Category: Winery Info

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The Power of Intentional Photography in Vineyard Marketing

Cyndi

By Jake Ahles: Building Legacies at Morel Creative

The glisten of morning dew on grape leaves. Mist rolling through the vineyard. The scent of wet earth. As a vineyard owner, you know that wine is more than just a beverage—it’s a story. Each bottle carries the journey of the grapes, the land, and the winemakers themselves. From the soil where the vines grow to the craft behind the scenes, your vineyard has a story worth sharing. Whether rooted in tradition or leading the way with sustainability, the story you tell shapes how customers see your brand.

  But here’s the truth: if you think it’s only about the photos, you’ve missed the bigger picture. High-quality photography is not just about creating beautiful images—it’s about capturing the essence of your vineyard and connecting with your audience. It’s a tool to set your vineyard apart, claim your space in the market, and firmly plant your flag—your terroir—in a competitive industry.

Why Intentional Photography Matters

  High-quality photography doesn’t always mean high production (though that often delivers the best results). It’s about being purposeful with what your visuals say. Just like you carefully nurture your grapes to create exceptional wine, your photos need to be crafted to reflect your vineyard’s unique story. Intentional photography shows customers what makes your vineyard special and builds a connection that keeps them coming back.

The Four Cs of Vineyard Branding

  A strong vineyard brand is built on the Four Cs: Clarity, Consistency, Connection, and Cohesion.

•    Clarity ensures your audience understands what sets your wines and vineyard apart—whether it’s your sustainable practices, your winemaking expertise, or the story of your land.

•    Consistency reinforces this story across all platforms, from social media to tasting room decor. A unified message builds trust with your customers.

•    Connection happens when your visuals spark emotion. A golden sunset over the vines or a candid shot of your team bottling wine can create a bond with your audience.

•    Cohesion ties everything together. Aligned visuals and messaging across every platform create a seamless, unforgettable brand experience.

  When done right, the Four Cs turn casual visitors into lifelong advocates.

Build Emotional Connections Through Photography

  Photos tell the story of your vineyard, creating a lasting emotional connection. Here’s how intentional photography brings your story to life:

Showcase Your Vineyard’s Beauty: Highlight stunning moments in every season. Early morning mist, vibrant harvest scenes, and sunsets over the vines invite customers into your world.

Reveal the Craftsmanship: Give your audience a behind-the-scenes look at winemaking. From grape picking to bottling, let them see the artistry and care that go into every bottle.

Capture the Tasting Room Experience: Use photos to highlight the warmth and hospitality of your tasting room. Make viewers feel like they’re already there, tasting your wine and enjoying the moment.

Where to Use High-Quality Photography

  Photography has the power to transform your marketing when used strategically. Here’s where it can make the biggest impact:

Website and E-Commerce: Professional images increase perceived value and encourage online purchases.

Social Media: Eye-catching visuals help your posts stand out and grow your audience.

Email Marketing: Beautiful images boost open and click-through rates in newsletters.

Point-of-Sale Materials: From brochures to shelf talkers, visuals influence in-store purchasing decisions.

PR and Media: High-quality photos make your vineyard shine in media coverage.

  Best Practices for Vineyard Photography

  Want your photos to make an impact? Follow these best practices:

Hire Professionals: Experienced photographers know how to capture the unique charm of vineyards.

Highlight the Seasons: Show the beauty of your vineyard year-round, from budding vines in spring to harvest in fall.

Tell Your Story: Focus on moments that reveal your vineyard’s values, traditions, and people. Including people in your photos add a human connection.

Diversify Your Content: Use a mix of wide vineyard shots, close-ups of grapes and wine, and candid lifestyle moments to tell a complete story.

Work with Experts: Collaborate with visual strategists to align your photography with your overall brand narrative.

Lighting: Natural lighting is your best friend in vineyard photography. Aim for golden hour shots to capture the warmth and serenity of your landscape, or overcast days for even lighting.

Leveraging Photography Across Marketing Channels

  Investing in professional photography is just the first step—knowing how to use those visuals effectively across your marketing channels is what brings your brand to life and maximizes your investment. Here are some ways to integrate intentional photography into your vineyard’s marketing strategy to captivate your audience and drive results.

Website and Digital Presence: Your website is often the first impression potential customers will have of your vineyard. Use stunning landscape shots for your homepage banner to immediately draw them in, and pair behind-the-scenes imagery with storytelling on your “About Us” page to highlight your vineyard’s heritage, values, and craftsmanship. High-quality product photos are essential for online wine shops, helping customers feel confident about their purchase before even tasting your wine.

Social Media Engagement: Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook thrive on visual storytelling. Consistent, cohesive imagery establishes your brand’s aesthetic and builds trust with your audience. Post dynamic shots of harvest season, candid moments with your team, or even drone footage of your vineyard to showcase its scale and beauty. Don’t overlook trends like Instagram Reels or TikTok videos, which offer opportunities for short, engaging content that resonates with younger, experience-driven audiences.

Email Marketing Campaigns: A compelling photo can make your email campaigns stand out in crowded inboxes. Whether it’s a winemaker holding a glass of their latest release or an inviting table set for a tasting event, visuals paired with enticing copy create a sense of connection and urgency that drives clicks and sales.

Advertising and Beyond: When running paid ad campaigns, high-quality visuals are critical. Whether on social media, Google Ads, or print media, polished photos grab attention and communicate your vineyard’s dedication to quality and authenticity.

  By thoughtfully leveraging professional photography across these channels, you’ll not only elevate your brand’s visibility but also create meaningful connections with your audience.

The Evolution of Vineyard Marketing in a Digital Era

  The wine industry is more competitive than ever, and traditional marketing alone isn’t enough to stand out. Digital platforms like Instagram and TikTok have changed the game, making visual storytelling essential. For example, some vineyards are creating ‘day-in-the-life’ reels, taking viewers through picturesque landscapes, grape harvesting, and intimate moments in the tasting room, which resonate with millennial and Gen Z audiences.

Why It Matters:

•    Social media algorithms prioritize high-quality visuals, helping your content reach more people and grow your brand.

•    E-commerce customers are more likely to buy wines they feel emotionally connected to. Beautiful visuals create that connection.

•    Younger audiences value experiences. Photos that transport them to your vineyard can inspire them to visit or order your wine online.

  Investing in intentional photography and video for digital platforms helps you reach new audiences while staying true to your roots.

Why Photography Is Worth the Investment

  It’s easy to think of photography as an expense, but it’s actually one of the smartest investments you can make. Your wine tells the story of your land, your history, and your dedication. High-quality visuals ensure that story is heard, felt, and remembered by everyone who experiences your brand.

Professional photos can:

•    Attract more visitors to your tasting room.

•    Boost online sales by creating a polished

      e-commerce presence.

•    Build customer loyalty through emotional

      storytelling.

•    Increase media coverage and brand visibility.

Claim Your Place in the Market

  Every vineyard has a story, but not every vineyard tells it well. High-quality photography bridges the gap between your story and your audience. It’s how you connect with customers, showcase your unique values, and claim your place in a competitive market.

  Intentional photography is more than just beautiful images. It’s a tool to capture your vineyard’s legacy, communicate your passion, and ensure your story is remembered for years to come. By investing in photography, you’re investing in the future of your vineyard.

Advanced Winery Wastewater Management Systems Extract Renewable Energy & Resources

Cyndi
cambrian tanks next to vineyards and mountains

By: Gerald Dlubala

Wastewater has traditionally been considered a necessary byproduct of doing business,” said Matt Seng, the global strategic accounts manager for Cambrian Innovation, Inc. His company is a leader in sustainable resource management, providing clean water, renewable energy and water treatment as a service to industrial manufacturing businesses. “Businesses buy water, bring it in to produce a product, then they have wastewater left over that goes out to the city’s treatment system. For many years, businesses just assumed this is just how it is, like in our homes,” he said. 

  Now, thanks to advanced technologies, winery wastewater can be treated, extracting reusable, valuable resources for reuse in the vineyard and winery.

Cambrian Innovation Inc: Wastewater Treatment as a Service

  Cambrian Innovation’s unique Water Energy Purchase Agreement (WEPA) provides on-site wastewater management services that transform the winery’s wastewater into renewable energy and clean water for reuse within the winery and vineyard.

  Matt Seng has been with Cambrian Innovation since its inception. He tells The Grapevine that Cambrian’s innovative and cutting-edge Water Energy Purchase Agreement (WEPA) is winery friendly, using biological treatments that mimic the earth’s natural cycles and wastewater treatments to help move their clients to their sustainability, clean water and renewable energy goals.

  “At Cambrian, we’ve looked at the wastewater that the food and beverage industry produces and see that there are some resources in that wastewater that we can extract using technology,” said Seng. “We can provide an on-site treatment system that extracts those natural resources and returns them to the plant for use.”

  “We use a couple of different technologies, some of which produce renewable energy in the form of biogas, which is the natural fermentation of the byproduct of a natural process occurring in nature,” he said. “That biogas is returned to the winery for use as fuel for a boiler to heat up water or produce steam. Biogas is categorized as renewable energy because it replaces or reduces the amount of fossil-based natural gas that needs to be extracted. In that process, we clean up the water for reuse in the winery for cleaning and washups. We take the status quo of paying the city for water only to pay them again to dispose of wastewater and flip that script. Cambrian can do this for you on-site with several advantages.”

Advantages of Cambrian Innovation Wastewater Treatment Systems

  Those advantages include producing renewable energy, so wineries don’t have to buy as much natural gas from the gas company to fire their boilers. Another result is receiving clean, EPA-quality drinking water back from the treatment.

  “This isn’t grey water, and it’s not partially treated wastewater,” he explained. “It’s drinking water made possible because we use the same technologies that the city uses to make its drinking water. The net result is there is less water going to the city’s treatment system, which reduces their emissions of greenhouse gases. And we’re now also enabling the winery to buy less city water to bring into the winery. We’re reducing the amount of city water coming in and the amount of wastewater going out, and we’re keeping those natural resources of energy and drinking water on-site.”

