Speaker 1: Welcome to Wine Soundtrack USA. Listen to the passion with
Speaker 1: which producers narrate their winery and their world. Team thirty
Speaker 1: answers discover their stories, personalities and passions.
Speaker 2: Hello, friends and listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is Alison
Speaker 2: Levine and today I'm in the Yakima Valley with Lee
Speaker 2: Fergustrom of Fortunity Sellers. Lee, welcome to Wine Soundtrack and
Speaker 2: tell us about Fortuity.
Speaker 3: Thanks great to be here. So Fortuity Sellers started in
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen and we're owned by Emily myself, husband and
Speaker 3: wife team, and we built our location here in the
Speaker 3: Yakma Valley. Emily grew up here and this is just
Speaker 3: We've got some family here and so we decided that
Speaker 3: this was the place we wanted to get started.
Speaker 2: And the name Fortuity comes from.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Fortuity means those chance moments in life that, as
Speaker 3: you know, opportunities are presented to you. If you do
Speaker 3: something and take advantage of those opportunity tunities, something cool,
Speaker 3: profound can happen.
Speaker 2: And is that how you guys met It is?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Emily and I were. We were just both getting
Speaker 3: back in the dating scene and just by a chance
Speaker 3: occurrence we found each other, ran into a little bar
Speaker 3: and grill, and and I was saving a seat for
Speaker 3: another date actually, and you know, time went by, it
Speaker 3: was like stuck in traffic, went to the wrong place,
Speaker 3: and I knew my date wasn't going to show up.
Speaker 3: But then Emily showed up and she walked around the
Speaker 3: bar looking for a seat. It was the only seat
Speaker 3: in the house, and she walked up and said, is
Speaker 3: this seat take? And I said absolutely not. So that's
Speaker 3: how we met. And it's, you know, one of those opportunities.
Speaker 3: And we could have just laughed and chatted and called
Speaker 3: that good. But yeah, so we ended up together and
Speaker 3: we ended up here.
Speaker 2: Oh so you ended up starting a winery together as
Speaker 2: a as a married couple. You didn't come from wine before,
Speaker 2: and I'm curious you're here now. You don't own any
Speaker 2: acres of vineyards you purchase fruit? Where are you purchasing
Speaker 2: fruit from? And what grapes are you working with?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we focused primarily on Ronan Bordeaux varieties when
Speaker 3: we started, to your point, we didn't grow, so we
Speaker 3: don't have a farming background. And so I took a
Speaker 3: little bit more methodical look at it, and I did
Speaker 3: a little research and looked at the highest ranking wines
Speaker 3: that came out of Washington and which vineyards they came from.
Speaker 3: And we knew that that was going to be part
Speaker 3: of our m since we were going to grow. We
Speaker 3: have another special power, which is we can get the
Speaker 3: fruit from the very best places. Somebody else figured out
Speaker 3: what should grow where, and then we could work with
Speaker 3: the best courge we could get our relationships with. So
Speaker 3: that was our plan from the very beginning. And so
Speaker 3: then we just sought out the best of the best.
Speaker 3: And so we didn't know also that you probably shouldn't
Speaker 3: just call the best when you're small, But we were
Speaker 3: lucky enough. Again very fortuitous, but we made some pretty
Speaker 3: awesome connections. And so we get some fruit all across
Speaker 3: the Aqua Valley. So Yakima Valley spans pretty long distance,
Speaker 3: probably seventy h miles and kind of the backbone of
Speaker 3: it is Rattlesnake Hills and so we get a lot
Speaker 3: of our fruit from Rattlesnake Hills. That's a sub ava, Yeah,
Speaker 3: subava the Yakima Valley, and it's this cool ridge that
Speaker 3: it's not cool temperatu wized, just cool cool. So it
Speaker 3: goes east and west, so it has a south facing
Speaker 3: side and it's pretty warm out here, so it can
Speaker 3: really ripen some grapes. So our reds come up from
Speaker 3: up in the hills and we work with growers like
Speaker 3: the Williams family, which are the first a plant on
Speaker 3: Red Mountain. Also another subava of the Yakima Valley, the
Speaker 3: Dabrul family. Actually it's rules the State Vineyard, but it's
Speaker 3: owned by the Shields. And then Red Willow is another
Speaker 3: one of my marquee favorite vineyards, gorgeous, gorgeous vineyard owned
Speaker 3: by the Sour family, and we get a bunch of
Speaker 3: stuff from there, and then there's a few others here
Speaker 3: and there. Dick Bouchet for example, another Washingt wine pioneer
Speaker 3: that we get some prooved from. So so yeah, we
Speaker 3: try to get some of the good stuff and then
Speaker 3: not screwed up.
Speaker 2: It's your total case production.
Speaker 3: About twenty five hundred cases. Yeah, And is your.
Speaker 2: Wine exclusively direct to consumer in your tasting room? Are
Speaker 2: you distributed locally or in other markets?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so predominantly we are direct to consumer. Folks finding
Speaker 3: us at one of our two tasting rooms at the winery.
Speaker 3: Here is our primary production it's our one hundred percent
Speaker 3: production facility, but it's also our primary tasting room, and
Speaker 3: then we have a second tasting room a little bit
Speaker 3: down the road in Ellensburg, Washington. So that's the primary
Speaker 3: ways that people find us. And then we do a
Speaker 3: little distribution, but not through a distribution partner. We do
Speaker 3: self distribution. So we have about thirty accounts that we
Speaker 3: work with.
Speaker 2: Directly in Washington or outside in Washington.
Speaker 3: We've done a little in Oregon, but since we're a
Speaker 3: pretty small team, you know, we don't have enough to
Speaker 3: scale to make that happen very easily. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: plans for the future.
Speaker 2: So a little Washington gem here. I'm curious you grew
Speaker 2: up in Washington State, but you don't come from wine.
