviously you said bordovarieties and there's Malbeck, so there's Cabernet,
Cabernet Franc and mel Beck, any other reds and what whites.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
So right now that's the it's yeah, Caberne, Savignon and
Caeberny Franc Malbeck. We will be bringing in some syrah
from the Rocks District this harvest twenty twenty four. And
then whites. We have Alberino Grenache blanc, a chardonnay we
make a rose from some serra that Tom grows for us,
and a Savian blanc.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And your wines are available one hundred percent direct to
consumer or you distributed it all.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
So we are distributed on a really small scale. We
have a distributor over on the west side of the
state in the Seattle area. We actually have a distributor
in la where you're from. Two guys that sell wines
only from the Yacama Valley. It's pretty awesome. Yeah, one
of the two partners, one of them grew up in
Yakaman and just loves the place, loves the wine, and yeah,
(06:06):
that's a passion for it. And then we have another
it's a small husband and wife that have a distributorship
in Idaho. So it's a.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Little distribution, but mostly a little gem to find in
the sea of wineries here in the Yakima Valley. So
I'm curious, Jessica, what is your first memory relevant to wine.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Well, I did not grow up in a wine family.
At all. So I was lucky enough to find wine
while in college, and I would say probably getting to
be really when I was a bit of culturist, and
so I was working with the growers on the grape side,
(06:48):
but I would once harvest was complete, the wine making
teams want to sit down with the growers and taste
the wines and talk about the quality, to discuss, you know,
what should be done. And I got to be part
of those tastings, and that's when the light bulb started
going off for me. And also being like one of
was what led me to wine making. Was I ended
(07:09):
up doing my masters all on wine grapes. And during
that process, the professor I was working for he would
make wine at his house and so all of his students,
I think, whether we wanted to or not, would have
to go help him.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I wanted to, you know, if you didn't grow up
in a wine world, in a wine family, and how
did you end up studying grapes.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I was studying horticulture. I wanted to be a greenhouse
manager and grow flowers. That was my huge goal. When
I was twenty years old and I was needed to
do an internship for my bachelor's and there's ws Washington
State University has a research station here in Prosser. So
I went out to the station to see if I
(07:53):
could get a job. And the guy that I ended
up working for, the guy, the professor, he handed me
a booklet with all the different crops that they grow.
So it's a research station, so there's a ton of
you know, tree fruit stuff, hops and grapes, no flowers,
and so I was like, oh, wine grapes. That sounds
kind of cool. So I ended up getting a job
working for him, and by then the summer the project
(08:16):
I've been working on, he offered for me to come
back and do my master's and continue that. And I
was smart enough to know not to turn down that opportunity.
So that that's my That was what, you know, introduced
me to the world of the wine industry. I realized
that this is a very passion driven industry. I thought, yeah,
this is a good thing. I should continue, you know,
(08:38):
follow this and see what it leads me. Not quite flowers,
but still good aromasmas. So you said that you had
the opportunity, you know, to taste when you were working
at this internship and working, not when you're working in
viticulture and then going into the cellar and tasting wines
and light bulbs started going off. Is there a particular
(08:59):
wine that stands out as one of those aha moment
wines that that set a light bulb off on and
maybe set you in a direction of making wine or
what turned you onto wine? What was the wine and
what was sort of that aha relev revelation? Well, you know,
it was probably further down in my wine making career.
(09:20):
I got to go on trip to Spain and Esparals.
I'm thinking about like a wine memory for me was
getting to go visit Vegas Cecilia and tasting wines. We
got a tour of the place from the winemaker and
I mean he I don't even think they bottle white wines,
(09:40):
but they had white wines they were making, and so
we were tasting white wines at a barrel and he
gave us a bottle of their second label to take
with us and for forever, like that's the Unico from
Vegas Cecilia is just cemented in my mind, is like
that's you know, the wine to reach for the you know,
(10:00):
either for quality, you know, like the benchmark for what
we should all be trying to do and or you know,
if it's you know, you're on a deserted island where
you take with your situation. Oh remember that? Remember that?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So if we were to come to your home, now,
what kind of wines would we find in your cellar?
Do you collect wines? Is it mostly local wines? Domestic
wines particular great varieties? What would we find if we
invited ourselves.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Over, well, please do because we have a problem with
having too much wine, you know, which is such such
a terrible yes, yes problem. We actually have two wine
large wine fridges in our garage, and one is full
of all of our friends, our colleagues wines, so you know,
our friends wines that we're members of the wine club
or you know, you're constantly trading wine. And then the
(10:52):
other set, the other fridge, has a lot of wines
from all over the place, so a lot of of
some Bordeaux, a lot of Spanish, some Italian, some Mexican wines,
French wines from our kids' birth years. Yeah, just you know,
so it's a bix of everything. We try hard to
(11:13):
taste wines from all over the place, you know, to
not get too settled into having a house palate, so
to speak.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So is there anything you opened up recently that drank
really well?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, you know what we just had. So my husband's
one of his friends from when he was studying wine
making in Mendoza. He's his friend is a wine maker
as well from Argentina but lives in Oregon, and they
were visiting us, and so my husband got the idea
to go pull four wines from twenty eighteen from different areas.
(11:44):
And so there's a Washington, there was an organ there
was a California. I can't remember the fourth one. I
think they were all New World anyway, but it was
a JB. Neufeld. Who they're here in Nyakama, I mean
there wine It was Beautifkay, they're all I don't even
think they're all cabs, they're all just twenty eighteens. He
had a NAPA twenty eighteen cab that was just gorgeous. Yeah, yeah.
(12:08):
And JB. Newfield's cab was lovely and it was a
fun you know, like he covered the bottles. So we were,
you know, we're just trying to made us you know,
this New World is Old World and try to go
from there as a Washington orient California, as you know,
and narrow it down as far as we could get,
which I love it.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, So working with different great varieties. Do you think
there's a such thing as a perfect variety now?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Because you know, everybody, we all we all like different things,
and thank goodness, because if everybody liked the same thing,
I'd be really boring. I think there might be a
perfect variety for each person. Like I personally love making
and drinking them all back because the dark, the deep
dark color. You know, it's like as soon as you
crush the fruit, it's like dark right away. Not that
(12:57):
you can taste that, but it gives you know, just
has this intent concentration of color. And then the tannins
tend to be really approachable, like you never get really dry, stringent,
you know, tannins from all beck. So it's a very
drinkable wine all the time. And it's a beautiful wine
to blend, and you know, really lifts other wines we blend.
(13:17):
It adds a lot of great color without adding too
much tannin structure to the blend. So I that's my
you know, close to perfection. Yeah, yeah, but you know
I would never turned down any variety myself.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Well, on that note, redwater rose, Oh, probably I would.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
That's such a dark question. It's like what time of
year is it, what are you eating? I guess I
would say probably red still are sparkling us sparkling. Yeah,
that was easier.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
So for somebody who hasn't had your wines yet, what
do you think they're missing out on?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Well, so you know, getting to play around with grapes
that you know, Tom grows, they're really you know, from
a sense of place. I think one thing with Washington
that maybe we've fallen short on is there's a lot
of wineries and there's not as many growers, and so
(14:23):
a lot of smaller guys are sourcing their fruit from
the same vineyards, which is not I think that's a
great thing. It's not a bad thing, but you might
like kind of you know, notice that, well I've had this,
you know, like all these wine wineries have cab from
the same similar styles. Yeah, and where our vineyard is
kind of you know, unique to us, and and we're
(14:46):
we're pretty low in it with the inputs in the
vineyard and also in the winery. You know, I'm just
really really trying not to mess up what has you know,
occurred the entire growing season. So our wines are are
you know, really, I just try to make very clean
wines without whether they're not overly oaked, they're they're dry,
(15:07):
and they really showcase the varietal from the vineyard. So
they're very food friendly wines. And you know, for for
wine lovers, they're they're usually pretty pretty uh, you know,
somebody will find something that they like, for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So for somebody who well, if space aliens, let me
clarify that, if space aliens were to land on your
property right now, come knock on the door and want
to come into your tasting room, which of your wines would.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
You want to welcome them with. That's a good question.