  Seng tells The Grapevine Magazine that their business model is service-based over equipment sales. “We want to own and operate the system,” said Seng. “That is very compatible with many winery owners who just want to make wine. They don’t want to treat water and wastewater. So we do this as a service rather than selling them the equipment to do it themselves. Then, winery owners don’t have to spend the capital to purchase, operate or maintain this technology. They pay Cambrian a service fee based on the amount of wastewater that is treated.

  “All of this work involves biology, which anyone in the wine industry knows well,” said Seng. “It’s all about biological processes, some of which occur without oxygen and are called anaerobic systems. The anaerobic microorganisms convert the organic matter in the wastewater into biogas, providing renewable energy. On the other hand, we use aerobic, or oxygen-containing biological systems to treat wastewater further and provide the basis for producing EPA-quality drinking water. These advanced treatments involve reverse osmosis and UV disinfection. The combination of anaerobic biological treatment to produce renewable energy, followed by the aerobic biological treatment, followed by reverse osmosis and UV disinfection results in EPA-quality drinking water that goes right back into the winery.”

Maximum Results with Minimum Requirements

  Cambrian takes responsibility for designing, building, owning, operating and maintaining the system. Seng said that although their systems are designed for all sizes of wineries, larger facilities have better economies of scale because there’s a certain amount of control system automation that has to be applied, no matter how big the winery is.

  “We do our best to do a financial business case that improves the winery’s finances,” said Seng. “We certainly don’t expect a winery to do this if it will cost them more money than their current situation. Sustainability and greenhouse gas emission reduction are important to wineries and vineyards, but we understand the financial impact is equally important. We always strive to make our solution less expensive than the costs that the winery is currently incurring. And the winery only pays if we produce the energy and the quality water.”

  “Generally, at minimum, we’ll need about a quarter of an acre, or 10,000 (100×100) square feet,” said Seng. “We come in and lease the area and pay the insurance and property tax. As engineers, we work with the winery to design the space, typically providing above-ground structures inside a building to ensure it’s not an aesthetic issue. We don’t want to put industrial equipment on a site and ruin the aesthetics.”

  “There are no further requirements from the winery owner to provide any operational assistance,” he said. “We are autonomous, but we work closely with our customers. Upsets and changes in production are inevitable, and we work with our clients to ensure consistent, quality results. We design the systems to ramp up or down to match the variability in production, for example, during crush. Any biosolids produced from our biological process are our responsibility to manage. In the worst case, it’s moved off-site for disposal. Often, we’ll upgrade it to EPA standards so we can use it on farm fields as a fertilizer amendment. The basis of our systems is to never impact the environment negatively, and we adhere to all EPA requirements in all 50 states just as any organization, city or municipal authority has to do.”

  Winery owners can contact Cambrian Innovation directly to see how their WEPA can benefit their winery.

BioMicrobics: Proven Wastewater Treatment in Compact Designs

  Based in Lenexa, Kansas, BioMicrobics is a leader in Integrated Water Resource Management, celebrating over two decades in the global water and wastewater industry. One of their many specialties is in wastewater management for wineries. Their BioBarrier® HSMBR® Winery wastewater treatment system uses a High Strength Membrane Bioreactor (HSMBR) designed to handle the unique, fluctuating wastewater loads present in winemaking production.

  Joe Rebori is BioMicrobics Inc.’s assistant vice president for inquiries, engineering and regulatory affairs. He spoke to The Grapevine Magazine about the company’s wastewater solutions for wineries of all sizes.

  “For wineries, it’s primarily about handling the wastewater derived from the grape processing,” said Rebori. “To a lesser extent, it also includes places like tasting rooms. Winery wastewater has a very high sugar load; in wastewater terminology, it has a high carbonaceous, biochemical oxygen demand. There’s just a lot more sugar per volume measured that has to be broken down by a wastewater treatment system. In fact, it can be more concentrated by a factor of 10 to 20 times as compared to domestic waste.”

  BioMicrobics’ BioBarrier® HSMBR® Winery wastewater treatment system uses ultrafiltration membranes predesigned to remove the organic pollutants and suspended solids that wineries produce during their normal day-to-day operations. These systems can handle more fluctuating and higher amounts of organic loads than those in typical wastewater systems.

  “During crush is a winery’s highest wastewater load just because of the volume and heavy processing that occurs with the skins, stems and pulp during fermentation,” said Rebori. “Some facilities may use a holding area to take the waste away. Others might still use conventional septic drain fields to dispose of waste if allowed. Those fields usually can’t keep up and need additional on-site treatment before the waste can be disposed of. Treatment with a septic drain field is based on soil characteristics and the capacity of the soil to take on that high organic load of waste.”

  That’s where BioMicrobics’ wastewater management experience and expertise can help wineries transform their wastewater into a reusable water resource. First and foremost, Rebori recommends that every winery owner check their local regulations and know upfront what they are allowed to do with their wastewater. Are you allowed to spray it over your land? Can you dispose of it subsurface in septic drain fields? Some states, like California, have different rules that depend on winery size. The larger the winery, the more restrictions on self-management there are.

BioMicrobics Wastewater Systems for Your Winery

  “We offer wastewater treatment systems for process waste and optionally combined with all other facility waste like tasting room, sanitary, restaurant and more,” said Rebori. “Sometimes those waste systems are combined, sometimes they’re separate. Our membrane filters treat this type of waste. BioBarrier® HSMBR® Winery Wastewater Treatment System is predesigned to handle the high sugar load that occurs during wine production. The system uses a biological treatment combined with a membrane filtration process. We have a slurry of bacteria to break down all the sugary waste in combination with fine membrane filters containing microscopic openings that physically prevent bacteria and large molecules from passing through. This gives a winery owner a system that turns their wastewater into filtered, disinfected and treated water with no organic content that can be used for irrigation, equipment cleanup, outdoor spraying or fire suppression.”

  Regarding spatial requirements, Rebori says that BioMicrobics’ smallest scale projects would include a couple of different tanks with a minimum volume of a few thousand gallons located within a 30×10 foot (300 square foot) space. Most are buried in a greenspace or under a parking area, using traffic-rated tanks to best use the winery’s space while maintaining its aesthetics. Maintenance is minimal, with an eight-year membrane filter replacement schedule and a bi-annual preventative maintenance schedule that includes filter cleaning and blower application checks. Other inspection points include sampling the liquid inside the chamber that reacts with the wine waste where the bacteria are growing to gauge the state and health of the slurry within the system. Solids may occasionally have to be removed, depending on system use.

What to Know Before Getting Started

  A BioBarrier® HSMBR® Winery Wastewater Treatment System serves many small wineries that other systems may not target,” said Rebori. “It’s an affordable solution for wineries to produce quality, reusable water on-site using membrane filtration, which has been proven over other technologies to yield the best water quality. A winery owner or their engineer can contact us directly to get started. All we need to know to get started is the annual wine production. That gets us in the ballpark of the system size we’re looking at. Then, we can work with civil engineers on the site plan and the types of tanks needed. Our systems are modular and can manage projected expansion, but the better choice is to install the proper tank upfront and modify the aeration and filtration equipment when needed.”

Raising the pH of Wines by Easy De-acidification Trials

Cyndi
man in lab with test tube and wine glass

By: Thomas J. Payette, Winemaking Consultant

In the previous issue of The Grapevine Magazine the topic of lowering the pH was reviewed.  This issue will cover the reverse situation winemakers may encounter in the cellar with wines that are too acidic or with pH’s too low.  These are critical choices for the winemaker to make with the proper balance and style of wine anticipated to be made.  Following the trials below will help the winemaker review, in the lab first, lowering the acidity to achieve the proper acid palate structure and chemistry.  Finesse must be used at this decision making process time using both the lab and the wineglass.  Keep in mind this trial and mechanism may best be suited for wines from grape base and may not apply to fruit wines.

Trials in the Lab

The lab is the first place the winemaker should turn to experiment with small batches of wine to make a winemaking addition decision.  This will give nearly concrete evidence from the lab as well as tasting trials to determine the appropriate amount and kind of de-acification tool(s) to use in each individual instance of a wine.

When?

The acid and pH of a wine should be addressed as early on in the winemaking process as possible.  Often this decision is predicted just before harvest from previously collected data, from vineyard grape berry samples, and made at harvest on the crush pad or just after fermentation.

Why and Where?

The reason we do trials is to experiment with refinement and correction of a juice or wine.  Always work in small quantities, in the lab, with a sample so one does not potentially create a larger “issue”, in the cellar.  Trials can be tested and tasted to see what the results would or will have been if the addition was made to the actual tank or vessel of juice/wine.  This eliminates guesswork and unnecessarily shooting from the hip of which many winemakers can find themselves guilty of during critical times.

Tools Needed

•   Scales that measure in grams preferably to a tenth of a gram

•   (4) – 600 milliliter beakers or larger for mixing

•   (1) – 500 milliliter graduated cylinder

•   Roughly a 100.0 gram lab sample of Potassium Bicarbonate  (KHCO3)

•   Roughly a 100.0 gram lab sample of Calcium Carbonate   (CaCO3)

•   (5) – 375 milliliter wine bottles with T-tops or plastic screw caps (preferred)

•   Magnetic Stir plate with stir bars and retriever for the stir bars.

•   Representative sample(s) of each wine to be worked with (2.5 liters)

•   Clean wineglasses

•   Watch glasses to cover each wine glass.

•   Spit cup

•   Other testing equipment to answer other lab questions if needed.

•   Sharpie™ pen or pencil for marking beakers.

•   95% ethanol to remove Sharpie™ pen marks off glassware.

How?

  Start with something simple where results can be easily determined with the wineglass to give the confidence needed to build upon this procedure.  An example of this may be an acid reduction trial for pH lowering and/or palate modification.  Let’s go over this process.

1.  Start with an ample quantity of wine to work with in the lab – perhaps just over 2.5 liters of a representative sample from a wine vessel to be reviewed.

