According to Idaho Grape Growers and Wine Producers Commission, “Idaho wineries swept the annual Northwest Wine Summit Competition.”  Here’s the Commissions summary of the event:

Once again Idaho shows itself to be a growing industry and came out standing strong against tough competition. The competition extended across the Northwest including wines from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia. With an abundance of wines awarded, the following wineries received Gold, Silver, and/or Bronze awards:

· Cinder

· Colter’s Creek Winery

· Frenchman’s Gulch

· Fraser Vineyard

· Hells Canyon Winery

· Indian Creek Winery

· Koenig Vineyards

· Pend d’Oreille Winery

· Snyder Winery

· Vale Wine Company

· Woodriver Cellars

Providing Idaho’s strengths in the competition, these wineries altogether received 9 Gold Medals, 17 Silver Medals and 20 Bronze Medals; totaling 47 medals. In addition, Cinders’ 2009 Viognier was noted, hailing it as the “Best of Region” wine, a tremendous feat for a large competition as this. With the Northwest Wine Summit known to be the largest competition in the Northwest, judging over 1,100 wines, it is a great accomplishment for Idaho to win an astounding amount of awards, proving these wineries are indeed crafting exceptional wines.

Indian Creek Winery in Kuna, Idaho had a big number of wins coming out of the competition. Total they had 10 award winning wines and won two of the 9 Gold Medals. Taking home the Gold Medal were the 2009 Chardonnay and 2009 Viognier, hand crafted by winemaker Mike McClure. Hells Canyon Winery in Caldwell, Idaho also showed to do well winning 8 total medals with two of them holding Gold. Hells Canyon Winery’s 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2006 Merlot both won Gold at the NW Wine Summit. Hells Canyon Winery and Indian creek were not the only big winners for the Northwest Wine Summit competition, though. Taking home the highest awards with Outstanding Gold medals were also the: Cinder 2009 Viognier, along with the Fraser Vineyard 2009 Viognier, Koenig Vineyard 2008 Riesling Ice Wine, Pend d’Orielle Winery 2008 Viognier, and Vale Wine Company 2008 Syrah.

In addition to winning “Best of Region” for Cinder’s 2009 Viognier, four more awards for their 2009 Chardonnay, 2009 Rosé (of Syrah), 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2008 Syrah. Owners Melanie Krause & Joe Schnerr state it perfectly on their website: “We hope to express the beauty of this place and its people through our wine.” One of the pioneer wineries in the industry, Koenig Vineyards out of Caldwell, Idaho was also a big winner. Deservingly six of their wines were awarded medals for the Northwest competition. Their 2008 Riesling Ice Wine took a Gold Medal, their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008 Viognier, and 2007 Syrah “Three Vineyard Cuvee” received Silver Medals, in addition to their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2008 Riesling “Sunny Hope Cuvee” that took Bronze. Congratulations to all the Idaho wineries for their incredible work and award winning wines, we’re so excited for the growth that has come, and excited for the future. There are more medals and awards to win in the future, proving Idaho is emerging into a great wine region.

To view all the winners of the 2010 NorthWest Wine Summit, including wineries from Idaho, Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, please visit www.northwestwinesummit.com.

About Idaho Wines

The Idaho Grape Growers and Wine Producers Commissions’ goal is to market and promote all Idaho wineries and growers. There are a total of 41 wineries with 1600 vineyard acres planted. The wine industry contributed $73 million to Idaho’s economy in 2008. Visit www.idahowines.org for more information about wineries, vineyards, and events in Idaho. Phone: (208) 455-8354 Fax: (208) 455-8364 E-mail: info@idahowines.org

Website: http://www.idahowines.org

Meet J.J. Williams. His family owns a winery on a dusty Eastern Washington hill called Red Mountain. At 23 years old, he’s third gen working full-time in the business. And he’s in charge of dealing with the bloggers. J.J. says wine bloggers can’t be ignored. They are continuing to grow in numbers and popularity. That’s forcing wineries to get savvy and give them information, tours and samples. It’s J.J.’s job to sort out which blogs are legit. He says it’s very different than sending wine to an established wine critic.