While we were talking about that, we tasted the Alberino,
and I think that I was to start with Alberino
just because it's our twenty two Alberino. It was it
was a nice, cool year, and so that particular vintage
it kind of represents more in my mind what Alberino
(15:54):
should be, and so it'd be like, this is what
this wine should taste like. So what do you think?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
It's a good It's a good opener, textured, bright, fresh,
quite delicious and you were saying a second ago that
you make wines that are food friendly. So I'm wondering
how you approach that when you say they're food friendly wines.
Does that mean just doesn't matter what you pair it with,
they'll go with anything. Or do you follow certain rules?
Do you think there are rules that you recommend? You know,
(16:21):
there's the old adage of white wine and fish and
red wine with meat. But I mean, are there other
rules you follow or guidelines you can share.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
No, we don't follow any rules. In fact, we have
at times we'll make for dinners sometimes of you know,
having the dessert with dry wines is not always an
easy thing, so we don't have any sweet wines here,
so the dessert course can always be a challenge. And
so quite often we'll make a burnt Best cheesecake which
(16:48):
is nice and rich but not overly sweet, and we'll
pair it with one of our cabs, as you know,
would that. Yeah, you have to get people to think
outside the box a little bit. And yeah, no, I
don't think I think you shouldn't follow the rules. You should,
you know, make sure that the food doesn't make the
wine taste sour, and if you know, if it enhances
the wine. Then you have a good pairing.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And then here in your tasting room, I know that
you have like tin fish and cheeses. With tin fishes
and cheeses, does it run the gamut with what they'll
pair with or is it also a more specified approach.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
There's definitely some ones that you know, we would recommend
with some of the tin fish more than others. But
the great thing about the tin fish is, you know,
maybe what people might think, like sardines, like, oh, it's
going to be salty, or even some we have anchovies,
you know, they're gonna think it's super salty, and these
are not. They're just really great quality tin fish. The
(17:46):
olive oil that these things are packed and is just
you know, you want to dunk your bread, and so
the the experiences this nice fattiness from the fish, not salty,
good rich olive oil, and with any wine, that's a
pretty good compliment.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So you're a small little producer, but you used to
work for a very big company. I mean you were
a viticulturalist there had to say, Michelle. But I mean
obviously two very different markets and audiences. And one of
the things that I know, especially your old company, follows
a lot is scores and I'm wondering what your opinion
(18:23):
is on wine.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Critics and scores.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
How does that play a role for you as a
wine maker and a small brand, or for you as
a wine drinker. In the world of wine, we don't
think about it too much. I think the average wine
consumer is probably not paying attention to scores other than
you know, maybe like if you go to Costco, which
is a great place to go buy wine, and they
(18:45):
have those scores listed, and you know, that might help
somebody make a decision, but nobody's asking coming in and
asking us, what what did you know did this? How
many points did biscuit score? We've been focusing more on
actually wine, like regional wine competitions where we might get
you know, a medal for you know, best of class
or best of show or those kinds of things where
(19:06):
it's a panel of judges and if you know your wine,
can you rise to the top and those kinds of situations.
It's that helps us and gets a little buzz going.
But we're we haven't worried too much about you know,
submitting and getting the ninety plus because I think there's
a you know, drinkers today. Wine drinkers today, you know,
(19:26):
I think aren't paying attention to that as much as
they used to. So I'm curious. You've been doing this
for a number of years now, twenty some odd years,
You've been making wine, You've been in the same area
for a long time. We know every vintage tells a
different story. But what what have you noticed over the years.
Do you see more commonality from vintage to vintage or
(19:47):
more variation? What have you seen and has it changed?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
No, I think there is variation. I mean, we were
talking about the twenty twenty two vintage, how it was
what it was really a cool year for us, not
the coolest on record. So you know, even though we
have the climate change in warming years and the more
extreme weather and all those things, we are still seeing
some you know, some vintage variations. I think the scary
(20:17):
thing about growing grapes right now is smoke taint is
something that we talk about every year that that didn't
used to be part of our conversation at all. You know,
it is worried about frost in the spring, frost in
the fall, and you know we always get plenty of
sunshine and heat here to get things ripe. So as
long as you could get your grapes off before frost
in the fall, then everything was good. And now it's
(20:38):
you know, I'd rather have a frost probably over a
smoke taint because you know, it's just, yeah, it's like.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
You can find ways around the frost. You can't remedy
smoke tante.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Yeah, it's big, yeah, and it's just everybody loses with
the smoke taint and you know, it's it's scary, and
there's not a way for us to really, you know,
deal with it in the winery. And so that become,
i think our new norm that nobody you know, would
like to deal with.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
But in terms of vintage variation, I mean, that's an
extenuating circumsis obviously that's a result of climate change. But
the vintages themselves, i mean, are more consistent.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I would say we have pretty consistent vintages here in
eastern Washington, just because we don't get any significant rainfall
during the growing season. We get six to eight inches
of rain that's primarily during the winter months, so we
have lots of sunshine, hot days, cool nights. Everything's irrigated,
you know, with JP irrigation, so we have complete control
over our canopy growth, so we're able to dial in
(21:41):
the canopy and get good fruit exposure. You know, things
are just pretty straightforward and simple here. Yeah, so that
I think that that's just the way Eastern Washington is.
It's just so there's pretty yeah, uniform from year to year,
for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Are there any sort of signs or predictors you look
for that are going to tell you what a harvest
will be?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Uh? Well, you know, but like right now, we're sampling,
you know, our all of our blocks like crazy. So
we're looking at the numbers and I'm out tasting the
fruit every day, and I think, you know, we've had
this year. We had a lot of heat, but it
was early early on before variasion, and so I've been thinking,
you know, it's gonna be one of those years where
all the acid's gone, and that's not the case. So
(22:22):
we're you know, tasting and you know, tasting tons of
acid in the fruit, and the numbers are showing that
the PAHs are still really low. So that's to me.
And and there's n a lot of like good looking
fruit out there. So I think we're set up to
have a really beautiful year. We have a lot of
good quality fruit. The the acids still there, flavors are
(22:42):
are already there, so we're just getting kind of waiting
for the sugar. So it's kind of that perfect storm
where we're gonna be able to pick when we want
to instead of like you know, sometimes we you know,
call it hang time where we'll leave the fruit hanging,
like the sugars keep climbing and we're hanging waiting for
flavor development. And I think we're that won't be the
issue this year.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
So right now, all all the lights are green and
you're going ahead. Everything's looking good. So do you have
any rituals that you do at the start of harvest,
any traditions for yourself personally or for your team.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
When I've worked at other wineries, I'd always open up
a bottle of champagne and pour it into the hopper.
Now that I'm kind of on my own, so I
show up and sort the fruit at the sorting tables.
If I do, and I bring donuts for everybody, that's
my ritual. It's kind of sad, you know, champagne you
(23:39):
can go home and drink it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, So do you spend a lot of time still
in the vineyards. I mean, were you are a viticultures
by training. Are you out in the vineyards on a
regular basis?
Speaker 3 (23:50):
This is the time of year I'm out in the vineyards.
