One of our favorite winery owners Marilyn Zerba of Zerba Cellars, passed away unexpectedly this March. We’ll miss her smile, her candor, her love for dogs and seeing her at the winery’s Milton Freewater tasting room. 
 
Born in Redmond, Oregon in 1946, Marilyn was known as an adorable child, even earning the nickname “Betty Boop” during her teenage years. She met her second husband, Cecil, on a blind date and they married in 1981. 

Wine was a third career for Marilyn, who first worked as a nurse and later opened a nursery with Cecil, Zerba Gardens. The couple first planted wine grapes in 2000 and soon after started Zerba Cellars, which produced its first wines from the 2002 vintage. The winerry has received many accolades over the years, including being named Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year by Wine Press Northwest Magazine in 2011. 
 
Marilyn is survived by her husband Cecil, sons Shawn (Tamara), Jeff (Linda) and Travis (Heather), sister Enid, nephew Justin and her four adoring grandchildren Michael, Carolyn, Ethan and Zach. 
 
A celebration of Marilyn Zerba's life will be held on Thursday, July 25th from 5pm to 7pm at Zerba’s Milton-Freewater tasting room, located at 85530 Highway 11. 

On April 14th and 15th the annual Reveal Walla Walla Valley event and wine auction took place and it was a rousing success.
 
The two-day event began on April 14th at Dunham Cellars, with the twenty-four participating wineries pouring library wines dating as far back as the 2002 vintage. That was followed up by a spectacular dinner catered by Andrae’s Kitchen that was attended by wineries and auction registrants.
 
Then on April 15th came the main event at Corliss Estates. Wine trade and private collectors had the opportunity to taste and bid on small lots of unique, one-of-a-kind wines from some of Walla Walla most prestigious wineries. Each auction had a starting bid of $1,800 for the 60-bottle lots (some wineries made 30-magnum lots instead). A total of $127,200 was raised in the auction, an increase of over 30% from last year's Reveal auction. 5% of those funds ($6,360) will go to the Enology and Viticulture program at the Walla Walla Community College. The highest winning bid was $15,000 for Woodward Canyon’s 2017 Cabernet Franc, 
 
 

  Long Shadows Vintners, one of the premier wineries in Walla Walla, is a unique partnership that brings several of the world’s most prestigious winemakers to Washington State, with each winemaker making a single wine from Washington-grown fruit. Gilles Nicault has been the head winemaker for Long Shadows since its inception in 2003 and is also responsible for making the winery’s Chester Kidder, Cote Nicault, Shoup and Julia’s Dazzle wines. Seattle Magazine named Gilles its Winemaker of the Year for 2016. The always-gracious Nicault was kind enough to sit down with us for an interview in early April.
 
WALLA WALLA WINE LIMO: Let’s start at the beginning. When did you first start tasting wine?
 
GILLES NICAULT: That’s a great question. It’s been so long ago, I barely remember (laughs). Basically, my dad was selling wine so each time we went on a vacation or a road trip somewhere, we’d visit the different wine regions and stop at vineyards and wineries. Being a kid, I really enjoyed being in the vineyards. At first it was more about the vineyards for me than the wine. Then, being inside the winery and seeing all the barrels and the tanks, the smell was amazing. I grew up with it and I’ve always loved it. My dad was working in Champagne at the time and I grew up in Avignon, which is where Côtes du Rhône and Châteauneuf du Pape are from. There was a school there for viticulture and winemaking and that interested me. So at 17 years old I started on a four-year degree there. Then,  not long after I finished school, I came to Washington State – in 1994, twenty-five years ago.
 
WL: You were just 21 years when you came to Washington. How did the opportunity arise for you here in Washington?
 
GN: After finishing the four-year school, I was looking for a one-year internship. I was thinking about Australia or Napa Valley, but I got an offer from Staton Hills Winery -- they're no longer around -- in Yakima Valley. At the time I didn’t know anything about Washington wine or about the Yakima Valley. There was very little Washington wine making it to France then. I knew of Seattle and had heard of the Pacific Northwest. But once I got here I fell in love. I just love the diversity between the oceans and the mountains and the quality of the growing season.
 
WL: You also fell in love with a young woman – you met your wife [Marie-Eve Gilla, winemaker at Valdemar Estates] very early in your time in Washington.
  
GN: Yes, Marie and I met on either Day One or Day Two actually.
 
WL: How did you two meet?
 
GN: When I came to Yakima, she was already a winemaker, working at Covey Run and someone at one of the wineries said they knew a French lady winemaker and suggested that we meet.
 
WL: What an amazing story. At the time the two of you and Christophe {Baron, from Cayuse) probably made up 75% of the French winemakers in Washington State! How long have you and Marie been married?
 
GN: We’ve been together 25 years, married for 20 and we have two children. Our daughter is 15 and our son is 17.
 
