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 with Dusty Jenkins, the winemaker of
Speaker 2: Gilbert Sellars in Yakima Valley. Dusty, Welcome to Wine Soundtrack
Speaker 2: and tell us a little bit about Gilbert Sellars.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So, Gilbert Sellers, we're a small production, family owned winery
Speaker 4: here in the Yakma Valley, started in two thousand and four,
Speaker 4: so this is actually our twenty year anniversary this year.
Speaker 3: At the anniversary, thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's sort of changed hands throughout the Gilbert
Speaker 4: family throughout the year, but the owners Charlie and Gloria
Speaker 4: Gilbert and Laura Schlett have been kind of the managing
Speaker 4: owners since twenty fifteen. And yeah, we're making sort of
Speaker 4: a variety of wines, a little bit of Roan, a
Speaker 4: little bit of Bordeaux, and.
Speaker 3: Some fun whites kind of mixed in as well.
Speaker 2: So very cool. Now we're on your property and surrounded
Speaker 2: by vineyards. How many acres of a state fruit do
Speaker 2: you have and are you one hundred percent of state fruit?
Speaker 4: We're probably about seventy percent of the majority of which
Speaker 4: are located offsite. So up in the Horse Heaven Hills
Speaker 4: we have a few vineyards and then in the wall
Speaker 4: Luke Slope, so both of them are about an hour
Speaker 4: away from the winery but owned by the Gilbert family.
Speaker 4: So all total, we have probably about forty to fifty
Speaker 4: acres of vineyards throughout the state.
Speaker 2: So wow, with seventy percent of it being right here.
Speaker 4: Yes, so we only have probably ten acres planted out
Speaker 4: here at the winery and the rest are in other
Speaker 4: avas throughout the states.
Speaker 2: So you're working with all of state fruit. You mentioned
Speaker 2: Bordeaux and ron Friddis and then some fun so we
Speaker 2: know what the roon farritis are and we know what
Speaker 2: the Bordau varieties. What are the fun varieties?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so this year we're we're bringing in a Portuguese
Speaker 4: white verdejill, so working with that for the first time
Speaker 4: this year, and Tempernio for the first time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then you know, kind of doing.
Speaker 4: Just sort of unique things with some more standard white
Speaker 4: so like an orange trees lane blended with a little
Speaker 4: chardonnay and like a pet nat style chardonay as well.
Speaker 2: So yeah, having a little fun there with your your fermentations.
Speaker 4: Yes exactly, you know, kind of trying to hit that,
Speaker 4: you know, that unique kind of fresh, fun sort of
Speaker 4: wine style that's kind of becoming a little more prevalent
Speaker 4: in the market.
Speaker 2: So fantastic. It's got a really joyful label of like
Speaker 2: a hand drying of a girl catching a flower, which
Speaker 2: I don't know that matches the name Gilbert, which I
Speaker 2: know is a family name, but the label doesn't.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: It's not like a Dilbert, but it's like a a
Speaker 2: female version.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, So we actually just went through a
Speaker 4: big rebrand this past year, and before that we had
Speaker 4: sort of this silhouette of a mountain. There's a peak
Speaker 4: in the Goat Rocks, which are in the Cascade Mountain range.
Speaker 4: There's a peak named after the Gilbert family, and that
Speaker 4: was sort of the logo for a very long time.
Speaker 4: But the owners, you know, I think there was just
Speaker 4: this kind of feeling like it was time to have
Speaker 4: a refresh, something that kind of like more represented just
Speaker 4: the style and kind of like the energy that.
Speaker 3: They wanted to bring forward in the winery. So yeah,
Speaker 3: it was just time.
Speaker 4: To mix it up, make things a little more a
Speaker 4: little more colorful, a little more fun.
Speaker 2: And so every label has a different cartoon image on us.
Speaker 4: So these four wines that we have here, these are
Speaker 4: kind of our core for and then we have other
Speaker 4: wines that are like just a white label with kind
Speaker 4: of a hand drawn sketch on them as well.
Speaker 2: And what is your total case production?
Speaker 4: So we do about seven thousand annually, between six and seven.
Speaker 2: Thousand, genuinely. And are you a winery that's distributed in
Speaker 2: particular markets? Are you mostly direct consumer? And you know
Speaker 2: how many markets are you in?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we you know, we have a really great
Speaker 4: DTC presence here in the y Akma Valley, but we
Speaker 4: are distributed nationally as well, so of course the great
Speaker 4: presence in Washington. A lot of wines go over to Seattle,
Speaker 4: in the suburbs of Seattle. But yeah, we're distributed in
Speaker 4: New York, Texas, just picked up Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho. Probably
Speaker 4: I would say a third of the states have carried
Speaker 4: or currently carried Gilbert Sellars.
Speaker 2: Well. Great, so not a new wine, but a new
Speaker 2: label for those who are familiar.
Speaker 3: With it absolutely.
Speaker 2: So I'm curious, Dussie, for you as as a as
Speaker 2: a human being, what is your first memory relevant to wine?
Speaker 3: Oh? Wow?
Speaker 4: So I grew up in the Akima Valley in Zillah,
Speaker 4: which is kind of the prime growing region for the
Speaker 4: Akma Valley, and so it was there was always just
Speaker 4: you know, wine was kind of in the air, almost literally.
