Waitsburg On The Vine

SEATTLE - Until last week, Joseph Linder had never heard of Waitsburg.

The Austrian-born som- melier from the Fairmount Olympic in downtown Se- attle had been to Walla Walla many times to taste and or- der wines for his diners at the upscale historic 450-room hotel. But it wasn't until he attended the launch of Paul Gregutt's new "Waitsburg Cellars" that the little town in the Touchet Valley got on his radar.

Now he's not only plan- ning a stay in Waitsburg dur- ing his next trip to the Walla Walla wine region, he'll be offering several of the new vintages to his many worldly patrons as part of the Olympic's wine selection.

"These are beautiful wines," Linder said at the invitation-only Waitsburg Cellars wine-tasting at the Gibson Guitar Showroom in Seattle late last month. "They are very authentic."

That sort of feedback is music to the ears of Gregutt, who has always been on the other side of the winemaker/ wine critic equation. He and his wine industry partner invested more than a year to bring his unique and experi- mental blends of mostly oldvine white grapes to fruition under the new label named in honor of his adopted home town.

"We're hoping to shine a light on Waitsburg, on our lives here and on the way it has impacted us," Gregutt said in a recent interview at his home in the Burg. He described himself as a bit of a "nervous new bride" in breaking out the labels for the wine trade in Seattle last week.

The first release of Waits- burg Cellars follows on the heels of another spirit named after Waitsburg: a bourbon made by Kirby Kallas Lew- is, who owns the Loundagin Building on Main Street and operates Oola, a craft distillery on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

"Waitsburg Cellars is the first winery (to our knowl- edge) to claim the town as its home and inspiration," Gregutt wrote in a booklet introducing the new label. "We are confident that many more will follow, and that Waitsburg, its people, the art, the gardens and the wines it inspires will always be One Of A Kind."

Gregutt's partner in the Waitsburg Cellars venture is Precept Wines, the largest privately owned winemaker in the Pacific Northwest, which produces such well known labels as Waterbrook, Canoe Ridge and Sagelands.

Precept also has the closest vineyard to Waitsburg. Barely three years ago it planted grapes on more than 80 acres in Spring Valley, about 6 miles south of town as the crow flies, and it's adding another 40 acres this year.

"The big "W" is something you remember - the imagery and the message," Precept co-founder Andrew Browne said, predicting that beyond the presentation, the great-tasting wines will sell themselves. "Everybody is excited about what it is. The demand will drive it."

Although the grapes for the first release of Waitsburg Cellars come from Precept vineyards elsewhere in the state, Gregutt and Browne are already discussing the possibility of using some of the red Bordeaux grapes from Spring Valley for Gre- gutt's future blends.

For now, Waitsburg Cel- lars has four whites and one red. Two of the whites are household names, Pinot Gris and Riesling, but Linder, the sommelier, argued that these Waitsburg Cellars whites stand out head and shoulders in a field whose quality fluc- tuates wildly.

"The Riesling is spectacular," Linder said. "It's really well made."

Linder should know, hav- ing grown up in a country that produces some of the finest Rieslings in the world. This writer, not a fan of Rieslings, found its profile to have plenty of acidity to balance its sugars and a very pleasant, delicate finish.

For the more unique blends in Gregutt's cellar, tasters at the launch party turned to his one-of-a-kind wines, starting with what he calls a "Cheninières" - an old-vine Chenin Blanc from Snipes Mountain that recalls the quality of a dry Saven- nières from the Loire valley in France.

Next is "Chevray," also made from old-vine Chenin Blanc grapes but fermented more in the off-dry style of a Vouvray. Finally, Gregutt's lone red so far is named "Three" for the unique com- bination of Merlot, Malbec and Mourvèdre grapes that come from four different Precept vineyards.

Many other whites on the market are aimed at the pal- ate of mature drinkers who like the oaky, buttery profile of, say, a Chardonnay. But those flavors tend to drown out the underlying aromas of the fruit from which these wines were made and com- pete with what's for dinner.

Not so with the Waits- burg Cellars whites, which should appeal to a younger audience that seeks more of a complement to what they eat, Gregutt said.

"I wanted wines that taste like the grapes they were made from," he said, admit- ting to a long-standing love affair with lighter complex Loire Valley Chenins.

This affection sent him on a wild search for the three-decades-old Chenin vineyards in Washington state that were being pulled out and replaced by other varietals, much to his cha- grin but not surprising giving Chenin Blanc's reputation as a bland, mass-produced supermarket staple.

"I think people are looking for stuff like this," said Jonathan Marvin, sales manager at Cavatappi, a Seattle- based wine importer and dis- tributor, which will handle the distribution of Waitsburg Cellars' first 1,000 cases released this year.

"It's nice someone wants to take these amazing va- rietals to the next level," Marvin said. "It's not being done."

Gregutt, a long-time wine critic who said he wasn't necessarily angling for a career as a winemaker, was ap- proached by Browne about the idea more than a year ago and couldn't resist having access to Precept's bountiful vineyards and resources.

It was like being a kid in a candy store, explained Gre- gutt, whose wines are bottled at Waterbrook in Walla Walla. "I could take what I wanted. It was a golden op- portunity. I'm enormously grateful to Precept."

His wife, filmmaker Kar- en Stanton Gregutt, and an- other local artist, worked up the logo, whose whimsical "W" stands for many things that are important to the couple: wine, Washington, wheat and, last but not least, Waitsburg.

As for being on the receiving end of the pen, Gre- gutt said "it's only fair and long overdue. It will make me a better critic and allow me to go deeper into the winemaking process. I don't want to be in an ivory tower, immune to criticism."