WL: Any chance either of them will follow in yours and Marie’s footsteps and make wine?
 
GN: I don’t think so. Maybe my daughter, but she’s too smart to be a winemaker (laughs). But it’s probably too early to know for sure.
 
WL: So how did this winery in Yakima, Staton Hills, find you?
 
GN: There’s an organization in Seattle called Experience International and they find places for internships and they find interns from different countries, so basically my school was in touch with Experience International and that’s how it came about.
 
WL: Tell me about some of the first wines that you made.
 
GN: Back when I was still in France, I did an internship in Champagne and I also did an internship at Chateau Revelette aix-en-Provence. The winemaker at Chateau Revelette was Peter Fisher and he was starting to experiment with Cabernet Sauvignon and blends of Cabernet – because there was not really appellation regulation there. I loved it and eventually that became the inspiration for the Chester Kidder wine I began making with Alan Shoup when we started Long Shadows.
 
WL: You were the winemaker at Woodward Canyon from 1996 until 2003, when you left to help Alan Shoup start Long Shadows. What an exciting project to be a part of!
 
GN: It has been. It's a very unique project with seven prestigious winemakers from all over the world. For me it has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with some of the world’s greatest winemakers in Washington – making wines from Walla Walla and Columbia Valley fruit.
 
WL: Who were your mentors in your winemaking career?
 
GN: I’ve worked with quite a few mentors. When I was at Woodward Canyon, Rick Small was great. I loved his passion to make wine and I respect that he never cut corners in his quest to make pristine, concentrated wines. From the grapes to the barrel selection to the winemaking, Rick wants to make the best wine he can make. I think that’s where I carried my passion from once I started at Long Shadows. And then at Long Shadows I began working really closely with Michel Rolland from Bordeaux, who was like a God for me. He’s been making wine since the 1970’s and he’s worked in twenty different countries around the world.
 
WL: With all that amazing winemaking talent at Long Shadows, have all seven of the winemakers ever been in the same place at the same time?
 
GN: It’s never happened that we’ve had all seven together. The most has been five and that’s happened twice. Once was on a Long Shadows cruise in the Mediterranean – we were missing just Michel Rolland and Augustin Huneeus. And then we did a beautiful dinner in Napa with everybody but Agustin and Giovanni Folonari.
 
WL: Tell me about tasting wine at the young age of 16, 17. To us here in the US, that seems quite odd.
 
GN: For French people it’s not that odd. We don’t consider wine as an alcoholic beverage, it’s part of the culture, part of our everyday life. The French enjoy wine as part of the meal, not as a means to get drunk. Seventeen was definitely a very young age to pursue wine as a career, but for me, I was like, “Why not?”.
 
WL: I’m sure being exposed to fine wines at such an early age had a positive impact as your developed your love for wine.
 
GN: Certainly. I was able to try some very special wines at an early age and it helped create a passion for me. I love vineyards. I think it’s very important for a winemaker to be attached to the viticulture side of it, because when you make wine, everything starts with the grapes. If you don’t get the right grapes to make a certain kind of wine that you want to make, that’s when you have to correct the wine, when you have to do more manipulation to the wine. When you get the grapes that you want, then you just let the magic happen, you don’t have to touch it as much. So you have to make sure you have the right grapes and from there you can make the wine you want. 
 
WL: What’s the best thing about being a winemaker?
 
GN: The lifestyle and the opportunity to transform grapes into fine wine. It can be a really hard job, especially during harvest when you’re working seven days a week for two months. It’s really rewarding, but at the same time there’s stress because you don’t want to screw it up – you just have that one chance each year to make wine. One thing that that has been amazing to see is the growth in the wine industry in Washington State, from 75 wineries in 1994 when I first got here to over a thousand now.
 
WL: Hypothetically speaking, you’ve got 24 hours to live. What wines in your cellar do you have to open?
 
GN: I’d try to open up as many bottles as possible and drink as much as I can. I’d probably start with a champagne and end with a champagne – with a lot of wine in between!
 
WL: Do you have a favorite varietal that you like to drink?

GN: Not necessarily. What’s so exciting about wine is the sense of place, the sense of vintage. But I suppose if there’s one wine I’m attached to more than others that would be Cote du Rhone. So maybe a beautiful bottle of Cote Rotie. That would probably be my go-to, but there’s so many other amazing wines. 

Rich Funk and his wife Anita started Saviah Cellars in 2000 and two years later, opened the first tasting room on the Southside of Walla Walla. Starting out small at just 300 cases of wine a year, Saviah now produces 25,000 cases each year. A self-taught winemaker, Rich’s background in chemistry and microbiology has served him well. Rich arrived in Walla Walla fresh out of college at Montana State University in 1991 for a job as an Environmental Health Specialist with the Walla Walla County Health Department. In a fortuitous twist, he quickly became acquainted with Walla Walla’s wine pioneers as he helped them work through their issues with water quality and wastewater management.  
 