Speaker 2: What is your first memory relevant to wine? How old
Speaker 2: were you and what does that memory?
Speaker 3: Oh? Interesting, Wow, that's a good one. I mean I
Speaker 3: remember hanging out with my with my grandparents. My parents
Speaker 3: would drink from time to time, but not much. My
Speaker 3: my grandparents probably hanging out around Christmas time. It would
Speaker 3: probably be my first memory. And then post that I
Speaker 3: really discovered it later after probably my second job. There's
Speaker 3: a group of us that would would hang out and
Speaker 3: all of a sudden started getting, you know, more serious
Speaker 3: about what we were drinking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so as you got more serious about what
Speaker 2: you were drinking, obviously you started drinking some really good stuff.
Speaker 2: I'm curious, what do you like to drink? What we
Speaker 2: come into your home, we find your wine refrigerator, your cellar,
Speaker 2: in the closet, wherever you're hiding wine. What would we
Speaker 2: find in there? Is it a lot of your own wine,
Speaker 2: a lot of friends wines, or are there certain varieties
Speaker 2: or regions that you are drawn to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah, in my wine cellar, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of Washington and wine. What's cool about being in the
Speaker 3: wine industry is when you are popping up at events,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of bottles being shared, and so you
Speaker 3: do a little exchange at the end of night. So
Speaker 3: we have a bunch of stuff, which is a very
Speaker 3: cool thing. So all across Washington is probably predominantly what's
Speaker 3: in our in our cellar. And then we like to
Speaker 3: get out to other regions, and so we've got a
Speaker 3: bunch of stuff from California and France and Spain predominantly
Speaker 3: is probably what we have in the cellar. Style wise,
Speaker 3: and varietal. What got my interest initially was Malbeck. So
Speaker 3: Malbeck's still one of my all time faves and lighter,
Speaker 3: brighter style. I used to like some big angry reds,
Speaker 3: and so from time to time I'll do an angry red,
Speaker 3: like a big mean cap for example. But but we
Speaker 3: I think our palates are typically more kind of a
Speaker 3: nice balance. We'll do white wines, a complex vin blanc.
Speaker 3: We have one in this a white round blend. But otherwise, yeah,
Speaker 3: a nice balanced all back.
Speaker 2: Anything you opened recently that drank really well?
Speaker 3: Oh interesting? Yes, we we were just in France and
Speaker 3: we went through the Margo region and we're tasting through
Speaker 3: some wines there and we didn't go to Chateau Margo,
Speaker 3: but we did go to a chateau.
Speaker 2: In Margo, and I just got to add that for
Speaker 2: a position.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, So folks that know, no, yeah, I'm not picky. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll I'll pretty much drink anything, but I typically like
Speaker 3: some stuff with a little more depth and complexity, super
Speaker 3: savory notes in there. It's kind of my jam as
Speaker 3: far as rights.
Speaker 2: So when you think back about the wines that you've drunk,
Speaker 2: is there a particular wine that was kind of an
Speaker 2: AHA moment for you, And if so, what was the
Speaker 2: wine and what was the occasion? What was the ahanness
Speaker 2: of that wine?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's there's one. This one's very This is just
Speaker 3: a small little you know, red wine and chocolate. It's
Speaker 3: a thing. People go out to red wine and chocolate.
Speaker 3: And Emily and I were dating actually, and we went
Speaker 3: out to Woodenville in Washington and there's a it's called
Speaker 3: a Woodenville Wine Country. It's just a ton of wineries
Speaker 3: all packed in there, and they were doing red wine
Speaker 3: and chocolate. And so we went to one of the
Speaker 3: wineries and they paired a temporneo with a I believe
Speaker 3: it was like a red pepper flake chocolate or something
Speaker 3: like that, and it sounded to aggressive, but when I
Speaker 3: had the two together, it was blow your mind good.
Speaker 3: And that was the first moment I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: if you nail a pairent, then something magical happens. And
Speaker 3: so that was for me. I was like, Okay, now
Speaker 3: I got to dig into this a bit more so,
Speaker 3: super entreating.
Speaker 2: So that was sort of the AHA moment of food
Speaker 2: and wine pairing or wine in general and its ability.
Speaker 2: So I'm curious how you approach food and wine pairing today,
Speaker 2: what are obviously you're probably because once you've had an
Speaker 2: aha moment, you're on a quest to constantly create those
Speaker 2: and they're not easy to find. But what do you
Speaker 2: look for when you're pairing food and wine? Are there
Speaker 2: rules you follow? Are there guidelines you recommend or do
Speaker 2: you have a coop attitude?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there is some basic structure, but then it's funner
Speaker 3: to get into the nuances. So the basic structure, at
Speaker 3: least for us, is, you know, white wines pair with
Speaker 3: you know, if you have a whitefish, or if you
Speaker 3: have a rose, maybe pair it with the salmon. So
Speaker 3: and then big mean steak, right, a big mean red.
Speaker 2: So those rules work.
Speaker 3: Those rules do work, and so that is a good baseline.
Speaker 3: And then the other fun thing to do is like
Speaker 3: those nuances. We've had chefs we do a grenache, for example,
Speaker 3: and it can have some casi savory and maybe some
Speaker 3: smoky notes. And so a chef did a bacon gudha
Speaker 3: with smoked gudha and that was pretty dynamite. So like
Speaker 3: pulling out you know, if there's a clove, maybe a
Speaker 3: dish with some fennel in it or something like that
Speaker 3: will help, you know, elevate both the food and.