2.  Label the 375 milliliters bottles noted above to reflect their contents as noted below.  Be sure to include a control by filling one bottle with a portion of the sample collected in step #1 and label it control.

3.  Label one beaker 0.5 grams per liter KHCO3 (Potassium bicarbonate) and another beaker 1.0 gram per liter KHCO3.

4.  Label another pair of beakers to represent the CaCO3(Calcium Carbonate) rates of 0.5 grams per liter and 1.0 gram per liter. { See caution below}

5.  Using the 500 milliliter graduated cylinder divide the wine into the four – 500 milliliters labeled beakers that were just labeled.

6.  Accurately weigh 0.25 grams of KHCO3 and fully dissolve in the 500 milliliters labeled appropriately.  Use the stir bar and plate for this process. ( 0.5 grams per liter )

7.  Accurately weigh 0.50 grams of KHCO3 and fully dissolve that quantity in the beaker that represents that rate.  ( 1.0 gram per liter )

8.  Repeat the same process above using the CaCO3 additions and place them in the beakers.

9.  Allow the beakers to settle and set (loosely covered) after the reactions have fully taken place and all the products have dissolved or finished their action.  There may be some gassing.

10.Once the reactions are complete (two hours roughly depending on the wine and room temperature) transfer the mixed samples into their respective labeled 375 milliliter wine bottles and about 50 milliliters into a small wine glass.

11.Degas and run chemistries on the remaining sample left over (roughly 65 milliliters) measuring pH and TA readings at a minimum.  Include the chemistry of the control.

12.Place the wine bottle samples off to the side to be tasted in a week to 10 days.  [Placing them in a refrigerator may also help precipitate tartrates giving the tasters a better indication of the final acidity after cold stabilization.]

13.After the week to ten days : re-taste and retest the chemistries to further help make the final decision on what action to take or furthering trials in the lab for better refinement.

14.Be sure to record all data and tasting notes in the lab so they can be used as a reference for future trials on the same wine or for predictions on other wines to have trails performed.  Each wine does behave differently; however, so always do trials.

Set up the Tasting Trial a Week to Ten Days Later

1.  Pour about 50 milliliters or a quantity one desires to smell and taste, of the control wine prepared in step #2 above, into a wine glass and place it to the left hand area of the tasting glass orientation.  (It is a common practice industry standard to always taste against a control from left to right.)

2.  Pour the trials to be tasted, made in steps 6,7 and 8 above, in the wineglasses to the right of the control.  Mark their contents and perhaps place the two lower additions closer to the control and the larger rate additions to the far right.

3.  Add to this flight any wines from past vintages you may want to review or any other blind samples from other producers you may care to use as a benchmark.  Only do this step if needed.  Mark their contents.

4.  Taste and smell each wine several times.  Go through the flight and detect what wine/juice may best match or improve the desired style one is trying to achieve.  Review the chemistry data generated in step 13 above while tasting the trials.

5.  Select the best match and leave the room for 1 to 2 hours so your palate may return to equilibrium.

6.  Return and re-taste to confirm your previous decision with a fresh palate.

  If chemistries should play an important role be certain to run a necessary panel of lab test to ascertain the proper numbers are achieved.  One may need to balance taste, flavor and chemistry to make some of these choices.  Have all the data necessary available to make those choices.  

Calculation:

  Let’s take the above trial as the example.  If we dissolved 0.5 gram of KHCO3 into 500 milliliters of wine we now have 1 gram per liter equivalent.  If this was the chosen amount we simply take the amount of wine, in liters, and multiply that by one.  This will represent the amount of KHCO3, in grams, to be added to the tank of wine.  Dividing the grams by 454 will give the number of pounds if your cellar has scales that measure in pounds. 

Action in the cellar

  This is often the simple part.  Using the above KHCO3 addition as an example, weigh the desired amount of KHCO3 in a bucket or appropriate container.  Start mixing the wine and start slowly adding the product.  Be sure to make note how full the tank is and to make sure that gassing may not be an issue.  Continue to mix until the addition is fully integrated based on your knowledge of your tank size and/or pump speed and then select a sample from the sample valve for tasting, a pH and titratable acidity analysis.   This will confirm the task was achieved and on target to the lab results.

  Some winemakers, especially when using CaCO3, will split the wine volumes and treat only a portion of the wine with the full amount of the CaCO3 and then blend the two wines back together after the reaction has taken place. This could be roughly a 50-50 split.  Potentially less chalkiness is detected and the pH shift may be advantageously less.

Spicing it up!

  Once the first set of trials is mastered one may build on to the next step projecting out what one may want to do with the juice or wine.  This could eventually, and perhaps should, build out to treating large enough samples that one could cold and protein stabilize the wine in the lab, filter to the projected desired micron size and taste with a panel.

  Recall there are other ways to reduce total acid when making wine.  Be sure to keep malo-lactic in your tool box as an option to review.  Some yeast also reduce malic acid and amelioration (not a first choice mind you) can be explored.  Blending can also be used to make a resulting wine with reduced acid.

Double checking the results

  From experience, one can get so creative in a lab it can be difficult to trace exactly how one arrived at a certain desired concoction.  Copious notes should be taken throughout the complete process in the lab.  Given a tank of juice or wine can often equate to hundreds of thousands of dollars or more it may be prudent to run the selected trial a second time, and compare, to confirm any addition rates before performing the final action in the cellar.

Summary

  Given time and experimentation with this system many pH-raising trials with additions will become easy and systematic.  Trials will often take less time to prepare and one may taste at several points during the day.

Other helpful tips

  Caution: Using CaCO3 may result in excess calcium and the potential for calcium tartrates to form.  Be sure to monitor this since these tartrates do not react the same as potassium-bi-tartrates.  There is no affordable way to test a calcium excess instability known at this time.

  Make sure the wine samples are not too cold, during the lab additions, since this may slow the reaction and delay the gassing off that may occur making the 375 bottles, after filling, popping their corks or T-tops. [If use screw caps leave them slightly loose to gas off]  Make sure the reactions are complete before filling the 375’s.

  Makes sure all solids are dissolved and dispersed equally into any solution.

  When a wines pH is raised it may lower the amount of free SO2 available in that wine.  Be sure to monitor the free SO2 very closely after performing a de-acidification.

  Winemakers may also be able to blend two trials in 50% to 50% solutions to get an example of a trial in the middle without having to make one up specifically to match the amount desired.  An example may be blending the 0.5 gram per liter with a 1.0 gram per liter to understand what a 0.75 gram per liter addition may result.

  Always remember your palate may become desensitized while tasting and to step away from tasting for an hour or two and then return to taste ones preference.  You may be shocked you had become used to certain levels because of tasting such extremes.

  Keep in mind not to over scrutinize your accuracy in the laboratory.  By this I mean make sure that if we measure something very exactly in the laboratory make sure this action will be able to be replicated outside the lab in the cellar.  It is not uncommon, early on, for winemakers to get extremely exact in the lab only to step into the cellar with sloppy control over what they had just experimented with.

  Best of luck, take your time and be sure to review all angles before taking action in the cellar.  That is what trials are all about!

References: 

Amerine, M.A., Berg, H.W., Cruess,W.V. 1972. The Technology of Wine Making

Dharmadhikari, M.R., Wilker, K.L. 2001. Micro Vinification.

Zoecklein, B.W., Fugelsang, K.C., Gump, B.H., and Nury, F.S. 1999. Wine Analysis and Production

White Tail Run Winery: Award-Winning Wine & Kansas Family Farm

Cyndi
exterior of White Tail Run Winery's tasting room building

By: Gerald Dlubala

With a name like White Tail Run Winery and Vineyard, you would expect this small boutique winery to have a noticeable connection to, and maybe even affection for, white-tail deer. For the Fuller family, the connection is there, but the term affection may not be accurate.

  “Our first year, we planted 1800 vines, not realizing that a herd of deer would eat them down to the ground nearly right in front of our eyes”, said Christy Fuller-Flyntz, co-owner of White Tail Run Winery and Vineyard in Edgerton, Kansas. “But they did. So even though we started in 2003, that little learning experience put us behind a couple of years from our original production plan, postponing our first harvest until 2008. The economy was not the best then, and it seemed that no one was buying grapes, and if they were, it was at such a low price per pound, we felt as if we were giving them away.”

  That’s when Christy’s father, Dan Fuller Sr., decided to make a semi-sweet seyval and enter it into an amateur wine competition to see if they could make good wine from their Kansas farm. The wine was not only good; it won a bronze medal.

  “So here we are,” said Christy. “Winery and vineyard owners with an eight-foot-tall deer fence around 10 of our 40 acres, and Great Pyrenees farm dogs who may or may not decide to help control other hungry intruders like the raccoon and turkey.”

  Fuller Sr. had lived on site for almost 50 years before planting the vineyard, using it as a family farm and pasture.

  “Growing up, we always had animals,” said Christy. “We had cows, pigs, chickens, horses, you name it. It was the traditional, whole farm setting. A vineyard wasn’t even a twinkle in my dad’s eye, but he always made his own beer and wine as a hobby. When he retired, he had a hard time doing nothing. He was so used to always working with the land that he decided to plant a vineyard, thinking it would only be six months of work, and then he could travel and enjoy his retirement the rest of the year. Yes, we all laughed, too.”

  White Tail Run Winery and Vineyard can be considered an estate winery, where the wine production from start to finish is done on-site and is under the control of the winery owners. They began with five varietals before settling on their main three: lacrosse, chambourcin and seyval. The Fuller’s farm is 40 acres, with five of those presently dedicated to being used as a vineyard.

  Depending on normal uncontrollable conditions that all farms must face, including the drought that hit Kansas this past year, Christy said they average about 15,000 to 17,000 bottles annually. When their vineyard doesn’t sustain that volume, they sometimes buy grapes from other Kansas vineyards. If they have to go further, they look to Missouri vineyards since they are in the same region.