Speaker 4: But one of my first memories was, you know, my
Speaker 4: parents wanted to go to like the spring barrel release
Speaker 4: and I had just got my driver's license, so I
Speaker 4: was the designated driver. But it was kind of a
Speaker 4: unique experience that was kind of like the first time
Speaker 4: I had gone into the wineries and like, you know,
Speaker 4: it's a unique kind of feeling and smell the first
Speaker 4: time you walk into a winery. It's like, oh, these
Speaker 4: are kind of new sensory experiences that I've never had before.
Speaker 4: So that that definitely kind of sticks out in my mind.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And for something else that might stick out in your mind,
Speaker 2: one of those aha moment wines, do you member that
Speaker 2: kind of it might have been one of the first
Speaker 2: wines you had, maybe it was later on in your
Speaker 2: career or in your explosion of wine, But is there
Speaker 2: a wine that sticks out as one of those aha moments.
Speaker 2: And if you can tell me if you remember the
Speaker 2: wine specifically and what it was about that wine in
Speaker 2: the circumstances.
Speaker 4: Sure, boy, that's kind of a tough question. So I
Speaker 4: kind of cut my teeth in the wine industry in Walla, Walla,
Speaker 4: and you know, there's so many great producers in Walla Walla.
Speaker 3: And yeah, we.
Speaker 4: Got the experience to go taste at Cayuse for as
Speaker 4: students and that was a really just like kind of
Speaker 4: incredible experience and you know, it was it was almost
Speaker 4: like meeting the wizard of Wizard of Oz getting to
Speaker 4: meet Christop and taste through the whole lineup of wines.
Speaker 3: And just like, wow, this is you know, it's kind
Speaker 3: of a magical experience.
Speaker 4: But yeah, very different style than what we're doing, but
Speaker 4: you know, impactful nonetheless, Like you know, there's been so
Speaker 4: many people that have kind of like followed in Christov's
Speaker 4: footsteps trying to you know, capture some of that magic
Speaker 4: as well. So but yeah, he's he's really for Washington State,
Speaker 4: been you know, a huge trailblazer.
Speaker 2: And can you kind of define what that magic is
Speaker 2: about that wine or what it was for you that
Speaker 2: was magical about it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it was just so it was it
Speaker 4: was really unique as far as like the style and
Speaker 4: just like just everything about it. Just the way it
Speaker 4: hit your palette, the aromas you were getting off of it.
Speaker 4: You know, it's unlike what anybody else really was doing
Speaker 4: in lah lah Laha And just like you know, love
Speaker 4: it or hate it was just like a truly unique
Speaker 4: kind of series of wines. But yeah, and that's kind
Speaker 4: of what I'm always seeking, is like, you know, I
Speaker 4: love to try new things. I love to challenge myself
Speaker 4: when I'm drinking wine, and like if it's if it's different,
Speaker 4: if it's funky, if it's you know, kind of off
Speaker 4: the wall, like you know, it just kind of it
Speaker 4: sparks this kind of creativity and this like it can
Speaker 4: really lead to some inspiration at times.
Speaker 2: So if we were to come to your home and
Speaker 2: find wherever you're storing your wine, whether in a few
Speaker 2: drawers and a wine cellar and refrigerators are scattered under
Speaker 2: the in scamp places, what would we find in there?
Speaker 2: Is it wines you've made, windes of friends or really
Speaker 2: obscure varieties particular varieties particular regions.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean kind of well, first of all, we
Speaker 4: just moved, so there's there's wines in rooms that there
Speaker 4: shouldn't be in that wine here at the winery that
Speaker 4: needs to go back home. It's it's kind of all
Speaker 4: over the place right now. But as far as what's
Speaker 4: in our collection, you know, I'm I'm not a huge
Speaker 4: collector for the most part.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm.
Speaker 4: Buying wines that that we want to drink fairly fairly soon.
Speaker 4: And but yeah, like I said, I'm kind of always
Speaker 4: just like searching for the new thing, like not new thing,
Speaker 4: but just like new wine experience for me. So yeah,
Speaker 4: trying wines from more obscure wine producing countries or you know,
Speaker 4: kind of more unique production styles domestically. And there's a
Speaker 4: great wine shop here in Yakimal called Apple Valley Emporium.
Speaker 3: And they have a great selection of kind.
Speaker 4: Of more unique and you know, low fi wines, and yeah,
Speaker 4: so they're a great source to just try out new
Speaker 4: kind of interesting things that you wouldn't find usually in
Speaker 4: a small city like Yakama.
Speaker 2: Is there anything you opened up recently that drank really well, oh.
Speaker 3: Boy, what do we drink recently?
Speaker 4: We just had like a chillable red from Slovenia, I believe.
Speaker 4: So it's you know, just like hot weather open something
Speaker 4: that you know, it's just like juicy and there's clenching,
Speaker 4: you know, on a hot day after we've finished moving.
Speaker 4: And so yeah, that was a wine we picked up
Speaker 4: at the AD that was really just uh yeah, great
Speaker 4: refreshing wind.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, well refreshable claw quaffable red wine. Absolutely. So
Speaker 2: I'm curious because you like to explore all these different
Speaker 2: wines or maybe also kind of fermentation styles and production styles.