Speaker 2: The wine, So taking out a note from the wine
Speaker 2: and then integrating that into the flavors of the dish.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So yeah, we worked with a number of chefs
Speaker 3: and this was, you know, the first couple of winemaker
Speaker 3: dinners we did. You know, you work with a chef
Speaker 3: and they tell you what you're gonna have for dinner,
Speaker 3: and you try to figure out which wine is spring
Speaker 3: the table. And then we met a chef that was like, no,
Speaker 3: you tell me what you want to bring and I'll
Speaker 3: match the food with it. And that was another eye
Speaker 3: opener moment where we were like, Okay, that's cool. So
Speaker 3: now that's kind of how we drive our winemaker dinners.
Speaker 3: And you know, when we have events.
Speaker 2: You're working with a number of varieties, both rown grapes
Speaker 2: and Bordeaux grapes, and you make a lot of single
Speaker 2: variety of wines, although you do some blends as well.
Speaker 2: Do you think there's a such thing as a perfect variety?
Speaker 3: Oh that's a good question. No, I don't. I think
Speaker 3: each variety has so many different things you can do
Speaker 3: with it. There's just so many different regions and so
Speaker 3: many different styles that I think perfect is in the
Speaker 3: eye of the beholder. But so yeah, no, I think
Speaker 3: there's just a lot to explore.
Speaker 2: So some people when they're exploring wine, like to turn
Speaker 2: to wine critics and scores. I'm not sure if that's
Speaker 2: how you guided your wine when you first got into wine.
Speaker 2: But what kind of a role do you think wine
Speaker 2: critics and scores play in wine today? And for a
Speaker 2: brand like yours, Yeah, so it's important.
Speaker 3: It's that you know third party certification, that you know
Speaker 3: you're doing something right. And so those we believe in
Speaker 3: those panels. You know, there's there's some folks that are
Speaker 3: skeptical of those and questioned whether or not they're valual
Speaker 3: or not. But for the super consumer, and not everybody
Speaker 3: says super wine connoisseur, but for those that are, they
Speaker 3: are reading those magazines and if your name pops up
Speaker 3: and in there, then you you win some some points.
Speaker 3: And so early on we definitely wanted to go down
Speaker 3: that track and submit our wines and get that feedback
Speaker 3: and hopefully they would score well. And we've been lucky
Speaker 3: that some have scored pretty well, so that's goodness. But
Speaker 3: that's not all wine consumers, not everybody is looking to
Speaker 3: those articles or making their decisions in a tasting room
Speaker 3: or you know, at a grocery store by looking for
Speaker 3: those reviews. It's really about preference.
Speaker 2: So, speaking of preference, and you mentioned a little bit
Speaker 2: kind of the styles of wines that you like. But
Speaker 2: if you had to red witer or rose, Oh.
Speaker 3: Probably red wine would be my pick. But rosees I
Speaker 3: think are interesting from a winemaker's standpoint because they're tricky
Speaker 3: to make and it's tricky to side to which consumer
Speaker 3: base you want to target it because you know, there's
Speaker 3: the beautiful color of the rose itself, and then there's
Speaker 3: so many different varieties that you can work with, and
Speaker 3: then different ways you can produce it, and then the
Speaker 3: final style that you deliver. So there's a lot going
Speaker 3: on there.
Speaker 2: So rose competes with your red wine. There still are sparkling.
Speaker 3: I like a little bit of both. We drink predominantly still,
Speaker 3: but you know there's something cool and celebratory about, you know,
Speaker 3: bringing out a sparkling absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So for somebody who hasn't had the pleasure to taste
Speaker 2: for tuity cellars wines yet, what do you think they're
Speaker 2: missing out on?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So we try to give our best signature of
Speaker 3: the Yakma Valley. So Yakma Valley. We're very blessed that
Speaker 3: in this area, we're in a very arid environment. It's
Speaker 3: very hot here, we have a water source, gets really
Speaker 3: cool at night, really warm during the day. Grapes can
Speaker 3: fully ripen, but we have a little bit brighter acid profile,
Speaker 3: so that the wines are nice and bright. White wines
Speaker 3: are crisp, refreshing. And we're pretty fortunate out in Washington
Speaker 3: and specifically where we're at Yakma Valley to grow some
Speaker 3: pretty stellar fruit and we have access to that. And
Speaker 3: so as a small producer, having access to some of
Speaker 3: the best grapes in the United States and then be
Speaker 3: able to put your own spin on it is pretty cool.
Speaker 3: So yeah, our wines very food focused, very bright, very approachable,
Speaker 3: very aromatic and should should keep you guessing, but very
Speaker 3: very enjoyable.
Speaker 2: And if space aliens were to come and land on
Speaker 2: your property right now, come knock on the door and
Speaker 2: you wanted to welcome them with a glass of wine,
Speaker 2: which of your wines would you want to present to
Speaker 2: them to say welcome to for tunity sellers.
Speaker 3: Probably this might shock people, but our vigne. Yeah really yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: So And for a couple of reasons. One is when
Speaker 3: we first started trying to figure out our portfolio of wines,
Speaker 3: Emily and I were primarily red wine drinkers, and so
Speaker 3: we had to do our homework and we try it
Speaker 3: out a bunch of white wines, and we're trying to
Speaker 3: figure out again which brittles and which style we liked.
Speaker 3: And when we started talking to other other winery owners
Speaker 3: and wine makers and we said, hey, we're going to
Speaker 3: go after a vigne, they said, well, best of luck
Speaker 3: with that. But but we definitely put our own spin
Speaker 3: on it. Again, it's that more refreshing style. It's all
Speaker 3: stainless steel. It's not an oak, so it's very crisp
Speaker 3: and refreshing.