Tastings, Flights & White Tail Run Wines On-the-Go

  “We built our tasting room as a log cabin,” said Christy. “We are very much a boutique winery, and our guests describe it as homey and welcoming. When you first walk in, you’ll see our tasting bar, where we’ll talk with you about our wine flights. We offer 22 different wines in total, including our ready-to-drink sangrias. Your flight allows you to sample up to six of those 22 choices, and each person can customize their flight depending on what they like, dislike or are interested in sampling.”

  “We have seating both inside and outside, and while guests choose where they would like to sit, we’ll pre-pour those flights to order and bring them to your table,” she said. “Tastings are self-paced, with no one to rush you through. We’ll come back occasionally to answer any questions you have about any of the samples. Then, if you want, you can buy a glass or bottle to enjoy here or a bottle to take home. Guests are welcome to stay as long as they wish. We also offer locally made cheese and summer sausage that pair perfectly with our wines. The cheese is from Alma Creamery, which uses all Kansas dairy, and the sausage is from JET Produce and Meats in Leavenworth. Our fruit wines are made with produce from local orchards as well. We found that local produce makes the best wines.”

  The Fullers know that because they are a rural Kansas winery, sometimes it’s hard to get people to look at them. Christy tells The Grapevine that wine drinkers can have preconceived expectations that Kansas wines, especially the fruit wines, may be of lesser quality or too sweet for their tastes.

  “That’s the fun part,” said Christy. “We have to get their attention and let them know that their preconceptions about our wines may not be accurate, especially our fruit wines. We aren’t big on sweet wines ourselves, so those we make are nowhere near, in taste or form, any of the usual Midwest sweet wine offerings. Those that do try them are pleasantly surprised and like them.”

  To get that exposure, Christy says that they go to festivals and markets to provide potential customers the opportunity to try White Tail Run wines. Sometimes, as an additional attention grabber, they’ll attach an eye-catching name to one of their wines, like their Buck Naked Red or Frisky Fawn White.

  “Dan fought us over the Buck Naked label for quite some time,” said Christy. “But you know what? Sometimes, when you’re working in the vineyard in 99-degree temperatures with high humidity, all you want is a cold beer or two, so while sitting around and thinking about this new wine we fermented with a different yeast, we thought it would be funny to maybe name it Buck Naked. Of course, our dad was shocked that we would consider that. He thought no one would buy something like that. But here we are, and whether because of the name or because it’s a really good wine, it’s become one of our best sellers”.

  “We also possess a catering license, which allows us to provide off-site tasting rooms on the go for other local events,” she said. “For example, if a boutique or spa would like a local vendor to come in and sell wine or beer for their customers while there, we can do that. It’s been a great way to meet new people and build new relationships with people that normally might not travel out to us. We are 35 minutes south of KC, and for many urban dwellers, that may be a little far to travel. These catering-type events allow us to bring our wine to them. It’s a great way to expand our reach and meet and make new customers. We also try to have a good rotation of events here at our winery. We’re not within 10 miles of any major cities, so having events here that include other local vendors brings people in and helps support our local economy. As a woman owner, I try to feature majority-women-owned businesses that don’t already have an established storefront. We hope to get their products in front of new customers since many may not have that opportunity.”

Not Just Another Award-Winning Winery and Vineyard

  “Our on-site 18-hole disc golf course was recently ranked ninth in the world for winery disc golf courses,” said Christy. “After COVID, we took a step back as a business to see what we would do if something like that happened again. We decided to build this disc golf course because we thought people could at least get out and play disc golf if there were another shutdown. Even being ranked in the top ten, we want to improve and expand our disc golf course.”

  “We’d also love to expand our tasting room and enclose our outdoor pavilion for more room because that is a need we are experiencing,” she said. “We always look to expand our pop-up presence to meet more people and build those relationships. We are classified as a farm winery, which means that here in Kansas, we can self-distribute within the state. Our wines are in liquor stores from Topeka to Kansas City. That keeps us going through the winter months, when people may want to avoid traveling the gravel roads to get to our tasting room in person.”

Dealing with Challenges

  Christy recommends that before anyone starts a vineyard, they do all the research they can and get quality soil testing done by reputable organizations because, as she says, “soil is everything.” But most of all, it may be the ability to maintain patience and perseverance.

  “Without patience and perseverance, we would have never made it through the initial deer damage we sustained,” said Christy. “We have clay-rich soil that works well for us, but the initial damage from the deer when we were just starting out was hard and truly frustrating. We just have to remember that it’s part of being a farmer. And I’ll add that you should be prepared to work in the heat. Vineyards make their own climate, and it’s usually hot and dirty. Along with my brother Dan “Dusty” Fuller Jr. and one other part-time person, we manually tackle the pruning and outside work to keep the quality up.

Building Generational Habits and Qualities

  First and foremost, we are a proud family-owned and operated farm and winery,” said Christy. “Our children are developing a love for the land by growing and gardening on their own. They sell their produce and cut flowers at the farmers markets we attend, and we hope that instills in them a desire to continue the farm and winery for a third generation. That is our goal. They are learning a great work ethic and how to grow their own food while respecting the land and noticing how sustainability is important to us all. They’re also building social and communicative skills with customers. All of this is important and worth doing, and it gives them a leg up in the future.”

  White Tail Run Winery and Vineyard’s best seller is their original and most awarded offering, the seyval semi-sweet, followed equally by Buck Naked and Oaked Chambourcin.

  For more information or to contact White Tail Run Winery and Vineyard:

White Tail Run Winery and Vineyard

2327 N. 400th Rd.

Edgerton, KS 66021

(913) 893-4003

www.whitetailrunwinery.com

Fatten the Offer: Further Your Reach Through Strategic Partnerships

Cyndi
gears with words strategic and partnership

In the increasingly competitive world of wine, producers are continually seeking new ways to expand their awareness with media, trade and consumers. One of the most effective strategies that wineries can use to broaden their presence is through partnerships with other wineries that have a common thread. Through collaboration, wineries can leverage new opportunities, strengthen their offer and build a better rapport with journalists who constantly try to stay impartial.

Media Roundtables

  Whether virtual or in-person, intimate roundtables with top tier media is a really good way to connect with writers and get your wine in front of the right people. Less is more is the motto. While filling a room with 300 people might seem productive, it often isn’t since organizers end up inviting random people who will not bolster your brand (an Instagram story of your wine label does not move the needle).

  An effective way to sweeten your offer to journalists and trade is to partner with another winery that shares a common thread with you. For example, you could organize a seminar on U.S. domestic Petit Manseng and partner with wineries across the U.S. who produce this grape at the same or better quality level than you. This engages writers because they will get to taste a few versions of the grape from different producers, and when they publish their piece, each winery will be included. While this does not result in a solo feature of your brand, it creates an engaging story that helps consumers and trade understand the category as a whole through the lens of your winery. Journalists (at least the best ones) also love to stay impartial and by partnering with several wineries, it helps them convince their editors to approved the story.

  These events are integral to building a winery’s reputation and attracting new customers. Partnering with another winery for a joint tasting event offers an excellent opportunity to showcase each other’s products to a wider audience. Such collaborations can also involve local festivals, wine fairs, or even private events where wineries share a booth or organize a group tasting.

  One of the big reasons Argentina was able to grow so quickly in quality and recognition over the course of 20 years (whereas places like Burgundy took hundreds) was through collaboration. Sure, there’s competition between the wineries in terms of sales and route to market, but the energy within the domestic industry is one of sharing technology, space in the media market and discussions on how to advance the region in global markets. Roundtable discussions in the U.S. market with a panel of Argentinean producers was one of the big ways they were able to do that.

  Partnerships could also take the form of press trips. It helps reduce cost and bring people to your vineyards. For example, you could have two wineries in Virginia band together and organize a trip and split the work. First, find the common thread between both producers and conduct outreach to get media and/or sommeliers to the wineries and develop an engaging itinerary. It is intriguing for media to have the ability to learn from two or more producers and come back to their table with a story to tell.

  Other strategic partnerships don’t have to include partnering with a wine producer. For example, in 2024 the McBride Sisters Collection partnering with Colgate Optic White in a very successful campaign. For $50, the Central California and New Zealand producer sold their red blend with Optic White Overnight Whitening Pens. It was a smart way to promote the wine but also touch upon a big worry for some people: wine stained teeth! This gets to a new audience without the high costs typically associated with traditional advertising.

  Similarly, wineries can collaborate with local hotels, resorts, or tourism companies to offer package deals, such as weekend stays that include winery tours and tastings. These partnerships expose the wineries to tourists and out-of-town visitors who may not have otherwise been aware of them. By associating their brand with other quality local businesses, wineries can increase their credibility and attract customers who are already engaged with other aspects of the local economy.

Conclusion

  In an industry that relies heavily on brand recognition and customer loyalty, winery partnerships can be an effective way to expand reach, enhance brand awareness, and drive growth with editors. Whether through co-branding initiatives, collaborative events, distribution deals, or digital campaigns, the opportunities for wineries to work together are plentiful and can result in significant benefits for all parties involved. By forming partnerships with other wineries, wineries not only increase their exposure but also contribute to a broader sense of community within the wine industry, which ultimately benefits everyone from the producer to the consumer.

Why U.S. Wine Labels Leave Consumers in the Dark

Cyndi
three black wine bottles with blank lables

By Greg Martellotto

As an Italian Wine Ambassador and a winemaker, I’ve had the privilege of immersing myself in the world of wine from both sides of the glass. While the complexities of terroir and the delicate art of winemaking have captivated me for years, a growing concern has emerged: the glaring lack of transparency in the U.S. wine industry. It’s a subject that not only perplexes but frustrates me as both a producer and consumer of wine.

While Americans have become increasingly conscious of the ingredients in their food and beverages, wine—a product enjoyed by millions across the country—remains shrouded in mystery. Unlike most other consumables, wine in the United States escapes the rigorous scrutiny of nutrition and ingredient labeling. This lack of transparency is not only puzzling but also problematic in an age where consumers demand to know what they’re putting into their bodies. With every other product, from packaged snacks to soft drinks, offering detailed breakdowns of ingredients and nutrition facts, the wine industry stands out as a notable exception. It’s time we ask: why is wine treated differently?

