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Currently, 23 wineries call
Idaho home... eight more than just two years ago. Others
are involved in various stages of preparation and will open their doors within
the next year or two.
Arguably
among the most impressive
of Idaho's newer wineries is
Wood River Cellars (formerly
The Winery
at Eagle Knoll), located west of Boise near the town of Eagle. A long-lived enthusiasm for wine touring led
Mike and Joy Kauffman to
 create a successful niche business, supplying
wineries with smoked meats and cheeses. It was little wonder the
pair took their first step in the spring of 2000 toward a career in
the wine and vineyard industry; they purchased 32 acres of
fertile Idaho soil in the Eagle area and established their first
vineyard. Additional vineyard blocks have been added since then,
bringing the vineyards' varietal count to 10.
"It's a wine kind of day" is
more than just a tag line on Eagle Knoll's website;
the spirit of the motto is an integral part of the winery's ambiance
and the activities and services it offers visitors. Opened in
2003 in a rural setting west of Boise, The Winery at Eagle Knoll (now
Wood River Cellars) was
designed and developed with the wine-country enthusiast in mind.
A driving force behind the Kauffman's business plan is likely to be
the couple's own wine-touring experiences; creating memorable
experiences of a similar ilk seems to be a governing goal in all The
Winery at Eagle Creek offers.
Carefully manicured lawns and
gardens roll across the estate, inviting visitors to wander by the
ponds, creek and waterfall on the grounds, or to enjoy the beautifully
landscaped picnic area. In season, open-air concerts by
Grammy-winning artists attract both locals and travelers to Eagle
Knoll's performance theater, surrounded by vineyards. An
intimate wine-tasting room and retail gift shop cater to wine
enthusiasts, and the Kauffman's smokehouse business now makes its home
on the winery's estate.
"We believe wine is more than
a well-crafted glass of wine," the Kauffmans explain. "It's also
about the experience of enjoying wine, and we want this winery to provide the perfect place to catch a moment of the wine
lifestyle."
WILLIAMSON ORCHARDS & VINEYARDS
The most recent entrant into
the wine trail of southwestern Idaho is the Williamson family.
Williamson Vineyards was planted in 1998 as a move in diversifying the
fruit products grown by this farming family since 1920. Well-known
 for
raising quality produce in the Sunny Slope area west of Lake Lowell,
the Williamsons took a chance on the wine and vineyard industry when
Ste. Chapelle Winery, located
on the hill above the Williamson's orchards, began contracting for
grapes with the Williamsons and other outside growers to increase its
wine production.
Seeing an opportunity for
themselves, the family soon decided to make its own brand of wine
using the highest quality grapes from their own vineyards. The
Williamsons opened their own wine tasting room in October of 2004,
right next to the family fruit stand. Wine with a Williamson
label can now be purchased along with apples, squash, and onions.
Roger Williamson concludes the
family's entry into the wine and vineyard industry
made sense for several reasons.
"We were looking for a way to diversify.
With the grapes we were getting from our vineyard, we knew we could
produce a high-quality wine," he recalls.
"Also, we looked at all the traffic we were already getting at our
fruit stand."
The Williamson family's
fruit stand and tasting room are open June (as soon as the Bing
cherries are harvested) through December, Monday through Friday 10:00
a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and in
keeping with local winery traditions, wine tastings are available by
appointment during the off season.
Williamson Vineyards' grapes, all hand-picked,
are used to produce Cabernet Sauvignon,
Syrah, Viognier and Riesling wine varieties.
New wineries of the eastern Snake
River Valley
Just two years ago,
only Carmela Vineyards and Hegy's South Hills Winery offered respite
for the thirsty wine-country traveler venturing to the
far eastern reaches of the Snake River
Valley. Two new wineries recently raised that number to
four, with one located near Buhl and the other just north of Hammett...
Blue Rock Vineyard and Wines
and Cold Springs Winery respectively. An additional
winery joined the eastern group, although it is outside the proposed
Snake River Valley appellation. Frenchman's Gulch Winery
is located in Ketchum and can be reached by driving north from Twin
Falls on Hwy 93 toward Sun Valley, Idaho.