Speaker 2: So you took that and you made good luck out
Speaker 2: of ya. Exactly. I love it. Now. You don't own vineyards, obviously,
Speaker 2: you go into the vineyards and you spend time where
Speaker 2: you're sourcing your fruits. And you've been making wine for
Speaker 2: eight years. So in the eight years, we know every
Speaker 2: vintage tells a different story, But what have you experienced,
Speaker 2: I mean, do you find that there's a lot of
Speaker 2: variation from year to year, do you find more consistency
Speaker 2: and you know, is it vineyard dependent? Do you see
Speaker 2: consistency and vineyards or is it region as a whole.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, yeah, so we source. And the good thing
Speaker 3: about sourcing, especially with the top vineyards, is your name's
Speaker 3: around the roads, and so if you drive up to
Speaker 3: the vineyards, you'll see fortunity, fortuity of fortuity, and so
Speaker 3: we get to know those sites very very well, and
Speaker 3: so we do get to kind of get the pattern
Speaker 3: of what happens up there. And then also the growers
Speaker 3: and so you have different crews at different sites, and
Speaker 3: they just farm differently, and you know, not ones better
Speaker 3: than the other, they're just different and so you have
Speaker 3: to kind of understand that, and there is a lot
Speaker 3: of differences we had. Eighteen was a dynamite year for
Speaker 3: Washington wine. Nineteen was as well, it was a little
Speaker 3: bit cooler in the fall, and then twenty was the
Speaker 3: hottest year on record, followed by twenty one, which was
Speaker 3: also the next hottest year on record, and then twenty
Speaker 3: two cool down a bit. So on cooler years typically
Speaker 3: bigger berries, a lot more fruit forward, and then in
Speaker 3: hotter years, smaller berries and just really a lot of concentration, dark,
Speaker 3: meaner stuff can come out of there, and so you
Speaker 3: kind of have to work to stay with your style.
Speaker 3: You could just let mother nature doer thing and then
Speaker 3: you just work with what you get. And so you
Speaker 3: do do that, but you still can put your spin
Speaker 3: on it when you get it in the cellar, and
Speaker 3: and so that's part of the fun. And some years
Speaker 3: you get some weird stuff.
Speaker 2: Are there any signs or predictors you look for that
Speaker 2: are that tell you what a vintage is going to be?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like a happy vineyard. So a happy vineyard
Speaker 3: to me is you know those what you think of
Speaker 3: when you see a cluster of grapes is that everything
Speaker 3: colors up. It's an all nice and uniform. The berries
Speaker 3: are the same size, there's some good spacing, the clusters
Speaker 3: are not too heavy, and then the crop looad looks
Speaker 3: great and you have a good season growing wise, you
Speaker 3: know it's going to be a dynamite ear if the
Speaker 3: berries are all different sizes on the cluster and some
Speaker 3: are green and summer and never flipped to red, and
Speaker 3: you know, then you're like, Okay, this one's going to
Speaker 3: be a little more interesting.
Speaker 2: So do you spend time because you have your dedicated
Speaker 2: rose and they have your name on them. When you
Speaker 2: go in there, do you talk to your vines? Have
Speaker 2: you established as you've learned to understand them year after year? Now,
Speaker 2: as you were saying, what kind of communication do you have?
Speaker 2: Do you have to reprimand them or are they all
Speaker 2: happy vines?
Speaker 3: They're mostly happy, but every once in a while they'll
Speaker 3: get hounrey and so you know, this year we got
Speaker 3: a couple onre ones. But what's funny is we usually
Speaker 3: run up there and their Yachma valley is quite diverse,
Speaker 3: and so it takes us a minute to roll through
Speaker 3: the vineyards. And so early pre season harvest's you just
Speaker 3: take your sweet time and you just walk through the
Speaker 3: vineyards and you check it all out, and you know,
Speaker 3: it's early stages and you see how things develop, and
Speaker 3: that's a super fun time. And for some reason, you know,
Speaker 3: I guess it's just because you're not in the in
Speaker 3: the heat of harvest, but that's super enjoyable. And then
Speaker 3: once harvest comes, it's a little bit you put your
Speaker 3: game face on and you're you're moving through the vineyard
Speaker 3: pretty quick and we're grabbing samples we're tasting grapes off
Speaker 3: the vine and trying to figure out when things are
Speaker 3: ready to go, and so that is a little bit
Speaker 3: more purpose driven. And you know, you're once you get
Speaker 3: your notes, you're reaching back out to the growers if
Speaker 3: you need to make any adjustments and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So so I think it starts off all. I mean
Speaker 3: I will do date night and just walk through the vineyards.
Speaker 3: Soon later it's like, who's going to roll out to
Speaker 3: whatever vineyard and grab some samples.
Speaker 2: And would you say date night?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I like that date night with the vines.
Speaker 3: Date night with the vines. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes we
Speaker 3: have again more harvest we'll do. We have to drop
Speaker 3: our bins out into the vineyards and so we'll have
Speaker 3: late night bin drops and stuff. We're here, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2: When you when you bring the vine the grapes in
Speaker 2: and you crush them, and you know, I know, your
Speaker 2: tasting room is in your winery. So being in there,
Speaker 2: it was surrounded by your tanks and some barrels and
Speaker 2: then your your once cement tank and there was music
Speaker 2: playing overhead. Do you play that music for the guests
Speaker 2: or are you playing the music for the wine? And
Speaker 2: do you talk to the wine when it's in the barrel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So we first of while, we always
Speaker 3: have music plane all the time. It doesn't matter what
Speaker 3: we're doing, there's always music plane and we try to
Speaker 3: change it up. And that's part of a fun thing
Speaker 3: with the team is who's who can pick the greatest
Speaker 3: playlist for the day. And so yeah, we'll end up
Speaker 3: with our mantra for the for the harvest, and there's
Speaker 3: always you know, it doesn't matter how late at night
Speaker 3: we're doing a crush or oppress. It's it's plain and
Speaker 3: so it's just it's mostly for our energy, but hopefully
Speaker 3: the vines and the grapes appreciate it too.
