Beaumont Cellars founder: “I want to keep it fun”

QUINCY - The popularity of Beaumont Cellars wines has grown rapidly during the winery's short history, and Katie Beaumont is proud and excited about what her husband Pete has done.

But that wasn't how she felt the day Pete decided to start a winery. She thought it would end up as Pete dabbling in one more of his fertile entrepreneurial mind's schemes.

"I thought he was crazy," Katie said. "I was cynical. I thought it would be just one more thing he'd try."

Truth be told, in 2007 wine was just another thing Pete was trying, and it was just for himself - for fun. He just wanted to learn how to do it.

Pete went to his friends Mike and Judy Scott of Martin Scott Winery in East Wenatchee to learn. He asked them to help him make a small amount of wine.

When it turned out to be more than he and Katie could consume, he gave it away to area friends. The reaction was one Katie will likely never forget.

"They said, 'Pete, this is really good. You should get your bond and license,'" she said.

Pete had not just learned to make wine but to make good wine. He got that bond and license and launched Beaumont Cellars.

Still the Beaumonts wondered if friends were speaking truth or blowing smoke about their wines. So in 2011 they entered three from their 2009 vintage in the North Central Washington Wine Competition.

"Wouldn't it be neat if we won something?" Pete remembers saying to Katie.

The Beaumonts did win something, way beyond their wildest imaginations. They were excited when their Pinot Gri took a bronze medal.

Then they were ecstatic when their Sangiovese took gold. Finally they were stunned when their Syrah got double gold and best of show.

"I was flabbergasted," Katie said.

"We were trying to figure out what happened," Pete added.

What happened may be the same thing that's happened often to Pete - good fortune at the right time.

Pete was not born on a farm or even in farm country. He was sort of a city boy in Fremont, Calif., near San Francisco.

There was only one farm in the area, and he had the good fortune to be forced to work on it. His father, a civil engineer, sent the 13-year-old there for some course correction.

"You go work in the fields one summer, and you'll be happy to go back to school," Dean Beaumont said.

Pete went and then found it difficult to leave.

"I loved it," he said.

That was good, it turned out later. About the same time Pete decided to be a farmer, Dean was wanting to buy an orchard property for retirement.

Father and son bought 18 acres of apples and a tiny house about a half mile west of White Trail Road, just over the cliffs from Crescent Bar, even though they didn't know a thing about apples.

"I made all the mistakes," Pete said. "You name it, I did it."

The first year the apples were small because of improper thinning, but there was a crop. The second-year crop was wiped out by frost and hail.

Fortunately for Pete, he was working away from the farm for additional income. And he wasn't married.

"I could live cheap," he said.

Pete eventually got the hang of farming. His operation has grown to 250 acres of apples, cherries and pears today.

Along the way, he met Katie Lee. She was working at Zack's Pizza in Quincy when he dropped in to eat. He was 27. She was 25. They hit if off and were married in 1990.

The Beaumonts have three acres of vineyard. They buy most of their grapes on the Wahluke Slope.

"I like to make red wines, and it's a great area for red wine grapes," Pete said.

Katie works along side Pete at the winery. She's responsible for inoculating the must, but she gives Pete's entrepreneurial spirit credit for all of the success.

"This is one of his ideas that did work out," she said.

Pete and Katie share duty at the tasting room. She's there when he's not. Operating hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 1-6 p.m. It is located at 8634 Road U NW.

The Beaumonts produced 320 cases of Merlot, Cabernet Savignon, Syrah and a blend of all three named Babcock Ridge Red in 2008. They sold all of the wine during a three-month period in 2009.

"We sell out, and we don't know what we're doing," Pete said.

The 2011 vintage was 1,000 cases. The Beaumonts hope to level off at 1,200 a year. They want to remain small and intimate.

"I don't want to lose contact with the people who drink our wines," Pete said.

"The people who come here are happy," Katie said. "They're here because they want to be here. And we like being around them."

The Beaumonts have a few outlets in the area and plan to keep it that way. Their ideal is to retail 85 percent of the wines themselves.

One way the Beaumonts maintain contact is Dinner on the Crush Pad every other week. Highly-regarded chef Richard Kitos of Ivy Wild in Wenatchee caters four- and five-course meals that change with each renewal.

For $60, guests are treated to dinner, wine, dessert and live music. Recently, Royal City Mayor Mike Stark and his wife Barbara brought a family group to celebrate their anniversary.

"We'd like to do more social events," Pete said. "We did our first wedding this year."

And there is something for the outdoorsy individual. The Beaumonts have a pond stocked with trout. They allow catch-and-release fly fishing and even furnish the pole.

"This is fun," Pete said. "And I want to keep it fun."