WALLA WALLA WINE LIMO: You and your wife moved to Walla Walla from Montana straight out of college. How did you happen to pick Walla Walla?
 
RICH FUNK: In 1990 I applied for three positions as an Environmental Health Specialist in Eastern Washington. I interviewed in Colville, Wenatchee and Walla Walla and was offered the job in all three locations. However, I really hit it off with the team in Walla Walla and we thought Anita would be able to find a good job in Walla Walla as well. So we relocated and I started my new job on January 1st, 1991.  Soon after we arrived Anita was hired at Key Technology.
 
WINE LIMO:  What was your plan at the time?
 
FUNK:  We thought we would pay off some bills, stash away some money and eventually move back to Bozeman and start a microbrewery. That was our dream at the time.
 
But three months after being in Walla Walla, I was diagnosed with cancer. So at that point, we put our entrepreneurial dreams on hold and focused on getting well.

 As time passed, we fell in love with Walla Walla, started a family, built a home and began to study the idea of launching a winery. We approached the winery idea with a ten year plan. We did not take a dime out of the business or hire a full-time employee for the first six years. We worked every aspect of the business on evenings, weekends, holidays and vacations. We were living the dream, as they say.
 
WINE LIMO:  You’re well-suited to the wine business.
 
FUNK: That’s true. I’ve embraced nearly all the aspects of owning a winery. I get satisfaction from the challenge, truly enjoy the problem solving, love the creative aspects, as well as the freedom to build something from nothing. But mostly, I love working with our team of dedicated employees to share the fruit of our labor.
 
WINE LIMO: Your wife Anita has been a big part of Saviah too.
 
FUNK: Definitely. I couldn’t have done it without her, not at all. We are a team, and she contributes a tremendous amount to the business, even though it isn’t her full time job.  She has worked at Key for 28 years and is currently the Manager of Global Marketing. She has a skillset that is very valuable to the winery. We have built this business together every step of the way.
 
WINE LIMO: So it’s been a bit easier since those first five years?
 
FUNK: Well actually the first ten years were really hard. Going into our 20th harvest, we look back with tremendous satisfaction. The journey has been tough, though incredibly rewarding.
 
 WINE LIMO: So in those early days, you got the job working for the health department, you started meeting those guys in the wine industry, the early winemakers in Walla Walla (Rick Small from Woodward Canyon, Marty Clubb from L’Ecole No 41 and Gary Figgins from Leonetti. Had you been interested in drinking wine before you moved to Walla Walla?
 
RF: We discovered wine once we got here.  I was a brewer. I was a microbiology major and I was really into beer, but when we moved to Walla Walla we discovered that we liked wine.  And so then of course, I just had this laser-like focus, this shift and I dropped the whole beermaking idea and focused on wine. We started drinking and enjoying wine.  A doctor friend was on the Leonetti list and he loved to invite us over and share his wines with us. I bowhunted with him and he would bring nice wines up to camp and if we killed an elk, he’d break out a special wine to go with the fresh elk loin and I just started getting very interested in making wine.
 
WINE LIMO:  2000 was the first vintage at Saviah, correct?
 
FUNK: Yes, that’s right. About that same time Myles (Anderson) was getting together the enology & viticulture program at the college and they were having all these great classes and all these cool people from around the world came to give presentations. I became friends with Myles and Gordy (co-founders of Walla Walla Vintners). I told Myles that I was starting to make wine under my bond that fall, but that I would like to work harvest with someone who was really solid technically.
 
So I was in Montana bowhunting the first week of September and I called home from a pay phone to talk to my wife and she said, “You need to call Myles right now, he’s got an internship for you.” So I called Myles and he said “How would you like to work for a world-class winemaker this fall? “ And I said, “I would love that, who is it?” He said, “It’s Mike Januik. He’s been the head winemaker for Chateau St Michelle for the last ten years and he’s starting his own project and he’s making his wines at Three Rivers and I think he would be a fantastic guy for you to hang out with.” So, I went back to camp, threw everything in my truck, and drove home that day.
 
When I met Mike and Charlie (Hoppes) I said “I will bust my ass for you and you don’t have to pay me a dime. Just answer my bonehead questions and let me figure out how you really do this stuff.” Because you can read every book in the world but the hands-on experience is where it’s at in the wine business.  
 
WL- So that alleviated the need for a formal wine education in winemaking?
 
RF: I had the microbiological knowledge, I understood the science side. The practical application of that science came easy to me. There was no guesswork there. I wanted to see the process through their eyes. Coming away from this experience the big questions for me were, “How do I sell this? and “How do I establish connections on the fruit side?” Because that’s really what drives the bus.  Both boiled down to relationships and both required patience and time. I soon learned patience, persistence and perseverance were the secrets to the wine business.
 