Speaker 2: Do you think there's a such thing as a perfect variety?
Speaker 4: Oh boy, I think about as perfect of a variety
Speaker 4: as you can get, as probably breezelane.
Speaker 3: There's just so many directions you can go with it.
Speaker 4: And I mean, for my palette, it's just I love,
Speaker 4: I love a high acid white and you know, have it,
Speaker 4: you know perfectly bone dry reas Lane just can hit
Speaker 4: the spot, you know, sparkling rereasling, a little off dry
Speaker 4: dessert style Reaslane. Like there's just such a broad spectrum
Speaker 4: and feel like there have been so many. I mean,
Speaker 4: of course like classic sort of Mozo and Ryan Gal
Speaker 4: like those are probably like my top tier favorite ones
Speaker 4: in the world.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I just love the spectrum of what you
Speaker 3: can get from that variety. And yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Like that that that it's perfection is sort of its
Speaker 2: ability to to be versatile.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, absolutely, And I one of it's I feel like,
Speaker 4: kind of developed a little bit of a bad reputation
Speaker 4: in Washington has been you know, kind of overly sweet,
Speaker 4: and you say Reasling and Washington and people kind of
Speaker 4: like cringe. But it's like, no, it's it's such a
Speaker 4: cool variety and it can be really beautiful. You just
Speaker 4: have to give it a chance, you know, kind of
Speaker 4: throw your expectations away.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I agree, I agree, I reasonly could be ethereal.
Speaker 2: But you know, like to what you're saying is that
Speaker 2: something gets a reputation, and you know, people fall on
Speaker 2: trend and if they say, oh, you know, reason gets
Speaker 2: a bed wrap and then suddenly it becomes this rumor.
Speaker 2: To the same point, something can can get very popular
Speaker 2: because one person says so. And I'm curious your opinion
Speaker 2: on that fact about wine critics and scores and sort
Speaker 2: of the role they play, you know, is it valuable,
Speaker 2: is it useful? Does it guide you?
Speaker 4: I mean, as a wine maker. I try not to
Speaker 4: think about scores too much. I mean, they're they're definitely
Speaker 4: a tool, like a powerful tool in marketing and sales.
Speaker 4: And I realize, like, yes, that is an important factor
Speaker 4: for a lot of buyers. You know, you have to
Speaker 4: have your ninety two plus point score. But you know,
Speaker 4: when I'm in the cellar when I'm thinking about wines,
Speaker 4: I'm not I'm really not putting much thought into like, oh,
Speaker 4: I hope this gets a good score eventually. I mean,
Speaker 4: if it does, that's you know, that's a great little
Speaker 4: to benefit. But yeah, I try not to think about
Speaker 4: that too much in my like my personal process, right, yeah.
Speaker 2: And in terms of buying wine, does that does that
Speaker 2: affect you all? I'm going to kind of guess, know,
Speaker 2: because you like to try obscure and you know obscure.
Speaker 2: Is it necessarily popular?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean.
Speaker 4: It's not something I pay attention to very much. But
Speaker 4: I again, like I understand the value of it, especially
Speaker 4: for people who are are looking for wine that may
Speaker 4: not have a lot of information in their you know,
Speaker 4: in their personal life about like where to go when
Speaker 4: they're purchasing wine. So I recognize that like seeing that
Speaker 4: number is like, Okay, you know, this is something I
Speaker 4: can put my trust, especially if it's like, you know,
Speaker 4: a recognizable source that's that's giving that number. But but yeah,
Speaker 4: me personally, no, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't pay a lot of attention to scores.
Speaker 2: Well, for somebody who you know hasn't tasted Gilbert wines yet,
Speaker 2: what do you think they're missing out on? I mean,
Speaker 2: you've talked a little bit about the style that you make,
Speaker 2: but what do you what do you think they they're
Speaker 2: missing out on not having yet tried these wines.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I mean, one, they're just like very approachable,
Speaker 4: like very clean, sort of we run the gamut from
Speaker 4: like you know, kind of classically made wines to sort
Speaker 4: of like the more experimental side that I was kind
Speaker 4: of hinting at earlier. But yeah, I think for both
Speaker 4: the person that's like has these kind of like pre
Speaker 4: developed taste of wine, especially Washington wine, there's something for them.
Speaker 4: And then maybe someone who's like completely new to wine,
Speaker 4: there's some really just like fun, approachable things that are
Speaker 4: like can kind of bring you into the bold a
Speaker 4: little bit. And so yeah, that's that's kind of the
Speaker 4: balance that we're trying to strike here. Is like both
Speaker 4: kind of a classic style and something that's a little
Speaker 4: new and fresh, for like maybe a novice wine drinker
Speaker 4: or you know, someone who's used to a classic style
Speaker 4: that wants to try something new.
Speaker 2: So you're you're inequal opportunists, like anyone can come here.
Speaker 2: So we've right, So space aliens were to come here,
Speaker 2: if they landed on your property and they came walking
Speaker 2: on up, which of your wines would you want to
Speaker 2: welcome them with? To say? This is Gilbert Sellers.
Speaker 4: I think I think probably our nouveau pino noir. So
Speaker 4: it's it's the first wine that we bottle every year.
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's kind of a a Beaujeulet style.