J.J. Williams: “It’s difficult because you don’t know who you are sending wine to. You don’t know what their palate is. You don’t know what the conditions are they are reviewing the wine under. If they are going to pair it with food — or not pair it with food — or pair it incorrectly with food. Really the nature of blogging is that anyone can have a voice and everyone has an opinion.”

J.J. says all that can get expensive. It’s also hard to track sales stimulated by blogs. But he says word of mouth already sells a lot of wine — and blogging is just another way that happens. J.J. even has a video blog himself called “The One-Eyed Wine Guy.”

On the Web:

Wine Bloggers Conference

One-Eyed Wine Guy

Copyright 2010 Northwest News Network

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Photo by Guy Hand

After a long, lingering winter, Spring has finally sprung here in southern Idaho.  To celebrate, NPR’s Edible Idaho is trying something new:

A weekly radio show called The Market & Garden Report.

Every Friday morning beginning April 30th during Morning Edition on Boise State Radio (KBSX 91.5), producer Guy Hand will bring you the news on what’s fresh and interesting at the area’s farmers’ markets. We’ll also gather timely tips on how to plant your own garden and grow you’re own food.

Photo by Guy Hand

One week The Market & Garden Report will explore Boise’s Capital City Public Market.  We’ll talk to vendors about their best, most unique products (often focusing on those mystery vegies that most of us haven’t tried or know how to cook). We’ll get recipes from area chefs, let you know when your favorite berries are in season and alert you to upcoming events at farmers’ markets all around the Treasure Valley.

Photo by Guy Hand

The following week — for those of you who’d like to get your hands dirty — we’ll head out to Peaceful Belly Farms. There Clay and Josie Erskine will let us sneak into their very popular gardening class. They’ll teach us about heirloom tomatoes, compost piles and what to do about all those pesky bugs.

So, one week the Market, the next week the Garden. From Springtime to Fall harvest. That’s what Edible Idaho’s Market & Garden Report is all about.  Whether you grow your own food or pick it at the area’s farmers’ markets, the show will help you make the most of this bright new growing season.

Listen every Friday morning on Boise State Radio (KBSX 91.5) from April 30th all the way to the frosty end of October.

And stay tuned to the regular Edible Idaho program the first Monday of every month.  As it has for the last four years, Edible Idaho will continue to explore in-depth issues about Idaho food and agriculture on Boise State Radio.

Of course,  Edible Idaho and  the new Market & Garden Report will be available on-line, anytime, right here on Northwest Food News.

Posted: Friday, March 26, 2010

RICHLAND, WA – Thousands of assessments of Washington merlot zipped across cyberspace last night. Vino experts and average wine fans alike logged on to Twitter for a virtual wine tasting event. It’s a first for the Washington wine industry, although similar events have been organized out of California recently. Correspondent Anna King reports.

About 80 Northwest wineries, restaurants and wine critics participated in the online merlot tasting event last night. More than 500 Twitter users from San Francisco to Portland joined in. At the Bookwalter Winery in Richland, Washington, wine enthusiasts watched a Twitter feed scroll across a large flat screen.

Bookwalter’s Marcella Henson says Twitter allows wine fans to feel included no matter what their experience level or physical location.

Marcella Henson: “You don’t have to feel pressured to be knowledgeable you can sit back and try wine or see what others are saying about wine and be educated.”

During the social media event tasters were encouraged to open and rate any Washington merlot they wanted. The event was organized by Spokane based wine blogger Josh Wade.

