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