Speaker 4: You know, it's carbonic fermentation, so super juicy food, just
Speaker 4: like really fun, playful wine. And you know there's just
Speaker 4: a little like CO two is still on the palette,
Speaker 4: and yeah, it's I think for you know, an alien.
Speaker 2: A carbonic pino noir is not typical.
Speaker 3: Presumably never had one before. Maybe that would be a
Speaker 3: good place for them to start.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, wow, harmonic pinot noir. Yeah yeah, yeah, Okay,
Speaker 2: so you're making some weird and wacky wines. And having
Speaker 2: fun with it. And you like to drink weird and
Speaker 2: wacky wines, which is great and to discover new things.
Speaker 2: But if I was to ask you as a wine drinker,
Speaker 2: red white or rose, what would you say?
Speaker 4: Red white?
Speaker 3: I would say white?
Speaker 4: I would I got probably seventy percent of the wines
Speaker 4: that we.
Speaker 3: Open at home are white wines or rose. But yeah,
Speaker 3: but yeah, red wine.
Speaker 4: It's like we've got the months of you know, November
Speaker 4: to February to pop those open and then it's back
Speaker 4: to white wine season for us.
Speaker 2: So still are sparkling both?
Speaker 4: I mean, honestly, yeah, I could drink champagne every day,
Speaker 4: That's what I would do, but probably more still, you know,
Speaker 4: just there's a little more selection to choose from.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's we love both.
Speaker 2: So you know, speaking of that, if you're drinking white wine,
Speaker 2: you know, eight months out of the year, and how
Speaker 2: do how do you approach that? When it comes to
Speaker 2: food and wine pairing. Is white wine the choice or
Speaker 2: are you looking more at the dish? Are there rules
Speaker 2: that you follow or is there a thought behind how
Speaker 2: you're gonna pick what wine you're gonna drink with food?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean you always consider it.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say like an expert at pairing dishes necessarily,
Speaker 4: but but yeah, I mean it's always fun just to like,
Speaker 4: you know, kind of like think about, Yeah, especially white wine.
Speaker 4: I feel like people are like, oh, it can only
Speaker 4: go with seafood, or it can only go with you know,
Speaker 4: these sort of light positativety you know, but I think
Speaker 4: like depending on the white wine, there's so much there's
Speaker 4: so much variety within white wine. You know, there's wines
Speaker 4: with a little bit more tannin that can handle like
Speaker 4: a heavier protein, and you know, it's just like there
Speaker 4: are white wines to pair with most dishes. Maybe not
Speaker 4: like a big steak or something like that, but you know,
Speaker 4: I think I think, yeah, we make a like a
Speaker 4: rose of Pino noir are sorry Pino Greggio that I
Speaker 4: think is like a great Thanksgiving line so.
Speaker 2: To go with like turkey and cranberry and such.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So it's just got enough that like body and
Speaker 4: tannin to carry like a more fatty dish and and
Speaker 4: things like that and not over overwhelm your palette and
Speaker 4: you know kind of sit heavy in your in your
Speaker 4: in your gut, but.
Speaker 2: So body in tannin is sort of what you're looking
Speaker 2: for in terms of how you're going to gauge on
Speaker 2: the scale of what to pair with body.
Speaker 3: Tannin and acidity. Yeah, of course, yeah, the most important things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, absolutely when thinking about food, like those those
Speaker 4: I mean tannin in acidity I think are like, you know,
Speaker 4: the most kind of key factors of like what pair
Speaker 4: as well?
Speaker 2: Are you looking for things to contrast or to compliment
Speaker 2: each other?
Speaker 4: Well, I think it depends on the dish, right, So, like, yeah,
Speaker 4: like a fatty dish or you know, something that's a
Speaker 4: little more lean.
Speaker 3: Maybe you want a higher acid wine.
Speaker 4: If it's like a big heavy dish, you know, maybe
Speaker 4: bring down the acid, bring up the tannin just to
Speaker 4: kind of you know, so it will find with those
Speaker 4: you know, fat proteins in your mouth and do its magic.
Speaker 3: And yeah.
Speaker 4: But but yeah, like I said, I'm not I'm not
Speaker 4: a Somali, but it's.
Speaker 3: How you do it.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, So you know, talking about that magic, A lot
Speaker 2: of the magic, as as most winemakers will say, happens
Speaker 2: in the vineyard. You probably agree with.
Speaker 4: That, Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean if you start with
Speaker 4: good fruit, it makes our job and the cellar a
Speaker 4: lot easier.
Speaker 2: So so going going through the vineyard and being right
Speaker 2: on a property, working on a property where you have
Speaker 2: grapes right outside. You're here every day walking through it,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure you visit the other the vineyards in
Speaker 2: the years that you've been doing this. Do you what
Speaker 2: kind of what do vintages tell you? Do you see
Speaker 2: variation from year to year? Do you see is it
Speaker 2: a big variation? Is it nuanced? Do you see patterns
Speaker 2: or do is it just each year for itself?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean there's definitely patterns, and you know there's
Speaker 4: years that sort of mirror each other, and yeah, we're
Speaker 4: this this vintage is shaping up to be.
Speaker 3: You know, it's a bit of a hotter vintage.