Speaker 2: Do you have you established any sort of good luck
Speaker 2: rituals as an individual or you and your wife? I mean,
Speaker 2: you're a small team. I know you have a few
Speaker 2: people working for you, but is there a couple's ritual?
Speaker 2: Is there a winery ritual that you do at the
Speaker 2: start of harvest?
Speaker 3: What's funny is grapes coming at all different crazy times
Speaker 3: for a while. There Emily's hope slash traditions she tried
Speaker 3: to create is that we like to bring in fruit
Speaker 3: on her birthday, as weird as that sounds.
Speaker 2: And her birthday is in what month?
Speaker 3: October? Okay, yeah, so it works out. It works out.
Speaker 3: It's not a stretch. And ideally we would bring in
Speaker 3: some some red willow fruit on her birthday. That doesn't
Speaker 3: always happen. Fruit's ready when it's ready.
Speaker 2: I like how she's trying to control mother nature exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can only steer it so much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but no traditions in terms of opening up a
Speaker 2: bottle of champagne and pouring it over the first press.
Speaker 2: We are making a big dinner.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we do that. We do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, are not shaving or lucky socks.
Speaker 3: No, not those, but but we do with first fruit in,
Speaker 3: we'll do the sparkling for the sparkling over the top
Speaker 3: of the first grapes in, We'll do that, and then
Speaker 3: we like to have dinners. Has actually just started a
Speaker 3: few years back. It was we have fun, but it's
Speaker 3: very business mode when it's harvest and sometimes it's long day,
Speaker 3: and some friends came out and they hung out with
Speaker 3: us because they just wanted to help out. And sometimes
Speaker 3: friends helping out in the harvest is not ideal because
Speaker 3: they want to come to hang out and have entertainment
Speaker 3: and not actually work. But these friends were awesome and
Speaker 3: they were very interested in wine making, and they spent
Speaker 3: a week here and then all of a sudden, dinner
Speaker 3: started happening out on the crush pad late at night
Speaker 3: while the press is running, and it was absolute dynamite.
Speaker 3: So now that is a new tradition that has started,
Speaker 3: and we're definitely going to tell I love that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 2: You know, the team coming together at the end of
Speaker 2: a day. Yeah, drinking little wine, yes, yes, taking a
Speaker 2: deep breath exactly. Yeah, so when you get a deep breath,
Speaker 2: how do you like to spend your free time.
Speaker 3: Oh that's a good question. Yeah. What's funny is when
Speaker 3: Emily and I, when we first were dating, it was
Speaker 3: all about food and wine. And so when we go
Speaker 3: on vacation, it's food and wine. And now that we
Speaker 3: have the winery, it's still food and wine. Still food
Speaker 3: and wine. Yeah, so it doesn't feel like we're getting
Speaker 3: away sometimes. And so yeah, I think hanging out with
Speaker 3: friends is a good way to kind of relax and recharge.
Speaker 3: And then there's a lot of great music out in
Speaker 3: the valley and smaller venues, and so that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: And then yeah, dinner is still an event.
Speaker 2: So wine wasn't something that you had a plan to
Speaker 2: do when you were young? What did you want to
Speaker 2: be when you grew up? And then following that, what
Speaker 2: did you end up? What were you doing before you
Speaker 2: decided to take this crazy jump as to kids in love?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't know what I wanted to
Speaker 3: be when I grew up. I I literally had no idea.
Speaker 3: So I read an article and it said follow the money,
Speaker 3: and I took that too literally, and I thought, I
Speaker 3: guess that means I'm supposed to be an accountant. I
Speaker 3: don't know. So I went to school and got a
Speaker 3: business degree, and so, yeah, my first gig out of
Speaker 3: college was as a manager, really accountant. But what I
Speaker 3: liked to do when I was in colleges actually started
Speaker 3: building websites as a like a just for fun, and
Speaker 3: so I started doing that, and then I got a
Speaker 3: job in tech, nothing to do with accounting, and then
Speaker 3: and then I worked in startups, small tech startups in Seattle.
Speaker 3: So I did about five of those, and and then
Speaker 3: I was looking to do something different. I really enjoyed
Speaker 3: doing that, but I really after being part of five
Speaker 3: different startups. I wanted to start up my own business
Speaker 3: and I didn't know of what. So Emily and I
Speaker 3: took a week and away. And Emily's background is in
Speaker 3: PR and communications, and so she also wanted to represent
Speaker 3: her own brand. She's represented cities and senators and cool
Speaker 3: stuff like that. So we took a weekend away and
Speaker 3: we were like, are we going to do something or not?
Speaker 3: And we convinced ourselves that, you know, we had one
Speaker 3: of three tracks. We could take a year off and
Speaker 3: travel and maybe we would recharge that way, and or
Speaker 3: we could just hunker down and let's just work and
Speaker 3: maybe we can do well and retire. And then.
Speaker 2: The third thing, let's start a winery.
Speaker 3: Yeah I know that third one was somehow start a winery? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: Well. You know, I have to say that you both
Speaker 2: of your backgrounds is except for the agricultural knowledge or
Speaker 2: maybe the science knowledge of making wine, you're a perfect
Speaker 2: setup for being able to do it on the cheap.
Speaker 2: You know how to build a website, you understand the
Speaker 2: tech industry, you know accounting, so the books are taken
Speaker 2: care of. You know how to figure out how to
Speaker 2: make money in this business or break even and she's
Speaker 2: got the marketing and pr covered. I mean really like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's like six people you didn't have to hire exactly.
Speaker 3: You know that that's so true. And we first start,
Speaker 3: you know, got started, people were asking us that very question,
Speaker 3: and we actually approached all of this with a business
Speaker 3: and marketing kind of mindset. And when we talk to
Speaker 3: other winery owners and other wine makers, that's the first
Speaker 3: thing that they would say is, you know, you start
Speaker 3: getting some pretty real insights and they're like, the making
Speaker 3: of the wine is the easy part. It's building the
Speaker 3: brand and selling it it's the harder part. And so
Speaker 3: that's kind of was our mindset, and we knew we
Speaker 3: like our business plans literally make great wine because that
Speaker 3: will make selling it easier. But step two was definitely
Speaker 3: trying to figure out how to build the brand and
Speaker 3: get it get.