I approached Ron and Leonard Brown, who farmed apples in the valley, and asked if they would consider planting some grapes for me. At the time they weren’t really interested in planting grapes. They were great people and loved wine, so I kept inviting them down to the cellar to taste my wine. One day I got a call out of the blue from Ron. He says “We just tore out ten acres of red delicious apples and it’s right next to the very first block of Cabernet (one of Leonetti’s most coveted block of Cabernet at the old Seven Hills vineyard).  It’s 30 feet away. What do you want to plant?”  I said “Cabernet!!!” It was a ten-acre block, so they put in six acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, and an acre each of Merlot, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec.  There was no Petit Verdot, Cab Franc or Malbec available at that time in the valley.
 
Working with the Brown’s planting vineyards has been one of the most rewarding aspects of this entire adventure.
 
WINE LIMO: You make a lot of different varietals, a lot of wine, is there a particular wine you are most proud of?
 
RF: If I had to only pick one varietal it would be Syrah. The reason is the range of styles. Syrah is the one grape that challenged me the most when I was starting to learn about wine. Stylistically, they were all over the board. Rhone, Aussie Shiraz, Washington, California all different down to parcels from which they were grown. My first epiphany with terroir was Syrah from The Rocks here in the Walla Walla valley. Syrah is one of those varietals that expresses sense of place better than most other varietals. But it wasn’t easy to sell in the early years. We now grow and sell quite a bit of Syrah, as Saviah has become known for being a consistently good producer of Syrah.
 
WINE LIMO: What do you and your wife drink on a typical night at home?
 
RF:  I love wines from the Rhone valley and always have them in my cellar. Recently we have been drinking a lot of Rhone-style wine out of California’s Central Coast. I am really inspired by Rhone varietals at this stage in my life and that’s where I see the future for Saviah. I am keenly dedicated to showcasing unique terroir-driven Syrah from our Funk Estate vineyard and The Stones Speak vineyard in The Rocks District.
 
WINE LIMO:  Speaking hypothetically, you have 24 hours to live. What bottle in your wine cellar do you have to open?
 
FUNK: Just one bottle?  That is a tough one… I’d open a bunch of bottles. Ha! (laughs) Twenty-four hours? I could polish off a few at least. I’d open a lot of bottles, pulling corks and having a splash! But as far as specific bottles, I’d probably go back to our first ten vintages because those are wines I kept so few of because I had to sell everything. I have a very skimpy library of our first vintages. Ultimately though, I’d like to polish it off with a bottle from our estate vineyard in The Rocks.  So, I would open a 2016 Funk Estate Syrah. Reflect back to the year 2000, when I first tasted a Syrah from The Rocks, back to when all of this was just a dream.
 
WINE LIMO:  Here’s a question you might not have heard before. Walla Walla wine is thriving pretty well, there don’t seem to be a ton of problems. But the one issue I tend to see at many of the tasting rooms around town is significant turnover in the tasting room employees. You seem to have done a good job of avoiding that, as you have a number of people that have been with you a significant amount of time. What are your thoughts on what wineries can do to avoid having so much turnover?
 
FUNK: First and foremost, you can’t micro-manage. You have to let your employees become the master of their expertise.  I provide guidance. I am very precise on how I want things to be done. I keep a tight ship, but I don’t nitpick.  If I see something, I take care of it. How you make people feel is so critical. Ultimately, I think it is important to empower people and be grateful for the time they are willing to commit to working with us.
 
WINE LIMO: I love that! That’s a great approach. 
 
FUNK: The golden rule is to treat people the way you’d want to be treated. I don’t want anyone looking over their shoulder and I trust everybody to use their best judgement, to communicate. The beauty of cell phones these days is that I don’t have to be at the winery all the time. That’s a beautiful thing. I am so thankful for that. I can be out in the vineyards, at our cabin, out on my bike, on the road selling wine, and I feel completely confident that business is getting done. I am fortunate. 
 
WINE LIMO: So what’s the best part about being a winemaker?
 
FUNK: I enjoy the entrepreneurial aspect. One of my first memories is my mom buying me a little snow shovel because I wanted to shovel the neighbor’s walks. I was always that kid in the neighborhood, a poster child for child labor. I had a paper route. I would mow lawns. Help bring in the hay and irrigate. I helped a neighbor build a log house. I started working in the woods cutting down trees when I was fourteen and then I formed my first LLC in college, bidding jobs with the U.S. Forest Service to thin old logging units. I was always willing to work hard at anything and everything.
 
Being a winemaker is work. Fortunately, I have always enjoyed work. But more so, this has allowed me to enjoy the practical application of all the science I studied,  as well as enjoy the artistic and creative aspect to this craft. My mind is never in neutral. I am always thinking of how we can get better at this. I love working with Anita on this endeavor. She’s a hard worker, and we work well together. That’s all you can ask for in life.
 
WINE LIMO: What’s the worst part about being a winemaker?
 