I try to get out there throughout the year. But
to be honest, you know, Tom just gets everything dialed,
and well, yeah, I I don't feel a need at
all to to you know, be out there bugging him.
I probably should just you know, bug him, because that
(24:12):
needs to be done on a regular basis. But no, no,
it's more just you know, right now, is you know,
July On is making sure, you know, like looking to
see if there's green pass has been done, any green
clusters has been dropped, and you know, just visiting everything
once a week, tasting and seeing how the flavors are developing.
And do you have a tendency to talk to the
(24:34):
vines when you're out there? Not? I know, Yeah, well
I guess I talk to myself, so maybe, you know,
but yeah, just walk up and down the row.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
And you leave the talking to the vines to Tom. Yeah,
but when they come into the winery and they're in
the tank or in the burrel, do you talk to it?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Then? Do you play music? To your wine.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Do you have any philosophies about attitude and how that
affects wine?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
And not the one, but well the winery where we
make our wine, they play all sorts of like every
genre of music really really loud, so the wines are
getting serenaded. But when I'm rehydrating the east, I was
giving a little pep talk about like hey, you know
you can do it, give a little positive energy, like
(25:19):
go on, fer met with honor get in there.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Do it.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
See there is talking. Absolutely, It's all about energy.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
So I know you said when that you had wanted
to work with flowers and run a nursery. Is from
a little from a when you were a little girl.
Is that what you wanted to do when you grew up?
Is that something you always knew or was there another
dream before that?
Speaker 1 (25:40):
No?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
I And when I was in high school, I worked
for you know, I need a job. I ended up
getting a job at a nursery and just loved being
outside and being with, you know, being out like trimming
the roses or helping people find plants, and I just loved,
you know. So I studied article culture at Washington State
(26:01):
University and just always love the sun, you know, being
a scientist and especially with plants. So I was very
fortunate to find viticulture in the wine industry because you know,
you still I can grow. I have a tomato garden
now home, and I have lots of flower pots, but
I can you know, I think being in the wine
industry is a winner. And what do you do? How
(26:25):
do you spend your free time when you're not working? Well,
I have two kids, so that's you know, takes up
a lot of time. Well, I mean that doesn't take
up a lot of time, but spend time with our family.
We love to travel when we can, but right now
it's yeah, kids, I mean they just started school. We
have one graduating this year, so the focus center of
(26:46):
our life has changed to like the next step with
you know, going off to college and all those things.
So the travel when we can and any other activities
you like to do or aspire to do again one
day when you're empty nesting bigger garden. We do love
to you know, as a family, we tried to well
(27:10):
travel to wine countries and wine regions when we can.
Our kids love to ski, so that's you know, something
that is I hope to continue even once they're at
a nest, you know, they'll come back and want to
do something like that with us. So while your energy
is right now on your kids as they go off
into the next phase of their life, when you're planning
(27:32):
a romantic evening for you and your husband, or maybe
when you aspire to later down in another year or so,
what sort of wines do you open that say, this
is a romantic evening, we're setting up for a different
night than just an average night. Oh, that's a good question.
So he my husband's in the wine industry as well,
but he works some for the ant Nori family. He's
(27:54):
working at stags Leep Wine Cellars and Napa. So we have,
you know, at our fingertips some very lovely nap up
wines as well as our you know, our colleagues here
in Washington. So in general we would probably well, we like,
we're both are huge fans of Sons, so we'd probably
open a Sansira to start, like all we're cooking and yeah,
(28:18):
either either go like international, you know, if there's an
Argentinian Mallbeck in our cellar for sure, or yeah, like
I mean the Stag's Leaved Pinet Cellars. Wines are pretty delicious.
So we know the special wines that get opened. Ye yeah,
it's yeah, it's you know, almost embarrassing to you know,
(28:42):
the wineset we get to have access to. Well, with two.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
People making wine in the wine industry, probably every night
you drink good wine and it isn't any different from
a romantic gave me to a regular evening.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
You just drink well yeah, yes, yeah, but there I mean,
so he hadn't be in Argentinian if he's going all
out with the grill, you know making. I saw though,
and I'm like, hey, I want to have you know,
something like that's going to stand up to this amazing meal.
You know that, you know, yeah, so it's gonna I
like talked about Mall Beck. I'd gravitate towards that, or
(29:15):
you know, know a really good cab which you know,
Yakama Valley could be it, or it could be a Nappa.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
So when you look back at your career, what would
you say is one of your proudest achievements to date?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Oh, you know, previous my last full time job before
I was focused on Watchoma one hundred percent, I was
at Mercer States just down the road and their family
owned winery and we while I was there, I was
there for about six years, I think, and we just
(29:51):
we grew the production significantly and got some pretty great
awards around, like Winer the Year and some good school
they were They're large enough that they submit for scores.
And I felt like when I, you know, I left,
I felt like it was we'd grown a lot in
a positive way and gotten some good attention. So, you
(30:12):
know which I think that was trying to honor them,
the family, you know that that put their faith in me,
and that felt really good. Oh that, I like that.
A proud achievement, helping other people. I like that. So
is there a piece of advice.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Someone gave you along the way, a parent, a mentor,
a teacher, a friend, a colleague that you carry with
you through life as part of your work ethic or
your life ethic.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Well, I can't think of anything specific other than you know,
I feel like I have friends along the way that
influenced me in my wine making style, and an influenced
me by either just you know, seeing their passion. And
(31:02):
there are ways of being innovative, and that's, you know,
because I think you can kind of, you know, maybe
be like this is how we do things and you know,
maybe stuck in the ways of the way you do things.
And I think that's been really helpful as having having
people in my life that don't allow themselves to get
(31:23):
stuck and they're always trying new things and wanting to
always you know, push downvelope and make the best wines
they can. And so that's yeah, like don't settle, just
keep you know, yeah, keep your you know, your mind open,
keep keeping on trying things. Yeah, yeah, so complete this sentence.
For me. A table without wine is like like working
(31:50):
without having music on. This is good because you know music,
we're going to talk music. You play it for the wine,
well you don't. The winery plays it for the winery
sitting here. Yeah, normally we have music plane all the time,
and so we've turned it off. But it's a little
(32:11):
weird being in this room and not having any music
going on.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
We're sitting at a table, there's an empty seat next
to you. You're a bottle of wine that you've made
is sitting on this table. And I'm wondering, who, from
any walk of life, living or deceased, known or unknown,
do you wish you could open up a bottle of
Watomas brings wine and share it with them.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Oh boy, that is My first thought was my husband,
which is, you know, you need to share with him
all the time. But because I love I love hearing
his feedback. This is aspirational, not realistic, my goodness. And
now I'm thinking like, wow, like a celebrity or a
(32:56):
rock star. Yeah, oh boy, who would I pick? Well,
when you see people like drinking wine and well, like,
I know Pink, she has her own wine. You know,
I love her. I just went and saw Madonna. I
(33:19):
would love to. I don't know if Madonna drinks wine,
but my god, it would be pretty cool to sit
down with her. And you know, you and Pink had
sure your cap fronks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, it's
pretty cool. You know, even athletes when you see them
have a glass of wine, it's just the coolest thing. Yeah,
and yeah, think about like what if they yeah, or
(33:40):
if I got to make their wine for them? How
cool would that be? Yeah? Yeah, I'm sure I'll think
of somebody better, you know, ten minutes, But feel free
to jump in if it comes to mind.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
But you mentioned the very earlier when we were talking
about one of your ah your aha moment wines. One
of them was the Vegas Cecilia, the let Me Go
and I'm curious. You are being sent off sent off
to a deserted islands, so what three wines would you
take with you?