Speaker 2: It sold, especially because lots of people make great wine, yeah,
Speaker 2: and lots of people have to sell wine too, So
Speaker 2: it's it's a competitive world out there.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I have my my techie friends fought and probably
Speaker 3: still think I'm crazy because I did product management when
Speaker 3: I was in tech, and part of that is to
Speaker 3: try to figure out what the open space in the
Speaker 3: market is and to differentiate yourself and to be special
Speaker 3: and different. And you know, it'd be great if there's
Speaker 3: very few competitors, and then I step into something with
Speaker 3: thousands of competitors and they're like, are you crazy?
Speaker 2: So yeah, lots of tech people do that. They leave
Speaker 2: tech and then they step into wine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a there's a there's a reason why NAP exists,
Speaker 3: and there reason there's a reason why yak might exists.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: The proximity to these cities absolutely. So you were saying
Speaker 2: that you and Emily food and wine is a passion
Speaker 2: and a love of yours pre pre when you were dating,
Speaker 2: when you were married, and now in your work. So
Speaker 2: when you want to plan a romantic evening for the
Speaker 2: two of you, what kind of wines do you since
Speaker 2: it's just part of your norm.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we try to pick out some really
Speaker 3: nice wines, but we also try to pick out something different,
Speaker 3: because something different, you know, it keeps it exciting and new.
Speaker 3: It's it's kind of the same but at a different
Speaker 3: level now, I guess. So when we first started dating,
Speaker 3: it was who can find the cool new restaurant and
Speaker 3: who could pair dinner with the coolest wine. But now
Speaker 3: it's got to be more unique. And sometimes we test
Speaker 3: the boundaries of what's on the wine list because a
Speaker 3: lot of times it's the basic stuff that's there. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: so if there's something that we're not familiar with, we're
Speaker 3: probably trying that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, and you said you play a lot of
Speaker 2: music in the winery and it's always playing. Do you
Speaker 2: have a favorite band?
Speaker 3: I have so many. It depends on the mood. So
Speaker 3: I'm kind of my genres like indie right now, but
Speaker 3: but yeah, I'm all across the board.
Speaker 2: Yeah, any favorite artist?
Speaker 3: Hmmm? Uh wow? What should I say? This is old school,
Speaker 3: but I'm gonna do it anyways, Tom Petty Okay.
Speaker 2: And if Tom Petty came over and you could offer
Speaker 2: him a bottle for two day wine, which one would
Speaker 2: you want to give him?
Speaker 3: I think I would give him some grenache? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I think telling.
Speaker 2: Me he's like God, she was pushing me for a name?
Speaker 2: Why why?
Speaker 3: Like this is going somewhere. Yeah, I think Tom would
Speaker 3: dig some grenache.
Speaker 2: So when you look back at your career, what would
Speaker 2: you say is one of your proudest achievements to date?
Speaker 3: Ooh, can I give you two? Sure? Okay. One is
Speaker 3: the first one. When we you know, we I've been
Speaker 3: part of startups, but I've never started my own business.
Speaker 3: Emily and I you know, we were toying around with things,
Speaker 3: and we had a consulting business for half a second
Speaker 3: before we started the winery, but started a winery is
Speaker 3: is a is a thing. So anyways, we we had
Speaker 3: to get a little little money to build that winery
Speaker 3: and so we went through all the little steps to
Speaker 3: do that. And then at the end of that process,
Speaker 3: Small Business Associated Association awarded us with Rising Startup of
Speaker 3: the Year and that's across the all industries including tech.
Speaker 3: So I'll add some breaking rights for my old friends. Wow.
Speaker 3: So that was fun. So that was kind of a
Speaker 3: that's a great achievement. Yeah, So that was great. And
Speaker 3: then as far as the wine goes, like one of
Speaker 3: the first when you have a legit critic say something
Speaker 3: nice about your lines and not just scores. Scores are great,
Speaker 3: but we've covered that, already covered that. Yeah, but but
Speaker 3: to have Sean Sullivan said, you know, we were a
Speaker 3: winery to watch and that was cool. I was like, yeah, all.
Speaker 2: Right, that's awesome.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: So you were talking about, you know, how you've gotten
Speaker 2: advice from people when you were getting into wine, about
Speaker 2: you know, how selling is the hardest part, or other things.
Speaker 2: Is there a piece of advice someone gave you along
Speaker 2: the way, you know, a bigger piece of advice that
Speaker 2: you tried to carry through work or how you live
Speaker 2: your life? And was it a teacher, a mentor a parent.
Speaker 2: I mean, what is that piece of advice that that
Speaker 2: drives you and how is it who shared it with you?
Speaker 3: Mm? Wow. I've got a pretty strong work ethic, and
Speaker 3: I think that's probably from my parents growing up there.
Speaker 3: You know, no one's complaining, everybody's just working. So I
Speaker 3: had that kind of mindset, and I'm trying to think
Speaker 3: of other great inputs and I just can't. There's there's
Speaker 3: strong work, strong work cut. I guess the one that
Speaker 3: just comes to mind is yeah, just persevere and continue
Speaker 3: and just push forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, complete this sentence. For me, A table without wine
Speaker 2: is like.
Speaker 3: Oh boy, uh, table without wine. It's like a lion
Speaker 3: without fur. Yeah yeah, a lion without fur.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's original.