The Opaque Reality of U.S. Wine Labels

To truly understand the issue, we need to consider the labeling regulations—or lack thereof—that govern wine in the United States. Current U.S. regulations primarily focus on alcohol content, producer information, and origin, leaving out crucial details such as ingredients, additives, and nutritional information. This is in stark contrast to the global trend toward transparency, particularly in Europe, where wine labels often provide comprehensive nutritional and ingredient information.

The European Union, for example, has recently moved toward implementing mandatory ingredient and calorie labeling for wine. Consumers in the EU can expect to see labels indicating the use of preservatives, stabilizers, added sugars, and other additives. This trend is not just limited to wine but applies across the food and beverage sector, reflecting a broader consumer demand for transparency and informed choice.

In the U.S., however, wine labeling remains woefully outdated. Consumers are often unaware of the dozens of additives that could be present in their wine—ranging from sulfur dioxide, which is used as a preservative, to Mega Purple, a concentrated grape juice used to enhance color and sweetness. These additives are legal and commonly used in winemaking, yet most consumers have no idea they exist, let alone how they might affect their health.

Hidden Ingredients in Plain Sight

Wine is a natural product at its core: grapes are harvested, crushed, fermented, and aged to create the drink we love. But winemaking, especially at the industrial scale, can involve a variety of processes and additives that are far removed from the idyllic image of grapes ripening under the sun. Additives such as fining agents, preservatives, flavor enhancers, and colorants can all be used to achieve a desired taste, texture, or appearance. In some cases, additional sugar is added to adjust the sweetness of a wine, while acids might be used to alter its pH level.

One of the most glaring omissions on U.S. wine labels is the amount of sugar in the wine. While consumers are increasingly aware of sugar content in other beverages, many wines, including those marketed as “dry,” can contain significant amounts of residual and added sugars. These sugars can contribute to the flavor profile, but for consumers trying to watch their sugar intake, this lack of information can be problematic. When consumers think they are choosing a dry wine with little to no sugar, they may be unwittingly consuming sugar that has been added to balance flavors or boost sweetness.

This issue of hidden sugars is compounded by the lack of clarity about other additives. Many consumers would likely be surprised to learn that certain mass-produced wines contain additives like artificial coloring agents, flavor enhancers, and clarifying agents like egg whites or gelatin. Some of these additives can trigger allergies or intolerances, yet without ingredient labeling, consumers are left in the dark.

I had sent Napa Cabernet for independent testing, marketed as “dry,” contained 10g/L residual sugar–information the winery deemed proprietary. This raises transparency concerns, especially with “American wine” requiring just 75% U.S. grapes and Napa Cabernet needing only 75% Cabernet Sauvignon. Grocery stores and large producers exploit these loose regulations, leaving consumers in the dark about the contents of their bottles.

The Case for Transparency

Why does this lack of transparency persist in the U.S. wine industry? The answer is multi-faceted, involving a combination of industry resistance, historical precedent, and regulatory inertia. The wine industry has long argued that listing ingredients on labels would complicate the winemaking process and confuse consumers. There is also a concern that ingredient labeling could expose the use of additives, which might deter consumers who prefer a more natural product. However, these arguments overlook a growing trend: consumers want transparency and are capable of understanding it.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires nutritional labeling for almost all packaged food and drink products, yet wine remains under the jurisdiction of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), which has less stringent requirements. This bifurcation in regulatory oversight is a key reason why wine labeling standards have lagged behind other industries. While the TTB enforces rules related to alcohol content and certain health warnings, it does not mandate the same level of ingredient disclosure required for non-alcoholic beverages.

The European Union’s recent push for ingredient and calorie labeling offers a compelling case study. There, winemakers are embracing the move toward transparency, recognizing that it can build trust with consumers. Far from confusing the marketplace, these new labels are empowering consumers to make informed decisions based on their dietary needs and preferences. For producers who prioritize quality and sustainability, these labels offer an opportunity to differentiate their products in a crowded market.

Consumers are increasingly drawn to wines that are organic, biodynamic, or made with minimal intervention, and transparent labeling can help highlight these qualities.

The Benefits of Transparency

As a winemaker, I understand the importance of building trust with my customers. For me, transparency is not just a regulatory obligation; it’s a philosophy. When I craft my wines, I strive to use the highest quality grapes and minimal intervention. I believe consumers deserve to know exactly what goes into their bottle. This is why I’ve always been open about my practices, even without a legal requirement to do so.

Transparency in labeling could offer a range of benefits, both for consumers and the industry at large. For consumers, it would allow for informed decision-making. People with dietary restrictions, allergies, or simply a desire to consume fewer additives could choose wines that align with their preferences.

Nutritional information, particularly calorie counts and sugar content, would also help consumers make more informed choices about their alcohol consumption. In an age where consumers can instantly access information about virtually anything via their smartphones, the lack of detailed labeling on wine bottles feels increasingly out of step with the times. For the wine industry, transparency could foster innovation and differentiation. Winemakers who prioritize quality, sustainability, and minimal intervention would have the opportunity to showcase their products to a discerning consumer base. As consumers become more aware of the contents of their wine, they will naturally gravitate towards brands that align with their values. This could encourage more producers to adopt sustainable practices and reduce the use of unnecessary additives.

Moreover, transparency could help dispel some of the misconceptions about wine. For years, the wine industry has been hampered by conflicting studies about the health impacts of wine consumption. By providing clear, consistent information about what is in the bottle, the industry could contribute to a more nuanced understanding of wine’s role in a healthy diet. Consumers who are concerned about sugar, additives, or alcohol content would have the information they need to make choices that align with their health goals.

The Road Ahead

Implementing mandatory nutrition and ingredient labeling for wine in the U.S. will undoubtedly require adjustments from the industry. Producers will need to invest in new labeling systems and, in some cases, reformulate their wines to reduce the use of additives. However, the potential benefits far outweigh the challenges. By embracing transparency, the wine industry can build trust with consumers, foster innovation, and elevate the entire sector.

The time has come for the U.S. to catch up with the rest of the world. Mandatory nutrition and ingredient labeling for wine is not just a matter of consumer rights; it’s also an opportunity to elevate the industry. Let’s uncork transparency and usher in a new era of consumer trust in the U.S. wine industry.

Greg Martellotto is a winemaker, Italian Wine Ambassador, and the founder of Big Hammer Wines.

HOW TO: Maximize Tasting Room Sales Through Engaging Visual Content

Cyndi
woman smiling making heart sign with both hands sitting in front of a laptop and a half filled wine glass

By: Jake Ahles, Founder, Morel Creative

Did you know video content accounts for 85% of online consumer traffic? If you’re not utilizing video to showcase your tasting room, you’re leaving untapped opportunities on the table (pun intended). Not only that, but consumers are also995% more likely to remember a brand when the message is delivered via video.

  But visual content alone won’t get the job done. If it doesn’t form a cohesive, clear, consistent message that connects with your audience, it won’t resonate. In other words: your tasting room needs a visual content strategy. And, no, ‘posting on social media every day’ is not a strategy.

  Because the results may not be as direct, wineries and tasting rooms sometimes treat visual content as an afterthought, believing that a few random posts on social media will suffice. We call this a “spray and pray” approach and it unfortunately doesn’t drive the results brands desire. Treating visual content as a checkbox activity may feel productive. But posting content without a structure and vision dilutes your brand’s message and weakens its impact. A strategic approach does the opposite—it elevates, connects, and converts.

  For tasting rooms, a thoughtful visual content strategy can be a game-changer. A well-crafted visual strategy doesn’t just look good; it works. Wine brands with strong visual storytelling have better marketing results. They see more tasting room visits, larger wine orders, and greater customer loyalty.

The Four Cs: Crafting a Visual Content Strategy for Your Tasting Room

  There are four key principles to crafting an effective visual content strategy. I call them The Four Cs.

Using the following key ingredients we can create video and photo content that drives tangible ROI. Let’s take a look.

Cohesion: A cohesive visual content strategy takes into account all of your customers touch points. From your tasting room itself, to the packaging you ship your bottles in. From your merch to your social and online presence.

Clarity: Use your visual content strategy to clearly tell your story. It should show what makes your wines and, thus, your tasting room unique. Can your audience clearly articulate why they choose your wine over your competitors? We think of this as your differentiating factor, or Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

Consistency: Are you sharing your USP consistently across platforms and content? A consistently crafted USP is essential to building brand loyalty.

Connection: The most overlooked of the 4Cs. It’s the emotional bond your brand has with your audience. Wine is a product that people aspire to own. How does your wine brand and tasting room fulfill your audience’s dreams?

  You’re probably thinking: who has time to deal remember all of this? Well, that’s why a strategy is so important! Once in place, just follow the strategy. Review the results and iterate as you get feedback – what’s working, what’s missing the mark?

The Power of a Strategic Approach to Visual Content

  Instead of scattering posts on social media, imagine a content strategy that guides your ideal clients to your brand and turns them into fans. This strategy will align with your brand’s story and connect with your visitors’ emotions. By developing a thoughtful approach to content, tasting rooms can create memorable experiences that lead to increased reservations and sales and still feed the social media algorithm.

Key Visual Content Strategies for Tasting Rooms

  As we’ve said, connecting your brand to your audience is key to a long-term, successful, visual content strategy.

  To do this, you want to build off the educational, engaging, and emotional facts that truly differentiate your brand in the market. The facts that help your customers achieve the aspirations they’re looking for in a wine experience. We call this the F.E.E.E.D. Framework.

  While each winery has its own unique story to tell, let’s detail an adaptable framework that can be customized to showcase your brand, authentically:

1.           Behind-the-Scenes Vineyard Tours: Use videos to show the vineyard’s beauty. Let customers experience the winemaking process, from vine to wine.

2.           Tasting Experience Time-Lapses: Use time-lapse videos to highlight a typical tasting experience, giving potential customers a preview of what to expect.

3.           Winemaker Interviews: Create emotional connections. Film short interviews with the winemakers. Show their passion and unique approach.