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Oh? Well, the Vegas Cecilia when you go. Yeah, man,
we had a sparkling or champagne. I'm like, my memory
is horrific. We had a champagne for anniversary a few
years ago. That was, Oh my gosh, I think it
was like, well, I can't remember it, but it was amazing.
(34:30):
It was with the pairing with food. It was just delicious.
So I would take a champagne. Let's just Bill Kart
Salmone is probably one of my Like, if I could
drink that every day, I'd be happy. And probably I
would take a mall back from the Guatemalie region and Mendoza.
(34:55):
It's a specific wine maker winery. I don't know. Cotina
Sabata makes some really beautiful I mean they make a
ton of really, they make a chardinay that two chardenays
that are absolutely outstanding. One's called bones and the other
stones and they're just like fast levels through the roof. Yeah,
(35:16):
now I'm line. They get four wines.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
So that's okay, I'll overlook that one. So this has
been great.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
I've really enjoyed talking to you, and we're just coming towards.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
The end where we play our little game of pairing
wine with music. And I've had the pleasure to taste
some of your wines before we sat down to talk,
but I'm gonna let you kind of describe them. But
I was really captivated by the Alberino for its bright aromas,
for the citrus notes of stone fruit notes. The texture
was amazing on that wine. And since I've now described
(35:51):
that wine for you, which feel free to add, I'm
curious what kind of music, genre, artists, whatever does it
kind of what represents the same sensation for you, so that.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
I really appreciate your description. It's really nice. I For me,
it's like the I feel like that wine has a
lot of precision to it and it's kind of very
to the point and linear. So I was thinking, like,
I don't know, like some like tango music, that's you
know how en tango dancers are just very it's very sharp,
(36:27):
very exactly. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was kind of imagining.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Okay, Okay, and what about your Grenache Blanc the new
twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yeah, that's well, it has some nice acid, but it's
a little more it's rounded. I feel like that's the
white wine for red wine drinkers because of the body
on it. So it's a little rounder and softer. So
maybe something that's a little more mellow and chill. I
don't know, what do you think like fre genre of music?
(37:01):
I don't know. There's a band that I love called
Kolo that always chills me out. They're just it's they're
from Iceland, but it's very like bluesy and soulful. So yeah,
maybe that there you go, There you Go. And your
Cabernet savignon, well that we talked about when we were
(37:24):
tasting how it's got this nice core of acidity, but
it's just it's very kind of just pure fruit. This
is the one that's the professor. Professor. It's all neutral oak,
so the the fruit really is the showcase. And then
that particular clone has this just core of acidity that
makes it such a food friendly wine. So it's more
yea more pure cab and bright and fresh. So maybe
(37:50):
something a little like jazzy.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
And then last one and then you're off the hook
on this one, your beloved Malbeck.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Oh that's like maybe something a little like bluesy and
chill with that because it's just it's well, you know,
I mean again, you can't taste the color, but when
you pour it. We named to inky because every time
I be writing my tasting notes, so it's you know,
write inky black, inky, dark, inky color, and then the
tannins are so supple and soft, so it's like dark
(38:21):
and brooding, but really approachable and friendly. So are we
back to like maybe blues or you know, something like that? Sure, sure,
no more. I won't make you do more. Answer no,
but just go.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
I'll move back to to my big final question as
we come to the end of this is what wine
making region is at the top of your.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Bucket list to explore?
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Boy, so many. I feel like, you know, I've only
scratched the surface and of places I've been able to visit. Man,
there I haven't yet to be in South Africa. That's
definitely on the top of my list. Places we have
not gone. I've been very fortunate to go to. You know,
(39:10):
I've been through Chilean Mendoza, Argentina, not thoroughly but been
able to visit and been to you know, places in
France and a little bit in Italy. But yes, we
haven't have not visited Africa yet, So South Africa and
wine region is yeah there right.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
And if people want to come here to the Yakima Valley,
how can they get here?
Speaker 3 (39:31):
How can they find you? What will they find when
they get you get here? Where will they find you? Well,
we are located in the town of Prosser in Washington.
We are in Vintner's Village in Prosser. So be nice
thing about visiting us is you can park your car
and drive or drive park your car and walk to
about half a dozen other wineries right nearby us. And
we are sitting towards the south end of Vintnor's Village.
(39:55):
But so you can google us and and find us
at Thomas Springs. And we're also actually have a tasting
room over in Woodenville on the west side of the
state near Seattle, and we're in the warehouse district over there,
So we have two locations that you can experience our wines. Great.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
So if you're in Seattle, Woodenville's just a hop, skip
and a jump outside the city taste the wine, and
if you come here, what's really cool is it's also
got a little retail shop with gourmet chocolates and vinegars
and I don't know all sorts of goodies, honeys and mustards,
and of course there's the tin fish, a whole wall
of them to pick from, and cheeses, so you can
(40:32):
enjoy them here or take them to go.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Yes, absolutely, and quite a few of the items we
sell we will feature in our menu so you can
enjoy them, you have us prepare them for you, or
you can open them up yourselves and enjoy.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Well, Jessica, it's been a pleasure hanging out with you,
chatting with you. Thank you for joining us on Wine Soundtrack.
Really enjoy the wines. Love the labels. I will just
add they're really cool labels. The white wines have these
beautiful floral images, and then the red wines have this
cool black and white kind of a modern art drawing
and two female artists. So I think that another reason
(41:08):
to seek out the wines is just for the cool labels. So,
but thank you for joining us and cheers.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Yeah, thank you so much for your tank.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Thank you, 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 Alison
Levine and today I'm in the Yakima Valley at Watuma
Springs with Jessica Minnell, the owner and winemaker. And Jessica,
welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell us a little bit
about Watoma Springs.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well, Hi, Allison, thank you so much for being here
and coming to visit us all away from Los Angeles,
and you brought the hot weather with you. So, Watoma Springs.
We are a boutique small winery here in Yakama Valley,
one of many of those. I think we're well over
one thousand wineries in Washington State now wow. And the
(00:48):
majority of those wineries we're all probably what I'd say,
maybe this is me rough guessing ninety percent of the
one thousand wineries, or probably ten thousand cases or less.
We're one small winery in seeing lots of other beautiful
small wineries that you're going to be visiting on your trip.
Wa Thomas Springs is the name of our winery, and
(01:10):
it's actually the name of my business partner's first vineyard
that he planted and is where I met him twenty
four years ago. Now, I was a bit of culturist
at the beginning of my career, and my region included
his vineyard, which happened to be planted right next to
Cold Creek Vineyard, which is kind of an iconic vineyard
in Washington State. So he got the land. I think
(01:33):
he was originally on planting cherries and then he saw, oh,
there's right next to him. It was literally Cold Creek Vineyard,
separated by this cold creek that never actually has any water,
and he was like, you know, they seem to be
tuned pretty good with their Caberney savignon. So I think,
maybe I'll just plant Caberney savignon instead of cherries. And
so that's what he did, and that was in nineteen
(01:54):
ninety nine when he planted that vineyard, and his grapes
from that vineyard have made into a lot of really
great reserve wines in Washington. And so we worked together
for a few years and I made the switch over
to the dark side of wine making in two thousand
and three. I quit my job and went to Australia
for a harvest and came back to the States pursuing
(02:16):
a career in wine making and was lucky enough to
get to do that. And so years later when my
husband I started our family, and I decided to take
some time off to stay home with when our daughter
was born. Tom Merkele my business partner. He wanted had
he wanted to be involved in a winery. He's a
great grower, and I think he had some friends, you know,
(02:37):
colleagues that were great growers with that were starting to
start their own wineries and he wanted to do that
as well. But he is a slippery slope. He got
drawn in. But he's so he has his own vineyards
that he manages and owns, and he's partners in a
few vineyards, and then he oversees all the vineyards for
(02:58):
one of the biggest growers in the States. So he's
a little bit too busy to be starting in his
own winery. So anyway, we started talking. I was finally
not no longer working for I had been working for
Chef to Saint Michel, where it was a big noto
to have your own brand, So you know, it was
released from that, so I was able to start my
own project, and he wanted to be involved. So we
(03:20):
just were like, Okay, let's see how this goes. And
for about a decade we made around two hundred cases
of wine a year, all reds from his vineyards, and
we had a great broker that sold the wine locally
here in the Yakama Valley and up into the Tri Cities.