Blue
Rock Vineyard, opened just this year, appears to be developing an
approach similar to that of used at Eagle Knoll to cater to the
wine-tourism market. Russ and Claudia Snyder have been
developing their Buhl, ID winery, as well as its lovely grounds, for
more than five years. Blue Rock's grounds were part of the
Snyders' plan to make their winery as attractive and memorable as
possible for their visitors. The Snyders' property sits on a
hill, overlooking their vineyard and taking in expansive views of the
Snake River Canyon and mountain tops of Sun Valley... views bound to
attract future visitors. Even while the winery
construction was being completed, the Snyders have been able to host
weddings and class reunions on their grounds. The summer of 2006
will see more of the same, in addition to Jazz and Blues weekly
dinners and lunches.
Claudia Snyder
brags about the ambiance of their winery, the newest in the eastern
portion of the proposed Snake River Valley AVA.
"The grounds are
absolutely beautiful with lots of very colorful flowers and other
plants... lots of grass and concrete work mixed in," explains Snyder
with unbridled enthusiasm. "There are ponds, waterfalls and
bridges, along with many water features for our visitors to enjoy."
Blue Rock
Vineyard's tasting room opened this fall and will remain open through
December (Friday through Sunday, noon to dusk), reopening in April on
the same schedule, with a Grand Opening on June 17th.
Cold Springs Winery, located on the high mountain desert of
Idaho near Hammett, 35 acres of grapes have been planted to many
different varietals. The first plantings in 1995 were to merlot,
chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. Last
year, the 35-acre vineyard was filled by a final planting of
tempranillo. Other varietals grown by Cold Springs are syrah,
riesling, viognier, and merlot.
Owner William
Ringert paired with local winemaker Jamie Martin (formerly of
Hagerman's Rose Creek Vineyards) to develop his winery plans, allowing
Martin to help design the building and choose state-of-the-art
winemaking equipment he would require. Martin still owns
vineyards in Hagerman and its grapes are sold to other Idaho wineries,
including Cold Springs, where he can once again make wines from his
own vineyard's fruit first planted in 1979. Martin's wines have
already received awards for the Cold Springs chardonnay, pinot noir
and merlot. His enthusiasm for the fruit planted to Cold Springs
vineyards is high. "It's a great site, and the grapes are
developing well."
Cold
Springs Winery appears like a mirage in the high-mountain desert of
Idaho's eastern Snake River Valley... a kind of wine-travel oasis amid
sagebrush and an all-but-vacant landscape. The winery's cozy
tasting room offers the visitor views up Cold Springs Canyon; the
winery also offer tours of the Cold Springs Winery facility.
Currently, the winery is open only by appointment, since landscaping,
additional cellar space and parking areas are yet to be completed.
Vineyard manager Julia Heath reports a production goal of 10,000 cases
per year will be reached gradually over time.
Frenchman's Gulch Winery
may seem like a brand new winery, but it has actually been producing
premium wines for several years, using grapes from eastern
 Washington.
Few people outside Ketchum and Sun Valley know about the winery,
because it is located north of the Snake River Valley wine region, on
the road to Sun Valley. With humble beginnings in the
McCarthy-family garage, the winery was moved in 2003 to a retail
location in Ketchum when Frenchman's first release was ready for sale.
Winemaker Steve McCarthy has strong relationships with grape growers
from some of the finest vineyards in eastern Washington, and he uses
their grapes for his old-vine chardonnay (Yakima Valley) and his
cabernet sauvignon (Horse Heaven Hills) wines. Frenchman's Gulch Winery's
limited production means its wines are available only in the Wood
River Valley area or directly from the winery, open every Saturday
1:00 - 5:00 p.m. and by appointment. The Ketchum warehouse
facility serves as the winery's tasting and barrel room. Plans
are underway to build a "stone house" on the lot next to the winery's
warehouse location; the new building will become the tasting room, as
well as the wine-making facility.