Speaker 4: So we can go back to similarly align years and
Speaker 4: kind of go through our notes and like kind of
Speaker 4: give ourselves a little bit of an expectation of how
Speaker 4: things are going to progress. And you know, it's it's
Speaker 4: helped like that is so helpful to have those resources
Speaker 4: just to be like, Okay, don't stress, like this is
Speaker 4: kind of how things are going to go, Like things
Speaker 4: are going to come in and sort of this general order,
Speaker 4: and yeah, I mean, but that being said, like twenty
Speaker 4: twenty two was a really kind of cool vintage for
Speaker 4: Washington State, and we kind of had to adjust, Like
Speaker 4: we weren't bringing in any fruit until mid September, which
Speaker 4: had become like incredibly rare for us. You know, like
Speaker 4: after several really hot vintages in a row. It kind
Speaker 4: of like shifted our expectation of what our kind of average.
Speaker 3: Vintage looked like.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean each year is different, and you'd
Speaker 4: roll with the punches, but use all the tools in
Speaker 4: your toolbox to kind of like build your expectations of
Speaker 4: how it's going to go.
Speaker 2: So in addition to having this great toolbox and being
Speaker 2: able to reference, like you said, mirroring vintages, are there
Speaker 2: any other sort of signs or predictors that you look
Speaker 2: for that'll tell you what a harvest is going to be?
Speaker 4: I mean, you just you kind of yeah, weather throughout
Speaker 4: the growing season, whether it's a wet spring, you know,
Speaker 4: really dry spring, it kind of those factors can can
Speaker 4: really impact how things go throughout the year. You know,
Speaker 4: if you're dealing with different pests and mildew pressures throughout
Speaker 4: the season, Like that's all kind of based on a
Speaker 4: lot of sort of environmental factors early in the growing season.
Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, just kind of paying attention to those
Speaker 4: things as they progress throughout the.
Speaker 2: Year as well. And then you go reference another year ago.
Speaker 2: What happened? What do we do?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: What did we do? How did it look? Should we
Speaker 3: be worried?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: Okay? Good?
Speaker 2: Yeah. Are you ever finding yourself out in the vineyards
Speaker 2: talking to the vines and encouraging them or reprimanding them,
Speaker 2: or or you know, I don't know, telling them your
Speaker 2: your life story.
Speaker 4: Maybe not talking to the vines, but definitely talking to myself,
Speaker 4: reassuring myself, I think, is what's going on there. Maybe
Speaker 4: it looks like I'm talking to the vines, but yeah,
Speaker 4: that's all about self reassurance.
Speaker 2: You don't have to confess anything to the vines, and
Speaker 2: they don't confess to you.
Speaker 3: No, I've never tried that.
Speaker 4: Maybe save some money on therapy. No, No, I haven't
Speaker 4: done that approach yet. It's not a bad idea.
Speaker 2: And when when the vines come in and they become wine.
Speaker 2: I mean some people say that they play music to
Speaker 2: the grapes or to the wine because it sets the mood,
Speaker 2: or that they talk they hug their barrels. Do you
Speaker 2: do anything like this? Do you feel that it affects
Speaker 2: the wine in any way?
Speaker 4: You know, I've heard of that concept and I kind
Speaker 4: of like it. I've never implemented it, but I have
Speaker 4: like googled like submersible speakers, like.
Speaker 3: That would be cool.
Speaker 4: So I play some music submerged in the wine under
Speaker 4: the wine cap. But you know, we've just got our
Speaker 4: kind of like harvest playlist. And if it's a if
Speaker 4: it affects the wine, it's that's an added benefit that
Speaker 4: was unintentional.
Speaker 2: So it hasn't harmed the wine from what you can
Speaker 2: say as.
Speaker 3: Far as ill. So, yeah, right, So.
Speaker 2: You've been here, you said since twenty twenty seven, twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: So you've been here, you know, seven years, eight years.
Speaker 2: Do you have a have you instituted or did you
Speaker 2: come in to any rituals at the beginning of harvest
Speaker 2: that you do as a team, any sort of little
Speaker 2: big things parties.
Speaker 4: Yeah, actually, yesterday we had our like it's become kind
Speaker 4: of an annual tradition, our little harvest like kickoff lunch.
Speaker 4: And it's just a good, you know, a good excuse
Speaker 4: to get like the team together and kind of like, Okay,
Speaker 4: you know, it's a little bit of a pep talk
Speaker 4: for us in production, and then just you know kind
Speaker 4: of yeah, just have a chance to like thank everybody
Speaker 4: in advance, like this is going to be a long
Speaker 4: couple of weeks and you know, see you on the
Speaker 4: other side. Thank you slash sorry in advance.
Speaker 2: So yeah, nothing like a lucky T shirt or don't
Speaker 2: shave for weeks or I, you know, pour a bottle
Speaker 2: of sparkling wine over then.
Speaker 3: So I've been the head wine maker for this will
Speaker 3: just be my third vantage. But no, yeah, no, that's
Speaker 3: a great idea, though.
Speaker 4: We need to have like a more of a like,
Speaker 4: I don't know, a thing a tradition that we do right.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean my timing might be perfect because
Speaker 2: you have that opportunity.
Speaker 3: It's still it's still freshen up, there's still time. Definitely.
Speaker 2: I think it's something really really really cool and different
Speaker 2: so that next time someone asked you this question, you
Speaker 2: could be like, you know what we do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's that's a good thought. I need to
Speaker 3: to do this.