And I went back to work, worked for different wineries
and we, you know, kept it going. I would make
(03:42):
the wine wherever it happened to be working. You know,
the most places be like, oh yeah, sure, two hundred cases,
go ahead, not yourself happy. And so with the hope
someday that you know, we would do this full time.
I would open a tasting room and I would quit
my job and I'd be doing Watima Springs full time.
And that happened. I quit working for other people in
twenty seventeen and we opened this space in two at
(04:04):
the end of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Well, so now you have grown, and your total case
production now is i'd say about twenty five hundred cases.
And you and you're sourcing from all of Tom's vineyards.
How many acres are you sourcing from, and what are
the various grapes that you're working with.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
So we are taking, you know, in general, a few
tons out of a block, and he has well Wat
Timas Springs is probably it's all reds, and it's all Bordeaus,
maybe around one hundred and twenty acres there Jmst Vineyard
he's the t and the Jmst which is the north
just north west of Wa Timas Springs is where all
(04:43):
of our whites come from. That's probably between two hundred acres.
Connor Lee is another vineyard just outside of Othello, cooler site.
We get a little bit of them all back there,
so and that's probably you know, two hundred plus an
acre vineyards. So, oh, I have no idea how many
acres this guy is. You get to you get to
(05:04):
just pick from all of that exactly exactly exactly. We
have our rose marked out, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Now obviously you said bordovarieties and there's Malbeck, so there's Cabernet,
Cabernet Franc and mel Beck, any other reds and what whites.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
So right now that's the it's yeah, Caberne, Savignon and
Caeberny Franc Malbeck. We will be bringing in some syrah
from the Rocks District this harvest twenty twenty four. And
then whites. We have Alberino Grenache blanc, a chardonnay we
make a rose from some serra that Tom grows for us,
and a Savian blanc.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And your wines are available one hundred percent direct to
consumer or you distributed it all.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
So we are distributed on a really small scale. We
have a distributor over on the west side of the
state in the Seattle area. We actually have a distributor
in la where you're from. Two guys that sell wines
only from the Yacama Valley. It's pretty awesome. Yeah, one
of the two partners, one of them grew up in
Yakaman and just loves the place, loves the wine, and yeah,
(06:06):
that's a passion for it. And then we have another
it's a small husband and wife that have a distributorship
in Idaho. So it's a.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Little distribution, but mostly a little gem to find in
the sea of wineries here in the Yakima Valley. So
I'm curious, Jessica, what is your first memory relevant to wine.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Well, I did not grow up in a wine family.
At all. So I was lucky enough to find wine
while in college, and I would say probably getting to
be really when I was a bit of culturist, and
so I was working with the growers on the grape side,
(06:48):
but I would once harvest was complete, the wine making
teams want to sit down with the growers and taste
the wines and talk about the quality, to discuss, you know,
what should be done. And I got to be part
of those tastings, and that's when the light bulb started
going off for me. And also being like one of
was what led me to wine making. Was I ended
(07:09):
up doing my masters all on wine grapes. And during
that process, the professor I was working for he would
make wine at his house and so all of his students,
I think, whether we wanted to or not, would have
to go help him.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I wanted to, you know, if you didn't grow up
in a wine world, in a wine family, and how
did you end up studying grapes.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I was studying horticulture. I wanted to be a greenhouse
manager and grow flowers. That was my huge goal. When
I was twenty years old and I was needed to
do an internship for my bachelor's and there's ws Washington
State University has a research station here in Prosser. So
I went out to the station to see if I
(07:53):
could get a job. And the guy that I ended
up working for, the guy, the professor, he handed me
a booklet with all the different crops that they grow.
So it's a research station, so there's a ton of
you know, tree fruit stuff, hops and grapes, no flowers,
and so I was like, oh, wine grapes. That sounds
kind of cool. So I ended up getting a job
working for him, and by then the summer the project
(08:16):
I've been working on, he offered for me to come
back and do my master's and continue that. And I
was smart enough to know not to turn down that opportunity.
So that that's my That was what, you know, introduced
me to the world of the wine industry. I realized
that this is a very passion driven industry. I thought, yeah,
this is a good thing. I should continue, you know,
(08:38):
follow this and see what it leads me. Not quite flowers,
but still good aromasmas. So you said that you had
the opportunity, you know, to taste when you were working
at this internship and working, not when you're working in
viticulture and then going into the cellar and tasting wines
and light bulbs started going off. Is there a particular
(08:59):
wine that stands out as one of those aha moment
wines that that set a light bulb off on and
maybe set you in a direction of making wine or
what turned you onto wine? What was the wine and
what was sort of that aha relev revelation? Well, you know,
it was probably further down in my wine making career.
(09:20):
I got to go on trip to Spain and Esparals.
I'm thinking about like a wine memory for me was
getting to go visit Vegas Cecilia and tasting wines. We
got a tour of the place from the winemaker and
I mean he I don't even think they bottle white wines,
(09:40):
but they had white wines they were making, and so
we were tasting white wines at a barrel and he
gave us a bottle of their second label to take
with us and for forever, like that's the Unico from
Vegas Cecilia is just cemented in my mind, is like
that's you know, the wine to reach for the you know,
(10:00):
either for quality, you know, like the benchmark for what
we should all be trying to do and or you know,
if it's you know, you're on a deserted island where
you take with your situation. Oh remember that? Remember that?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So if we were to come to your home, now,
what kind of wines would we find in your cellar?
Do you collect wines? Is it mostly local wines? Domestic
wines particular great varieties? What would we find if we
invited ourselves.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Over, well, please do because we have a problem with
having too much wine, you know, which is such such
a terrible yes, yes problem. We actually have two wine
large wine fridges in our garage, and one is full
of all of our friends, our colleagues wines, so you know,
our friends wines that we're members of the wine club
or you know, you're constantly trading wine. And then the
(10:52):
other set, the other fridge, has a lot of wines
from all over the place, so a lot of of
some Bordeaux, a lot of Spanish, some Italian, some Mexican wines,
French wines from our kids' birth years. Yeah, just you know,
so it's a bix of everything. We try hard to
(11:13):
taste wines from all over the place, you know, to
not get too settled into having a house palate, so
to speak.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
So is there anything you opened up recently that drank
really well?
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, you know what we just had. So my husband's
one of his friends from when he was studying wine
making in Mendoza. He's his friend is a wine maker
as well from Argentina but lives in Oregon, and they
were visiting us, and so my husband got the idea
to go pull four wines from twenty eighteen from different areas.
(11:44):
And so there's a Washington, there was an organ there
was a California. I can't remember the fourth one. I
think they were all New World anyway, but it was
a JB. Neufeld. Who they're here in Nyakama, I mean
there wine It was Beautifkay, they're all I don't even
think they're all cabs, they're all just twenty eighteens. He
had a NAPA twenty eighteen cab that was just gorgeous. Yeah, yeah.
