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Ste. Michelle's Impact on WA - 11/4/2014 6:20:06 PM   
jrockman

 

Posts: 2534
Joined: 4/17/2012
From: Des Moines, WA
Status: offline 		Linked article is an interesting read on the lasting impact of Chateau Ste. Michelle's on the Washington wine industry. Many of the players in the state started with Ste. Michelle way back when.

From Ste. Michelle came world-class wine talent
Post #: 1
RE: Ste. Michelle's Impact on WA - 11/4/2014 7:33:48 PM   
ChrisinCowiche

 

Posts: 7846
Joined: 12/16/2009
From: Cowiche, WA
Status: online 		Very nice article, thanks for sharing.  Andy Perdue is a fantastic reporter and writer.   He was head editor at a Tricities newspaper, forgot the name, until a couple of years ago when he went freelance.  Glad he has the Seattle Times byline these days.

On the topic, I had forgotten, or never knew, Wade Wolfe was a CSM alum.  The others I knew about, some I think are the salt of the earth, Dr. Wolfe, Kay Simon and Clay Mackey, Damon Lamonde.  Some others I've met and think their winemaking ego has gone haywire (really just one of the others mentioned).   There are so many connections to CSM/CC on the vineyard/farming side too since they still buy MOST of the fruit in the state, from Yakima, H3, Wahluke, all over really.  One of the winemakers/wineries they didn't mention is Ron Bunnell, who makes good wines at Bunnell Family and RiverAerie, and consults for some other labels, but maybe he was CC and not CSM.    

< Message edited by ChrisinSunnyside -- 11/4/2014 7:38:45 PM >

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RE: Ste. Michelle's Impact on WA - 11/4/2014 7:40:54 PM   
schwank

 

Posts: 950
Joined: 11/26/2011
From: Portlandia
Status: offline 		In many ways they are a very affordable and reliable producer. I don't generally buy it for my cellar but it is quite serviceable. The Eroica is nice but it competes with the Germans at the price point and I tend to pick M-S-R every time.

I attended a blind Riesling tasting about a year ago with some (very) casual drinkers, and a basic current vintage CSM Riesling defeated all bottles on offer including a 1992 Christoffel Jr. Auslese I contributed.

About a month ago my brother got married in South Carolina and we went to Total Wine to pick up bulk libations (BYOBooze at a wedding... cha-ching!). They aren't loaded and I happily stocked several bottles of CSM Riesling at their bar, along with some other PNW wines I was familiar with. Seemed to go over pretty well, but you do have to work pretty hard to screw up free drinks at a wedding


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RE: Ste. Michelle's Impact on WA - 11/4/2014 7:52:42 PM   
ChrisinCowiche

 

Posts: 7846
Joined: 12/16/2009
From: Cowiche, WA
Status: online 		When I made the riesling for our daughter's wedding in 2009, wedding was summer 2010, it was the first wine I'd attempted on my own, and our Plan B was to peel labels off some CSM and put our own labels on. 

I was talking to a mid Yak vineyard owner/ farmer a couple of weeks ago, they have ~15 acres of riesling and, besides a little bit for their own winery, Steppe Cellars, they always sell the bulk to CSM.  There have to be dozens of Riesling vineyards/blocks that do the same thing in varying lot sizes, from a few acres to a few hundred, that somehow get vinted and blended into a consistent, and generally high quality, wine.  It really is remarkable that they make a million cases a year of that stuff.

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RE: Ste. Michelle's Impact on WA - 11/4/2014 8:06:02 PM   
skifree

 

Posts: 3413
Joined: 3/14/2010
From: SE King County, Washington
Status: offline 		Thanks for sharing Jeff. I knew Bob Betz and Mike Januik came from CSM, but did not know about the connection with Wade Wolfe, Charlie Hoppes, or Kay Simon or Charlie Mackey from Chinook.

Makes me realize I have not had a Chinook wine in many years - not since the 1990's. May have to correct that oversight.

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RE: Ste. Michelle's Impact on WA - 11/4/2014 8:19:22 PM   
jrockman

 

Posts: 2534
Joined: 4/17/2012
From: Des Moines, WA
Status: offline 		I think we sometimes take CSM for granted and they don't get credit for all they have done for the industry here in the state. In addition to all the talent that has come out of CSM, they have always promoted not just themselves, but the entire state as a a wine region. I believe they also have made grapes available from their own vineyards to wineries that were not able to get grapes from their normal channels in the severe freeze years and thus helped sustain many of those wineries.

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Post #: 6
RE: Ste. Michelle's Impact on WA - 11/5/2014 3:08:20 AM   
annerk

 

Posts: 6122
Joined: 10/16/2008
From: Central Florida
Status: offline 		I've had several chats with Alan Shoup, and he speaks incredibly highly of the talent at CSM, past and present. We also spoke to Robert Mondavi's philosophy of working to promote winemaking in the region and not just the name of the individual winery, which was very much one he adopted for CSM. It was one of the driving forces behind the LongShadows business strategy once he retired from CSM.

< Message edited by annerk -- 11/5/2014 3:10:36 AM >

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RE: Ste. Michelle's Impact on WA - 11/5/2014 6:48:17 AM   
hankj

 

Posts: 4672
Joined: 6/26/2008
From: Seattle, WA
Status: offline 		Given that the current WA wine industry emerged from a landscape not so long ago where there were essentially two huge industrial wineries, I'm surprised there's aren't more connections to CSM and CC.

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