Speaker 2: So you grew up in this area, but obviously it
Speaker 2: sounds like your parents weren't working in wine and that
Speaker 2: you know, you weren't really aware aware where until you
Speaker 2: said you drove them. So when you were little, what
Speaker 2: did you want to be when you grew Oh?
Speaker 4: Boy, Well I went to school for film and video
Speaker 4: and worked in basically video production for a while and
Speaker 4: then was a film archivist for about seven years. So yeah,
Speaker 4: when I was younger, I wanted to be like a
Speaker 4: movie director.
Speaker 3: Was sort of the idea behind that. But yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean kind.
Speaker 4: Of you know, got burnt out in working in film
Speaker 4: archiving and had no interest in staying in that industry,
Speaker 4: and so I was ready for a big change and
Speaker 4: had some friends that were in the wine industry and
Speaker 4: wah la walla, and I was like, you know, this
Speaker 4: like kind of ticks all the boxes of like the
Speaker 4: type of work that I at least think I would
Speaker 4: like to be doing, and you know, kind of jumped
Speaker 4: in and it's just been Yeah, it feels like the
Speaker 4: perfect fit. I've done a lot of different jobs and
Speaker 4: this is the first one I'm like, Okay, this is
Speaker 4: like feels like it fits by my personality.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I found it through film archiving and little
Speaker 2: did you know, very.
Speaker 4: Secute as route to wine making But you know, that's
Speaker 4: that's kind of I feel like that's my generation is like,
Speaker 4: you know, there's we have had a lot of different
Speaker 4: careers in our times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well you don't know until you try it.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: So when you're not working, how do you like to
Speaker 2: spend your free time?
Speaker 4: I still love movies, and my wife and I we
Speaker 4: watch We watch a lot of movies.
Speaker 3: Try to hit one hundred movies a year. Nice.
Speaker 4: And then yeah, just getting outdoors. We just we just
Speaker 4: moved out to a little farm just a couple of
Speaker 4: miles here from the wineries. So we've got some fruit
Speaker 4: trees and some blueberries and some nut trees. So kind
Speaker 4: of our little hobby farm is now gonna be a
Speaker 4: big hobby for us.
Speaker 2: So yeah, wow, Yeah for movies, do you have a
Speaker 2: favorite film?
Speaker 3: Favorite film? Oh? Boy, you know, I love Jurassic Park.
Speaker 4: It's like one of the first movies that I like
Speaker 4: fell in love with as a kid and as an adult.
Speaker 3: I like it's it.
Speaker 4: Holds up pretty well, like even you know, it came
Speaker 4: out in the early nineties, but it's like doesn't look
Speaker 4: as dated as you would think. So that's I mean,
Speaker 4: it's not a very film snob answer. But yeah, it's
Speaker 4: just a fun movie to watch.
Speaker 2: No. I think I think that there should be films
Speaker 2: for different just like mine different movies, right, your most
Speaker 2: your favorite entertaining movie versus your favorite you know. Technical
Speaker 2: So when you're watching your hundred movies a year, are
Speaker 2: there certain standards you have as to what you're going
Speaker 2: to watch where it's just one hundred different movies?
Speaker 4: No, I mean we we kind of have a It's yeah,
Speaker 4: we don't have like a rule of like what we'll watch.
Speaker 4: I love like the Fast and Furious movies and John
Speaker 4: Wick like very just sort of like action. Yeah, but
Speaker 4: but yeah, we'll watch we'll watch the nerdy stuff too.
Speaker 2: So do you have a favorite director?
Speaker 4: Favorite director? Probably Jim Jarmouche.
Speaker 2: Okay, so so if you could, if you could share
Speaker 2: a bottle of your wine with Jim jarmush, which of
Speaker 2: your wines would you want to share?
Speaker 4: Oh? Gosh, maybe the Ala Broche. I feel like, you know,
Speaker 4: it's our our Roan blend.
Speaker 3: Uh, it's it's it's kind.
Speaker 4: Of unique for a Washington Roan and that it's a
Speaker 4: little bit of a lighter style, a little higher acid.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pair as well.
Speaker 4: With you know, a lot of different dishes, which I
Speaker 4: feel like he's got kind of an eclectic series of
Speaker 4: movies that he's made, So yeah, I feel like it
Speaker 4: defies expectations as is, maybe his movies do as well.
Speaker 4: I like that.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 2: Good job, good job, So it's off the cup. I
Speaker 2: love it. I love it. So I'm curious when you are,
Speaker 2: you and your wife have just moved into another farmhouse.
Speaker 2: Your wines are scattered all over the place, so you
Speaker 2: know you're not quite settled in. But if you're planning
Speaker 2: a romantic evening for you and your wife, is do
Speaker 2: you pull out different wines to set a tone of
Speaker 2: romanticism versus any other night or is the exploring of
Speaker 2: wine just part of your life and every night is
Speaker 2: the same.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think.
Speaker 4: You know my wife, Whitney, she loves bubbles, she loves champagne.