(12:08):
And JB. Newfield's cab was lovely and it was a
fun you know, like he covered the bottles. So we were,
you know, we're just trying to made us you know,
this New World is Old World and try to go
from there as a Washington orient California, as you know,
and narrow it down as far as we could get,
which I love it.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, So working with different great varieties. Do you think
there's a such thing as a perfect variety now?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Because you know, everybody, we all we all like different things,
and thank goodness, because if everybody liked the same thing,
I'd be really boring. I think there might be a
perfect variety for each person. Like I personally love making
and drinking them all back because the dark, the deep
dark color. You know, it's like as soon as you
crush the fruit, it's like dark right away. Not that
(12:57):
you can taste that, but it gives you know, just
has this intent concentration of color. And then the tannins
tend to be really approachable, like you never get really dry, stringent,
you know, tannins from all beck. So it's a very
drinkable wine all the time. And it's a beautiful wine
to blend, and you know, really lifts other wines we blend.
(13:17):
It adds a lot of great color without adding too
much tannin structure to the blend. So I that's my
you know, close to perfection. Yeah, yeah, but you know
I would never turned down any variety myself.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Well, on that note, redwater rose, Oh, probably I would.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
That's such a dark question. It's like what time of
year is it, what are you eating? I guess I
would say probably red still are sparkling us sparkling. Yeah,
that was easier.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
So for somebody who hasn't had your wines yet, what
do you think they're missing out on?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Well, so you know, getting to play around with grapes
that you know, Tom grows, they're really you know, from
a sense of place. I think one thing with Washington
that maybe we've fallen short on is there's a lot
of wineries and there's not as many growers, and so
(14:23):
a lot of smaller guys are sourcing their fruit from
the same vineyards, which is not I think that's a
great thing. It's not a bad thing, but you might
like kind of you know, notice that, well I've had this,
you know, like all these wine wineries have cab from
the same similar styles. Yeah, and where our vineyard is
kind of you know, unique to us, and and we're
(14:46):
we're pretty low in it with the inputs in the
vineyard and also in the winery. You know, I'm just
really really trying not to mess up what has you know,
occurred the entire growing season. So our wines are are
you know, really, I just try to make very clean
wines without whether they're not overly oaked, they're they're dry,
(15:07):
and they really showcase the varietal from the vineyard. So
they're very food friendly wines. And you know, for for
wine lovers, they're they're usually pretty pretty uh, you know,
somebody will find something that they like, for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So for somebody who well, if space aliens, let me
clarify that, if space aliens were to land on your
property right now, come knock on the door and want
to come into your tasting room, which of your wines would.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
You want to welcome them with. That's a good question.
While we were talking about that, we tasted the Alberino,
and I think that I was to start with Alberino
just because it's our twenty two Alberino. It was it
was a nice, cool year, and so that particular vintage
it kind of represents more in my mind what Alberino
(15:54):
should be, and so it'd be like, this is what
this wine should taste like. So what do you think?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
It's a good It's a good opener, textured, bright, fresh,
quite delicious and you were saying a second ago that
you make wines that are food friendly. So I'm wondering
how you approach that when you say they're food friendly wines.
Does that mean just doesn't matter what you pair it with,
they'll go with anything. Or do you follow certain rules?
Do you think there are rules that you recommend? You know,
(16:21):
there's the old adage of white wine and fish and
red wine with meat. But I mean, are there other
rules you follow or guidelines you can share.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
No, we don't follow any rules. In fact, we have
at times we'll make for dinners sometimes of you know,
having the dessert with dry wines is not always an
easy thing, so we don't have any sweet wines here,
so the dessert course can always be a challenge. And
so quite often we'll make a burnt Best cheesecake which
(16:48):
is nice and rich but not overly sweet, and we'll
pair it with one of our cabs, as you know,
would that. Yeah, you have to get people to think
outside the box a little bit. And yeah, no, I
don't think I think you shouldn't follow the rules. You should,
you know, make sure that the food doesn't make the
wine taste sour, and if you know, if it enhances
the wine. Then you have a good pairing.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
And then here in your tasting room, I know that
you have like tin fish and cheeses. With tin fishes
and cheeses, does it run the gamut with what they'll
pair with or is it also a more specified approach.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
There's definitely some ones that you know, we would recommend
with some of the tin fish more than others. But
the great thing about the tin fish is, you know,
maybe what people might think, like sardines, like, oh, it's
going to be salty, or even some we have anchovies,
you know, they're gonna think it's super salty, and these
are not. They're just really great quality tin fish. The
(17:46):
olive oil that these things are packed and is just
you know, you want to dunk your bread, and so
the the experiences this nice fattiness from the fish, not salty,
good rich olive oil, and with any wine, that's a
pretty good compliment.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So you're a small little producer, but you used to
work for a very big company. I mean you were
a viticulturalist there had to say, Michelle. But I mean
obviously two very different markets and audiences. And one of
the things that I know, especially your old company, follows
a lot is scores and I'm wondering what your opinion
(18:23):
is on wine.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Critics and scores.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
How does that play a role for you as a
wine maker and a small brand, or for you as
a wine drinker. In the world of wine, we don't
think about it too much. I think the average wine
consumer is probably not paying attention to scores other than
you know, maybe like if you go to Costco, which
is a great place to go buy wine, and they
(18:45):
have those scores listed, and you know, that might help
somebody make a decision, but nobody's asking coming in and
asking us, what what did you know did this? How
many points did biscuit score? We've been focusing more on
actually wine, like regional wine competitions where we might get
you know, a medal for you know, best of class
or best of show or those kinds of things where
(19:06):
it's a panel of judges and if you know your wine,
can you rise to the top and those kinds of situations.
It's that helps us and gets a little buzz going.
But we're we haven't worried too much about you know,
submitting and getting the ninety plus because I think there's
a you know, drinkers today. Wine drinkers today, you know,
(19:26):
I think aren't paying attention to that as much as
they used to. So I'm curious. You've been doing this
for a number of years now, twenty some odd years,
You've been making wine, You've been in the same area
for a long time. We know every vintage tells a
different story. But what what have you noticed over the years.
Do you see more commonality from vintage to vintage or
(19:47):
more variation? What have you seen and has it changed?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
No, I think there is variation. I mean, we were
talking about the twenty twenty two vintage, how it was
what it was really a cool year for us, not
the coolest on record. So you know, even though we
have the climate change in warming years and the more
extreme weather and all those things, we are still seeing
some you know, some vintage variations. I think the scary
(20:17):
thing about growing grapes right now is smoke taint is
something that we talk about every year that that didn't
used to be part of our conversation at all. You know,
it is worried about frost in the spring, frost in
the fall, and you know we always get plenty of
sunshine and heat here to get things ripe. So as
long as you could get your grapes off before frost
in the fall, then everything was good. And now it's
(20:38):
you know, I'd rather have a frost probably over a
smoke taint because you know, it's just, yeah, it's like.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
You can find ways around the frost. You can't remedy
smoke tante.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Yeah, it's big, yeah, and it's just everybody loses with
the smoke taint and you know, it's it's scary, and
there's not a way for us to really, you know,
deal with it in the winery. And so that become,
i think our new norm that nobody you know, would
like to deal with.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
But in terms of vintage variation, I mean, that's an
extenuating circumsis obviously that's a result of climate change. But
the vintages themselves, i mean, are more consistent.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I would say we have pretty consistent vintages here in
eastern Washington, just because we don't get any significant rainfall
during the growing season. We get six to eight inches
of rain that's primarily during the winter months, so we
have lots of sunshine, hot days, cool nights. Everything's irrigated,
you know, with JP irrigation, so we have complete control
over our canopy growth, so we're able to dial in
(21:41):
the canopy and get good fruit exposure. You know, things
are just pretty straightforward and simple here. Yeah, so that
I think that that's just the way Eastern Washington is.