FUNK: Probably my least favorite thing about being a winemaker is going on the road to work the market when there is so much work to be done at the winery and in the vineyards. I am really happy to wake up in my own bed, have coffee with my wife and putter around doing what I do.  

WHAT WE’RE DRINKING AT WW WINE LIMO HQ
 
Forgeron Cellars                       2012 Facon Rouge
Solemn Cellars                           2015 Sangiovese
Armstrong Family Winery 2014 David’s Folly (red blend)
Zerba Cellars                              2014 Petite Sirah
Gundlach Bundschu               2014 Cabernet Sauvignon (Sonoma) 

WHAT WE’RE DRINKING AT WW WINE LIMO HQ THIS MONTH
 
Saviah Cellars         2014 The Stones Speak Syrah
Brook & Bull Cellars   2016  The Few and Far Between (Red Blend)
Locati Cellars.                2005 Sangiovese
Chateau Bellevue      2015 Saint-Emilion Grand Cru (France)                      
                     Dutcher Crossing.       2015 Proprietor's Reserve Syrah (Sonoma) 

WHAT WE’RE DRINKING AT WW WINE LIMO HQ
 
Garrison Creek Cellars  2013 Cabernet Sauvignon
Dillon Cellars.                      2014 Wrought Syrah
Devona                                   2016 Chardonnay
Ardor Cellars                       2014 Red Blend (GSM)
Alta Vista                              2015 Malbec (Terroir Selection)                                      

Justin Basel, 33, has been in the wine industry in Walla Walla since the age of 12, when he began helping out with chores at his family’s vineyard and he eventually advanced to become Basel Cellars’ head winemaker in 2005 – at the ripe old age of 21! When  his family sold the winery in 2009, he left to work at Corliss Estates for a year before becoming head winemaker at Foundry Vineyards, where he remained until starting his own winery, Solemn Cellars, early in 2017. Born and raised in Walla Walla, Justin has seen his hometown evolve from a small town with little to do to the hub of a well-respected wine region producing some of the best wines in the World. Justin sat down with us in December for an in-depth interview.
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WALLA WALLA WINE LIMO: You opened your own winery, Solemn Cellars, in August. How much planning went into it?

JUSTIN BASEL: I’ve been talking about it for the better part of ten years, mostly as an idea. I’ve always talked about starting a small-production winery, even back before my family sold Basel Cellars, but I’m glad I waited. All the planning and hard work has paid off. We opened August 12th. The wine club is at capacity. We only made 800 cases the first year and we’ll go up to about 2,000 cases in 2018. Most of the wine is not distributed, although about 30 cases goes out to restaurants in Seattle, restaurants that I’ve built relationships with over the years. We’ll expand that a little bit in ’18, with a few cases in Portland and Boise and then perhaps some to Spokane/Coeur d’Alene, but I don’t want to do tons of distribution. I’ve spent half my life on the road selling wine. I enjoy it, but at the same time, my son’s 2 ½. I want to be there for my family, sticking around locally.

We want to be a wine that you can’t get in every wine shop and you definitely can’t get at a grocery store When you buy wine at the grocery store, it’s just about the wine. I want my wine to be something special, a package deal. You come to the winery and taste the wine, it’s an experience. You taste the wine, you meet me and my wife [Bree], who works in the tasting room with me. You can ask us anything you want about the wine. We’re doing Somm events and wine dinners. With all the experience I have working at different places in the Valley, what I tried to do with my own winery was take the best of everything and put my own twist on it. We’re still in the honeymoon phase and it’s still super exciting.
 
WWWL: You’ve got a great winery/tasting room in the old Waters Winery spot. Tell us about it.

JB: The space was originally built in the mid-2000’s for Waters and it had been sitting vacant for a while. Being raised just up the hill it’s cool to come back to a spot that’s so close to my roots. We’re leasing the space, but I expect we’ll be here for a while. At some point I may want to build a winery on my property [next to Northstar], but if we do end up making that move, it’ll be only ¼ mile away!  Anything on the Southside feels like home to me.
 
WWWL: It seems like things have been going smoothly since you opened last  August.

JB: The first day was a little stressful. People didn’t know we were open yet and we weren’t on Google Maps yet. We only had four people that first Saturday and it was a little concerning, but by the next weekend the word spread and we were packed. Word of mouth is a great part of the wine business and I’m grateful that people like our wine enough to send people to us.

WWWL: Your wine is great, but to me the biggest reason I like to bring our tour groups in to Solemn is because they get to engage with you and learn about your wine and the winemaking process when they come to taste. It’s a better experience than they’re getting at most places in Walla Walla and I believe it really adds to the experience for our guests.  