Speaker 4: So if it's if it's going to be like a
Speaker 4: romantic right, that's an easy go too. But you know it,
Speaker 4: that kind of saves it as being like a special
Speaker 4: occasion as well. So yeah, I mean that's that's the
Speaker 4: easy go to for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Bubbles always bubbles, always bubbles. So when you look back
Speaker 2: at your work, what would you or your career, I
Speaker 2: should say, your entire career to date, what would you
Speaker 2: say is one of your proudest accomplishments.
Speaker 4: Oh, proudest accomplishments. Yeah, I mean, honestly, just becoming the
Speaker 4: head winemaker here.
Speaker 3: You know, it was not really.
Speaker 4: Ever my plan to like, oh, I'm going to move
Speaker 4: back to the Yakima Valley and become a winemaker. It
Speaker 4: was just kind of the invisible magnets of the world
Speaker 4: pulled me back here, and like, you know, and I
Speaker 4: had the good fortune of working under Justin Duffeld, who
Speaker 4: he was a winemaker in yak in the Yakma Valley
Speaker 4: as well, and you know, he taught me a lot
Speaker 4: over five years with working with him, and then when.
Speaker 3: He left to do his project.
Speaker 4: Full time, you know, I was like kind of ready
Speaker 4: and prepared to like take on that task of kind
Speaker 4: of running the show, calling the shots, and like, you know,
Speaker 4: it's I've yeah, I feel proud of the wines that
Speaker 4: I've made over the last three years, and and yeah,
Speaker 4: it's it's just kind of the sum of of all
Speaker 4: of that, all of that experience kind of crystallized into
Speaker 4: the least you know, thirty six months or so.
Speaker 3: I love Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2: And also to have the confidence that it's.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's I think that just like that personal growth
Speaker 4: and like the just the experience and the readiness to
Speaker 4: like take on that role was Yeah, that's probably my
Speaker 4: proudest moment.
Speaker 2: So yeah, So when you look back, is there a
Speaker 2: piece of advice that somebody gave you, whether it was
Speaker 2: justin or maybe it was a parent or a teacher,
Speaker 2: that you carry with you as a way to live
Speaker 2: or maybe a way to work or both.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean I think someone once said, a friend of mine,
Speaker 4: I think, said, you know, in regards to winemaking, we
Speaker 4: don't do this job because it's easy.
Speaker 3: We do it because we thought it was going.
Speaker 4: To be easy, which, you know, I have my own
Speaker 4: sort of set of expectations of like, oh, what is
Speaker 4: the wine industry going to be, Yeah, it's gonna be
Speaker 4: this really fun thing, but really it is, like it's.
Speaker 3: A lot of hardware and you get what you put in,
Speaker 3: so it's it's.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not a glamorous job, but it you know,
Speaker 4: if if you're willing to like really grind and do
Speaker 4: the hard work.
Speaker 3: Like you can make some beautiful things with that.
Speaker 2: So absolutely, yeah, gotta work harder, so complete this sentence.
Speaker 2: For me, A table without wine.
Speaker 3: Is like God. A table over without wine is like
Speaker 3: Grandma's house. It was a sober grandparents were not big drinkers.
Speaker 2: So imagine another scenario for you to imagine we're sitting
Speaker 2: at a table. We are sitting at a table, we
Speaker 2: have your wine on the table, and there's an empty
Speaker 2: seat next to you. You don't have to imagine it,
Speaker 2: it's right there. But if you could fill that seat
Speaker 2: with any person living or deceased, infamous, famous or unknown,
Speaker 2: who do you wish that you could sit next to
Speaker 2: and share a bottle of Gilbert Wines with that you made?
Speaker 4: Well, Now that I through my grandma, and maybe I
Speaker 4: should have her at the table. See if I could
Speaker 4: get her to dry a bottle of why I think
Speaker 4: that would be a special experience.
Speaker 3: So you've redeemed yourself.
Speaker 2: So we've kind of come to the end where it's
Speaker 2: time as a way to talk about your wines. We're
Speaker 2: going to play a little game pairing wine with music.
Speaker 2: But this is a way to talk about your wines
Speaker 2: and kind of maybe explain to people in a way
Speaker 2: like what music sort of defines the wine for you.
Speaker 2: So as we've been talking, we've been sipping on the
Speaker 2: Unoaks Shardenay. So let's start with the Unoak Shartenay.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so the Unoaks Shardenay. You know, I kind of
Speaker 4: think about wine and wine making as like different vibes,
Speaker 4: you know, so like it's kind of classic, it's got
Speaker 4: kind of this like really crisp, you know, acidity, and
Speaker 4: so you want something that's like I listened to mostly
Speaker 4: like classic rock and like alternative rock.
Speaker 3: From the nineties.
Speaker 4: So I'm gonna go ahead and say that the Unoaked
Speaker 4: is best to go at the Velvet Underground.
Speaker 3: Okay, it would be my parent.
Speaker 2: I like that it works. I mean I get it
Speaker 2: because I'm tasting it and I get the electric and
Speaker 2: I get I got it. Okay. So the next one
Speaker 2: you talked about your pino noir nouveaux, your carbonic new pino.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, I would say, yeah, so probably more of
Speaker 4: a new artist still, like you know, fun energetic. I'm
Speaker 4: gonna go with, Oh, the OC's that's another, like, sorry,
Speaker 4: more current rock band that I like.
Speaker 3: To listen to.
Speaker 2: And what about the Rone Blend that you were that
Speaker 2: you were referring to that you would be giving to
Speaker 2: Jim tlution.