Speaker 3: It's sad, it's not ferocious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's missing his mane.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly. Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I want you to imagine another scenario for me,
Speaker 2: because wine is to be enjoyed. You you love to
Speaker 2: do wine and food and sit at a table with wine,
Speaker 2: sitting at a table, your bottles on the table. Come on,
Speaker 2: you know what's coming up? There's an empty seat. Who
Speaker 2: from any walk of life, living or just ceased? Famous? Well?
Speaker 2: Maybe not? Do you wish you could share a bottle
Speaker 2: of your wine with? Wow?
Speaker 3: These are deep questions. I like these because it makes
Speaker 3: me ponder. I just don't want to throw out anyone.
Speaker 3: I want this to be like something you know, impactful.
Speaker 3: That's awesome. I would say, since you give the option
Speaker 3: of someone not live Mozart like crazy gifted and music
Speaker 3: has energy to me, and so something like that that
Speaker 3: would be crazy and fun. Yeah I love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, see a little pause. I think you'd be happy
Speaker 2: with that answer. Not that there's a right or wrong answer. Okay,
Speaker 2: I got another one for you. Send to a deserted island.
Speaker 2: What three wines would you take with you?
Speaker 3: Oh, desert island? Okay?
Speaker 2: So, and and temperature control is not an issue. This
Speaker 2: is not a heat wave. It's just a deserted island
Speaker 2: where you can only have three wines. Yeah, ideal conditions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I'm going to bring with me. You got
Speaker 3: to bring a white wine. So I'm going to bring
Speaker 3: an Alberino because we were talking about that earlier in that.
Speaker 2: From Spain or from any producer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, from from uh yes, yes, and yes, no, I
Speaker 3: think I would. I would focus more on this style.
Speaker 3: I want something like very crisp and clean, very very bright, Okay,
Speaker 3: and then I would in my head, this island is warm, so.
Speaker 2: It you know, it could be you know, a constant
Speaker 2: seventy degrees and you know, perfect weather for any kind
Speaker 2: of wine. So it's those three wish wines.
Speaker 3: Okay. Cool. So I'm going to bring a Province Rose
Speaker 3: and I'm going to bring and I'm going to do
Speaker 3: I'm I'm going to do a mall back. I'm going
Speaker 3: to do a mall back. I was pondering for a
Speaker 3: second there.
Speaker 2: I'm all back from Argentina.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think Argentina because because for me, that's where
Speaker 3: it all started. The first mallback that I had was
Speaker 3: from Argentina and it was I was like, I gotta
Speaker 3: know more. So I think I would bring it back
Speaker 3: to that.
Speaker 2: Okay, and a third so you have your Crisp White,
Speaker 2: your Province Rose, and your mailback.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, yeah, I was.
Speaker 2: Going to go with any producers. We're just going to
Speaker 2: name nice generic. You're open minded. Okay, one more game.
Speaker 2: It's our It's our time for the wine soundtrack. You know,
Speaker 2: wine a music game. You seem to be pretty into music,
Speaker 2: so this should be fun for you. Wine conjures up
Speaker 2: emotions in US, music conjures emotions and has feelings and sensations.
Speaker 2: So some of your wines, I want you to tell
Speaker 2: me a music with it now. Since we've been sipping
Speaker 2: your rose, which is a rose of since, let's start
Speaker 2: with that.
Speaker 3: It's very Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift, I feel like it's
Speaker 3: Taylor Swift, any.
Speaker 2: Particular song of hers or just a Taylor Swift theme.
Speaker 3: Wow. I have some team members that are gonna kill
Speaker 3: me because I don't I can't think of awesome Taylor
Speaker 3: Swift songs right now. But uh yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Got Okay, Well, Taylor Swift, that's fine. What about your
Speaker 2: stainless steel sharp vigne you give to the aliens?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna do you want music.
Speaker 2: Genre song musician?
Speaker 3: Okay? Wow, Vio is who sings on a summer's day.
Speaker 3: That's like what's in my.
Speaker 2: Head right now, California dreamer. Yeah that on a winter's day.
Speaker 3: On a wintersday, I need to have summer's day. Anyways,
Speaker 3: I'm still picking that because it's it has this vibe
Speaker 3: to it, which is, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, you're grenache.
Speaker 3: Well that's I'm coming back to Tom Petty. Yeah, like running
Speaker 3: down a dream Tom Petty.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, because the grenache is not like a big
Speaker 2: style grenache.
Speaker 3: No, it's groovy. Yeah, it's cool. It's got some bright
Speaker 3: red fruit and some savory notes and the textures dynamite,
Speaker 3: and so yeah, that's a fun ride.
Speaker 2: So okay, okay, and you're fifty to fifty the fifty
Speaker 2: to fifty, which is.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's fifty percent off, fifty percent, mall back.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna go Aerosmith. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, because I'm I'm trying to push this, not push it.
Speaker 2: I'm trying it because I tasted the wine and I'm
Speaker 2: kind of getting it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, because it's I guess I would say Aerosmith
Speaker 3: doing a rock ballad because it's unexpected, but it can
Speaker 3: be kind of cool.
Speaker 2: Would I like to see.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think of, uh, there's a song and
Speaker 3: that your listeners will know which one I'm referring to.
Speaker 3: But it was part of the soundtrack and it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: But it's just griovy like that. So that's what this,
Speaker 3: That's what the fifty to fifty is. It's unexpected. It
Speaker 3: starts off with some savory notes, some baking spices, and
Speaker 3: then it kicks into another gear and it goes air
Speaker 3: Smith on you and just provides lots of death and structure.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it. One more, one more
Speaker 2: your Cabernet.
