Cave B strives to be region's first destination winery

Barrel tasting to be held Thanksgiving weekend

GEORGE — The air at Cave B Estate Winery hangs heavy with hope, excitement and anticipation, as the winery progresses with plans that could soon make it the next big thing.

Cave B director of marketing Sherrye Wyatt said that the winery has a three-component plan. There will be a lodge, complete with conference room, boardroom, wine-tasting bar and gourmet restaurant that will be open to the public; 15 one- or two-bedroom cottages she calls "casitas" for overnight guests and a 12-room inn, all currently being built on Cave B property and expected to be open April 2.

"We've wanted to offer more for our winery customers — full vineyard experience where you come and also pair wines with foods, and the culinary aspect of wine and food," Wyatt said. "Also, it's an opportunity to really be in a secluded place that's so beautiful and share that with people. It's a whole different experience when you come to a winery and know that you're staying that night."

It's the first destination winery in the state, Wyatt said.

"It's a place to come and just stay for a couple of nights, and totally submerge into the wine industry," Wyatt said, noting that when completed, the new developments will integrate with such new programs as cooking classes, winemaking dinners and vineyard tours.

Wyatt said that good relations continue with the winery's neighbor, The Gorge Amphitheatre and neighboring communities, like the city of Quincy and Quincy Valley Chamber of Commerce.

"I would like to reach out to our agricultural industry to bring trade teams here," she said. "How great, when you need a unique place to put a trade team or foreign dignitary traveling through the potato industry? … I think agritourism is something we're going to be developing more and more as a community and we'd like to be a part of that, and helping showcase what the Columbia Valley has."

An arts and sciences center called SageCliffe will also be constructed by landowners Vince and Carol Bryan over the next few years, Wyatt said, including an 18-hole golf course, equestrian center, conference center and spa.

"It's a privilege for me to be here," said Stan Turmozov, manager for Stan's Construction, LLC, working on the lodge, casitas and inn. "It's a pretty big project … and I think it's a big benefit for Grant County. I think it will attract more people."

Other local workers building the new components of the winery include Farley Plumbing, Maknac Construction of Ephrata, Tobin Electric of Quincy, Vers Construction, Columbia Dry Wall and Bethlehem Construction of Cashmere, Turmozov said.

The architecture is blended into the landscape, and has to be able to sustain heavy wind and weather, Turmozov and Wyatt both said.

"It's a high-tech building," Turmozov said. "It'll need no maintenance work, I'll say, forever."

Another key component to the winery's bubbling new energy is the hiring of Rusty Figgins, on-site winemaker, in June.

Cave B presently produces a total of seven bottlings — the winery also creates wines under the second label of Angelo's — and Figgins said the new year will see the release of a sparkling wine, a late-harvest Semillion and special offerings for its club members. May will mark the release of a new Cabernet-Merlot blend called Cuvee du Soleil ("Blended by the Sun").

"The interesting thing is that it's all grown right on the property," Higgins said. "We're not outsourcing any grapes, so the real special thing about the winery is it's all estate-grown, 100 percent. These vines are upwards of 24 years old. For a winemaker to be able to work with just estate fruit and be able to utilize old vines … it's just a very localized wine style specific only to this site."

The Cave B method of aging its wines is "reserve-style," Figgins said, explaining that the wines spend 24 months in the barrel and then nine months to a year in bottle prior to release. All wines improve in contact with oak, he explained. Cave B gravity presses its wines prior to its finish, so that the wine is still fermenting when it goes into the barrel. That last little bit of metabolism of sugars in contact with oak makes the wine better, he said.

"So we're really giving a lot of attention to our aging program, because that's really how our wines are going to become better," he said. "We can afford the wait, and the consumer gets a better wine because it's been aged longer."

Cave B Winery will offer a barrel tasting Thanksgiving weekend, open to the public. The Fall Barrel Tasting will be held from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 26, 27 and 28.