Wahluke Wine Company starts crushing
Mattawa winery taking in clients
MATTAWA — Normally, containers called gondolas coming in to the Wahluke Wine Company include holes so that they can be turned over on the fork lift, and the grapes they carry dumped right into the receiver hopper to be washed.
But on this particular occasion, there are no holes in the bins that have been trucked in, so the people working the press have to resort to tipping the containers over into the receiver hopper.
It's all in a day's work at the Columbia Basin's newest winery, which began crushing grapes last week at its location, 23934 Road T.1 S.W.
"It came from the fact that we have a fair number of acres of grapes," explained owner Butch Milbrandt. "We thought it would be best if we had another source to go to for marketing those grapes, because it's very difficult to sell all your grapes, right down to the last pound, and not have extra fruit."
Milbrandt has owned vineyards in Mattawa for about nine years, and contracts with about 50 different wineries. It's hard to adjust for picking schedules, tonnages and small lots, he said, so the decision was made to cut back on a few of the wineries, and even up the hand harvest process by using the grapes at the Milbrandts' own winery.
Three or four years down the road, Milbrandt said, the winery may create its own label.
"A fair number of the grapes come from our own vineyards, but we also are making wine for some other wineries in the state, and we're making some wine for other growers in the state," he said, estimating that 30 percent of the production is the company's own fruit, with the balance made from fruit from other sources.
There are about three or four employees presently at the Wahluke Wine Company, but Milbrandt said that will probably expand as time goes on.
"It depends on the workload," he said. "We're finding that it takes a few more employees than we anticipated."
The winery is not open to the public, explained assistant winemaker Tom O'Neil.
"We're not a public facility, we don't have a tasting room; we're strictly a production facility," he explained, adding that things are going well, all things considered. "Crush is always a hectic time, but that's compounded by the fact that it's a brand-new facility and it all came together very quickly within the last few months. So we're working out a few bugs, but things are going very well."
As a custom crush facility, the company makes wine on a contract basis for customers, either with its own fruit or the customer's fruit, O'Neil explained. The facility can do everything from handling juice to complete fermentation and barrel aging and storage. It does not bottle in-house.
Presently, the facility is expecting 1,500 tons of incoming fruit, which translates into about 250,000 gallons of wine this year, O'Neil said, adding that there's talk of doubling the size of the operation by next year.
As soon as word got out about the Wahluke Wine Company, O'Neil noted, the phone began ringing from interested parties.
"It's estimated that there are 10,000 tons of grapes in the state of Washington without contract," he said. "It provides a benefit for growers that have unsold fruit and for other wineries who are over capacity, because we can also provide storage services."