JB: I really enjoy being in the tasting room. It’s fun meeting people and hearing their stories. But again, you can go into a winery and taste some amazing wine, but have a terrible experience and never buy wine and never go back to that winery. I think it’s important to have both. You’ve gotta have good wine and you’ve gotta offer a good experience. I’ve been in wineries all over the place, whether it be here in Walla Walla, Napa or elsewhere and if the person in the tasting room is in a bad mood that ruins the experience. One of the tougher tasks running a winery is hiring the right people to work in your tasting room. You want knowledgeable people who are excited about the industry and you can train them. But personality is a big part of it and you can’t train someone on personality. It’s not easy to talk to group after group about the same wines and remain bubbly. You just have to find the right person to do it.

 WWWL: Let’s talk about the first vintage of your Solemn wines. They’re all estate wines, right?

JB: Yes, they’re from Pheasant Run just up the road. That was originally the estate vineyard for Basel Cellars, but when we sold the winery the vineyard didn’t go with it. It’s a great location, right next to Pepper Bridge. You get that big fruit coming through and great balance too. We do fight the freezes there, but that’s part of farming. The ’17 vintage won’t have any Syrah or Merlot due to the freeze, so I had to source grapes from other places for ’17, some Rocks Syrah and a Cabernet from a neighbor.

The first vintage we did four different wines. I don’t do any blending, so everything stays single vineyard, single block. If it doesn’t make the cut, I sell it off. We did a Cabernet Rose, which is pretty rare. To be honest, in ’16 we had a bunch of extra Cab. I wanted to make a Rose and I wanted to do something different. Right after I pressed it, I threw some skins from Syrah on the Cab Rose ferment for about 24 hours and then pressed it again. So there’s no Syrah juice in it, just the skins. What that does is it changes the texture a little bit in the mid-palate and it also changes the color. It’s a really easy drinking wine and it’s a good wine for pairing with food. It was a fun, first release Rose for us.
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Then we did a Block 1 Cabernet, which is actually from the top of our vineyard. The acid’s not going to be quite as high as our Block 3 Cab, so it’s softer and more balanced. The Block 3 Cab, which I call the Walla Walla Cab to make it a little less confusing, is more of a traditional, big grippy style Cab. They’re right next to each other, same soil, same oak, same yeast, picked a day apart. On paper the two wines should taste the same, but because of the microclimate they are completely different wines and I like to show that off. When I was working at larger wineries, we’d have to blend those Cabs together for distribution reasons, but now I don’t have to do that.

The fourth wine of my first vintage was the Estate Syrah. Pheasant Run has been known for its Syrah for a long time now, as its older vine Syrah. You get more of that fruit-forward style Syrah, still some of the Earth components, some of the dill. I try not to overdo it on the maceration. If it gets too big, it can be too much of a fruit bomb and then you can’t even really tell it’s a Syrah. You’ve got to find that fine line and not overdo it. I think we did a good job on the ’14 Syrah. It’s definitely one of my favorite Syrah’s that I’ve produced and one of the fastest selling – it sold out in less than four months! It’s also one of the most palate-friendly Syrah’s. Very elegant, soft and easy drinking and you can definitely tell it’s a Syrah. We put some American Oak on it to make it a bit sweeter, but not too much.

WWWL: What do you like to drink when you’re at home on a typical night?

JB: It varies. A lot of wine sure, but definitely beer and an occasional cocktail. One of my favorite table wines in the world is the Stateline Red from Mike Berghan [Gifford Hirlinger]. That’s been my go-to lately – what a great wine. I’m always discovering new local wines. Aluve is one of my new favorites. When I travel to Seattle I try to check out wines that aren’t from here. I’ve got a couple hundred bottles in my cellar and it’s a bit Walla Walla heavy, but there’s wines from all over the World.

WWWL: Hobbies? What do you like to do when you’re not making wine or in the tasting room?

JB: During the summer, I like to take the boat out to Lyons Ferry, right by Palouse Falls. In the winter I’ll go up to Tollgate and go skiing and snowmobiling. January is our slowest month, so we can hop up there in about 40 minutes. No cell phone service, which is nice sometimes. Just unplug a bit. We have a landline if we need it for emergencies. Those are the two things I like to do the most. I did have a great time on one of the rafting trips Andrae [Bopp] does – that was a lot of fun and I’m gonna do another one in 2018. I really like the outdoors; we’re in the Northwest, so we may as well utilize what we have.

WWWL: What’s the best thing about being a winemaker?

JB: Enjoying what I do for a living. I think that’s pretty rare. When I talk to most of my buddies about work, they usually complain about their jobs. I don’t ever feel that way, especially now that I own my own place – because if things go wrong the only one I can blame is myself. It’s a great feeling to have that full control. I truly, truly love what I do. I love the farming and the production aspects of the job, but I’d have to say I probably like the farming better because without the farming, the winemaking really doesn’t exist. Having control of my product from the vine to the bottle is amazing. 2017 was a challenging year with the freeze issues -- you definitely earn your money on the winemaking side in years like '17! One of the best days of the years is the day when you finish harvest, but the first day of harvest is also one of the best days of the year!

