Truly a family winery

Longtime regional family opens Dry Falls Cellars in Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE - There's more than just Jim Englar, his father and his wife working at Moses Lake's newest winery.

"It's a complete family business," Jim Englar said.

"Yup," agreed 8-year-old son Jacob Englar, listening in nearby.

Younger brother Samuel, 6, was also on hand at the winery while mom Tiffany tended to customers.

"Even the kids, they stomp the grapes and help," Jim Englar continued. "It's basically my side of the family and Tiffany's side of the family … her brother and his wife, her sister and her husband and then also her parents. So what links us all together is basically Tiffany and I, and everyone has partnered in on this. We're all having some fun."

Dry Falls Cellars officially received its liquor license permit in September, allowing the winery to make wine for sale, on the day it received its first shipment of grapes.

"It was a very, very close call," Englar recalled. "You know, with a highly regulated area like the wine industry, you have to go through a lot of hoops with both the state and the federal governments."

The tasting room opened in May during Memorial Day weekend, and plans a grand opening for the Independence Day holiday.

Jim Englar's father Bill Englar has owned the building on Port of Moses Lake property for a number of years, Jim said, running a food research laboratory. When he sold the business to the University of Idaho and began eyeing retirement, the family decided to try to make wine.

"My dad's been making wine for 30 years as a hobby," Jim remembered. "I grew up going out into the vineyards after the harvest was gone through to pick some extra grapes and we would make hobby wine."

While attending Washington State University, Jim got his bachelor's and master's degrees in food science, working with a wine researcher for the state.

Jim Englar grew up in Moses Lake through high school, then returned after college, working for the Nestle Company before it was purchased by the J.R. Simplot Company. He now resides in Idaho, but his father and sisters, who also help with the business, remain in Moses Lake.

"Moses Lake is the halfway point between all the owners of this business, so we take turns coming in on the weekends to man the tasting room, to do the winemaking," Jim explained. "It's a family business/hobby on steroids. It's a labor of love."

There are no employees. The partners come in on the weekends, maintaining their regular jobs during the week.

The winery plans to double its operation this year, rising to producing 23 tons of grapes.

"We don't have big aspirations to make this a very large winery," Jim said. "We want to keep it a small, boutique winery focusing on premium wines that are handled in such a way you can't do it in a big winery. We basically hand-make this wine, inspect every grape that goes through in the process and we do things in small batches. Unique varieties you don't normally see."

The winery's offerings include a 2007 Wahluke Slope Semillon, a 2007 Wahluke Slope white Riesling, a 2007 Wahluke Slope old vine chardonnay, a 2007 Wahluke Slope late harvest Chardonnay, a 2005 Horse Heaven Hills reserve Tempranillo and a 2006 Horse Heaven Tempranillo.

Upcoming releases include a 2007 Wahluke Slope Barbera, a 2007 Wahluke Slope Cinsault, 2007 Snake River Valley Syrah, a 2007 Wahluke Slope Syrah, a 2007 Snake River Valley Cabernet and a 2007 Wahluke Slope Petit Verdot.

"Instead of doing a lot of volume with only a few different varieties, we're doing many varieties in small batches," Jim said.

The winery owners are adding on additional cold storage to the building.

The winery hopes to expand to be able to produce brandy as well, Jim said.

He said the winery is already beginning to garner interest.

"Our opening weekend was wonderful," he said. "A lot of friends, family, people we know and people we don't know are stopping by. It's kind of exciting: The first batch of wines we have released are getting very, very strong reviews. We're trying to make just the best wines, we're trying to get the best grapes from the best regions -"

"So we can pay for me and Sam's college," Jacob Englar interjected.

For more information, access the winery Web site at www.dryfallscellars.com or call 509-762-5922.