Copyright 2010 Northwest Public Radio

On the web:

Drink Nectar

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Posted: Friday, March 5, 2010

Christophe Hedges holds his young son at his family’s winery on Red Mountain in Eastern Washington. Hedges is fighting against wine reviewers who want to score his family’s wine in magazines and other publications. Photo by Anna King

RICHLAND, WA – Some big names in the Northwest wine industry have been quarrelling publicly — online. Gut punches on Facebook have led to rebuttals on blogs and plenty of ringside jeering. The cause of the spat? Wine scores. Those are the numerical ratings wine critics use to help consumers navigate the world-of-wine. In the Northwest there’s a small but vocal movement to let vino speak for itself. But wine journalists are none too happy about it. Correspondent Anna King reports.

At Wine Spectator a score of 50-74 is not good. A wine from 95 -100, now that’s a classic. But it’s not just Spectator that uses these types of scores. They’ve become ubiquitous in the wine world, and they pack a lot of power.

Christophe Hedges hates scores.

Christophe Hedges: “We don’t want to give too much power to one person’s palate.”

Hedges is the son of the owners of Hedges Family Estate in Eastern Washington. It’s one of the largest, most influential wineries in the state.

Hedges says he had his epiphany about scores about seven years ago. He was in New York and walked into a new, hip restaurant with his laminated sheet of scores. He made the mistake of dropping the sheet down on the bar in front of the owner.

Christophe Hedges: “He glanced down at it and he said, ‘Get out of my restaurant.’”

He left mystified. Until his wine distributor later told Hedges he had offended the chef.

Hedges: “…he’s been buying wine for over 20 years, and you basically said his palate isn’t good enough, so why don’t you look at everyone else’s palate? Really? That makes total sense.”

Since then Hedges has been on a steady campaign to get rid of scores on his family’s wine altogether. Now many bottles of Hedges wine sport a no-score symbol – it looks like a no smoking sign. Hedges even produced an online cartoon. It features a balding wine critic verbally sparring with a hipster wine guy.

SOUND: [Hedges wine cartoon]

Cartoon wine critic: “I warned you, do not cross me, I will give you bad scores for your wines, you horrible hipster freak.”

Cartoon Hedges hipster: “Well … we feel that quantifying a subjective product like wine ruins the experience for the human race.”

The most recent object of Hedges ire is Paul Gregutt. The Seattle Times writer and popular blogger wouldn’t comment for this story. But there’s another critic who has seen both sides of the scoring show.

Dan Sogg used to critique wines for the Wine Spectator. Arguably, it’s the most influential press house in the wine industry. But his job ended at the magazine a couple years ago. Now he consults with wineries seeking higher scores.

Dan Sogg: “The 100 point scale … provides an easily digested nugget of information.”

Still, Sogg says that nugget of information comes with its own limitations. And wine judging isn’t always fair, especially when judges taste many wines at one sitting.

Dan Sogg: “It can become almost kind of like a cage fight. And the heavyweights tend to win. The wines with more richness, more oak, more alcohol and maybe more residual sugar. So other styles of wine that aren’t as weighty, but can be equally as well done, and might even be better at dinner are not necessarily going to get their due.”

The daddy of all wine critics — Robert Parker — is probably the most chastised for liking those ‘heavyweights.’

Parker wields tremendous power in the wine world. If he gets behind a wine, prices and demand can skyrocket. He sees Hedges opposition to scoring as just sour grapes.

Robert Parker: “I know we have reviewed Hedges and given them good, not great scores. I have to say this quite candidly, I’ve never known a winery that makes really top quality wine that didn’t want their wine reviewed. Some winery just coming out and saying we don’t want our wines to be scored sounds like they have more to lose than to gain by being evaluated.”

Wine reviews have become more democratized with the advent of social media and blogging. But Parker says professional wine scoring isn’t a job just anyone can do.

Robert Parker: “I mean it’s like taking a picture of a runner. You are trying to photograph this runner at a very beginning point and compare it to the other ones. There is a lot you can ascertain, and there is a lot you can’t. You make your best call.”

So far, not many wineries have rushed to Christophe Hedges’ no-scoring banner. But the young upstart says the next generation of wine buyers isn’t buying into the numbers.