WWWL: What’s the worst part of being a winemaker?

JB: The selling part of it and the stress that comes with it. Opening the winery has been stressful, but fortunately we’ve gotten off to a good start. We didn’t go in with a ton of overhead, because I’ve seen wineries start up that way and it just adds to the stress. We decided to start small, lease a place, not build something right away. We custom crush at a facility in town, so I didn’t have to buy all that equipment for the first couple of years. That allows us a couple of years to bring in money, make a profit and then start to invest it. One of the most frustrating things was dealing with all the licensing that was required.  We were anxious to open and it seemed like it took forever.

WWWL: Tell us about the Young Guns Wine Society. 

JB:  There were four winemakers when it started and we were all in our early 20’s, quite a bit younger than your average winemaker. When we started out it was Cam Kontos [Kontos Cellars], Greg Matiko [Skylite Cellars], Josh McDaniels [Sweet Valley Wines] and myself. Being that young it was tougher for us at the time to get wine dinners and tasting events set up. So we decided to band together and offer tasting with “the next generation of winemakers” all at one tasting. So instead of tasting wine from one winemaker, people that came to our events would get to taste wine from all four of our wineries and we called it “The Young Guns”. That really helped us get more events. We set it up with the intention of eventually handing it off to the next generation of young winemakers.  

WWWL: But at 33, I think you’re still eligible for the Young Guns, no?

JB: I suppose. I feel older I guess because I’ve been in the wine industry for half my life. I think we’ve accomplished what we wanted to do with it, so it’s time to pass it on to others who can make use of it. We’ll always still do wine dinners together, we’ll always hang out.

WWWL: You’ve got 24 hours to live. What bottle from your cellar do you have to open?

​JB: That’s a hell of a question! But hey, if I’ve only got 24 hours to live, I’m gonna open as many bottles as I can and go out in a drunken blaze of glory! I’ve been saving an ’88 Woodward Canyon for my son; I want to hand that down as an heirloom, so I couldn’t open that. I have some ’95 Leonetti Reserve -- that would definitely be up there. I still have some of the ’01 Merriment that Trey [Busch] made [at Basel Cellars] and the original ’03 Inspired blend; those are both among my favorites. I think I would just open as many bottles as I could drink till I passed out. If I have to die, I might as well go in my sleep! Maybe I’d even just start blending wines, make one giant dump bucket and siphon it off!  

WWWL: Let’s talk history. You grew up in Walla Walla. What was that like for you?

JB: Walla Walla was a great place to grow up for me. It was a lot different than it is now. There wasn’t quite as much to do. Most people that were raised here couldn’t wait to get out…It’s nice to see that a lot of my friends that moved out of town want to move back now! Way back when we had the Blue Mountain Mall, where as kids we used to hang out at KB Toys and the food court. I think the biggest change for Walla Walla has been the renovation of downtown, as the small, family-owned stores started moving downtown. That really gave us the central hub of the town. Downtown was already beautiful, but the renovation really took it to the next level. I think the tourists that come to Walla Walla enjoy the beauty and the history of our town.

WWWL: What was your earliest exposure to wine?
 
JB: I was about twelve years old when I started working in the vineyard. We weren’t getting paid, but my dad let me and my friend Byron plant vines with the crew. We’d survey the land to get the lines straight, running a string through and setting up a trellis system. We weren’t working full-time at twelve years old, but we were definitely helping out for a couple hours every day. I actually hated it back then because we were doing it in the summer heat and it wasn’t the most fun job for a twelve-year old. All our friends would be hanging out at the pool and we’d have to work for a couple of hours and then wait for a ride into town. That was my first real exposure to the wine industry.
 
WWWL: When did you first start getting to taste the wine?
 
JB: Right around the same time I’d get my first sips of wine during the holidays or at dinner. Perhaps even earlier than that I remember going up to our cabin in Tollgate and my Dad would put a Budweiser in a pint glass and dump a little salt in it. That was confusing to me, but he would always say “You’ve got to do something to make Budweiser taste good!” It was just a sip here or there. That was the first alcohol I tasted. When it came to the wine, he would give me a bit more knowledge about it. It wasn’t just taking a sip – it was understanding the wine and that it was the finished product of all the hard work we put in.
 
WWWL: Were you parents wine connoisseurs before they started Basel Cellars?
 
JB: Not really (laughs). I’d say my mom drank a bit more wine than my dad, who was more of a whiskey/bourbon guy. Once we planted the vineyards, my dad would drink more wine because he was proud of the finished product. These days he’ll drink more wine, but it’s still kind of a new experience because he wasn’t raised on it. He comes from a farmhand family that traveled around to wherever they could get work.
 
WWWL: Interesting. I’m curious why he got into wine with such a major project after not being involved in the industry at all.
 