Galena Summit
Winery - When winemaker Rick Flickinger and his
wife/co-owner Lynn look back over the seven-year evolution of their
Galena Summit Winery, they realize it began with encouragement.
Rick had managed to develop a real talent for making wines with the
European varietals of chardonnay and sangiovese; not from grapes grown
in the Northwest, but from juice derived from grapes grown in northern
Italy and southern France!
It was the
encouragement of both local culinary people -- friends developed over
the couple's 24-year residence in Ketchum, Idaho -- and wine people in
the Walla Walla Valley that ultimately influenced the Flickingers to
pursue the goal of opening their own commercial winery.
"I had to give it
away to friends in the restaurant business," says Rick, joking about
his first wine offerings; he was no yet licensed for retail.
"Actually, they were impressed and kept suggesting we go the next
step... to start our own commercial winery."
Galena Summit
Winery did take the next step, and its first commercial wine release
took place in the fall of 2004. A tasting room has very recently
opened, Wednesday through Saturday for just a few short hours, 3:00
p.m. to 5:00 p.m. each of the four days. Flickinger will soon
add to his wine list a 2004 syrah from the Langue Doc region of
southern France.
New wineries of Idaho's Panhandle
area
The beautiful Panhandle area
of Idaho now offers four Idaho wineries for wine-enthusiast travelers,
and 10 more are located nearby, across the Washington State border in
the Spokane area.
Until recently, only
Camas Prairie Winery (complete with its Wine Bar Mezzanine)
in the University town of Moscow,
and
Pend d'Oreille Winery in Sandpoint were destinations of import
to Idaho wine tourists. Pend d'Oreille recently demonstrated its
own maturation process when it relocated
from its original home in an industrial park to a
building formerly known as the Pend d'Oreille Brewery.
Two new Idaho wineries were added to the Panhandle area over the last two
years...
Coeur d'Alene Cellars southwest of
its namesake city, and
TimberRock Winery, a few miles
east of Coeur d'Alene in Post Falls, Idaho.
Coeur d'Alene Cellars, specializing in hand-crafted, classic Rhone
varietals -- Viognier (a rising white star in Northwest wine
country) and Syrah (newly established as one of Washington's
most popular reds), and owners
Bob Harris and Kimberly Gates Harris (CEO) select grapes for
their wines from
Washington's Columbia Valley appellation including Horse Heaven Hills,
Wahluke Slope and the Yakima Valley. Rhone varietals have
been grown for years in these regions. Coeur d'Alene Cellars
also entered the
burgeoning
wine-bar scene with the June-2005 opening
of its "Barrel Room No. 6" in a prime location where visitors
can now drop in for a great culinary, enological and musical retreat,
enhanced by beautiful art and a dazzling ambience in Coeur d'Alene's
charming downtown.
TimberRock Winery owners Kevin and Michelle Rogers also are using
grapes from the neighboring state of Washington, with Yakima Valley's
Kestrel Vineyard and the new Horse Heaven Hills appellation being
their primary sources for cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay wines.
The Rogers have shown their enthusiasm for both areas, with the Horse
Heaven Hills appellation taking on special significance for them.
They recently started planting their own vineyard in this new
Washington State AVA, and were supporters of the application process
for federal authorization.
Ste. Chapelle's Chuck Devlin could be speaking for many Idaho
winemakers when he says “I am not
interested in making great Idaho wines, or even great Northwest wines –
I want Ste. Chapelle to be recognized for great wines, period! My intention is to make better wines with each passing year.”
Devlin sees Idaho wineries as
competing against every other winery in the world.
"You go to a grocery store,
even in Idaho," he notes, "and you’ve got wines from Italy and from
France and California and Washington... and you compete with
everybody. So it’s really shortsighted to think that I only
compete with my Idaho neighbors. There’s a world standard at this
point, and you have to hit that standard. Can we hit that standard in
Idaho? Yes. We can, and we do, every day.”
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