Speaker 3: Yeah cap, so our cab for folks, for some context
Speaker 3: while I figure out what I'm gonna say, our cab
Speaker 3: is a little bit more approachable. It's not a big,
Speaker 3: mean cap got a lot of nuance and a lot
Speaker 3: of layers to it. So let's see, this is an
Speaker 3: odd pick, but I'm going with it anyways. I'm going
Speaker 3: Elton John because even though this is a nice, elegant,
Speaker 3: approachable cab, it's got some flair and interesting ways. For example,
Speaker 3: the vineyards that it comes from are stellar Marquee vineyards,
Speaker 3: and so that by itself is pretty pretty fun. And
Speaker 3: then each of them are so distinct that they bring
Speaker 3: something to the wine. And so Elton John is like
Speaker 3: multifacet but he can go in any direction and to
Speaker 3: do that all at once, all the crazy all at
Speaker 3: ones is what popped in my brain.
Speaker 2: With hell I love it, perfect, Good job, Lee, you
Speaker 2: did it. Okay. Last question, what wine region in the
Speaker 2: world is at the top of your bucket list to explore?
Speaker 3: Mendoza. I'm gonna I'm gonna list a couple, I guess,
Speaker 3: and then I'm gonna pick one. We were just in
Speaker 3: Spain and just in Bordeaux, France. We're going next year
Speaker 3: to the Rhone region and so that's actually a big
Speaker 3: ticket item for me. We're gonna hit Burgundy and then
Speaker 3: we're gonna go down to Bougielais, and then we're gonna
Speaker 3: go northern and southern Rhon. So we make some Rome
Speaker 3: specific origin varieties, and so checking that out is definitely
Speaker 3: on our list, and hopefully somehow we can find a
Speaker 3: way to get over to Champagne as well. So those
Speaker 3: are like I don't know, must do on the list,
Speaker 3: But then to go to some other regions as well,
Speaker 3: I think like Mendoza would be fine because it's just,
Speaker 3: you know, it's different and it's cool to see what
Speaker 3: other folks are doing. And then this is more because
Speaker 3: I want to travel there versus the wines, even though
Speaker 3: wines are fantastic there. Go to Germany and just see
Speaker 3: the crazy sites in Germany and sip them. Some reasling,
Speaker 3: et cetera would be cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sounds good. And for people who want to come
Speaker 2: to Yakima Valley, you mentioned you have two tasting rooms.
Speaker 2: If you can just kind of reiterate where they are
Speaker 2: and what can they experience when they're at your tasting room.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So the winery and tasting room is in Wapitau,
Speaker 3: which is just south of Yakama by about ten minutes
Speaker 3: and it's out in the middle of Ago. So we're
Speaker 3: actually surrounded by orchards. You can see the Rattlesnake Hills
Speaker 3: kind of in the background, which is again where we
Speaker 3: source a lot of our fruit. And then the experience
Speaker 3: out here is you're basically at picnic grounds. There's a
Speaker 3: big olawn and we have lots of tables and chairs
Speaker 3: kind of scattered throughout the crush pad, and so we
Speaker 3: want people to come in and feel at home, and
Speaker 3: we don't want people to come into a dark tasting room.
Speaker 3: You're in the Acma Valley. It's gorgeous out here, so
Speaker 3: we want you to be outside sitting in the sun,
Speaker 3: probably underneath an umbrella because it can get warm out here.
Speaker 3: And then we'll walk you through what we call a
Speaker 3: guided tasting, step by steep through all the wines. And
Speaker 3: we have intentionally very few tables, even though we have
Speaker 3: a good sized piece of property, and we want to
Speaker 3: spend more time for a table and get to know folks,
Speaker 3: and so that's how it feels out here. We'll tell
Speaker 3: you about the vineyards, we'll tell you about how we
Speaker 3: make the wine, and talk about things that are not
Speaker 3: related to wine too. So that's the Acma Valley. And
Speaker 3: you'll be at the place where we make the wine,
Speaker 3: so you'll see all the stuff too, So that's kind
Speaker 3: of cool too, so you get the the authenticity, if
Speaker 3: you will, of and I think that's part of the
Speaker 3: beauty of the Acma Valley is is coming out and
Speaker 3: getting outside and just seeing where we make the stuff.
Speaker 3: And you're going to meet the owners and the winemakers,
Speaker 3: and so that's the show out here. And then Ellensburg
Speaker 3: is uh is tasting room that's in the historic district downtown.
Speaker 3: We were lucky enough to find an old brick building.
Speaker 3: Inside is all red brick.
Speaker 2: And how far is that from here?
Speaker 3: It's about forty five minutes from here. Yeah, so not far,
Speaker 3: a little bit closer towards Seattle geographically for folks. And yeah,
Speaker 3: so it's got a big time rodeo, so it's kind
Speaker 3: of a rodeo town, and so we picked that spot.
Speaker 3: We looked at a bunch of different places put our
Speaker 3: taste in room, and we were we wanted to be,
Speaker 3: as we discussed before, more direct consumers, so we wanted
Speaker 3: to be out there and getting a couple more taste
Speaker 3: rooms is kind of part of that. And so we
Speaker 3: picked Ellensburg because we placed a bet that it was
Speaker 3: going to be one of the next kind of wine destinations.
Speaker 3: There was only one downtown at the time that we
Speaker 3: got in there, and now there's three and soon there
Speaker 3: will be four, and so it's growing very quickly. It's
Speaker 3: a cool college town, so it's got some cool college
Speaker 3: town fives and great restaurants and so it's a kind
Speaker 3: of a cool arts Hey town too. It just got
Speaker 3: awarded a certified the creative district. So a lot of makers,
Speaker 3: a lot of folks doing some cool stuff. Musicians are food, wine, etc.
Speaker 3: Very cool.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean someone said that you were a winery
Speaker 2: to watch, so I'd say it's a windery to come visit. Yeah, Lee,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining us on Wine Soundtrack
Speaker 2: and cheers cheers.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to a new episode of Wine Soundtrack USA.
Speaker 1: For details and updates, visit our website windsoundtrack dot com.