It's just so there's pretty yeah, uniform from year to year,
for sure.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Are there any sort of signs or predictors you look
for that are going to tell you what a harvest
will be?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Uh? Well, you know, but like right now, we're sampling,
you know, our all of our blocks like crazy. So
we're looking at the numbers and I'm out tasting the
fruit every day, and I think, you know, we've had
this year. We had a lot of heat, but it
was early early on before variasion, and so I've been thinking,
you know, it's gonna be one of those years where
all the acid's gone, and that's not the case. So
(22:22):
we're you know, tasting and you know, tasting tons of
acid in the fruit, and the numbers are showing that
the PAHs are still really low. So that's to me.
And and there's n a lot of like good looking
fruit out there. So I think we're set up to
have a really beautiful year. We have a lot of
good quality fruit. The the acids still there, flavors are
(22:42):
are already there, so we're just getting kind of waiting
for the sugar. So it's kind of that perfect storm
where we're gonna be able to pick when we want
to instead of like you know, sometimes we you know,
call it hang time where we'll leave the fruit hanging,
like the sugars keep climbing and we're hanging waiting for
flavor development. And I think we're that won't be the
issue this year.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
So right now, all all the lights are green and
you're going ahead. Everything's looking good. So do you have
any rituals that you do at the start of harvest,
any traditions for yourself personally or for your team.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
When I've worked at other wineries, I'd always open up
a bottle of champagne and pour it into the hopper.
Now that I'm kind of on my own, so I
show up and sort the fruit at the sorting tables.
If I do, and I bring donuts for everybody, that's
my ritual. It's kind of sad, you know, champagne you
(23:39):
can go home and drink it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, So do you spend a lot of time still
in the vineyards. I mean, were you are a viticultures
by training. Are you out in the vineyards on a
regular basis?
Speaker 3 (23:50):
This is the time of year I'm out in the vineyards.
I try to get out there throughout the year. But
to be honest, you know, Tom just gets everything dialed,
and well, yeah, I I don't feel a need at
all to to you know, be out there bugging him.
I probably should just you know, bug him, because that
(24:12):
needs to be done on a regular basis. But no, no,
it's more just you know, right now, is you know,
July On is making sure, you know, like looking to
see if there's green pass has been done, any green
clusters has been dropped, and you know, just visiting everything
once a week, tasting and seeing how the flavors are developing.
And do you have a tendency to talk to the
(24:34):
vines when you're out there? Not? I know, Yeah, well
I guess I talk to myself, so maybe, you know,
but yeah, just walk up and down the row.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
And you leave the talking to the vines to Tom. Yeah,
but when they come into the winery and they're in
the tank or in the burrel, do you talk to it?
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Then? Do you play music? To your wine.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Do you have any philosophies about attitude and how that
affects wine?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
And not the one, but well the winery where we
make our wine, they play all sorts of like every
genre of music really really loud, so the wines are
getting serenaded. But when I'm rehydrating the east, I was
giving a little pep talk about like hey, you know
you can do it, give a little positive energy, like
(25:19):
go on, fer met with honor get in there.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Do it.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
See there is talking. Absolutely, It's all about energy.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
So I know you said when that you had wanted
to work with flowers and run a nursery. Is from
a little from a when you were a little girl.
Is that what you wanted to do when you grew up?
Is that something you always knew or was there another
dream before that?
Speaker 1 (25:40):
No?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
I And when I was in high school, I worked
for you know, I need a job. I ended up
getting a job at a nursery and just loved being
outside and being with, you know, being out like trimming
the roses or helping people find plants, and I just loved,
you know. So I studied article culture at Washington State
(26:01):
University and just always love the sun, you know, being
a scientist and especially with plants. So I was very
fortunate to find viticulture in the wine industry because you know,
you still I can grow. I have a tomato garden
now home, and I have lots of flower pots, but
I can you know, I think being in the wine
industry is a winner. And what do you do? How
(26:25):
do you spend your free time when you're not working? Well,
I have two kids, so that's you know, takes up
a lot of time. Well, I mean that doesn't take
up a lot of time, but spend time with our family.
We love to travel when we can, but right now
it's yeah, kids, I mean they just started school. We
have one graduating this year, so the focus center of
(26:46):
our life has changed to like the next step with
you know, going off to college and all those things.
So the travel when we can and any other activities
you like to do or aspire to do again one
day when you're empty nesting bigger garden. We do love
to you know, as a family, we tried to well
(27:10):
travel to wine countries and wine regions when we can.
Our kids love to ski, so that's you know, something
that is I hope to continue even once they're at
a nest, you know, they'll come back and want to
do something like that with us. So while your energy
is right now on your kids as they go off
into the next phase of their life, when you're planning
(27:32):
a romantic evening for you and your husband, or maybe
when you aspire to later down in another year or so,
what sort of wines do you open that say, this
is a romantic evening, we're setting up for a different
night than just an average night. Oh, that's a good question.
So he my husband's in the wine industry as well,
but he works some for the ant Nori family. He's
(27:54):
working at stags Leep Wine Cellars and Napa. So we have,
you know, at our fingertips some very lovely nap up
wines as well as our you know, our colleagues here
in Washington. So in general we would probably well, we like,
we're both are huge fans of Sons, so we'd probably
open a Sansira to start, like all we're cooking and yeah,
(28:18):
either either go like international, you know, if there's an
Argentinian Mallbeck in our cellar for sure, or yeah, like
I mean the Stag's Leaved Pinet Cellars. Wines are pretty delicious.
So we know the special wines that get opened. Ye yeah,
it's yeah, it's you know, almost embarrassing to you know,
(28:42):
the wineset we get to have access to. Well, with two.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
People making wine in the wine industry, probably every night
you drink good wine and it isn't any different from
a romantic gave me to a regular evening.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
You just drink well yeah, yes, yeah, but there I mean,
so he hadn't be in Argentinian if he's going all
out with the grill, you know making. I saw though,
and I'm like, hey, I want to have you know,
something like that's going to stand up to this amazing meal.
You know that, you know, yeah, so it's gonna I
like talked about Mall Beck. I'd gravitate towards that, or
(29:15):
you know, know a really good cab which you know,
Yakama Valley could be it, or it could be a Nappa.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
So when you look back at your career, what would
you say is one of your proudest achievements to date?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Oh, you know, previous my last full time job before
I was focused on Watchoma one hundred percent, I was
at Mercer States just down the road and their family
owned winery and we while I was there, I was
there for about six years, I think, and we just
(29:51):
we grew the production significantly and got some pretty great
awards around, like Winer the Year and some good school
they were They're large enough that they submit for scores.
And I felt like when I, you know, I left,
I felt like it was we'd grown a lot in
a positive way and gotten some good attention. So, you
(30:12):
know which I think that was trying to honor them,
the family, you know that that put their faith in me,
and that felt really good. Oh that, I like that.
A proud achievement, helping other people. I like that. So
is there a piece of advice.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Someone gave you along the way, a parent, a mentor,
a teacher, a friend, a colleague that you carry with
you through life as part of your work ethic or
your life ethic.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Well, I can't think of anything specific other than you know,
I feel like I have friends along the way that
influenced me in my wine making style, and an influenced
me by either just you know, seeing their passion. And
(31:02):
there are ways of being innovative, and that's, you know,
because I think you can kind of, you know, maybe
be like this is how we do things and you know,
maybe stuck in the ways of the way you do things.