4.           Food Pairing Photography: Capture mouth-watering images of wine paired with gourmet dishes, which can inspire potential visitors to come and experience it firsthand.

5             .Seasonal Photo Series: Develop a photo series that showcases your vineyard through the seasons, highlighting its beauty year-round.

6.           Live Streaming Special Events: Stream your live events, like wine tastings or release parties. This will engage remote audiences and encourage future visits.

  Along with other tailored content engagements, these content types form a Cohesive content campaign encompassing each of the content types outlined above. We can start with winemakers in the field, prepping the vines through to harvest and bottling. We’ll intercut this with interviews, food pairings, content of special events, and a photo series. We’ll wrap up with a tasting experience that shows the connection between winemakers and guests. From this master campaign, which clarifies your wine business’s USP, you can spread various content pieces through your content calendar and on different platforms – from your newsletter to your blog, tasting room print outs to trade show collateral. This will ensure content consistency.

  Something I often hear from brands is that content creation can be expensive. I hear you. But the initial investment in professional visual content will produce significant returns over time by attracting more visitors, increasing social media engagement, and driving wine club sign-ups. This is how market leaders are made and legacy brands are formed.

  “Fine,” you say, “but who has the time?” A well-structured content strategy can be sustainable and iterative. A well-planned, scalable system can help your team be more efficient and effective. It should include content calendars and pillars. This way, your team can create content without getting overwhelmed.

Build a Sustainable, Scalable Visual Content System & Watch Your Tasting Room Flourish

  With a clear content strategy that focuses on engaging storytelling and consistent messaging, you can differentiate your tasting room from competitors and build a loyal customer base. A sustainable visual content system can help you stand out in a crowded market. It can do this through immersive videos, stunning photography, or interactive experiences.

  Plant your flag in the sand and make your tasting room a must-visit destination. Don’t let your tasting room blend in. Make it the destination for wine lovers. Take the first step toward transforming your tasting room experience through a cohesive, consistent, clear visual strategy that connects.

Lower the pH of Wines by Easy Lab Acid Trials

Cyndi
man sitting at table holding half filled wine glass and a gloved hand giving the thumbs up

By: Thomas J. Payette, Winemaking Consultant

Often a winemaker is challenged with grapes, juice and wine that may have an imbalance in regard to the pH of a certain wine and that wines style.  This can be a critical choice for the winemaker in terms of protecting the wine from spoilage.  A wine with a higher pH is much more likely to develop spoilage bacteria/yeast problems.  On the converse just simply adding acid to lower the pH may throw the delicate taste and balance of the wine off.  Much finesse must be used at this time by the winemaker to make the proper decisions using both the wine lab and the wineglass.

Trials in the lab

  The lab is the first place the winemaker should turn to experiment with small batches of wine.  This will give nearly concrete evidence from the lab as well as tasting trials to determine the appropriate amount and kind of acid to add.

When?

  The pH of a wine should be addressed as early on in the winemaking process as possible, especially if too high.  Often this decision is predicted just before harvest from previously collected data (from field and grape samples) and made at harvest after chemistry confirmation on the crush pad.  I’ll often start to make adjustments in the press pan of whites or in the must of crushed reds.

Why and Where?

  The reason we do trials is to experiment with refinement and correction of a juice or wine.  Always work in small quantities, in the lab, with a wine so one does not potentially create a larger problem, in the cellar.  Trials can be tested and tasted to see what the results would be or will have been if the addition was made to the actual tank or vessel of juice/wine.  This eliminates guesswork and unnecessarily “shooting from the hip” of which many winemakers can find themselves guilty of during critical times such as harvest.

Tools Needed

Scales that measure in grams preferably to a tenth of a gram.

4             3 – 100 milliliter graduated cylinder (plastic preferred)

4             1 – 50 milliliter graduated cylinder (plastic preferred)

4             1 – 10 milliliter pipette (Class A volumetric)

4             2 – 5 milliliter serological pipettes-one tenth mil markings (Plastic preferred)

4             Small glass beakers 250 milliliters plus or minus

4             Representative sample(s) of each wine to be worked with (800 milliliters)

4             Clean wineglasses

4             Watch glasses to cover each glass

4             Spit cup

4             Other testing equipment to answer questions at hand : pH meter, TA measuring, etc

4             Magnetic Stir plate with stir bars and retriever for the stir bars.

4             Sharpie™ pen or pencil for marking beakers.

4  95% ethanol to remove Sharpie™ pen marks off glassware.

How?

  Start with something simple where results can be easily determined with the wineglass to give the confidence needed to build upon the procedure.  An example of this may be a tartaric addition trial for pH lowering and/or palate modification.  Let’s go over this process.

1.           Start with an ample quantity of wine to work with in the lab – perhaps an 800-milliliter representative sample from a wine tank or vessel.

2.           Accurately weigh 1.0 gram of tartaric acid and fully dissolve the acid in approximately 85 milliliters of the base wine with which you are working. Use the stir bar and plate for this process.

3.           Once fully dissolved, place the full amount into a 100 milliliter graduated cylinder or as one becomes more experienced you may just make the solution in the 100 milliliter graduated cylinder directly.

4.           Bring the amount of volume in the 100 milliliter graduated cylinder to the 100 milliliter mark with additional base wine.  (One should be clear they have made a solution of 1.0-gram tartaric acid dissolved into 100 milliliters of wine.)

5.           In a clean graduated cylinder, pipette 10 milliliters of the newly prepared acid stock solution into the cylinder.  Bring to the complete 100 milliliters volume mark with the base wine.  This represents a 1.0-gram per liter tartaric acid addition.

6.           Pipette twenty milliliters from the stock acid solution made in step four into another graduated cylinder and bring to volume to the 100-milliliter mark.  This represents the next addition level of 2.0 grams per liter tartaric addition.

7.           Continue to add to the number of samples you care to do the trial on in standard logical increments.

8.           Analysis the pH and titratable acidity, record and have available for the tasting below.

Set up the tasting trial

1.           Pour about 70 milliliters or a quantity one desires to smell and taste, of the base wine, into a control glass and place it to the left hand area of the tasting glass orientation.  (One should always taste against a control from left to right)

2.           Pour the trials to be tasted, made in steps 5,6 and 7 above, in increasing increments in each wineglass progressing from left to right.  Mark their contents.

3.           Add to this flight any wines from past vintages you may want to review or any other blind samples from other producers you may care to use as a benchmark.  Only do this step if needed.  Mark their contents.

4.           Taste and smell each wine several times.  Go through the flight and detect what wine/juice may best match or improve the desired style one is trying to achieve.  Review the chemistry data generated in step 8 above while tasting the trials.

5.           Select the best match and leave the room for 1 to 2 hours so your palate may re-calibrate.

6             .Return and re-taste to confirm your previous decision with a fresh palate.

7.           Repeat as often and needed.

  Should chemistries play an important role to reviewing certain additions be certain to run a necessary panel of lab test to ascertain the proper numbers are also achieved.  One may need to balance taste, flavor and chemistry to make some tough choices.  Have all the data necessary and available to make those choices.  

Calculation:

  Once the fear of the metric system is overcome and confidence is achieved, the calculations become very simplistic.  Let’s take the above as the example.  If we dissolve 1.0 gram of tartaric acid into 100 milliliters of wine we now have 0.1 gram of tartaric acid in every 10 milliliters of wine.  From this base if we blend 10.0 milliliters (one-tenth gram of tartaric) into 100 milliliters of the same fresh base wine – this represents the equivalent of one gram per liter.  If we were to have used twenty milliliters that would represent two grams per liter in the small 100-milliliter blend.  If we keep track of what we are tasting or testing and select the trial we prefer, one can mathematically calculate how much of the given addition is needed in a tank of a known quantity of juice or wine.  One can also extrapolate this out to larger volumes in the laboratory should it be desired to work beyond a 100-milliliter sample.

Spicing it up!

  Once the first set of trials is mastered one may build on to the next step projecting out what one may want to do with the juice or wine.  This could eventually, and perhaps should, build out to treating large enough samples that one could cold and protein stabilize the wine in the lab, filter to the projected desired micron size and taste with a panel.

  If tartaric acid is not giving the desired result – select other approved acids for that wine.  Fruit wines, other than grape, often have other principal acids so one may need to explore using that principal acid first.

Double Checking the Results

  From experience, one can get so creative in a lab it can be difficult to trace exactly how one arrived at a certain desired concoction.  Copious notes should be taken throughout the complete process in the lab.  Given a tank of juice or wine can often equate to hundreds of thousands of dollars or more it may be prudent to run the selected trial a second time, and compare, to confirm any additions before performing the action in the cellar.  Be confident of what you are about to do.

Action in the Cellar

  This is often the simple part.  Using tartaric acid as an example for the addition one will simply calculate the amount of acid needed to match the desired trial.  Weigh the desired amount of tartaric and dissolve in a bucket of warm water or wine from the tank.  Once dissolved add slowly to the tank while mixing.  Continue to mix until fully integrated and then select a sample from the sample valve for tasting, a quick pH and titratable acidity analysis.   This will confirm the task or end result was achieved.

Summary

  Given time and experimentation with this system many pH-lowering trials with additions will become easy and systematic.  Trials will often take less than ten minutes to prepare and one may taste at several points during the day or use extra time to perform lab test to confirm desired objectives.

Other Helpful Tips

  Keep in mind not to over scrutinize your accuracy in the laboratory.  By this I mean make sure that if we measure something very exactly in the laboratory make sure this action will be able to be duplicated outside the lab.  It is not uncommon, early on, for winemakers to get extremely exact in the lab only to step into the cellar with sloppy control over what they had just experimented with.

  This system can be used for dosage formulation for sparking wines.

  If accurate scales may be an issue the winemaker may always start by weighing larger quantities and dissolving into solution then breaking down that solution.  Example:  If a winemaker wants a 1.0 gram per liter solution and the scales are not accurate enough to weight one gram the winemaker may dissolve 10.0 grams into 100 milliliters and then measure out 10 milliliters of that solution and this should roughly equate to one gram.