JB: He retired from construction and we moved back to Walla Walla and bought a bunch of land here. We had water rights and alfalfa growing, but my dad saw this new, exciting crop and wanted to be a part of it. All farming is hard, but he saw a challenge in growing wine grapes and decided to go for it.
 
WWWL: So Basel Cellars started up in the early 2000’s?
 
JB: We got bonded in 2000. Our first vintage was in 2001. We had a VR label and the Basel Cellars label. Trey Busch from Sleight of Hand was our first winemaker. I was in high school at the time and started helping out at the winery, racking, washing barrels, janitorial services, washing dishes. Anything they needed I would do to make a little extra money. Eventually I became the assistant winemaker and when Trey left to start Sleight of Hand in 2005 I took over as head winemaker. I was just finishing up the Viticulture and Enology program at the Community College under Stan Clarke at the time. Trey was an amazing mentor and we had some great times. I was head winemaker at Basel until 2009, when we sold the winery. I stayed on for a couple of months and then I left to work at Corliss for a year and then took over as head winemaker at Foundry Vineyards. I was at Foundry until January [2017] when I left to launch Solemn Cellars.

WWWL: Tell me about the first wine you ever made.
 
JB: That would be the ’05 vintage at Basel Cellars. The Inspired and the Merriment. To this day, the Inspired is one of my favorite wines because it was inspired by the Right Bank Bordeaux wines. Two of my favorite varietals are Merlot and Cabernet Franc and I loved blending that wine. One of my favorites to work on. I always enjoyed blending the Claret, which was sort of our red table wine at Basel. Not the most expensive wine, but you actually put the most work into it. A lot of people think table wines are just made from putting a bunch of leftover wines together and throwing them in a bottle, but that’s not necessarily true. We had our set lots for our higher end wines, but we would meticulously go through and set the blends. And if something didn’t make it in there, we’d either sell it off or do custom bottling with it.
 
WWWL: When did you get seriously interested in drinking wine?
 
JB: High school actually. As bad as that sounds – hopefully none of my teachers [from high school] are reading this…we’d have our get-togethers and some people would bring beer or mixed drinks, but I’d show up with a brown bag with wine in it. I’d usually keep a brown bag around because otherwise I’d get a hard time, with people saying “Oh you’re too good to drink beer?” Getting into wine, that was when I started to really appreciate all the hard work that went into making the wine. The big thing at that stage was noticing the differences in all the varietals and how the wine was produced. There’s thousands of ways to make wine, but there’s no exact right way, so it was interesting to me to see different people’s visions and how they made their wines.
 
WWWL: Besides Trey [Busch], who else do you consider your mentors in the wine industry?
 
JB: Tom Glase [Balboa], was great to work for. Stan Clarke at the Community College was a big, big part of my wine education. Eric Dunham was always great too. One of the things I remember most about Eric is when I’d show up at wine events as a younger kid in my early 20’s, it was pretty intimidating. Eric and Trey were always very inclusive and supportive when we were out on the road. There’s a lot of people who have influenced the style of my wines and how I make them. Just the community as a whole, that concept of family. Even though you’re not related, you’re still part of the same industry, basically it’s us vs. the world. 
 
WWWL: The community among the winemakers here really stands out to me. It’s not that it’s not competitive. Of course you want to get better scores than your winemaker buddies, but it’s just not cutthroat like it seems to be in some other wine regions.
 
JB: It’s important to be competitive, because if you lose your competitive nature I don’t think you’re going to better yourself. You can always improve and make better wine. I don’t think anyone out there has made a perfect wine yet! Those friendships and relationships are important because when something goes wrong you can call someone to ask for help. For example, this year was the first time I’d ever worked with Rocks Syrah. Our Estate Syrah froze out, so we’re using two different elevation Syrahs from the Rocks instead. I called a few people and everyone said, “Definitely don’t add acid”. When I got the grapes in hand, ran the numbers and tasted it, it seemed like it needed some acid. But once we went through fermentation it was fine. So without that assistance, I probably would have added acid. If I had, I doubt the wine would have been as good as it turned out to be. Getting together and having benchmark tastings is helpful, getting opinions on your wines from people you respect is really helpful. It definitely makes this a stand-up community, but we are competitive and we always should be.
 
WWWL: Walla Walla has really grown a lot since you were a kid growing up here. But it seems there’s still room for more growth. How big do you think the wine tourism can get here?
 
JB: We definitely have room for more growth. The thing that I’ve always been concerned with having been born and raised here is not getting too corporate. More stores is a good thing, but the more mom and pop type stores the better. Keeping that small-town feel is very important, but we’ll never be able to develop into another Napa. We don’t have San Francisco in our backyard; we’re in the middle of nowhere – we’re four hours from Seattle and Portland and you have to spend at least one night here. I’d like to see Walla Walla keep the same that small-town feel while at the same time continuing to grow with more world class restaurants and nice places to stay.