And I think that's been really helpful as having having
people in my life that don't allow themselves to get
(31:23):
stuck and they're always trying new things and wanting to
always you know, push downvelope and make the best wines
they can. And so that's yeah, like don't settle, just
keep you know, yeah, keep your you know, your mind open,
keep keeping on trying things. Yeah, yeah, so complete this sentence.
For me. A table without wine is like like working
(31:50):
without having music on. This is good because you know music,
we're going to talk music. You play it for the wine,
well you don't. The winery plays it for the winery
sitting here. Yeah, normally we have music plane all the time,
and so we've turned it off. But it's a little
(32:11):
weird being in this room and not having any music
going on.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
We're sitting at a table, there's an empty seat next
to you. You're a bottle of wine that you've made
is sitting on this table. And I'm wondering, who, from
any walk of life, living or deceased, known or unknown,
do you wish you could open up a bottle of
Watomas brings wine and share it with them.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Oh boy, that is My first thought was my husband,
which is, you know, you need to share with him
all the time. But because I love I love hearing
his feedback. This is aspirational, not realistic, my goodness. And
now I'm thinking like, wow, like a celebrity or a
(32:56):
rock star. Yeah, oh boy, who would I pick? Well,
when you see people like drinking wine and well, like,
I know Pink, she has her own wine. You know,
I love her. I just went and saw Madonna. I
(33:19):
would love to. I don't know if Madonna drinks wine,
but my god, it would be pretty cool to sit
down with her. And you know, you and Pink had
sure your cap fronks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, it's
pretty cool. You know, even athletes when you see them
have a glass of wine, it's just the coolest thing. Yeah,
and yeah, think about like what if they yeah, or
(33:40):
if I got to make their wine for them? How
cool would that be? Yeah? Yeah, I'm sure I'll think
of somebody better, you know, ten minutes, But feel free
to jump in if it comes to mind.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
But you mentioned the very earlier when we were talking
about one of your ah your aha moment wines. One
of them was the Vegas Cecilia, the let Me Go
and I'm curious. You are being sent off sent off
to a deserted islands, so what three wines would you
take with you?
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Oh? Well, the Vegas Cecilia when you go. Yeah, man,
we had a sparkling or champagne. I'm like, my memory
is horrific. We had a champagne for anniversary a few
years ago. That was, Oh my gosh, I think it
was like, well, I can't remember it, but it was amazing.
(34:30):
It was with the pairing with food. It was just delicious.
So I would take a champagne. Let's just Bill Kart
Salmone is probably one of my Like, if I could
drink that every day, I'd be happy. And probably I
would take a mall back from the Guatemalie region and Mendoza.
(34:55):
It's a specific wine maker winery. I don't know. Cotina
Sabata makes some really beautiful I mean they make a
ton of really, they make a chardinay that two chardenays
that are absolutely outstanding. One's called bones and the other
stones and they're just like fast levels through the roof. Yeah,
(35:16):
now I'm line. They get four wines.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
So that's okay, I'll overlook that one. So this has
been great.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
I've really enjoyed talking to you, and we're just coming towards.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
The end where we play our little game of pairing
wine with music. And I've had the pleasure to taste
some of your wines before we sat down to talk,
but I'm gonna let you kind of describe them. But
I was really captivated by the Alberino for its bright aromas,
for the citrus notes of stone fruit notes. The texture
was amazing on that wine. And since I've now described
(35:51):
that wine for you, which feel free to add, I'm
curious what kind of music, genre, artists, whatever does it
kind of what represents the same sensation for you, so that.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
I really appreciate your description. It's really nice. I For me,
it's like the I feel like that wine has a
lot of precision to it and it's kind of very
to the point and linear. So I was thinking, like,
I don't know, like some like tango music, that's you
know how en tango dancers are just very it's very sharp,
(36:27):
very exactly. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was kind of imagining.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Okay, Okay, and what about your Grenache Blanc the new
twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yeah, that's well, it has some nice acid, but it's
a little more it's rounded. I feel like that's the
white wine for red wine drinkers because of the body
on it. So it's a little rounder and softer. So
maybe something that's a little more mellow and chill. I
don't know, what do you think like fre genre of music?
(37:01):
I don't know. There's a band that I love called
Kolo that always chills me out. They're just it's they're
from Iceland, but it's very like bluesy and soulful. So yeah,
maybe that there you go, There you Go. And your
Cabernet savignon, well that we talked about when we were
(37:24):
tasting how it's got this nice core of acidity, but
it's just it's very kind of just pure fruit. This
is the one that's the professor. Professor. It's all neutral oak,
so the the fruit really is the showcase. And then
that particular clone has this just core of acidity that
makes it such a food friendly wine. So it's more
yea more pure cab and bright and fresh. So maybe
(37:50):
something a little like jazzy.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
And then last one and then you're off the hook
on this one, your beloved Malbeck.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Oh that's like maybe something a little like bluesy and
chill with that because it's just it's well, you know,
I mean again, you can't taste the color, but when
you pour it. We named to inky because every time
I be writing my tasting notes, so it's you know,
write inky black, inky, dark, inky color, and then the
tannins are so supple and soft, so it's like dark
(38:21):
and brooding, but really approachable and friendly. So are we
back to like maybe blues or you know, something like that? Sure, sure,
no more. I won't make you do more. Answer no,
but just go.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
I'll move back to to my big final question as
we come to the end of this is what wine
making region is at the top of your.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Bucket list to explore?
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Boy, so many. I feel like, you know, I've only
scratched the surface and of places I've been able to visit. Man,
there I haven't yet to be in South Africa. That's
definitely on the top of my list. Places we have
not gone. I've been very fortunate to go to. You know,
(39:10):
I've been through Chilean Mendoza, Argentina, not thoroughly but been
able to visit and been to you know, places in
France and a little bit in Italy. But yes, we
haven't have not visited Africa yet, So South Africa and
wine region is yeah there right.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
And if people want to come here to the Yakima Valley,
how can they get here?
Speaker 3 (39:31):
How can they find you? What will they find when
they get you get here? Where will they find you? Well,
we are located in the town of Prosser in Washington.
We are in Vintner's Village in Prosser. So be nice
thing about visiting us is you can park your car
and drive or drive park your car and walk to
about half a dozen other wineries right nearby us. And
we are sitting towards the south end of Vintnor's Village.
(39:55):
But so you can google us and and find us
at Thomas Springs. And we're also actually have a tasting
room over in Woodenville on the west side of the
state near Seattle, and we're in the warehouse district over there,
So we have two locations that you can experience our wines. Great.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
So if you're in Seattle, Woodenville's just a hop, skip
and a jump outside the city taste the wine, and
if you come here, what's really cool is it's also
got a little retail shop with gourmet chocolates and vinegars
and I don't know all sorts of goodies, honeys and mustards,
and of course there's the tin fish, a whole wall
of them to pick from, and cheeses, so you can
(40:32):
enjoy them here or take them to go.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
Yes, absolutely, and quite a few of the items we
sell we will feature in our menu so you can
enjoy them, you have us prepare them for you, or
you can open them up yourselves and enjoy.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Well, Jessica, it's been a pleasure hanging out with you,
chatting with you. Thank you for joining us on Wine Soundtrack.
Really enjoy the wines. Love the labels. I will just
add they're really cool labels. The white wines have these
beautiful floral images, and then the red wines have this
cool black and white kind of a modern art drawing
and two female artists. So I think that another reason
(41:08):
to seek out the wines is just for the cool labels. So,
but thank you for joining us and cheers.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Yeah, thank you so much for your tank.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Thank you, 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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The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.