Mark Mahan, co-owner of Burnt Bridge Cellars winery, described fall barrel tasting as a Thanksgiving tradition.
It’s a nice way to showcase what the production process looks like in its later stages, Mahan said.
The winery selected a barrel containing 2016 Mouvedre for customers to taste. The red wine often has wild game or earthy notes, though varieties can vary depending on where they are produced. The barrel was blended last summer, but it didn’t seem ready at the time. Burnt Bridge cracked open the batch for this weekend’s event.
“It’s a new experience for people,” Mahan said. “They can get an idea of how we decide when a wine is ready.”
A handful of Clark County wineries opened their doors this weekend for the Thanksgiving Barrel Tasting and Fall Release Wines Tour, which started Friday and ends today. There’s still time to stop by participating locations and raise a glass.
The wineries have exclusive barrel tastings — the method for monitoring a wine’s maturation process and determining the best time for bottling — and customers can also sample new releases.
SW Washington Winery Association organized the event, one of four such events held every year to highlight its 20 or so licensed members and the county’s push as an emerging wine region.
Members said the association is working toward obtaining an American Viticulture Area designation, where a federal department officially recognizes a grape growing region that has unique soil, climate and geography.
The association has been growing its reach in recent times. This event was a self-guided tour, so enthusiasts could stick to the wineries in Vancouver, or venture farther out in the county to visit places like Stavalaura Vineyard in Ridgefield or Heisen House Vineyards north of Battle Ground. Discounts by the glass or bottle were available as were select vintages, food pairings and live music.
Things were just getting started at Stavalaura around 1 p.m. Owners Joe and Beverly Leadingham were busying themselves in a metal building typically used for bottling wine but that doubles as a space for events such as the fall release.
Joe Leadingham started the winery as a horticulture project for his daughter. She didn’t want to dissect frogs so she swapped a biology class for some botany coursework.
“I got grapevines from a friend and it snowballed from there,” Leadingham said as a couple stood at a bar tasting his wares.
He expanded his own knowledge of wines by attending classes at Washington State University. To set the winery apart, he chose to produce golubok. Leadingham said the wine is “as far Eastern European as you can get.”
The maritime climate of the Pacific Northwest works well for growing golubok, according to Leadingham.
Stavalaura’s fall releases include two variations of golubok, from 2015 and 2016, as well as a 2015 cabernet sauvignon. The selections are among an estimated 600 to 1,500 cases of wine produced there each year. (A single barrel of wine equals about 25 cases of wine, and each case contains a dozen bottles).
Leadingham did not have a barrel tasting set up in his main building but said customers were welcome to go down into the cellar and give it a try.
He said the fall event and others have helped spread the region’s notoriety.
“People from Portland are coming up here. The tasting fees are lower than they are in areas of Oregon, and they’re showing a preference for our wines,” he said.
Unlike Stavalaura, Burnt Bridge buys its grapes from growers in eastern Washington and Oregon and does all of its production in downtown Vancouver.
The urban winery produces between 1,800 and 2,000 cases a year, a number the owners are comfortable with maintaining. They like the downtown location. The cold and wet weather works well to attract customers, Mahan said.
“People like to come down and do things,” he said.
The winery’s fall releases include Grenache, Pont Brule, Walla Walla Valley Syrah and Columbia Valley Syrah, all from 2016.
He said the winery, and customers, seemed most excited about the syrahs. He described the variation from Walla Walla as “funky, savory … Earthy would be a good way to put it.”