Hedges: “A Lot of those young generation people will say, ‘I see that there are some points underneath this bottle of wine, but really I like it because the price is good, it has a nice label and I like the style from this region.’ They do not buy wines based on scores, they buy wine based on their experiences.”

As for Hedges and Gregutt, Christophe Hedges says the wine reviewer is no longer welcome at his family’s chateau winery. And Paul Gregutt says he respects the family’s wishes for no scores, but argues he still has the right, and even an obligation, to review wines.

On the Web:

Paul Gregutt’s wine blog about scores

The Hipster and the Wine Critic video

Listen

Photo courtesy of Cinder

Garden City based Cinder Winery has been on the receiving end of some very good press lately (not that that’s altogether unusual thing for husband and wife team Joe Schnerr & Melanie Krause).

In February, Cinder made Wine Business Monthly’s seventh annual “Hot Small Brands” list, which the magazine says “includes some of today’s most exciting brands from small- and medium-sized producers . . . wineries and brands that represent market trends or innovation, that take a leadership position in their regions, or that make unusual varietals or unexpected wines.”

Of the ten North American wines the magazine chose, four were from the Northwest, including Cinder (plus Pacific Rim and Wines of Substance from Washington and Abacela from Oregon).

Yesterday, ag weekly Capital Press profiled Cinder and their work with the often cantankerous Viognier grape.  The paper credits Cinder for showing the potential leading role Viognier could play in Idaho’s wine future.

Photo courtesy of Cinder

If you want to check this all out first hand, Cinder is offering a tasting of their new releases tomorrow, Saturday, March 6th from noon to 5p.m. at their winery at 107 E. 44th Garden City. In addition to their new 2009 Viognier, they’ll open bottles of 2008 Syrah, 2009 Rosé.

And if you missed it, here’s a link to a 2008 Edible Idaho radio show on Cinder and their Urban Winemaker’s Cooperative.

(GH: Anna King of The Northwest News Network reports on a law that would allow wine tasting at farmers’ markets.)

RICHLAND, WA – Washington wineries are asking state lawmakers to include them in farmers’ markets. A new bill in Olympia would allow wineries to give small sips of their libations at markets in a pilot program. Richland Correspondent Anna King reports.

This is not your big chance to guzzle free wine. It’s only a tasty 2-ounce pour. But Washington wineries say that is enough to get their products in front of new customers and possibly make a sale. Last year, lawmakers approved a similar pilot program for wine tasting in grocery stores. That program was deemed a success by both the Washington wine industry and the Liquor Control Board.

Marty Clubb says adding farmers markets too would be a boon to family-owned Washington wineries. He’s a Walla Walla winemaker and the president of the Washington Wine Institute, a lobbying group.

Marty Clubb: “In today’s marketplace we’re basically looking for as many channels as exposure as possible. So the farmer’s market is a great idea to give some of these small wines a chance to show what is in essence a farm product.”

The bill faces opposition from one group dedicated to preventing substance abuse. The farmer’s market tasting bill has passed the Washington House and is pending in the state Senate.

Copyright 2010 Northwest Public Radio

Listen ]]> http://www.nwfoodnews.com/2010/02/27/wine-at-market/feed/ 0 http://www.nwfoodnews.com/2010/02/19/portland%e2%80%99s-coffee-culture-swipes-seattle%e2%80%99s-crown/ http://www.nwfoodnews.com/2010/02/19/portland%e2%80%99s-coffee-culture-swipes-seattle%e2%80%99s-crown/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:12:54 +0000 The Northwest News Network http://www.nwfoodnews.com/?p=2170

Nikki Kelly from Portland meets for coffee with friends every Saturday. Photo by Chantal Anderson.

(GH: Chantal Anderson of The Northwest News Network reports on coffee culture domination on Northwest Public Radio.  Go here for a reaction to this story from the Seattle Times.)