Speaker 4: Right, Let's uh, let's go, let's go nineties late eighties
Speaker 4: Dinosaur Junior.
Speaker 3: That would be my pick for that one.
Speaker 2: Let's see what about you know you talked about reasling
Speaker 2: and you make reasling yep, and reasoning gets a bum
Speaker 2: wrap and I want to talk about your reasoning.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So for Gilbert Sellers remake, we've done a petnat
Speaker 4: with the reasoning for a few years ago and that
Speaker 4: came out beautifully. But the last couple of vintages we've
Speaker 4: switched it up a little bit and we've been doing
Speaker 4: sort of a cohermant where we take a little bit
Speaker 4: of reasling and chardonnay and then do like.
Speaker 3: An orange wine with it.
Speaker 4: So we do a ten date fermentation on skins and
Speaker 4: it has this like I think for an orange wine,
Speaker 4: it's still got this like nice bright acidity.
Speaker 3: It's like really approachable. I say, it's kind of like an.
Speaker 4: Entry level orange line because I can feel sometimes like
Speaker 4: when you drink orange wine, it's a little bit like
Speaker 4: doing homework.
Speaker 2: This one still has juiciness.
Speaker 4: Juiciness, very fruit forward and yeah, but enough of that
Speaker 4: like kind of tannin and a little bit of like
Speaker 4: this herbaceousness going on that. Yeah, it's it's a yeah,
Speaker 4: it's a really nice fun line.
Speaker 3: So and so what would you pay that with? What
Speaker 3: would I pair that with? Oh gosh, yeah, I mean
Speaker 3: it's still hot out. So I'm gonna say, like.
Speaker 4: You know, go great with some like barbecue chicken or
Speaker 4: something like that, something with a little in music in music,
Speaker 4: Oh gosh maybe. Uh, I'm just navy bands that I
Speaker 4: like a lot. Heyo lt Tango. That's a great little
Speaker 4: mellow band to go with a nice late summer afternoons like.
Speaker 2: That, barbecue chicken, kind of a juicy intro orange wine, something.
Speaker 3: A little funky music wise.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think we've covered a good amount and
Speaker 2: I will put you under more pressure that you've done
Speaker 2: very well. But if if you were to say, Gilbert Silage,
Speaker 2: is there a wine that is considered sort of the
Speaker 2: flagship or a grape that you consider your flagship grape?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I would say the Left Bank Blend is
Speaker 4: our our flagship wine. It's a it's a Bordeaux blend.
Speaker 4: Seventy percent capsaw were low some years. We'll put a
Speaker 4: little bit of Carmenire or Maulbeck in it as well.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that that, you know, Kapsov is.
Speaker 4: The most planted grape in Washington, so it's also sort
Speaker 4: of the flagship grape for Washington State. But but yeah,
Speaker 4: it's a really solid, approachable, you know, Bordeaux blend for
Speaker 4: for the Yakama Valley.
Speaker 2: Okay, last one, give me a music pairing on that
Speaker 2: one last music pairing.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm gonna go classic. Let's say it's gonna love Zeppelin.
Speaker 3: Okay, something a little heavy.
Speaker 2: Right, you're almost finished. I've got I got one last
Speaker 2: question for you now that you're like, I'm on a roll,
Speaker 2: let's go. I'm curious with all the exploration that you
Speaker 2: like to do in wine and having drunk that really good,
Speaker 2: juicy Slovenian chilled read recently, you obviously like to explore
Speaker 2: the world of wine. So what wine region in the
Speaker 2: world is at the top of your bucket list that
Speaker 2: you want to go to?
Speaker 3: Oh so, my my wife just went to Portugal for
Speaker 3: a month and I without you, without me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when I got to hear stories, I'm like, oh
Speaker 4: my gosh, I want to go. So yeah, Portugal is
Speaker 4: probably on my Portugal and Italy those would be the two.
Speaker 3: That are kind of at the top of my list.
Speaker 3: Nice next, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Nice, I think it's time to go.
Speaker 3: It's time to go.
Speaker 2: You can take your wife with you harvest after harvest
Speaker 2: for sure, and before you head off to harvest. One
Speaker 2: last question. If people want to come visit you here
Speaker 2: at Gilbert Seller's, where can they find you? And when
Speaker 2: they get here, what can they exp experience here at
Speaker 2: the winery.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we're located about ten miles outside of downtown
Speaker 4: downtown Yakoba. Downtown yak i'mon, yes, Yeah, we're open seven
Speaker 4: days a week. Beautiful tasting room. But really I think
Speaker 4: people come out here. It's for my money. It's like
Speaker 4: the best beautiful view in the Yakma Valley. So you know,
Speaker 4: people come out, grab.
Speaker 3: A bottle and just sit out on the lawn and
Speaker 3: you know, it's just a great day to spend an afternoon.
Speaker 3: So fantastic.
Speaker 2: Well, if you want to try some juicy intro orange
Speaker 2: wine or you know the Left Bank inspired cabernet that's
Speaker 2: Borto that's a flagship, or anything in between, come on
Speaker 2: out to Gilbert Sellar's Dusty, it's been a pleasure talking
Speaker 2: with you, and I want to go try that Orange reesling.
Speaker 3: Let's go here.
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