NOTE: Make sure all solids are dissolved and dispersed equally into any solution.

  One may also be able to blend two trials in 50% to 50% solutions to get an example of a trial in the middle without having to make one up specifically to match the amount desired.

  Always remember your palate may become desensitized while tasting and to step away from tasting for an hour or two and then return to

taste ones preference.  You may be shocked you had become used to (Desensitized) certain levels because of tasting such extremes.

Next issue:  Raising the pH

References:  

Amerine, M.A., Berg, H.W., Cruess,W.V. 1972. The Technology of Wine Making

Dharmadhikari, M.R., Wilker, K.L. 2001. Micro Vinification.

Zoecklein, B.W., Fugelsang, K.C., Gump, B.H., and Nury, F.S. 1999. Wine Analysis and Production

Verbal discussion with Mr. Jacques Boissenot, Mr. Jacques Recht, Mr. Joachim Hollerith and Chris Johnson.

With the Wind Vineyard & Winery

Cyndi

Celebrating Life’s Journey, One Glass at a Time

photo of the winery building at With the Wine Vineyard and Winery

By: Gerald Dlubala

After living in Colorado for nine years, Jeremiah and Lisa Klein decided to move back to their original home state of South Dakota in 2012 to buy some farmland and raise their family. They considered a picturesque farm that was no longer being used for production but offered Jeremiah a vision of what could be. Jeremiah’s experience and background in agriculture had him excited to start a 20-acre family farm growing corn and beans. That dream took a serious hit when soil testing showed the property that they were interested in purchasing had a nitrogen deficiency, registering at 3 percent or less. Growing beans and corn would still be possible, but as Jeremiah said, it would be a continuous uphill battle. The Kleins made the tough decision to alter their family farm plans.

  But in their own words, Jeremiah and Lisa tend to “follow the wind” and celebrate wherever life takes them. That way of thinking certainly denotes a natural level of adaptability, and their story may be the epitome of being adaptable and willing to change course from previously laid out life plans. The Kleins found themselves altering their plans for a traditional farm, starting a vineyard on their property instead. Aptly named With the Wind Vineyard and Winery, it is now South Dakota’s largest vineyard and winery.

When One Door Closes, Another Opens

  “As luck would have it, we read an article that discussed growing fruit in the region, specifically focusing on the optimal conditions for grapevine growing,” said Jeremiah. “We took interest when the conditions described as optimal for growing grapes in our region matched our terroir conditions and soil tests, including our topography, sandy loam soil and south-facing slopes.”

  The Kleins joked that they could get a few grapevines and make some wine for themselves as a hobby. After some changes, they started talking with other vineyards in the region and were encouraged when those owners agreed that they had the perfect soil conditions and layout to support grape growing. But they also had paved roads for visitors to easily reach their farm, just nine miles off the interstate. It was an ideal location & setup.

  “It turns out that we just needed to adjust our views of the farm when we got here,” said Jeremiah. “When you think about it, it makes perfect sense to adapt to the land that’s here rather than try to make the natural land characteristics adapt to our wants. It just seems like the basic laws of nature. At that moment, we moved ahead full steam, gaining the education and knowledge necessary to shift our resources into grape growing. We never looked back, concentrating on growing memorable wines that celebrated life and appealed to the Midwest palate.”

  “We put in the vineyard in 2012, opened our winery and modest tasting room in 2014 and have been growing ever since,” said Jeremiah.

  “We had a small tasting room to begin,” said Lisa. “We took time to learn the ropes, knowing that we were in a very rural area and the challenge would be to draw visitors here at the start. We learned about our clientele, the Midwest taste palates and what they’re interested in. In 2016, we had a substantial addition that, since 2020, houses all of our production. All our wines are stored onsite in custom, Italian-made stainless-steel tanks and Minnesota oak barrels. That move gave us space for our open barrel room, which is really two rooms that can be combined or divided off as needed. We do a lot of public and private events, from weddings to farmer’s markets. Hosting events is important to draw guests and visitors to our place. They can have a great experience and discover our wines that are grown, produced and packaged onsite.”

  Additionally, Lisa told The Grapevine Magazine that the wholesale market is a significant part of their business and just as big as their onsite market. Their location in Rosholt, South Dakota, is not a hot spot for tourism, so it does not get the boost from other tourist attractions. However, with changes in licensing and regulations that allow a farm winery to self-distribute, the winery has experienced its biggest growth through the wholesale market, gaining over 150 retailers within South Dakota.

What to Expect When Visiting South Dakota’s Largest Vineyard and Winery

  “Guests are welcome to sit indoors with a lot of natural light coming in or outdoors and relax and enjoy our beautiful vistas,” said Lisa. “Our wraparound porch is a very popular spot, as is our binzebo, a uniquely designed old grain silo from the property that has been converted to a gazebo with comfortable seating, bistro lighting and a fire table, offering a relaxing place to spend time out in a natural area with family or friends. We welcome our guests with a wine menu that can be experienced by the glass, the bottle or within a customized wine flight. We like to have fun with our wines and cater to everyone’s tastes and expectations. Our lineup features everything from fun wines, like our Berry Crush and Peachy Keen, to our Sacred Solitude, a barrel-aged dry red. Guests can choose between our premium sweet wines through dry or sparkling wines. And we also have a panini kitchen that provides perfectly paired food options, as well as a baker on staff that amazes with a sweet-of-the-week available with meal options.”

  Lisa says they’re always up for giving impromptu or prearranged tours when they can, but all guests are welcome to stroll around, experience and enjoy the vineyard property and all it offers.

   “The reality is that we know we are offering something different for our area, so we want to make sure you know that we value your time and that you are always welcome here,” said Lisa. “We want your visit to be memorable enough that you want to return and bring friends and family with you. If you’re interested in having your wedding or other special event here, we focus on what you want as our guest. What stands out to you while you’re here? What speaks to you? Where would you want your event to take place? Our property has many options and unique areas, and they’re all on the table for your special event.”

  Jeremiah said, “Additionally, it’s pretty cool that visitors drive right through our vineyard to get here. Our guests are serenaded by the vines and get to see firsthand the grapes responsible for the wine in their glass.”

  “Our winery and vineyard are more than just having a great glass of wine,” said Lisa. “We want our visitors to relax, enjoy our land and experience our property. We want them to live in the moment and celebrate life with us and our wines. Our goal is to have our guests recognize and experience the connection between our peaceful surroundings and nature’s flow.”

Expanding the Vineyard and Looking Toward the Future

  “We’ve expanded our vineyard,” said Jeremiah. “And we’ll also be adding an Airbnb for our guests that would like to extend their stay with us. But mostly, our future plans include continuing to meet our customers’ expectations and needs through the expansion of our vision and ideas. To help with that, we’ve brought our daughter and son-in-law on board. They’ve helped us tremendously by coming up with fresh ideas and viewpoints that only a new generation can add. Having different ideas and opinions only makes us stronger.”

  With the Wind wines are crafted to reflect the surrounding nature, balancing acidity with natural, fully ripened grape sugars. Each grape variety naturally supports the attributes of the wine you taste. Jeremiah said they’ve added more vines over the years, as recently as 2023, when they added 2.65 acres of Crimson Pearl and Frontenac grapes. They planted 2,050 new Itasca and La Crescent grapevines in 2021. Because of their location, the vineyards have a drip irrigation system to help deter the adverse effects of drought and extreme heat. The Kleins are noting significant growth in their vineyard and are expecting a great harvest this year for their 2021 vintage wines. They also grow Frontenac Gris and King of the North grapes onsite.

  “Additionally, we do all of our production and bottling onsite,” said Jeremiah. “It equates to about 5,000 cases. This year, we expect to do about 30 tons of grapes for harvest, and they’ll all be produced and packaged in-house, including our sparkling and still varieties. Our packaging machine has the capability to use corks or screw caps depending on what is best for the particular wine being bottled. Additionally, we’ll be able to use twist-off crowns for a new RTD (ready-to-drink) option that is in development and will hopefully be released in the near future.”

 So You Want to Own a Vineyard & Winery

  “First and foremost, never resist change,” said Jeremiah. “Change is always coming, so just go where the wind blows. If we resisted, we would’ve never ended up where we are today, and we certainly wouldn’t have a winery. But in general, I would advise anyone interested in starting a vineyard and winery to always test ideas on a smaller scale before going all in. We started modestly and frugally before scaling up on our successes. That method has served us well, but we know that things will again change, so we can’t just get set in our ways.”

  “Additionally, mechanization is your friend,” said Jeremiah. “I learned the hard way that the ratio of labor to product when wanting to prune and pick all of my fruit by hand is simply not a sustainable way to do things. I realize now that mechanization is the real key to growth. We researched, prioritized and decided that a harvester would be the most cost-effective to start. It was always a struggle to get enough people here to work the necessary hours in the elements at the right time for an optimal harvest. The harvester we bought was used and needed work, so a mechanic on staff helped with repairs and got it running. Now it’s as good as new and used regularly.”

  “And wouldn’t you know it? Jeremiah continued. “We are actually getting a better-quality harvest with fewer losses on the ground by being able to harvest quicker and in a shorter time. Now, I would say that 90 percent of our operations in the vineyard are mechanized. So, start small and mechanize as soon as you can. Don’t overplant at the beginning if you really don’t know what you’re doing. Then scale up from there.”

  With the Wind Vineyard & Winery is South Dakota’s largest winery and vineyard. In addition to their premium sweet, dry and sparkling wine options, they also offer beer and non-alcoholic beverages. A panini kitchen is onsite for sandwiches perfectly paired with your preferred wine. There are also a variety of cheeses and chocolates available. To learn more or reserve a spot for your special event, private party, family celebrations and more, contact With the Wind Winery and Vineyard:

With the Wind Winery

10722 Lake Road  • Rosholt, SD 57260

INFO@WITHTHEWINDWINERY.COM  

605-537-4780

Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Walla Walla Valley AVA

Cyndi
3 men celebrating in the middle of a vineyard row

By: Becky Garrison

Since the formation of the Walla Walla Valley AVA in 1984, this oasis, set amid a vast sagebrush desert that rolls across Southeast Washington and Northeast Oregon, has emerged as a destination hub for wine connoisseurs. At present, the Walla Walla Valley AVA includes 135 wineries producing 200 labels with approximately 120 vineyards operating 3,000 acres under vine that produce over 40 varieties of viniferas. This region includes one nested AVA, the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater, established in 2015, with the application for the Mill Creek AVA in process with the TTB. 