PORTLAND, OR – Ask a crowd what city in the United States has the best coffee, and the answer is likely Seattle. But that’s not the view of coffee industry insiders. They say it’s been years since Seattle led the way in coffee culture. The consensus among connoisseurs is Seattle has lost its crown to Portland. Correspondent Chantal Anderson talked to coffee aficionados in both cities. She begins her story in Seattle.

In a neighborhood coffee house in Fremont with creaky hard wood floors and warm lighting, Jordan Michelman leans over to tell me something he probably shouldn’t say in a Seattle coffee shop.

Jordan Michelman: “There’s not really any good coffee in Seattle.”

Michelman is one of the cofounders of coffee news website Sprudge.com. He doesn’t consider a tall, nonfat, vanilla latte innovative.

Jordan Michelman: “Seattle is very stuck in a mold of what coffee culture was like 20 years ago and third wave coffee is very, very different from that.”

Third wave is a term the average coffee drinker might not know. Michelman sums it up this way.

Jordan Michelman: “It works on much more of a thinking about it almost from a gastronomy stand point of being really, really obsessed about seed to cup, where it comes from, who’s roasting it, where it’s roasted, the duration of time, having the choices, seasonality, all these kinds of things. There’s nowhere that does that here.”

He says there are a few exceptions to his blanket condemnation of Seattle coffee. One of them is a café called Vivace Roasteria.

Owner David Schomer literally wrote the book on how to be a barista and he doesn’t suffer coffee amateurs lightly. He says one reason Seattle is falling behind Portland is Seattle consumers are more likely to accept mediocre coffee.

David Schomer: “When I opened on Broadway in ’88 as a cart in my infinite hubris I also opened one downtown in the financial district, well those people you could not establish loyalty with them, one day they’d have a Starbucks, one day they’d have mine, and I just thought well don’t you stop and taste that? I wanted to rip my hair out because I was still you know believing that people are all available for culinary experience, and if you show them something better, they’ll just flock to it. Well I’ve learned the hard way that, that is not true.”

One other complaint from coffee people in Seattle is city regulations. At Equal Exchange in Ballard, Sam Lewontin, tells me the city of Portland is friendlier to small businesses.

Sam Lewontin: “There’s a lot of street food in Portland there are a lot of carts, a lot of small venders whose entire ethos is making something awesome for their customers and it doesn’t have to be high rent or really even fully built. That’s really what David Schomer did with Vivace. And it’s an awesome model which doesn’t work really well in Seattle anymore because of regulations regarding street vending, regulations regarding restaurant building really kind of prohibit it. ”

For baristas like Lewontin coffee is not like fast food. Great coffee takes time, time for: sourcing, roasting, training, and creating the final drink. In Portland, coffee connoisseurs agree the bar for greatness was set by one company.

Adam McGovern: “Stumptown, definitely single-handedly shaped coffee here.”

That’s Adam McGovern in Portland. He runs a café called Coffeehouse Northwest which serves Stumptown coffee.

Adam McGovern: “If it’s not the best coffee in the world it’s some of the best. Because what’s unique about Stumptown’s coffee is for the very first time roasters are able to give feedback to farmers who haven’t been able to try their product.”

Across town at Cellar Door Coffee Roasters in Southeast Portland, six friends leisurely sip coffee on a Saturday morning.

They’re into supporting local small businesses and view coffee as the new wine. One of them is Nikki Kelly. She says among her friends coffee infatuation is the norm.

Nikki Kelly: “They’ll talk about their French presses and how they clean them and how long they brew, and what kind of coffee they drink, like and not like. It’s kind of really high up on Portland’s radar.”

Inside the café, owner Jeremy Adams says what he’s found is that Portland consumers are more receptive to hardcore coffee drinks. He says people also appreciate the “do it yourself” attitude that comes with small cafes.

Jeremy Adams: “Somebody said, ‘Portland coffee’s just more punk rock.’ Or something, or more you know DIY or more you know people hustling and trying to scrape things together and make it happen and still doing really high quality, but not always with the most resources, but I think there’s something to that.”

Portland may be more punk rock, but Seattle has an espresso machine with a death metal name. It’s called Slayer and it’s considered one of the bright spots in Seattle’s coffee future. Inside a Georgetown studio, three coffee dudes have created what some are calling, the “holy grail” of espresso machines.

Sound: [Espresso machine]

The machines are selling at $14,000 and up.

Copyright 2010 Northwest News Network

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KENNEWICK, Wash. — Christmas is over. But a portly guy with a white beard is still hard at work in his workshop. He’s not making toys in the North Pole, but rather bottles of sparkling wine in southeast Washington. Correspondent Anna King has this profile of one of the Northwest’s few producers of sparkling wine.
Making bubbly is part chemistry, and part art. Allan Pangborn works every day for a year to ready 12-thousand bottles for life’s high spots. He has a few friends and family members help him bottle the wine, then the real work begins.
Allan Pangborn: “It’s very specialized as opposed to making regular wine. Making regular wine the equipment is pretty much the same: Crushers, presses and bottling equipment. With sparkling wine you start with a regular wine you add yeast…”
It typically takes about a year for sparkling wine to mature. After that Pangborn puts the bottles, neck down in special racks to let the yeast settle out slowly. Each day he has to give the bottle a quarter turn to help the yeast filter out.
SOUND: Riddling rack
There are many more steps after that –and he does the work to 12-thousand bottles all by himself.
Allan Pangborn: “There’s a good 10 times that you have to handle the bottle.”
Anna King: “That sounds like a lot of work to me Allan!”
Many larger producers have tried to automate at least some parts of the process.
Because it’s so complex, Pangborn says there simply aren’t that many small producers of sparkling wine in the United States. And only a handful in the Northwest.  He used to work for big companies, but for about the last decade he’s been crafting his own called Café Metropole.
Allan Pangborn: “It’s not like having to deal with a larger corporate structure. I can buy the bottles I want, the corks I want, the wire hoods I want. I don’t have to work with budgets, or purchase orders. I can just do what I think is best.”
This New Years Pangborn plans to open one of his bottles, but he probably won’t be staying up ‘til midnight. For him, the most satisfying time is to watch his wine cracked open and enjoyed along with other bottles, and seeing his disappear first.
SOUND: Pop!
I’m Anna King in Kennewick.
Copyright 2009 Northwest News Network

To listen to this radio story on Northwest Public Radio go to: http://www.nwpr.org/07/HomepageArticles/Article.aspx?n=6607

Web links to Bubbly:
Find out more about Café Metropole sparkling wine at: moonlightcellar.com

An article on sparkling wine from the Oregonian: http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2009/12/when_it_comes_to_bubbly_its_ok.html

And from Hungry Beast a story on grower produced, designer Champagne: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-29/designer-champagne/?cid=topic:featured4

Photo by Guy Hand

Agricultural weekly The Capital Press says “Grape lovers in [Idaho's] Treasure Valley no longer have to travel outside the area to attend viticulture classes.”

According to the paper, an introductory course involving both classroom and vineyard work began this fall at the Treasure Valley Community College just across the border in Ontario, Oregon.

“Some of the interest has undoubtedly been driven by recent growth in the Idaho wine industry,” says the Capital Press.  ”There are 40 wineries in the state now, up from 38 in 2008. Grape plantings continue to rise. The state has about 1,600 vineyard acres, not all of them yet in production.”

That growth is no doubt why writer Steve Roberts thought he had enough material to publish “WineTrails of Idaho” this fall as well.

“One huge advantage to wine-trekking through Idaho” Roberts tells the Capital Press “is that you don’t have to battle the hordes of other wine tourists you would encounter in Napa or on a Thanksgiving weekend in the Willamette Valley.  Along Idaho’s uncrowded byways, you might be the only visitor to a winery during your tasting stop.”