  Even though rainfall only averages eight inches a year (in comparison, Western Washington receives 48 inches), the area is naturally irrigated by cold mountain rivers. The Columbia, Yakima, Snake, and Walla Walla formed by the Missoula Floods that covered the entire Columbia Basin of Washington, as well as much of Montana, Idaho and Oregon. This region’s agricultural bounty attracted French traders, followed by Oregon Trail pioneers, Victorian wheat barons and other settlers who planted orchards, wheat fields and rangeland.

  This valley benefits from long, warm growing seasons, which allow the grapes to ripen fully, balanced by cool evenings that preserve acidity. This creates wines with depth, structure and elegance. The diverse soils range from wind-blown loess to volcanic basalt, which serves to add distinct layers of complexity to the wines. Also, due to this state’s cold winter climate and sandy soils, phylloxera that damaged most of the vineyards in the world in the 19th century never destroyed Washington State’s vineyards. As such, 99 percent of this state’s vineyards are planted on their roots instead of on phylloxera-tolerant rootstock.

  Beyond the land itself, the Walla Walla Valley has a strong sense of community and collaboration among winemakers and grape growers, many of whom are pioneers in the region. This spirit of innovation and respect for tradition has allowed them to craft world-class wines while maintaining a deep connection to their roots.

Leonetti Cellar Marks the Birth of the Walla Walla Wine Industry  

  In the 1970s, Gary and Nancy Figgins built upon Gary’s grandparents’ legacy as farmers to launch the first commercial winery in Walla Walla. Upon moving to Walla Walla in 1902, Francesco Leonetti continued farming practices he learned from his homeland in Serra Pedace, Calabria, Italy. Four years later, he married Rosa after an “arranged” courtship and established the Leonetti farm.

  Pre-prohibition, Italian farmers like the Leonettis may have brought cuttings over from their homeland for use in making wine for their family and friends. But overall, Washington State was not deemed suitable for commercial winemaking due to its cold climate.

  Fast-forward to 1974, when Gary Figgins planted a few cuttings of cabernet sauvignon and riesling on his grandparents’ property. Leonetti Cellar produced its first vintage of cabernet sauvignon in 1978. The Leonetti portfolio has since grown to include merlot along with the Italian varietals sangiovese and aglianico.

  Initially, Gary worked as a machinist in the region’s burgeoning canning industry to avoid taking on any debt as the winery grew. By the 1980s, the cannery and two lumber mills shut down. This seemingly depressed rural town experienced a renaissance in the 1990s  when the globalization of agriculture led to Walla Walla evolving into a world-class tourist destination for wine connoisseurs.

  In 2002, Chris Figgins purchased a piece of property to produce single-varietal estate wines. As per their website, Figgins Estate Vineyard is a south-facing hillside sitting at 1,500 to 1,750 feet. Planted to cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot, malbec and riesling, it is an incredibly special place that Figgins considers to be his masterpiece of varietal selection, trellising and intensive, sustainable viticulture. Also, he established Toil Oregon in the Willamette Valley, where he produces dense, fruity pinot noirs that appeal to those who appreciate his hearty cabernet sauvignon.

The Birth of the Walla Walla Valley AVA

  Gary Figgins and Rick Small made homemade wine together for several years when Small decided to start commercial winemaking along with his wife, Darcey Fugman-Small. Small had grown up in agriculture and started learning about wine while traveling in Europe. Both men were self-taught, learning through collaboration and trial and error. In 1981, Small established Woodward Canyon as the second winery and vineyard in the Walla Walla area. The early varietals planted at their Estate Vineyard were chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon.

  The third Winery in Walla Walla emerged in 1983 after Baker Ferguson retired as president of Baker Boyer of Bank and fulfilled his lifelong dream of starting a winery. L’Ecole started as a small mom-and-pop winery, making unique varietal wines like merlot, which was not well known at the time, semillon, which was even less known and later adding chenin blanc to the equation. While Baker was the dreamer and strategist behind the winery, his wife, Jean, had a background in chemistry, which led her to become the first female winemaker in Washington State. She took numerous classes at UC Davis and worked with industry consultants to ensure the wines were aromatic, expressive, balanced and of high quality. Initially, she focused on semillon, merlot, and chenin blanc.

  In 1989, their daughter, Megan, and her husband, Marty Clubb, moved to Walla Walla. Marty assumed responsibilities as manager and winemaker of L’Ecole, and they added cabernet sauvignon and, eventually, chardonnay to their lineup. A key development was planting vineyards in Walla Walla, which led to their first Walla Walla wines in 1993 with Pepper Bridge Apogee and Seven Hills Vineyard Merlot. Also, they introduced a Walla Walla Valley Cabernet Sauvignon in 1997.

  Another Walla Walla pioneer, Norm McKibben, headed out to Walla Walla, where he quickly met Mike Hogue of Hogue Cellars (founded in 1982), planted Pepper Bridge (1991) and formed a working partnership with Hogue that lasted for many years. Small and Figgins were among those creating award-winning wines using fruit from Pepper Bridge Vineyard. Initially, they planted cabernet sauvignon, though according to winemaker Jean-François Pellet, who joined the winery in 1999, “We’ve been able to figure out what works in the valley and then really dial it in at the specific vineyard sites. We started with five to six varietals at Pepper Bridge Vineyard, and now we have merlot as the standout, with some cabernet sauvignon. We just planted sauvignon blanc, and we’ll see how it goes.”

  Smalls and Figgins were instrumental in drafting the proposal for the initial federal approval of the AVA. They worked with McKibben, along with several other early growers and winemakers, to define the boundaries of the appellation, write the proposal and submit it for federal approval. The Walla Walla Valley AVA was established in Washington State as the second AVA in the state in 1984, following the Yakima Valley AVA established the previous year.

The Growth of Walla Walla Wine

  The 2000s saw an explosion in growth, with Marty Clubb assuming the role of the first president of the Walla Walla Wine Alliance. The organization was founded in 2001 as a nonprofit membership marketing association that serves as the leading informational resource center for consumers, trade and media. Also, the Enology and Viticulture program at Walla Walla Community College introduced talented people into the industry and helped elevate the quality of wines.

  According to Liz Knapke, executive director of the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance, this region is both blessed and cursed with doing many things well.

  “The style and number of wines grown and produced in the Walla Walla Valley is so diverse that it’s hard to convince people that it is true, the Walla Walla Valley has a quality wine for everyone!” she said. “Some regions are known for a varietal or two, but in the Walla Walla Valley, we’re so agriculturally abundant that over 40 varieties grow well here including lesser Northwest-produced varieties like carignan, aglianico, vermentino and cinsault.”

The Wines of the Rocks District of Milton Freewater AVA

  In recent years, the Walla Walla Valley has received acclaim for the production of Rhône varietals, especially syrah, and particularly for syrah’s.020 grown in the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater AVA established in 2015 by Steve Robertson and Dr. Kevin Pogue, a professor of geology at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. This cross-border AVA (Oregon and Washington) has the distinction of being the only AVA in the U.S. whose boundaries (96 percent) have been fixed by a single soil series (Freewater Series) and a single landform (alluvial fan). As of 2024, 640 wine-grape acres have been planted, with more in development.

  In 2007, Mary and Steve Robertson founded SJR Vineyard, planting 10 acres using sustainable farming with the goal of creating a world-class, family-legacy wine estate with their daughter, Brooke. They chose their location in Oregon after tripping over the cobbles and gravels that Steve recognized could produce wines of distinction with a unique minerality informed by this extreme desert soil that elevates the wines in this region to world-class status. Also, the Walla Walla culture was starting to bring people to the area. As Steve reflected, “I knew that it would only take time and money for things to accelerate. But the investment required to establish a small family estate operation could absolutely be delivered on the Oregon side of Walla Walla Valley.”

  As evidence of this region’s global reach, 35 producers from France’s Rhône Valley and another 100 Rhône wine producers from around the world gathered in April for the first time in Walla Walla Valley. The Basalt Bash & Barrel Auction (July 25-26, 2025) will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater AVA. This two-day (first-time) event (benefiting the Milton Freewater School District and mental health services) kicks things off with a parade down North Main Street, a Rocks District Winegrowers wine tasting, tours of Rocks District vineyards, a golf event and a (silent) barrel auction-tasting at Walla Walla Land Company in the Rocks District.

The Economic Impact of the Walla Walla Valley Wine Industry

  In January 2024, the most recent study released to estimate the economic impact of the Walla Walla Valley Wine Industry found that wine tourism accounted for $167 million in visitor spending, with $72 million spent on wine purchases. The industry generated $522 million in business sales and supported 2,865 jobs, contributing $146 million in labor income. Wineries and tasting rooms accounted for 625 direct jobs and $33 million in labor income. The industry also generated $21 million in state and local tax revenue. There were an estimated 573,000 visits to Walla Walla wineries and tasting rooms in 2023, with visitors averaging 2.1 visits per year, 3spending three days in the valley. and visiting six wineries per trip.

  The 2025 events promoting Walla Walla Valley Wine include Walla Walla Wine On Tour coming to Bellevue, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Boise, Idaho and Spokane, Washington. Additional events .include Celebrate Walla Walla Valley Wine (June 19 to 22), Spring Kickoff Weekend (April 4 to 6), Spring Release Weekend (May 2 to 4), Fall Release Weekend (November 1 to 3) and Holiday Barrel Weekend (December 6 to 8).

  For the latest news on the Walla Walla Valley AVA, log on to the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance at https://www.wallawallawine.com.